Stockdale, Kansas Railroad Sign.
Stockdale, Kansas, was located at the junction of Mill Creek and the Big Blue River in Grant Township of Riley County.
The town was a farming settlement formed in about 1858.
In the early days, a sawmill utilized the ample water power. J. D. Sweet had a store and a blacksmith shop, and when the community gained a post office on April 29, 1872, he served as the postmaster.
In 1878, the town had a blacksmith, a general store, and a physician. Livestock and grain were extensively raised, exported, and shipped from Manhattan. At that time, it had a daily stagecoach to Manhattan, Randolph and Irving, from which mail was delivered to William L. Morris, the postmaster.
In 1910, the Union Pacific Railroad ran through town, which had a bank, telegraph, and express offices, a money order office with one rural route, and a population of 100.
Unfortunately, Stockdale’s proximity to the Big Blue River made it prone to flooding. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal government had proposed building flood control dams along tributaries of significant rivers in Kansas. The Flood Control Act of 1938 authorized the construction of Tuttle Creek Reservoir, which would inundate Stockdale. Though action on building the dam was slow, the area’s people got the message and began to move. The town’s post office closed on April 4, 1922. Today, the area where the town once stood is Stockdale Park on Tuttle Creek Lake.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated November 2024.
Also See:
Stockdale Park at Tuttle Creek Lake.
Big Dam Foolishness at Tuttle Creek Lake
Sources:
1878 Gazetteer and Business Directory R. L. Polk & Co.
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Cutler, William G; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.