Volume 24,
Number 4

April 2000

When the state of Kansas entered the Union on January 29, 1861, included was an area of nearly treeless plains which stretched along the western border of the state where there were miles of virgin buffalo grass with few sources of water.  Part of this seemingly endless prairie was the area which was surveyed as a county in 1869 and named in honor of General Sherman by the Kansas Legislature in 1873.

The first real settlement was along the Beaver Creek in the northeast part of the county.  In 1879, the Joseph Collier and Andrew Melstrom families had been living in the Southwest corner of Rawlins County while coming into Sherman County to gather bones which they shipped eastern fertilizer firms.   When the Collier and Melstrom families built homes along the Beaver Creek, they were credited as being the first residents of the county.  Joseph Collier erected the first permanent building in the county in 1882.  Andrew Melstrom was married to Sarah, the oldest Collier daughter.  Andrew and Sarah were parents of the first white child to be born in the county, Artie Melstrom, who was born February 23, 1883.

The first post office in the county was established on April 19, 1881 on NE 26-6-39 in the Beaver Creek area.  This post office was called Bray.  The Bray Post Office closed on August 25, 1882 which left Sherman County without a Post Office until February 15, 1883 when the Shermanville Post Office was established.  The Shermanville Post Office was near the homes of Collier and Melstrom on SE 15-6-38, which is in the same area where the military command of Lt. Kidder had been killed by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors in July of 1867.

The first town site was located near the Sappa Creek on NE 12-8-40 with the Gandy Post Office established on September 4, 1885.   The first post master was Felix T. Gandy.  Morgan Gandy had a restaurant.   Louella Gandy was the first teacher in the first school in the county.  J.L. Gandy and H.P. Gandy were physician and surgeon.

The Gandy family advertised that they had $50,000 to loan.  Other businesses in Gandy included a blacksmith, Real Estate Dealer and Notary Public plus a grocery and general supplies store.  The county's first newspaper, The New Tecumseh, was established in Gandy in 1885.

On September 10, 1885, six days after the Post Office was established at Gandy, another Post Office was established at the town of Voltaire which was located on the Beaver Creek at NE 30-7-39.  This town site had been selected on June 15, 1885 by a group of men from Atwood whose goal was to build the town which they hoped would become the county seat of Sherman County.  While most towns were built one structure at a time as a need arose, Voltaire was unique in that 31 lumber wagons loaded with building supplies, accompanied by spring wagons and buggies filled with workers, left Atwood one morning to travel to the Voltaire town site where fifteen buildings were constructed during a three week period.  Included were a bank, a restaurant, a general store, a grocery store, a drug store, a livery stable and blacksmith, a carpenter shop with residence, a real estate and surveying office, a law office and a dry goods store.  A fire guard was plowed around the town and a homesteader named Harrison was hired as caretaker until the owners returned to operate the businesses.  By August of 1886, Voltaire had a total of 45 buildings and a population of 143.

During the summer of 1885, Thomas and Kate Leonard had arrived to settle about four miles south of Gandy.

They purchased a quarter of 'school land' at SE 36-8-40 and decided to plat a town.  They wanted to name it Leonard but the postal office thought that Leonard was too similar to Leonardville so the Post Office was named Itasca.  The town was often called Leonard by the local people and was well established before the Post Office was officially opened on July 22, 1886.

By March of 1886, the town of Gandy had started to fad away as the newspaper moved to the town of Leonard, with unfavorable editorials about Gandy being published, with some accusations of fraud.  On May 11, 1886, J.K. Warrington became the Postmaster of the Gandy Post Office.  Another town, named Sherman Center, had been stared on SW 18-8-39.  Whatever the problems were in Gandy, businesses and citizens were moving to other locations, mostly Leonard and Sherman Center.

During the fall of 1886, Postmaster Warrington was granted permission to move the Gandy Post Office to Sherman Center.   The name continued to be Gandy Post Office, although it was the only Post Office that the town of Sherman Center ever had.

In April of 1886 the town site of Eustis had been surveyed by speculators and railroad supporters from Colby.

On July 9, 1886 the Post Office of Eustis opened at NE 16-8-39.  By the fall of 1886, there were over 24 buildings in use.

The first census had been taken in August 1885 with a total population of 62.  At that time, the area was under the judicial and law enforcement control of Sheridan County and was called Sherman Township.  By June 5, 1886, there were enough settlers that Governor John A. Martin received a petition signed by about 400 householders requesting that the county be officially recognized.   On September 20, 1886, Governor Martin signed a proclamation organizing Sherman County.  He designated the town of Eustis as the temporary seat and appointed the first county officers.

In November of 1886 a special election was held to determine the county seat.  On the ballot were the names of the towns of Sherman Center, Voltaire and Eustis.  Eustis received 376 which was approximately 40% of the 932 votes cast.  However the law required that a town receive a full majority of all votes cast in order to become officially the county seat.  Since none had received a majority, Eustis continued as the temporary county seat until the next election which was set for November of 1887.

