Lasker, a Ford County Jewish Colony

Roughly K-94 and Yucca Road

I’ve wanted to write about the ups and downs of Jewish life in Ford County for some time now. Recent events have prompted me to get my facts in order. Tracking settlers in the Lasker Colony is difficult for several reasons, so this account is far from complete.

The Am Olam “Eternal People” movement was founded in Odessa in 1881 to promote communal agricultural colonies in the United States. Jewish immigrants fleeing the pogroms settled at Lasker Colony (named after Prussian statesman Eduard Lasker) south of present-day Kingsdown in 1885.

George Inman applied for the Lasker Post Office around May of 1885 and claimed it would serve 300 patrons. Some information was missing and the form was returned for more information that September. The post office, located on the northwest quarter of Section 32, T29S, R22W, was finally approved on July 1, 1886. Unfortunately, the diagram on the back of the form wasn’t completed so its exact placement is unknown.

It doesn’t appear that a townsite was ever platted but the Lasker Colony was located south of Kingsdown near the mail route from Dodge City to Camp Supply. It stretched from just south of current Highway 54 down into Clark County and encompassed about nine square miles. Each family settled on a quarter section.

Because they were somewhat late to the homesteading scene, the Am Olam settlers were forced to prove claims on land that was remote and lacking natural resources. The railroad hadn’t yet arrived in Kingsdown or Ashland so supplies had to travel long distances by wagon. As a result, most settlers lived in sod houses.

Primitive conditions didn’t stop them from building a library. Moses Livshitz (alternatively Lifshitz) was library secretary in March of 1886 and the community was growing.

Moses Kluber and Sophia Bespalov were married in Lasker in July of 1886.

Jacob Borovik and Moses Wishnievsky sold potatoes at the One Price Store.

The winter of 1886 was absolutely brutal. Livestock losses due to the severe blizzards were immense. Imagine those straight-line Kansas winds without shelter belts. Lasker made it through and continued to thrive.

This excerpt of a column written by Michael Heilprin documented the status of Lasker and other colonies in Kansas.

Unfortunately, Lasker was devastated by a prairie fire later that month and the settlers again suffered heavy losses. 1887 was also the beginning of a long drought.

The Lasker Post Office was discontinued on October 27, 1887.

The Bloom newspaper reported a school was being built in Lasker in September of 1888, but I haven’t been able to locate any additional information. This was the last newspaper reference I found for Lasker, Kansas.

Unfortunately, many of the Am Olam were from urban and intellectual backgrounds without agricultural experience. The weather in Kansas has been known to get the best of even the most experienced farmer. As losses mounted and crops failed, some settlers relocated to other parts of Kansas, while others returned to the East Coast of the United States to resume their earlier professions. That the Lasker Colony survived as long as it did is a testament to the intense determination of the Jewish settlers.

For more information about early Jewish settlements in Kansas, I highly recommend Sod Jerusalems: Jewish Agricultural Communities in Frontier Kansas by Lloyd David Harris. This book is available to read at no charge on KanColl. Donald M Douglas also published a paper called “Forgotten Zions: Jewish Agricultural Colonies in the 1880s” that is quite good.

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