One of the first settlers in the area was a man named J. C. Young, who had brought his family from  Pennsylvania in 1872. That same year, the trading post was taken over by a man named Alexander Harvey, a soldier in General Custer's 6th Cavalry during his 1868 campaign, and was called "Harvey's Ranch."  As more people began to settle at the area around the Walnut Creek Crossing, a post office was established on February 13, 1874, with Alexander Harvey becoming its first postmaster. The town soon took his name and the first mail service was carried by train to the "end of line depot" where it was transferred to stagecoach and carried along the Fort Hays-Fort Dodge Trail to Alexander. Before long, a school house was built of logs that also held public and church services.

However, Alexander Harvey didn't stay for long. He soon sold his store to pursue other interests including working as a school teacher and farming. In December, 1877 he married Mattie King of Decatur County, Illinois. Two years later, he was elected as the Rush County Treasurer, and in 1880 he moved to Rush Center where he engaged in ranching.

When the railroad was built south of Walnut Creek in 1886, the small community was moved to the south side of the creek, where it continues to sit today. With the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad barreling through town, the small settlement began to thrive and by the turn of the century, it sported a bank, two creameries, several retail stores, an express and telegraph office, and several churches. In 1910, it boasted a population of about 150 people and obviously continued to grow as a large red brick school was built in 1916. Later, the school received the addition of an auditorium in 1830. Alexander continued to grow until after World War II.

Afterwards; however, the small town declined and today, is filled with the decaying buildings of once thriving businesses, numerous old homes in various states of repair, and most impressively, its very large school that sits abandoned today. Though still a commanding site, its windows are broken, its interior littered with trash, and its only sounds --not those of lectures and laughter, but just the wind whistling through the corridors and water dripping on its floors.

Though Alexander is mostly quiet today, it still maintains a small population and a post office.

From the Rocky Mountain General Store

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