History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

and the plat was filed October 9, 1857, by George L. Willson. Provision was made in the town site for a public park and a young ladies’ seminary. It was claimed that it had at one time 400 inhabitants. Among the members of the town company were Messrs. Smooks, Fuller, Higby, Atherton, Ontis, Meeker, William Adams, Chase and Dr. Taylor. The land on which the town was located was “junked” as a claim by a Mrs. Place, and thereafter the town gradually went out of existence. It is said to have had a good two-story hotel and a number of business houses.

KENNEKUK.

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      In the plat which Royal Baldwin, president of the town company, filed April 6, 1859, the name of this town is given as Kennekuck. It was located on the southeast quarter and the southwest fractional quarter of section 3, township 5, range 17. Its streets were sixty feet wide, except Broadway, which was 100 feet wide, and Market street, which was eighty feet wide. One block was donated for a market house, and another block for a park, for religious and educational purposes. The streets were numbered from 1 to 10 and the cross streets were named as follows: Elm, Linn, Cedar, Poplar, Broadway, Market, Walnut, Weld, Perry and Baldwin. The town site was vacated by the board of county commissioners December 15, 1871. Kennekuk was a station on the Overland stage route, twenty-four miles west and north of Atchison. During the overland stage days Thomas Perry ran an eating station there, and Mrs. Perry, who was a grand cook, always had a smoking hot dinner ready with the best of coffee, for the occupants of the stage coaches. In the early days dances were held in the Perry home, and Hon. D. W. Wilder, the author of the celebrated “Annals of Kansas,” used to trip the light fantastic toe there, and it is said that he courted the girl who afterwards became his wife, in the Perry home.

      Frank A. Root, who was an express messenger on the overland stage, says, in his book, that Kennekuk was the first “home” station out from Atchison, and the drivers were changed there. In 1863 it was a little town of perhaps a dozen houses with one store and a blacksmith shop. The Kickapoo Indian Agency was one of the most prominent buildings there, and was located near the old road in the northwestern part of the town. The town was laid out by William H. Wheeler, a surveyor and speculator, and was named for the Kickapoo chieftain, John Kennekuk. George Remsburg says that the town was platted in June, 1854, but the dedication on the original plat in the court house would indicate that it was platted on the date first mentioned in this sketch.

      Hon. A. J. White, the son of Capt. Robert White, and at one time a member of the legislature from this county, and one of the leading farmers of the county, claims that Royal Baldwin was the first white settler in Kennekuk, and that he was appointed Indian agent for the Kickapoos there by President Pierce before Kansas was opened for settlement. Mr. Remsburg also says that many noted travelers stopped at Kennekuk, including Mark Twain.

KAPIOMA.

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      According to Captain Elberhant, of Golden, Colo., the Kickapoo Indians once had a village on the Grasshopper river in Atchison county, called Kapioma, after the chief of the band, and it is from this source that Kapioma township took its name. Captain Berthoud says that Father Duerinck, a native of Belgium, who was probably the first Jesuit priest in Atchison county, gave the pronunciation of the name of his Atchison county station as Kah-pi-oma, accent on the syllable “Kah.”

      In an affidavit of H. H. Skiles, volume 69, page 63, in the records of the office of the register of deeds of Atchison county, Kansas, the following appears:

      “This affiant further states that there was in 1857 and 1858 a company formed, called and known as the Kapioma City Company, and the individuals composing that company were B. Gray, S. C. Russell, W. W. Weston, H. H. Skiles and W. Y. Roberts, who united themselves together for the purpose of laying out, locating and establishing a town called Kapioma, on what was then known as Grasshopper creek, just north of its confluence with Straight creek, in the western borders of Atchison county, Kansas. The entire purpose and scheme in laying out and establishing a town fell through and was wholly and totally abandoned by all and every person connected with it without prejudice to any one, and the title to the land intended by the company to become town property reverted to the original owner. The law required to establish a town was never complied with.”

MASHENAH.

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      Mashenah, apparently, was to be a rival town of Kennekuk. The cold and quiet records now on file in the court house would convey the idea that Royal Baldwin must have fallen out with the original promoters of Kennekuk and decided to establish a town of his own, so, accordingly, he filed a plat of this town September 21, 1857, showing it to be located in the northeast quarter and the northwest quarter of section 2, township 5, range 17. One block was set aside for a college and another for a park. Its streets were numbered 1 to 21, and the cross streets were named as follows: Oak, Pine, Plum, Vine, Elm, Linn and Cedar.

ST. NICHOLAS.

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      The only record that can be found of this town is that Thomas Poteet filed a plat thereof April 20. 1858, showing it to be located in the southwest corner of section 6, township 7, range 20.

CONCORD.

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      This is another town about which there is little information available. The plat was filed June 20, 1857, by James R. Whitehead and shows it to have been located in the west half of section 1, township 5, range 17. The streets were numbered from 1 to 18, and the cross streets were named Buchanan, Emily, Mary, Carolina, Jefferson, St. Joseph, Ellwood, Able, Alexander, and there were two public squares, called North and South.

PARNELL.

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      The plat of Parnell was filed December 24, 1883, by J. C. Hotham, and shows the town site to be located in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 20, township 6, range 20. It is located on both the Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads. The station was named for a hero of the Civil war, James L. Parnell, a private soldier in Company F, Thirteenth Kansas volunteer infantry, who was killed during the skirmish at Haare Head, Ark., August 4, 1864. Parnell was the original settler on the site of Parnell and was one of the first citizens of Atchison county to respond under President Lincoln’s call of July, 1862. He enlisted in the Thirteenth Kansas. Ex-Sheriff Frank Hartin was a comrade of Parnell in Company F and married into the Parnell family.

SHANNON.

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      Shannon was platted by G. W. Sutliff February 22, 1883. and is located in the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section 1. township 6, range 19, about eight miles west of Atchison, on the Parallel road. The town consists of one store building, in which the postoffice is located, and a few residences, together with railroad station and a small elevator.

ELMWOOD.

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      Elmwood was platted