Barber County Kansas

USGS Aerial Photograph of Sun City, Barber County, Kansas, taken 20 March 1996.

Gypsum Quarries, Mines and Mills in Barber County, Kansas
Left to right: Gypsum quarry at Sun City, Aerial tram at Sun City gypsum quarry, Gypsum workers & family members at Sun City.
Photos courtesy of Beth Davis, Kim Fowles and Elloise Leffler.

Sun City Street Scene, Barber County, Kansas.   Photo from the Kim Fowles Collection.

Bronc Rider, McLain Roundup, Sun City, Barber County, Kansas.
McLain's Roundup: the Memories of Joe Massey     McLain Roundup photos by Homer Venters
Photo by Homer Venters, courtesy of his great-nephew, Mike Venters.
Photo © Mike Venters 2005. Used with his permission.

"The Bissantz family were early settlers and well known in the Sun City area. Louis Bissantz was an immigrant from Germany who married Julia Balding. Their children were Bessie, Roy & Adolph. The man on the far right is Tull Balding, Julia's brother. I have heard stories that Tull was an outlaw and had been in prison. This house is still standing in Sun City - barely though." -- Kim Fowles.   Photo from the Kim Fowles Collection.

George W. Lott home on Main Street in Sun City in 1916, Barber County, Kansas.
All of the Van Horn sisters & their families are in the photo:
Ella Bird (Van Horn) Lott, Dora Columbia (Van Horn) Hatfield, Flora Gay (Van Horn) Crane & Artha Lee (Van Horn) Massey.
(This house is not standing today.)
Photo & comments courtesy of Kim Fowles..

Frank and Hattie (Owens) Hoagland with their children at their place west of Sun City.
The house WAS the Bank of Sun City building before the building was moved to the farm.
Photo from the collection of Kim (Hoagland) Fowles.

Sun City, Standard Atlas of Barber County, Kansas, 1905.
Map courtesy of Kim Fowles.
View Larger Image of the Map

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To the Hon. J. T. Herrick,
Judge of the 19th Judicial District, State of Kas.

We, the undersigned electors, of Sun City. Barber county, Kansas, do hereby respectfully petition your honor to declare said town incorporated under the laws of the State of Kansas, as a city of the third class, by the name and style of the City of Sun, with the following described boundaries, to wit:

Beginning at the section corner at the northeast corner of section one (1), township thirty-one (31), south of range fifteen (15), west, thence west along said section line two miles, thence south one mile, thence east two miles, thence north one mile to place of beginning, intending to incude sections one and two in said township and range.

We hereby certify that the number of per-sons within said boundaries exceeds two hundred and fifty and is less than two thousand. Viz: Two hundred and seventy.

We would also petition you to appoint T. P. Witaker, Dan Cornue and Louis Lockert as judges. F. N. Salyers, and J. J. Miles as Clerks, and T. H. Caallison, J. V. Fishburn and H. E. Van Trees as canvassers of the first election for officers of said corporation: and we would ever pray.

PETITIONERS.

Robt. A. Neff, editor Sun City Union
F. J. Saunders, merchant
P. A. Whitaker, liveryman
T. P. Whitaker, hotel
H. E. Van Trees, attorney
J. R. Lamport, merchant
Geo. N. Neff, harness and saddlery
F. N. Salyer, druggist
T. B. Reynolds, liveryman
J. G. Taylor, artist
H. L. Salyer
Capt. Prater
J. P. Jayne
Aleck Shields, carpenter and builder
Louis Bisantz, dealer in hardware
W. E. Fulton, proprietor restaurant
R. Markham
Jacob Meries, merchant
Jacob R. Cornue
C. E. Washburn, billiard hall
James J. Miles, hotel
John V. Fishburn, notary public
Joseph Daizell
W. H. Dorsett, grocer
A. M. Harris
E. A. McMichael
I. L. Frymyer
W. H. Taylor
J. M. Bush
J. A. Mason
Peter J. Mertes, boot and shoe maker
F. M. Rice
Bridge Strode, boot and shoe maker
? C. Tripp
J. H. Rice
J. R. Smith, M. D.
Geo. W. Hall
Jos. A. Siddail, carpenter
Jos. J. Stout, blacksmith
W. A. Campbell, real estate agent
C. H. Douglass, merchant
P. B Ayers, attorney
Jesse Twity
John Moran, blacksmith
Sidney J. Graham, carpenter
J. P. Murphy
Louis Lockert

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Thanks to Phyllis Scherich for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!

