Tag Archives: Churches

Churches of the Prairie 2

This is a series of post about abandoned, rural, and small town churches through out Kansas. Sadly some are beyond repair, some are struggling to continue offering services and others are a vibrant part of the community.

St. Ann’s Catholic Church – Olmitz, KS 1889

On the day that I visited the church a company was removing some the stain glass and windows to reburbish the windows. That has to be quite an expense, it speaks highly of the parishioners who are willing to commit to such a financial obligation to preserve their beautiful house of worship.

Stain glass and Stations of the Cross

The company restoring the windows is doing a great job.

St. Catherine’s – Dubuque KS 1901-1907

Even thou I just posted this one last week, I could never go past St. Catherine’s at Dubuque without stopping! Services are no longer held here.

Lutheran Church and Sunday School Building

I had been looking for this church for sometime, I was so happy to find it.

Cemetery across the road from the church

Churches of the Prairie

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As I travel around the backroads of Kansas, I’m amazed and sometimes saddened by all the churches. Some are closed and in ruins, others are still holding services. This will be a multiple collection of all denominations and will include rural, ghost town churches and small town churches.

St. Catherine’s Catholic Church – Dubuque, KS

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United Methodist Church – Huscher, KS

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Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse – Concordia, KS

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church – Concordia, KS

United Methodist Church – Carneiro, KS

First Baptist Church – Carlton, KS

Have a Blessed Sunday

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There are so many beautiful abandoned churches, this is St. Joseph’s Church and Cemetery . Built in 1910 and decommissioned as a church in the late 1980’s There is an effort to restore the church and it will then serve as a museum for McDowell Creek area a community center. The Geary County Historical Society and Friends of the St. Joseph’s Church has made many improvements to the beautiful church

The cemetery has burials dating from the 1870’s.

Lincoln County Again

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Lincoln County is one of my FAVORITE places. It was such a beautiful day, calm day after all the wind we’ve had. I wished you were with us.

Since the grasses haven’t started growing I saw numerous root cellars/storm caves. NO, I didn’t crawl into any of them!!!

All that is left of this home, is a window in the milo stubble.

Ash Grove, KS at one time had a grocery store, lumber yard, blacksmith, hardware store, hotel, church and school.

Limestone arch bridge at Ash Grove

Yard art? or just poor parking?

The wooden frame building was the Pottersburg Church. It was moved to Ash Grove in 1925.

The church bell is still in the bell tower.

Ash Grove school closed in 1966. Can you hear the school bell ringing?

To the south of Ash Grove was the site of Pottersburg.

A woman died near Spillman Creek and was buried in the cemetery. A local man later bought this stone for her.

Continuing south is a place that I came across years ago while exploring with my Mom and Aunt. It is the only place that I have seen that has limestone clothesline post still standing, I was so happy when I came across it again. It is absolutely in the middle of no where. Can’t imagine how awesome it would be living there.

I always loved hanging clothes on the clothesline.

Limestone Double Arch Bridge, no longer used but they preserved it when they re-routed Highway 18.

Touring Denmark

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Denmark Kansas, located in Lincoln County, was settled in 1869 by Danish Lutherans. The church was completed in 1880, the bell tower and entry was added in 1901. The Denmark Hotel was built in 1917 when the railroad came through the town. At one time there was a bank and several other businesses. Today there is a co-op and also a great destination for pheasant hunting. Spillman Creek Lodge.

Here is a link to the lodge http://spillmancreek.com/index.cfm

Dunlap, Morris County, KS

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In March of 1874 a post office was established in Hillsborough, the next month it was renamed Dunlap after Joseph Dunlap, an Indian agent for the Kaw tribe.

Benjamin “Pap” Singleton chose Dunlap for his second Singleton Colony, as home for freedmen who had come from Tennessee because of available land under the Homestead Act. Hundreds of Exodusters arrived in Dunlap. The Presbyterian Church founded the Freedman Academy of KS to provide education to the settlers, however the school closed it’s door in the 1890’s.

Population in 1910 was over 300, during this time there was a blacksmith shop, hardware, grocery store, ice cream parlor, flour mill, butter and cheese factors, restaurant, bank, hotel, and numerous churches.

When the exodusters first arrived the white community resented them and they had separate schools, churches and cemeteries. However by 1930, the white and blacks were no longer segregated and lived together peacefully in the beautiful Neosho River Valley.

Dunlap is currently home to approximately 30 people.

Main Street

Native stone sidewalk along Main Street

White Cemetery Dunlap, KS

Black Cemetery about 1 mile north of the white cemetery

Many of the headstones were native stones with no inscription on them

Landon Harness, last resident to be buried in Dunlap Black Cemetery

On a road that is seldom traveled I came across this monument. A beautiful tribute to a freedman who homestead this land. Here is a link about Mr. Davis and his monument to his family.

http://www.robinvanauken.com/a-monument-to-exodusters/

Massive native stone cornerpost

The ground is so rocky that they drilled holes in the rocks to set the posts.

Burns, Marion County, KS

St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Abilene KS

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Entrance to St. Joseph’s Orphanage that provided a home to children from 1915-1959.

Grotto

Here is a link (Dickinson County Historical Society) to see a photo of the orphanage that was demolished in 1959. All that is left on the site are the stone markers at the entrance, a building and the unique grotto.

St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Abilene KS