St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Olmitz, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Olmitz is a small town in Barton County, Kansas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 90.
Olmitz started when a post office was established on April 11, 1881. In the following years, Austrian Catholic and Volga German families settled in and around the new settlement. The town was laid out in 1885 and named after the city of Olomouc in Austria-Hungary, which is the Czech Republic today.
The first store was started by Peter Brack, and another was established by C.M Kreiser, who established a store in 1885.
St. Ann’s Catholic Church was founded on May 9, 1889, and continues to serve today.
In 1910, Olmitz was on the Missouri Pacific Railroad and was one of the larger villages of the county. At that time, it had a bank, three general stores, three grain elevators, a hotel, hardware stores, and other retail establishments. It also boasted telegraph and express offices and a money order post office with two rural routes. Its population peaked that year at 200.
St. Ann’s Parochial School in Olmitz, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
In 1903, St. Ann’s Parochial School was established for grades one through eight, with the Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood from Wichita providing the teaching staff.
Unfortunately, both the church and school burned in 1913 and were rebuilt.
High school classes began at the Parochial School in 1927 and ended with the graduating class of 1949. Until 1976, the school still provided schooling from grades one to eight. Afterward, due to a shortage of teaching sisters, St. Ann’s was informed that the Precious Blood Community would not be able to provide teaching sisters for the following year. After much soul-searching and many hours of considering alternative solutions, the parish closed the school.
Though it has a small population, Olmitz still has a post office. It is located 16 miles northwest of Great Bend.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, October 2023.
A tidy home in Olmitz, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Barton County
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Great Bend Tribune
Simons, John; A History of Early Day Barton County, Kansas, Thesis, Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, 1971.
Wikipedia