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The Kansas Gazeteer & Business Directory For 1882-1883

Sun City . In township of same name, northwestern part of Barbour county, 24 miles northwest of Medicine Lodge (ch), and 99 from Hutchinson on the AT&SF RR. Harper, on the KCL&SK RR, 58 miles east, is the nearest railroad point. The settlement is on the Medicine Lodge river, has 60 inhabitants, a district school and Baptist and Methodist churches. Shipments, cattle. Stages to Kinsley (60 miles northwest) and Medicine Lodge, to the former weekly, and to the latter tri-weekly, with mail. C.H. Douglass, postmaster. (Contributed by Kim Fowles).

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Sun City

Sun City is located in the western suburbs of the county, where Turkey Creek, the most picturesque stream in Kansas, joins the Medicine River.

Like all Kansas towns born of the "boom," it has had its gala day, and like so many of them, clothed itself in sackcloth in atonement.

It is not so many years ago Sun was a lively business center of several hundred inhabitants, with hotels, stores, saloons and all the et ceteras that go to make up a typical western border town. Land agents and land seekers covered the country and the resources of three livery stables were taxed to their utmost showing them the country. Today the country has returned to its normal condition. Its industries and business confined to legitimate bounds, its population reduced in numbers is self-supporting and prosperous accordingly.

Sun City now has a population of less than a hundred people, two stores and is a trading point of considerable importance, connected with Medicine Lodge by a daily stage and mail line. Coats, a mail station on the Mulvane branch of the Santa Fe, fifteen miles distance, is the nearest railroad point. A neat wood structure serves for school and church purposes.

The secret orders are represented by Sun City lodge, I.O.O.F. No. 262, with 45 active members, a lodge of Rebekahs with a membership of 40. The M.W.A. with twenty members. The Odd Fellows are in very prosperous circumstances, own their building and have plans perfected for its repair at an expense of $500. John Adams is the president N.G., J.P. Thomas, secretary.

It is not situated right for extensive growth, but it will always command about so much trade and prosper to a certain degree.

-- "Barber County Townships:, Medicine Lodge Cresset, March 2, 1900. Contributed by Ellen (Knowles) Bisson.

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History of Sun City, Barber County, Kansas

Sun City was plotted in 1872 and settled in 1873.

In 1871 young George Walker, his brother, and an Army Officer established a trading post in a dugout on the east bank of Turkey Creek in what is now known as the Shutts pasture. In the winter of 1871-1872 a Col. Griffin, himself a buffalo hunter, became the first settler at the same location. According to The Barber County Index, he was the first settler in Barber County. He was killed and scalped by the Indians the following summer.

Among the earliest settlers were the Rev. and Mrs. J.M. Adams and sons, Green and William. They arrived from Kentucky April 3rd, 1873.

Others were Minerva Adams, C.H. Douglas, Mrs. Molly Saunders, Mr. and Mrs. John Bullock, Sam Helton, Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Owens, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Clements, Estelle Whitaker, George Walker, Jim Carl, Thomas and Henry Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Whitaker, Mr. and Mrs. John Montgomery, Frank Whitaker, Mr. and Mrs. S. Flemings, Bob Adams, Ed Coon, Charlie Walker, Major Bowlus, Mr. and Mrs. VanderPool, Frank Saunders, Henry Van Trees, and Mr. and Mrs. Lee Adams.

A stockade was built in 1874 where the Santa Fe depot now stands. The first school house was built in 1875, and set south of the present Baptist Church, about where the alley is. In 1874, due to Indian raids on the settlers, the militia was organized, a company of 60 men. A buffalo hunters' camp, of which M.H. Clements was a member, was used as a basis for the establishment of a stockade. It was located on the block where the Bissantz Store and the Depot are located. There was a block house in the center surrounded by rifle pits and picket fences.

There was another stockade on the Wm. Ward farm on the west side of the end of Main Street. It was a sod stockade 8 feet high and 8 feet wide, enclosing about 5 acres. Each night the settlers brought their families to the stockade. In the morning the men would accompany the soldiers to scout the neighborhood to see if it was safe to go work on their claims. If no Indians were sighted, they would take their families and go to work - returning again at night to the stockade. As many as 40 people were killed by the Indians, south of Sun City to the state line south.

