OREAD, COFFEY COUNTY Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912, 432-433. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- OREAD, COFFEY COUNTY. James G. Sands, a pioneer at Lawrence, writes from Cantonment, Okla., November 8, 1902, as follows: "During 1855, 1856 and 1857 interests in towns, consisting of twelve lots, circulated as freely as 'wild-cat' currency of that period. Lithographs, showing beautiful parks, with fountains playing, band stands, ornamental trees and shrubbery surrounding magnificent public buildings, beckoned onward the 'tenderfoot' to fortune who never had 'speculation in his eye' before. "In 1857 a convivial party of gentlemen had gathered at the Eldridge House, Lawrence, when the suggestion was made that before they separate they lay out a town. In the party were several surveyors, who at once proceeded to make the proper drawings; a fine lithograph was procured and the blank space filled in, which completed the certificate of the birth of Oread.(11) "These are the incidents that gave life for a brief period to one of the many towns that sprung into existence by the motion of a pen. Shares were put on the market and sold like hot cakes at prices from ten to fifty dollars. The writer of this was the happy owner of one of these, but before the crisis came he unloaded his 'interest.' Just where the town was located I do not now remember, but it was near the border of Missouri, where the inquisitive dared not risk his life to look up his possessions. "One of the founders of Oread died a few days ago in Leadville. I do not now remember any other living, but attention to this matter through the paper may bring more light on the subject." Orson Kent, of Burlington, a name well known long ago, writes, September 2, 1903: "My attention was called to an article giving a history of the lost towns in Kansas, or some of them, and special mention was made of the town of Oread, as being finally located in Franklin county, which is not correct. "Oread was laid out, as you say, by a lot of Lawrence men, and was located about twelve miles northeast of this place (Burlington) on the head of Long creek. Two or three log houses were built there, and a man by the name of Clemons came down from Lawrence with a little stock of goods and carried on a store there for several months. One of the prettiest pictures that I saw when I came to Kansas, in 1857, was a lithograph of the town of Oread. It was nicely decorated and-on paper-looked fine. "This county had its full quota of towns that were lost. Some eight or nine were laid out on paper and shares in the same placed on the market. I was at that time a young surveyor, and as the plat and survey were the main items of expense in starting a town, I became rich on paper in a few months by doing work and taking an interest in towns for my work. There were some three or four of those towns here that reached the lithographing stage, but most of them died before getting that far along in the world." NOTE 11.-Oread was a paper town, started as a speculation by a party of Lawrence men, Governor Robinson being at the head. It was located in the winter of 1856-'57, ten miles northeast of Burlington. The town site was surveyed by B. L. Kingsbury in the spring of 1857. No houses were ever built there.