Where was Cresswell?
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
(In the early days of Marion County, numerous small communities developed. This is the second in a series highlighting these rural communities which no longer exist.)
In 1873, a post office was established in the rural area between Peabody and present-day Hillsboro and Goessel. It was named Cresswell in honor of President Ulysses S. Grant's Postmaster General. It operated until 1901.
The community became known as Cresswell. Later, a country store was established and was known as the Cresswell store. There are conflicting accounts as to its location, which may have changed depending on the operator.
The Kansas State Board of Agriculture established Cresswell as being in the southeast quarter of Section 32 of Liberty Township (six miles south and one and one-half miles west of Hillsboro).
The late Bertha Wiebe Ewert wrote about "The Cresswell Store." She said it was eight miles south and two west of Hillsboro (five miles east of present-day K-15). That would have placed it in East Branch Township approximately two miles south of the original Cresswell post office.
Ewert was the oldest daughter of Henry J. and Susanna Wiebe. In 1987, she relayed information about the store to her sister-in-law, Hildred Wiebe, who wrote it down for future generations. Wiebe resides at Parkside Homes.
According to Ewert, Cresswell store was first owned by a Mr. Klassen, then operated by Isaac P. Enns in the early 1900s and sold to her father around 1907.
The Wiebes had moved from their farm one and one-half miles east of the Springfield Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Church (170th and K-15) to a larger farm closer to Peabody, and operated the store as a sideline.
According to Ewert, a creamery, blacksmith shop, mailbox/hitching post, and the store were located at the several corners of the intersection (120th and Goldenrod).
Ewert said the store had a wood floor and was heated with hedgewood burned in a pot-bellied stove. A lamp hanging from the ceiling provided light.
The store was stocked with general merchandise brought in by horse and wagon from Peabody or Walton.
In front of a long counter, glass-covered bins held white crackers, brown sweet crackers, and ginger snaps, as well as hard candy and peppermints. Few canned goods were offered because most customers preserved their own vegetables and fruit.
A lean-to held coal oil and kegs of nails. Most farmers brought eggs to trade for goods.
The town of Hillsboro was established in 1879. The Cresswell store received some competition from peddlers who operated out of Hillsboro in the 1880s and 90s.
As a teen-ager, P.H. Schroeder drove a wagon from farm to farm, bringing yard goods and other sewing supplies and some groceries from Kizler's mercantile store. His work week included two days in the Bruderthal area, a day or two in the Pilsen area, and two days in the Cresswell community.
After the coming of automobiles, it became easier for farmers to travel longer distances for necessities. This led to the gradual demise of the Cresswell store.
According to Virgil Litke, his grandparents, the J.W. Bullers, moved to Cresswell in 1908 from Nebraska. They moved their belongings in a boxcar to Aulne, then traveled west by wagon to the farm at present-day 878 130th. They lived there less than a year before moving into Hillsboro. Litke said no mention ever was made of the store.
Glen and Bonnie Entz now live at the same farm. It is just one-quarter mile east of the spot where Cresswell is identified on an old, detailed official Kansas map. The map labels Oklahoma as Indian Territory.
Entz, a farmer, said he had never heard about Cresswell until five years ago. When he started a side business manufacturing gooseneck fertilizer carts, he named it Cresswell Manufacturing.
However, some of his Goessel and Peabody neighbors contend the store was located two miles south, which also is the location recalled by Bertha Ewert.
Mel Rothfeld, who lives near that location, said elderly neighbors were told a town was located at the intersection but they do not recall its name.
Regardless of its exact location, the store served a purpose in its time, providing a community service and a place to rendezvous with friends and neighbors.
When Cresswell School District #15 was organized, it was given the same name as the post office. It was built on Section 34, five miles south of present-day Hillsboro (140th and Indigo).
At first, the school district was huge, being on the edge of the western frontier, but by 1883 it had shrunk to 11 1/4 sections. (A section is one square mile.)
At a 1935 school reunion, the late D.W. Suderman presented a history of the school.
Homesteaders were exempt from property tax, so the district relied on money from railroad properties to support it. (Every other section of land in the area had been granted to railroad companies by the federal government.)
The hardships and obstacles in pioneer living caused frequent turnover of the many farms in the district, resulting in a different group of students every year.
In addition to student instruction, the school building was used for religious gatherings, literary meetings, spelling matches, and political events.
The building was replaced in 1905 and the school continued until 1960.
Jenny Suderman Marsh grew up a half-mile from the school. She has fond memories of her childhood and said she was glad she didn't have to go to town school. She graduated from eighth grade in 1944. She remembers walking to school during dust bowl days in conditions similar to a blizzard.
Litke's wife, Phyllis Wiens Litke, lived about a mile and a half from the school. Phyllis recalls meeting Jenny at her farm and walking with her the rest of the way to school.
Marsh and her husband recently returned to the area and built a home in a pasture once owned by her father.
In 1977, the Litkes bought the two acres on which the school had stood. A former depot from Valley Falls was moved in and remodeled into a home for their daughter Brenda and her husband. Stones from the school's foundation were used to line the driveway. The property now is owned by others.
(Sources for this article include "Marion County - Past and Present," by Sondra Van Meter, and Cresswell files at the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies at Tabor College.)