In 1885 the business places of Sun City were two hotels, three livery barns, two dry goods stores, three groceries, a bank, a hardware store, and a shoe shop. M.H. Clements came to Sun City with a party of buffalo hunters in 1872.

In January, 1875, while freighting supplies from Hutchinson in company with 6 other men they were overtaken by a blizzard, and two of the men were frozen to death. Mr. Clements and Reuben Marshall each had their legs so badly frozen they had to be amputated. Another of the party, Harry Van Trees, had all of his toes frozen off.

-- From Chosen Land: Barber County, Kansas, page 65. Submitted by Mildred Ward Hogard.

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Sun City Baptist Church, 29 May 2004.
Photo by Kim Fowles.

Sun State Bank Building, 29 May 2004.
Photo by Kim Fowles.

Sun City Post Office

Sun City, Barber County, Kansas

Sun City Post Office, Sun City, Barber County, Kansas
108 E Main St, Sun City, KS 67143.   Phone: (620) 248-3355
Photograph by Nathan Lee, 15 December 2006.

United States Post Office, Sun City, Kansas 67143
Photograph by Nathan Lee, 15 December 2006.

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The Sun City Post Office was established 19 August 1873 and discontinued 15 May 1894. It was established as the Sun Post Office on 6 June 1906 and operated under that name until 27 May 1909, when it again became the Sun City Post Office. -- Post Offices in Kansas, 1828-1961, The Kansas State Historical Society.

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Sun City Cemeteries:

Four Cemeteries (near Sun City), Barber County Index, November 24, 1927.
(An interview with Homer Hoagland about other burial grounds in Sun City area.)

(Old) Sun City Cemetery

Sunnyside Cemetery - Active cemetery, Sun City.

Hope Cemetery, near Sun City. (a.k.a. Cornish/Harrington Cemetery)

Sun City Churches:

History of the Sun City Baptist Church

Sun City Events:

McLain's Round-Up, Sun City, Kansas, July 8-9-10:
Big Barber Co. Attraction Announces Entry of World Famous Performers., Barber County Index, June 25, 1938.

McLain's Roundup. A gallery of photos by Homer Venters
Courtesy of his great-nephew, Mike Venters.

McLain's Roundup: the Memories of Joe Massey   Photos by Homer Venters captioned by Joe Massey, from the collection of Brenda McLain, courtesy of Kim Fowles.

McLain's Annual Roundup, Sun City, Kansas. Photograph by Murphy
Courtesy of Nathan Lee and William Lee.

Sun City History:

Adjutant General's Muster Rolls & Payrolls for the Barber County Mounted Guards Under Captain L.H. Bowlus in 1874. (partial listing)

Recollections of the Past - The Festive Buffalo - Chapter 1
(Frank and Tom Whitaker of Sun City attempt to capture a buffalo.)
The Union, October 1, 1886.

"A Frontier Court", from When Kansas Was Young by Thomas A. McNeal.

Shooting Affray At Sun City
The Medicine Lodge Cresset, November 19, 1880.

WORK OF THE STORM FIEND: Three Mangled and Lifeless Bodies left as mute witnesses of the fury of the Elements. Sun City Swept by a Cyclone.
Medicine Lodge Cresset, April 26, 1883.

Petition for Incorporation of Sun City, 15 Jan 1886.

Corporations in Sun City, Kansas, courtesy of Kim Fowles.

EARLY DAYS IN BARBER COUNTY:
Mrs. Jennie Osborn Writes Most Interesting Article Concerning Experiences In Barber County
Barber County Index, September 29, 1927.

Green Adams Describe Things As He Saw Them In Barber County In The Early 1870's
Barber County Index, October 6, 1927.

Green Adams: An Early Day Vigilante Committee
Barber County Index, October 13, 1927.

Memories of Sun City, Kansas by John Robert Massey.

Cat Wagons at Sun City, Kansas

Wikipedia: Sun City, Kansas

Sun City Landmarks:

Cowboy Rock near Sun City, Barber County, Kansas   Photos from the collection of Kim Fowles.

The Natural Bridge near Sun City, Barber County, Kansas Photos courtesy of Brenda McLain, Kim Fowles and the Kansas Geological Society.

