Wilburn, An Extinct Ford County Town

Wilburn was a town about halfway between Dodge City and Meade on the Jones and Plummer Trail. In the early days, a daily stage operated by Cal Ferguson stopped at Wilburn, Crooked Creek, Pearlette, Fowler City, Belle Meade, Spring Lake, Meade Center, and Carthage with runs to Tascosa, Texas on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Lewis P Horton and Charles P Brown applied for the Wilburn Post Office in March of 1885.

The Chicago, Nebraska, Kansas and Southwestern Railroad Company was formed in Dodge City on April 21, 1885. This mouthful was expected to pass through both Wilburn and Fowler. It went nowhere.

A schoolhouse measuring 18′ x 24′ was under construction in June of 1885. Wilburn was “on the boom” as they said.

The Ford County, Meade Center and Southwestern Railway Company was formed on September 14, 1885. It also went nowhere.

Businesses were popping up all over Wilburn. Due to its location on the stage line, it was a popular stopping point.

By October of 1885, Wilburn had about 25 houses with several more under construction. Teacher Willet S Brown began the school year in November. By December, the head count was reportedly 35 pupils. The school was already crowded and the town planned an expansion in 1886.

Although this article doesn’t mention the name of the company, the Dodge City and Neutral Strip Telegraph Company was officially formed on March 20, 1886. However, the company’s registration expired without any substantive progress.

Mail was initially delivered to Wilburn weekly but by April of 1886, the town received mail from Dodge City thrice weekly. The town’s newspaper was up and running later that month.

In the same issue, the Argus reported Wilburn was on the proposed route of the Chicago, Nebraska, Kansas and Southwestern Railroad from Red Cloud, Nebraska to “some point in Texas.” The line was supposed to go through Wilburn, Fowler, and Meade but counties would have to sell bonds to get it built.

I don’t want to get too far out in the weeds with this railroad stuff so let’s just say there were a ton of railroad companies formed that never built anything. The line in question ultimately became the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific.

Despite being mentioned in the newspaper in April, the Wilburn Town Company was officially formed on October 25, 1886.

Later that month, the railroad bond issue went up for a vote and it passed. An election was held for Wilburn Township officers on May 18, 1886.

No dives or hell holes! Wilburn was proud of its lack of dram shops and gaming halls.

County boundaries have changed over time and the Wilburn Cemetery is currently (just barely) in Meade County.

The Wilburn School was in Joint District No. 1, which included parts of Ford and Meade Counties.

The Argus had printed complaints about the Town Company failing to offer adequate incentives for settlers to obtain lots and build homes and businesses in Wilburn. A new town company was apparently formed in September of 1886 to address this deficiency and others. Spirits were high in December of 1886.

Baptist and Methodist Episcopal services were held at the school. After the new schoolhouse was completed, the old building went up for sale on February 15, 1887. This is how Main Street looked around that time:

The town’s layout was pretty straightforward.

On the county map, you can see the town of Wilburn was right on the Ford-Meade County line with the new boundaries.

The Argus reported on March 24, 1887 that THREE railroads were “reliably” coming to town: The main line of the D M & A would go to Wilburn and then branch off to the northwest and southwest, meaning a roundhouse and machine shops would be needed in Wilburn. AT & SF was to build a spur from Dodge to the coal fields in the Neutral Strip. The Rock Island was still a possibility since they planned to run their line north of their “present survey”. And the Chicago, Nebraska, Kansas and Northwestern was meant to arrive in Wilburn by the end of 1887 since the bonds had been approved by voters. In March of 1887, work was being done on that line 60 miles from Wilburn and the bonds stipulated completion by the end of year. The railroad prospects in Wilburn were being taken seriously, at least by some, in Dodge City.

G. H. Berry operated one of two grocery stores in Wilburn.

Shoppers could also find clothing bargains without leaving Wilburn.

Townspeople got their hopes up in August of 1887 when the Rock Island right-of-way man had dinner at the Wilburn Hotel. A new marshal was in town that September.

Wilburn merchants were covering all of the bases.

There was a lot of bickering amongst the small newspapers in Kansas. Since they all subscribed to one another’s publications, they engaged in the pre-internet equivalent of subtweeting. The first item about anarchists hanging was a joke about local Union Labor Party leader, Carey Smith. He was harmless but his statements were considered quite inflammatory outside of Ford County. The second one, I’m not terribly sure about and prefer not to investigate.

With all the talk of Wilburn becoming a rail hub, the town didn’t even make the official map in 1887. Incidentally, The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway Company was merged out of existence in June of 1888.

