The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-09-23
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER %, 1919.
KANSAS DESERTED TOWNS

KANSAS DESERTED TOWNS
Here in Vermont we have a few
farms from which the people have
moved and permitted the land to 90
back to the wilderness. There arc
also a good many farms which are
not now occupied owing to the move.
ment of population westward but
which the growing demand for land
will again make valuable in the com.
/ ing years.
In Vermont there are also a few
village sites now deserted. No in
habitants save summer visitors now
dwell in old New Fame the original
site Of Wardsboro is but farm and
woodland, the first Nottingham is
devoid Of houses and people; thick
woods grow where Stratton settlers
established their first village and the
second village of Stratton has houses
and church standing but no people
whatever Dover Common was a
thriving village within the memory
of persons now living but now con
sists of one house and church
where services have been held only
once in ! dozen years
There are probably others in Yer
mont but comparatively few in num-
Der. 1t is in some of the western
states that deserted town sites are
most common The following is list
of villages now abandoned in the one
county Of Doniphan Kansas, and it
certainly exceeds anything that Yer
mont can even approach:
Whitehead, later called Belemont.
on the river above Wathena. Trading
pos, in 1852. Incorporated in 1855.
-. by j. II. Whitehead and others.
Changed to Bellemont in 1860 Va
Gated in 1876.
Charleston, on the river, near the
Burr Oak township line Started in
1857. Later became known as Bo-
Earth.
Cincinnati, in the vicinity OF VIII
| low Springs school house, surveyed in
1851.
Blffaio ii Gdtfalo Hollow. near
Eagle SPRING.
Lafayette, on Tue Missouri river, in
Center ownship, in lS57'5S, was a
promising town.
Mount Vernon was laid out a few
miles below Lafayette. Incorporated
in 1865 by Patrick Cooper, William
lChristison and William Fox. Vacated
in 1864
Maynard. now Troy Junction
Landondale, near the mouth OF
MOSQUITO creek now the Hargis farm.
Arizona, plotted in 1856 in section
36. township 2, by James J. Reynolds
and others
Pittsburg, in section 3, township 4,
range 90, now the Albers and Wyn-
coop farms, was plotted by such we'll
known men as the Eyes, Formans,
etc.
la Porte, in section %, township ..
range %, was started in 1851 by
Joseph NJ. Holt and others
Winona, on the county line. west of
Highland, was granted charter for
a university-IIamby University
which never materialized
Smithton was John w. Smiths
town, in Burr Oak township. The
first Masonic lodge in Kansas was or
ganized there in 1855.
lola, on Wolf river opposite Fan
ming. aa ID
Petersburg, on the river between
/ Palermo and Geary City, was laid
out on a big scale by Peter Codue. a
French trader among the Kickap6o
Indians, but it never amounted to
anything. Plotted in 1865. Vacated in
1864.
Columbus, in Burr Oak township.
at one time had 200 inhabitants. Dis.
continued 1862.
Evansville, plotted by lib" Evans,
ccrnered on what later became the
Robert Lazelere farm. 1t was started
in 1857.
Syracuse, in Wolf river township
was plotted in 1858, by Walter S.
Peck and others.
| Rogersville, 10 miles north of
Troy, on the James Taylor place.
/ FairyeW laid out by NJ r. Swim
ney in 1857. The entire n. E. IA of
section II, and all of section TO-,
township 8, range %, we're plotted.
Leroy, near the Bayne crossing Of
Wolf river, about miles from High
| land
Undoubtedly there are Vermonters
IstilI in active life who bought lots in
one or more of these town sites. One
does not have to bark very far back to
remember when Kansas town lots
were as numerous on the market as
oil stocks are today-and Just about
as valuable.
There has been a sudden increase
in Vermont in the number of aufop,n