(Semi-) Ghost Towns of Kansas (2)
With 127 people living in this city according to the 2020 census, Hardtner is not quite a ghost town, but little remains from what used to be a vibrant downtown. Located in Barber County, one mile north of the Oklahoma state border, it is quite out of the way from Lawrence. I drove through this town on my quest to document the remaining round barns in Kansas. What brought me to Barber County was the Brownback-Steinberger round barn, built in 1914. This barn is documented elsewhere on these pages.
In his Cyclopedia of Kansas Frank Blackmar writes the following.[i]
Hardtner, a village in Barber County, is 20 miles south of Medicine Lodge, the county seat. It is the terminus of a branch of the Missouri Pacific R. R. extended from Kiowa, 9 miles east. There are about twenty retail establishments, an express office and a post office. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 100.
The town was founded in 1885 by Jakob Achenbach, born in Germany in 1846. Achenbach moved to the United States at a young age and settled in Illinois before coming to Kansas in 1881, where he began ranching in Barber County. Achenbach named the town of Hardtner after the doctor who sold him the farm in the 1880s. When Jakob Achenbach died in 1937 his will allocated $125,000 for the establishment of the Achenbach Memorial Hospital. The hospital, on the north edge of town, opened in 1941. Almost from the start the hospital faced financial difficulties and finally, the doors were permanently closed in 1965. It currently stands abandoned.[ii] I did not visit the former hospital, but did take some pictures of the mostly abandoned main road through Hardtner on my way to photograph the Brownback-Steinberger Round Barn a little further to the west on Hackberry Road.
A few miles west of Hardtner, on Hackberry Road, stood this abandoned house in the middle of a field.
Nine miles east of Hardtner is the city of Kiowa, also in Barber County. According to the 2020 census the population was 902 people. Hardly a ghost town, but what caught my attention was the abandoned Elmore Hotel on the west side of town, at the corner of South Railroad Avenue and Miller Street.
Built around 1916, the hotel was sometimes called the Kiowa Social Club. According to some accounts, the social club was also a brothel. Due to its proximity to the rail line the architect added earthquake shocks to the foundation. The Kiowa Daily Journal from 1916 stated “A good place to stop. All outside rooms. Strictly Modern. European plan. Fountain in connection. Located opposite Santa Fe Depot. Open day and night-The Elmore Hotel.”
Quoting Frank Blackmar again,[iii]
Kiowa, the second largest town in Barber County, is located on the Medicine Lodge river, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads, 21 miles southeast of Medicine Lodge, the county seat, it has two banks, an opera house, two newspapers (the Journal and the News-Review), over 100 mercantile establishments, telegraph and express offices and an international money order post office with five rural routes. The population according to the census of 1910 was 1,520, which is almost double the population of 1900. Kiowa claims to be the first town in which Carrie Nation (q. v.) ever “smashed” a saloon.
Another road trip to document round barns in Kansas brought me to Labette County. The unincorporated community of Valeda is nine miles east of Coffeyville, on US 166. According to Legends of Kansas,[iv]
in December 1875, School District #51 was formed, and the first schoolhouse was an old store building bought and moved from Parker. In 1886, this building was sold, the district’s boundary was changed, and the schoolhouse site was changed and placed at Valeda, which had just been started. The Excelsior Town and Mining Company owned the site. The plat was filed in 1886. The first building was a merchandise store erected by Stone & Willie. Dr. Kenworth opened the first drugstore. A new schoolhouse was erected in 1886. The same year, the post office was moved from Deerton and opened in Valeda on September 3, 1886. In 1910, Valeda was located on the Missouri Pacific Railroad in Howard Township. There was a money order post office with one rural route, an express office, and a population of 100. It was 29 miles southwest of Oswego.
From Frank Blackmar[v]
Valeda, a village of Labette County, is located on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Howard township, 29 miles southwest of Oswego. There is a money order post office with one rural route and an express office. The population in 1910 was 100. The site was owned by the Excelsior Town and Mining company. The plat was filed in 1886. The first building was a merchandise store erected by Stone & Willie. Dr. Kenworth opened the first drug store. The town of Deerton was moved to Valeda.
Photographs taken on April 11, 2023.
Photographs of the Valeda School taken on April 16, 2023.
[i] Blackmar, Frank W. Kansas, A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. Vol I. Chicago: Standard Publishing Company, 1912, p. 808.
[ii] https://abandonedks.com/achenbach-memorial-hospital/
[iii] Blackmar Frank W. Kansas, A Cyclopedia of State History. Vol II. 1912, p. 76.
[iv] https://legendsofkansas.com/labette-county-extinct-towns/
[v] Blackmar Frank W. Kansas, A Cyclopedia of State History. Vol II. 1912, p. 839.