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Cedar’s Story
The first settlers came to this
slightly rolling prairie country in the fall of 1870. It was at this
time that a Mr. Billings, of whom little is known, located the town of
Cedarville, Kansas, the oldest town in Smith County and named for Cedar
Creek, a tributary of the North Solomon River.
On October 25, 1870, James J. Johnston, John T. Morrison,
Andrew and Joseph Marshall, A.H. Black, V.J. Bottomly, B.S. Bottomly,
John W. Simmonds, Ira Chase, Curtis Harris and others landed at a point
on the north fork of the Solomon River, the mouth of Cedar Creek, and
proceeded to survey the town site which they named Cedar Ville
(presumably the Billings’ location). Most of these early settlers were
Union soldiers of the Civil War who came West to homestead this fertile
land. It was on January 18, 1871, that they filed papers with the
United State Land Office at Concordia, Kansas, and Cedarville became a
real town.
The first school was taught in a house in 1872; the teacher
was Mrs. J.D. Louks. The first school house was erected in 1872 at a
cost of $1700. Cedarville had the first organized school district, No.
1, in Smith County, organized in August 1872.
In June of
1872, the first church, the Methodist Episcopal, was organized in
Cedarville, by Rev. J. C. Dana, who served Smith Center, Tyner, Reamsville and Crystal Plains. In addition to the Methodist group, Rev.
L.M. Bonnett preached to a group of Congregationalists.
On April 17, 1871, the first store was opened in a log cabin
with a earth-covered roof and was owned by John Johnson. This log cabin
also served as home to Mr. Johnston and his brother, J.H. It also
served as the post office.
He came from
Holton, Jackson County, Kansas, and brought with him about 50 dollars’
worth of goods in a small box. The Johnstons brought their goods for
their store by team from Waterville, Kansas, 150 miles to the east
(Apparently the mail was dumped into a box or barrel and each one sorted
out his own mail.)
In April of that year, there was not yet a white man’s
habitation to be seen in any direction from the Johnston store-home.
The country was full of buffalo, antelope and wild turkey.
In the fall
of 1871, Johnston erected a log store with a shingled roof, the first
shingled roof in Smith County.
Johnston was appointed the first postmaster on July 3, 1871,
with a salary of $12 per year.
Cedarville became the first county seat of Smith County and
the first county commissioners appointed by the the Governor of Kansas
sere George Marshall and Fred W. Wagner. James Johnston (brother to
John) was the first County Clerk. The County Board’s first order of
business was laying out the county’s six townships. Then, in November
1872, the county seat was moved to Smith Center.
The Smith County Pioneer, the county’s oldest
newspaper, was first published at Cedarville in November, 1872 by Dr.
W.D. Jenkins.
Samuel and
Berry baker set up the first grist mill in 1874. The first lime kiln
for burning lime was constructed in the bluffs south of the Solomon
River in the autumn of 1872 by a Mr. Simmonds. The first stone house
was built in Cedarville by Col. Campbell in 1877. R.F. Campbell set up
the first sawmill and V.J. Bottomly served as a surveyor. Maj. John T.
Morrison was the first member of the state legislature for Smith County,
serving in 1873 and ’74. He was also Cedarville’s first depot agent
when the railroad came a few years later.
William H. Cox, who came to Cedarville in June 1873, erected
the Excelsior Water Flouring Mills. Early blacksmiths included Billy
Manny, Theo Dean and Henry Curtis.
During the grasshopper invasion of 1874, many folks in the
Cedarville area lost crops and suffered other related hardships. Many
returned to such states as Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, from which they
had originally migrated.
In 1880, the first barbershop was opened by Billy Newman.
The first meat market was opened by the partnership of Gaddis and Pegg
about this time.
Another
newspaper, The Cedarville Democrat, was started by M.W. Wachter
in August 1881. The paper was bought out and moved to Smith Center,
with its name changed to The Record.
In March of 1882, Dr. L.A. Golden, who had come to
Cedarville in the early 1880s, held one of the largest cattle sales ever
held in northwest Kansas. He later became one of the wealthiest men in
Smith County.
In 1883, Cedarville had two general merchandise stores, one
drug store, one livery stable, one hotel, one billiard hall, two
blacksmith shops and a population of a whopping 100 citizens!
In 1898, it was rumored that the name of the post office
would be changed to Cedar, a rumor which came to be fact in on May 19,
1906. Cedarville was very frequently confused—and is to this day, even
with Zip Codes—with Cedar Vale, Kansas, in Chautauqua County.
The Central Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company
had operated in Cedar since 1879 and built a depot there. The first
depot agent, John T. Morrison, was pointed in 1880. The last agent to
serve at the depot in Cedar was Hazel Armitage, when it closed a century
later, in 1980. The city acquired the Depot and moved it to its present
location in the Cedar City Park.
The Cedar
Depot Association began presenting its music festival in this location
in May 2002, and the rest, as they say, is history!
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