Gyp Mill near Sun City, Kansas, 1909 photo courtesy of Ed Rucker.

Sun City Maps:

Sun City Plot Map, Barber County, Kansas
From Standard Atlas of Barber County, Kansas, 1905. Courtesy of Kim Fowles.

Township 31 South, Range XV West
Map of the area southwest of Sun City, Kansas.
From Standard Atlas of Barber County, Kansas, 1905. Courtesy of Kim Fowles.

Hometown Locator: Sun City, Kansas

Sun City People (partial list): Also see this list.

Rev. Johnson M. Adams

Green Adams

Lee Adams

Captain Byron P. Ayers

Thurman W. Balding, known as Tull Balding or Skeeter Balding in the Sun City area, he was a member of the Bill Cook Gang for a while and was known as "Skeeter Baldwin" during that time of his life.

Lyle Bullock

C.A. "Buster" Hathaway
Owner and operator of Buster and Alma's Tavern at Sun City

The Sam & Mary Helton Family, they were among the earliest settlers in the Sun City area.

Frank and Hattie (Owens) Hoagland, early settlers in the Sun City area.

Joseph P. Massey

Ralph Nathan Massey

Marion Francis McLain
Founder of the McLain Roundup rodeo near Sun City.

C.C. Pepperd
Testimony of C.C. Pepperd, resident of Sun City, Kansas, in the 1873 case of State of Kansas vs. William Thompson. An eyewitness account of one of the most notorious "cowtown shootings" in Kansas history. (C.C. Pepperd was born in Ireland, was a Confederate Civil War veteran; a cowboy; a bronc buster; a trail driver; a resident of Sun City, Kansas in 1873; an early (1874) Comanche County, Kansas, rancher; a noted figure in the early history of Dodge City, Kansas; and the founder of Wilmore, Kansas. C.C. Pepperd was truly a legend in his time.)

The Story of Mr. Shmidl's Cattle, Bulldog and New Steer
as told to David Massey by Irl Shutts

"Homer Venters: Vintage Rodeo Photographer", The Western Horseman, July 1972.

Rev. John Presley Woods of Sun City Baptist Church

Sun City Photographs:

Sun City, Barber County, Kansas: Photos from the Kim Fowles Collection

Sun City Schools:

Photographs of Sun City School Pupils, Barber County, Kansas

Sun City School Pupils, 1920-1921

Sun City High School Graduates, 1925 - 1966, courtesy of Kim Fowles.

Sun City School Pupils and Teachers   Listing of students who attended Sun City and for one reason or another did not graduate from Sun City perhaps moved away, quit school, or were required to attend Medicine Lodge when the school closed.

Photos of Sun City Basketball Teams, courtesy of Brenda McLain.

White Sands School near Sun City   Photo courtesy of Bonnie (Garten) Shaffer.

Sunset at the Sun City Ranch near Sun City, Barber County, Kansas.
Photo courtesy of David Rose

Corporations in Sun City, Kansas

Following is a list complied by Kim Fowles from records at the Kansas Secretary of State's Office of corporations in Sun City with the dates of incorporation.

LADIES AID SOCIETY - 27 July 1878

BARBER COUNTY FAIR ASSOCIATION - 15 May 1880

SUN CITY CHARGE SOUTH KANSAS CONFERENCE M.E. CHURCH - 7 March 1881

SUN CITY PRINTING COMPANY - 16 February 1885

HOPE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION OF SUN CITY, KANSAS - 18 September 1885

BANK OF SUN CITY - 21 June 1887

SUN CITY LODGE NO. 262 I.O.O.F - 4 August 1887

MEDICINE VALLEY COAL AND MINING COMPANY - 10 November 1887

SUN CITY WATER POWER COMPANY - 30 November 1887

HAZELETT PROSPECTION & MINING CO - 7 Dec 1887

SUN CITY MARBLE AND MINING COMPANY - 2 February 1887

M. E. CHURCH - 12 August 1903

SUN CITY BAPTIST CHURCH - 17 September 1903

SUN STATE BANK - 15 April 1911

SUN CITY TELEPHONE COMPANY - 5 February 1912

MEDICINE VALLEY OIL & GAS COMPANY - 11 January 1930

SUNNYSIDE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION OF SUN CITY KANSAS - 26 April 1937

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