Then two things happened before the election in November of 1887 which changed the history of Sherman County.  As more settlers arrived, many homesteaders were concerned by the problems caused by claims being contested and by the free range cattle.  In order to solve these problems, the settlers joined together to organize the Homesteader Union Association.  This was the first event.

The second event happened in August of 1887 when the Sherman County Development company was organized for the purpose of starting a new town, which would be named Goodland.  The citizens of Sherman Center were in full support of the creation of a new town as the title of the land where their town was built had been questioned.  As soon as the new Development Company purchased the quarter of land where Goodland would be built, Sherman Center businesses began to make arrangements to move to the new town.

The Homesteader Union Association (HUA) supported slate of names which were on the ballot for the November 8, 1887 election for county officers.  Due to legal procedures, the issue of selecting the county seat was not on this ballot and a special election was set for November 22, 1887 for that purpose.

The November 8th election was a huge success for the HUA as all their candidates were elected.  But before they could take office, an injunction kept the commissioners from being able to canvass the votes.  As a result of the legal action, the commissioners and county officers that had been appointed by Governor Martin remained in office.

On the ballot for the November 22 county seat election were the names of the towns of Voltaire, Eustis and Goodland.  1495 votes were cast.  By midnight, the returns were in with 872 votes for Goodland, 611 for Eustis and 12 votes for Voltaire.  Again, before the county commissioners could canvas the votes, a legal injunction had been granted by the Probate Judge based on sworn statements that no notice of election had been posted, ballots of the two elections had been mixed, that there was confusion in the minds of voters as to the legality of the election, that outlying areas had been in ignorance of the election and that there were armed forces waiting to invade Eustis as soon as the votes were cast.

Various legal maneuvers kept the results of both elections in doubt.  Both the town of Eustis and Goodland had a court house and both towns insisted that official county business could be conducted in their court house.

It was reported to be 25 degrees below zero on January 13, 1888, when the HUA took matters into their own hands and 85 armed members marched to Eustis for the purpose of forcibly taking the county records back to Goodland.   After they captured the Eustis mayor with threats that the town would be burnt and his would be the first life lost, the guarded records from the Eustis court house were given to the HUA members.  Concerned by the threats of violence, Governor Martin sent tow officials of the Kansas National Guard to investigate the matter while saying he would send in the militia, if necessary, as 'a county seat contest cannot be settled in this state by force of arms'.

Although the county records were now being protected by armed guards at the Goodland Court house, the county seat conflict continued until all legal procedures were exhausted.  On May 10, 1888, Goodland was officially declared the permanent county seat of Sherman County.

The other towns which had been established within the five miles radius of the center of Sherman county gradually faded away with many of the businesses and homes being moved into the new town of Goodland.

Itasca Post Office closed first on January 26, 1887.  The Eustis Post Office closed on July 10, 1888, exactly two months after losing the county seat.  Voltaire remained an active town the longest.  It retained its Post Office until April 25, 1892.  On December 1, 1887, the Gandy Post Office closed and the Goodland Post Office opened.

FOR SALE:

HISTORICAL MOMENT book. 

Year 2000 Post Card Series 1
Railroads in Sherman County

Year 2000 Collectors Historical Calendar

Other Publications for Sale

HELP NEEDED:

The Sherman County Historical Society needs your help on some of the current projects.  If you have information needed or can volunteer to help, please contact any board member.

Information - if you have information form your personal memory or from tales told to you by relatives of murders in Sherman County, solved or unsolved, please let us know.  There has been interest expressed in having these events researched and recorded.  Also, if you have knowledge of any county conflicts or battles between whites and Native Americans, please let us know.  This would be any event except that concerning the Kidder battle.

Marriage Book - County Marriage records from 1886 through end of 1999 has been researched.  The compiled material now needs to be proof read in order to be ready to be printed.

Cemetery Book - Efforts are being made to complete research to bring the Cemetery Book up to date through the end of 1999.  The last book was through 1997.

J.B. Moore Diary - The Historical Society will be printing the Moore Diary from 1886 through 1894, which will soon be ready for sale.  Marie Moore needs help trying to type up more of J.B. Moore's writings so they can be printed.

School records - efforts are being made to type all the hand-written country school records which are currently stored in the basement of the court house.  Photos and stories concerning students and teachers of the one room schools needs to be collected.

Baseball - The Historical Society is interested in erecting a permanent display honoring the history of baseball in the county.  Assistance is needed to develop this display.

GENEALOGICAL CONFERENCE

April 29, 2000 - The Historical Society will be featuring Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, a certified Genealogical Record Specialist at 10:30 am through 4:00 pm at the Goodland Masonic Lodge, 519 Center, Goodland, KS.  Topics presented will included:

• 'Flesh on the Bones: Putting Your Ancestors into Historical Perspective'
• 'Interpreting American Tombstone Art and Symbols'
• "Painless Organization: How to Organize Everything in Your Genealogy Life"

Registration is $35.00.  Lunch included.