Vine Creek, Kansas 

When the Berry and Foy families came to Kansas, many of them settled in a small town called Vine or Vine Creek.  Their descendants are now dispersed over the USA; all that remains at Vine Creek is a cemetery where many of our relatives are buried.   This essay was downloaded from the Internet.

In 1879 the post office was established at Vine, the name being suggested by Sarah Seeley, the first postmistress. The mail was delivered to these post offices by horseback from Solomon.  Early citizens tell us a small store and post office was operated by Henry Lemon, south-east of the present site of Vine

During this early period, much of the land was acquired by the Homestead Act or purchased from railroad companies Many small homes of stone or dugouts dotted this hilly grassland. These settlers organized several school districts to educate their children. The first school was held in a little stone building located on the Arthur Smith farm. Districts in the area were #42, Vine Creek; #71, Reed; #57, Ackley; #15 Munson: #82, Melville, later known as Owsley or Neaderhiser

In December 1886 the Chicago, Kansas and western Railroad petitioned the County Commissioners to permit the building of a railroad from the east line of Ottawa County to the west line, with two stations east of Minneapolis and two west. The one farthest to the east came to be Vine Creek. The railroad was built and began operations in 1887. This railroad was acquired by the Santa Fe in 1910. The station Vine Creek was so named for the creek, a branch of Coal Creek that runs just south of the site
This creek had been named Nigger Creek, but Vine Creek seems to be appropriate because of the heavy growth of vines such as wild grapes, ivy and others. Many small bushes were abundant, including wild raspberry, gooseberry, Strawberry, mulberry and plum. which served as fruit and jelly for the settlers.

In 1887 the Vine Creek Town Company was organized and Vine Creek became a thriving shipping point for dairy products and livestock. A general store and town hall was owned and operated by Mrs. Sarah Seeley. This hall served as a voting place at one time.

The Minneapolis Butter and Cheese Factory was in operation for several years. William Stout bought and shipped cream for many years after the butter and cheese factory ceased operation, about 1903. A livery stable was owned and operated by John McDade.  Mr and Mrs. Eany Kelly, who came to Vine in the early 1900's, operated a store and lived in Vine the remainder of their lives. A second store was in operation at various times by Frank Taylors, Claud Smiths, Tom Durham, and Chas. Haleys A blacksmith shop was owned and operated for many years by James 0. Fleming, and later by Will Plurd of Minneapolis. 

The railroad furnished employment for many of the community's citizens. Charles Dennison was section foreman for many years. The railroad had maintained a stockyard at Vine Creek in its early history. Because of the excellent grass and grazing conditions in the area, thousands of head of cattle have been shipped through the yards. During the 1930's the yard was enlarged and a new cattle scales installed. It was the largest cattle scales on the Santa Fe system.

Many ranches have been in operation since the days of homesteading: Hurst Ranch, Gladden Ranch, Slaven Ranch, Bowen Ranch, Gafforg Ranch and others. In more recent years, the names of Bowen, Hayes, Riley, Todd, Bingham, Smith McCready, Lyles, Nichols, Stout, McDade and others have been linked with shipping cattle from the Vine Creek stockyards. Many cattlemen, from surrounding states, have pastured cattle in the area. 

One very remarkable early settler was Thomas Smith, who bought his farm in 1883. Here he lived and reared a family of 11 children, one daughter died in early childhood and one daughter was killed in 1891 when a tornado struck the home. At the time of his death, Mr. Smith had accumulated enough property that he left 240 acres of land, or the equivalent thereof, to each of his nine living children. (Ottawa County Museum Files)

A dying town in Kansas searches
for a new crop of homesteaders

MARQUETTE, Kansas - With hundreds of ghost towns dotting the Great Plains, and more communities heading toward extinction, Marquette, Kan., could see death on the horizon.

Barely a house per year was being built, with the town's population dwindling to about 600. Marquette's once-proud high school closed long ago, in 1985.

The elementary school was in peril, with enrollment dragging because there were few new families. Town council members knew that if Marquette lost its only school, its future would be in question.

Out of desperation, the council took an idea from history and decided to give part of the town away.

 For $100,000, the town leadership bought 50 acres on the western edge of Marquette and advertised for comers to build houses on free land, as pioneering homesteaders once did in the 1800s.

Now, a year later, five new houses dot the brown earth that for more than a century was a wheat field. At least 21 lots are spoken for in all. There are plans to develop about 80 free home sites in the next several years in the shadow of a rodeo ring and a cemetery. And the program, touted by some as the first significant in-migration to the Great Plains in generations, has drawn inquiries from as far away as Central America.

Each free lot, about a third of an acre with a market value of $8,000 to $10,000, contributes about $1,000 to the town's tax rolls. The local bank provides loans. and, in some cases, the land's value can be used as a down
payment

 "We are very happy here," said Jennifer Krehbiel, who moved in recently from the Wichita, Kansas, area with two elementary school age children and her husband, Dean, who commutes to a government job in Salina, Kansas  "It's more than the free land," she said. "It's a welcoming community."

 The kindergarten-through-8th-grade school already has seen a 5 percent jump in students, to 127. The half-dozen new students translate into about $36,000 in extra state aid.  Marquette hopes to see more than 60 new children in school in the next few years.

Across Kansas and the Midwest, at least a dozen struggling communities are offering their own versions of the land giveaway.

As federal officials weigh ways to revitalize the Plains with tax credits, business incentives and tourism, Marquette is not waiting for help. .

"We're not dying anymore - at least for the time being," said Mayor Steve Piper, whose family has been in the grocery business here since 1922. "This certainly put us on the map."

Still, what seems to be salvation for Marquette is an unlikely panacea for America's dwindling heartland.

Marquette is within an hour and a half's drive of jobs in the Kansas urban centers of HuItchinson, Salina and Wichita. The town's central business district with a historic downtown is relatively vibrant. And Marquette benefits from being a few miles from quaint Lindsborg, Kan., which attracts outsiders and tourists with its Swedish heritage and a college campus.

But across the vast miles of American prairie, too many towns already have lost their schools, businesses and lifeblood. Their young people have fled to big cities and bigger horizons.  Save for the agriculture industry, there are few jobs and attractions.

The center of America first drew settlers more than 140 years with a combination of rail travel and the Homestead Act of 1862. That act offered cut-rate acreage that attracted about 2 million people to the heartland from the world over, mostly to farm and settle.

But less than half of them ultimately stayed; many were driven away by economic hardship and harsh weather that made farming difficult.

During the Great Depression, the population drain accelerated in the huge migration westward to California. By the time federal homesteading officially was ended in 1986, the vast center of the country was showing the highest proportional population losses in America.

In Kansas, urban planners now consider about 40 percent of the state's 105 counties to be at risk, meaning their long-term survival is in doubt

"Marquette has some things going for it that other communities don't," said David Darling, an urban planner at Kansas StateUniversity who has long studied his state's decline.

"While it's worth trying in some areas, giving away land is not viable in many parts of the state where communities are lacking economic and social centers and are in a huge quandary over how to survive," he said.

Founded in 1873 by four settlers from the Michigan locale of the same name, Marquette burgeoned to about 700 people by 1900. A tornado leveled part of the town in 1905, killing 31 people — 5 percent of the town's population.

"We survived that and since then Marquette has always had an instinct to survive," said Allen Lindfors, a local baker and councilman.

Town leaders say they already are seeing benefits. Marquette's newfound celebrity helped launch a motorcycle museum last fall with donations of bikes from around the country.
 

E.A Torriero
Knight Ridder Newspapers
20 April 2004