‘Do NOT’ Go West Young
Man!
HORACE, Greeley County, Kansas
by
Horace is a fading
class D, near
ghost town located
along the Union (Missouri) Pacific Railroad line in western Kansas. It is located SH 96 just 14 miles east of the Colorado/Kansas state line and
two miles northwest of Tribune, the county seat with a 2010 population of 741.
This fading, tiny, still-incorporated city
of the third class, has what I feel is one of the most classic name
combinations in American Ghosttowndom! A town with the name of Horace doesn’t stand
out, nor does the county named Greeley.
But combine them… Horace Greeley.
Horace Greeley is a name familiar to mid-19th
Century American history. This man was
an outspoken newspaper editor, anti-slavery advocate and political
activist. He not only advised from
behind the scenes, but also put his mouth where his money was and served for
three-months as a New York congressional representative in December 1848 –
March 1849, then ran against General Ulysses S. Grant for President in
1872. He was born in 1811, and died
shortly after his loss in the election. He got into newspapering while in his
early 20s, and by the late 1830s was an avid expansionist and directed people
to head to the West to help develop it.
Despite popular opinion, he did NOT coin the phrase “Go West Young Man”
but did advocate what that statement encompasses, speaking highly and often of
the need to go West. In 1841 he founded
the daily New York Tribune, which
became a powerhouse in the newspapering field.
He followed suit, gaining fame and political clout as well. In the 1850s Greeley espoused political
reform and was one of the major figures involved in the founding of the
Republican political party. As a result,
his name was purloined for a county and a town.
Even the neighboring town of Tribune was named after his newspaper, yet
Greeley never visited the area. Go
figure!
ANYWAY, when we visited back in
2005, the first thing that caught my ear was the combination of names - Horace
& Greeley. This fading agricultural
community was named after the famed newspaper editor/politician and in 2000, the population was 140, with 64 of its 73 houses
occupied. By 2010 the population had
declined to 70, with 33 out of its 47 housing units occupied. Cruising up the main street, I noted a
collection of empty and occupied buildings, mobile homes, cabins
in all stages of repair, the still active Horace Greeley Baptist Church and
lots of dead pickup trucks.
Unfortunately it was not on my list of places we planned to visit, so we
didn’t even slow down enough to take pictures.
Baaaadddd! Gary!
According
to the Cyclopedia of Kansas, Horace
was established in June 1886, but the Kansas State Historical Society indicates
the post office was established February 10, 1886. Could this have been a rural
post office that morphed into a town a few months later? My sources don’t elaborate, but the Denver,
Memphis and Atlantic Railroad reached the site of Horace on August 2,
1887. Once the railroad arrived, the
town quickly grew to a population of 300 and had a full gamut of businesses. It is credited with a bank and a newspaper in
July 1888, at which time the county seat was up for grabs. Horace and nearby Tribune (1888 population of
200), battled, and Tribune (with the railroad depot) was granted temporary seat
honors. In September a school was
established in Horace, and in November a formal election
for the official siting of the county seat was
held. Tribune again came out on top with
420 votes, while also-ran Horace polled 202.
Even
though the depot and county seat ended up in nearby Tribune, Horace also
appears to have been a railroad town as the Kansas
Sampler Blog mentions that in the early 20th Century there
were a couple railroad roundhouses in town.
The 1920 Census shares some interesting information
on the makeup of the town. It lists the place
of business for Horace’s citizens, and by looking through that, I was able to
come up with the following: several boarding and rooming houses, a drug store,
dry goods/grocery store, farmer’s store, garage, photographer, postmaster (23
year old Ida J. Lovett), 45
railroad/roundhouse employees (including a hostler, 2 telegraphers and a YMCA
clerk), possibly 2 restaurants (one employee was listed as a waiter, and
another group as employed by Van Nay Eating), a school (with four teachers and
a janitor) and a Sinclair Oil Co. (gas station?).
Undated photos on the Kansas Heritage
website shows: Albert Holmes’ garage, a blacksmith (Charles Holmes), Curtis
Majors’ store, E. B. Waldren’s store, a hotel and a
restaurant.
The post
office was discontinued December 30, 1965.
In 2007,
Tribune and Greeley County unified together politically, however, Horace
elected to remain independent. There
looks to be a lot of interesting history for this little town, but I have yet
to unearth more details….
NEWSPAPERS:
·
Greeley County Gazette
(September 16, 1886 – January 26, 1888)
·
Greeley County News
(September 29, 1887 – January 26, 1888)
·
Horace Messenger
(February 02, 1888 – May 16, 1889)
·
Horace Champion
(June 29, 1888 – September 27, 1889)
·
Greeley County New Era
(October 11 – November 22, 1889)
·
Greeley County Journal
(October 08 1891 – May 05, 1892)
·
Horace Headlight
(May 12, 1892 – November 09, 1893)
Population figures:
·
1888 – 300, 1910 – 189, 1920
– 212, 1970 – 137, 1980 - 137, 1990 - 168, 2000 - 143, 2010 - 70
LOCATION:
·
W½ of the NW¼ Sec
19, T18S, R40W, 6PM, Tribune Twp
·
NE¼ Sec 24, T18S,
R41W, 6PM,
Tribune Twp.
·
Latitude: 38.4764046 / 38° 28'
35" N
·
Longitude: -101.7907290 / 101° 47' 27"
W
·
63 (86, 95, 02 – L/2); 69
(E/1); 78 (May 2006); PV (July 2005); W5a (pg 789, 872); W7a, b, c, d (Greeley
Co.); W9; W24; W26gl
This was our Ghost Town
of the Month for February
2015
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Ghost Town USA’s Kansas Ghost Town Pages
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FIRST POSTED: February 03,
2015
LAST UPDATED: March 02, 2015
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