The last issue of The Wilburn Argus was published on December 29, 1887.

The paper didn’t close because the town folded. Rather, J. H. Clawson was tired of the critics and delinquent subscriptions. I see his point but in their defense, the typesetting and print quality were atrocious during his tenure. The local pages were virtually unreadable.

1887 ended without a railroad in Wilburn. By January of 1888, residents were becoming concerned because the Rock Island unexpectedly bypassed the town.

In February, it was rumored that the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad would run through Wilburn.

In the meantime, the hardware store began ordering goods shipped on the Rock Island to Minneola and then had them delivered to Wilburn via wagon. Also, the town finally had a permanent doctor. Dr. Lamb opened his office in a building which had previously been a harness shop.

By April of 1888, there was talk amongst some residents of moving to a different town on a railroad line.

Two weeks later, “Romeo” submitted a claim that the Omaha, Kansas and El Paso would be running in Wilburn by January of 1889 and town lot prices were already spiking. But it didn’t seem that property owners were convinced, judging by the lengthy delinquent tax list from August of 1888. You will notice the Town Company still owned the majority of the lots.

Railroad bonds were on the Ford County ballot again in a special election held on December 11, 1888. This time, voters approved bonds to build the Omaha, Dodge City and Southern Railway Company. This railroad was proposed to run between Dodge City and Galveston, Texas with stops in Wilburn, Fowler, and Meade Center.

Once again hopeful, town residents began work on a creamery. By February of 1889, they had stored 50 tons of ice in preparation for its operation. The Fowler and Wilburn Creamery Company planned to open a creamery in Fowler with a separator station in Wilburn. The first load of Fowler butter was made in July but I didn’t see anything further about a Wilburn facility.

One of the primary terms of the railroad bond election in 1888 was a requirement that it be built by January of 1890. That never happened and by July, discouraged people were leaving Wilburn. The oats didn’t do well and there were many livestock losses due to lightning. By September, the town was without a preacher and relied on visiting preachers from neighboring towns.

By February of 1891, the idea of the O. D. C. & S. Railway was officially put to rest in the Dodge papers. Most of the money was coming from European investors. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a sovereign debt crisis which had serious ripple effects in the States. In addition, Dodge and Hays had a dispute over money and the whole deal disintegrated.

The wheat crop of 1891 was extremely good. The problem was finding people to get it out of the fields. The delinquent tax list for the Town of Wilburn was insanely long in 1892. George Cochran shipped two houses to Enid, Oklahoma in December of 1893.

Although there were several prosperous farming and ranching families in the township, Wilburn proper was barely hanging on in the Spring of 1894.

The livery stable was dismantled and shipped to Council Grove in February of 1895. Nearly 40 properties in Wilburn were up for tax sale that March. The same month, the townsite of Wilburn was vacated by an Act of the Kansas Legislature.

Levi Martin was still operating the Wilburn Hotel in September of 1895 but he moved to Fowler the following year. Lewis Horton put his store up for sale in July of 1897. He resigned as Postmaster that August and was replaced by Joseph Van Riper. Horton relocated to West Plains, Missouri and later Elmwood, Nebraska.

The post office, which claimed to serve about 200 people, moved to a spot across the road and about a quarter of a mile north of its original location in October of 1897.

The Wilburn Hotel building was moved to a site northeast of Meade in December of 1900.

This plat map from 1905 shows both the school and post office across the road from the original Wilburn townsite.

The Van Riper family operated the Wilburn Post Office until August 31, 1911. It was moved to Fowler in September.

The 1916 plat map shows the post office was gone but the school was still in place.

The Wilburn School was still open in April of 1924. The schoolhouse was listed as a voting precinct for Wilburn Township in 1932 election but I’m not certain how long the school remained active.

Wilburn Township is still mostly farm and ranchland. The 2020 Census listed only 78 inhabitants. I was just out there and that seems low. It makes me wonder if people didn’t participate for political or ideological reasons.

So yes, I did take some photos but not of the actual Wilburn townsite. Some very nice people live there and they preferred not to have their home appear on the interwebs. But I did get photos of the 1897 Wilburn Post Office site as well as the site of the Wilburn School.

These photos were taken at Wilburn Cemetery, which is currently in Meade County. Most graves originally had wooden markers, which deteriorated over time. As a result, very few graves are marked but this cemetery is well maintained and often visited.

The Crooked Creek was full of water when I visited. Everything was green and it was plain to see what drew settlers to this area. I even got to experience the old timers’ frustrations with the road running north of town, nearly getting stuck in the silt with no mud in sight. What they would have given for four-wheel drive!

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