Grant County, Kansas - History and Information

Grant County - Page 2

At the height of the county seat contest between Ulysses and Appomattox in 1888, Ulysses boasted a population of 2,000 and supported twelve restaurants, four hotels, several other businesses, six gambling houses, and twelve saloons.

In the end, Ulysses was the victor in the Kansas Supreme Court in 1890, and has since retained its county seat status.

But, the troubles weren’t over. In 1898, the county suffered from severe drop failure causing a panic and reducing the population from 1,500 to 400 in Ulysses, and later only to some 40 souls. Buildings were moved away, banks closed and merchants let their stock of goods run down.

Hotel Edwards Ullysses Kansas

Vintage Hotel Edwards, courtesy Wichita State University.

The next few years however, good crops returned the county to prosperity. A new bank was opened, new buildings were erected to take the place of those moved away, and by the turn of the century, Ulysses boasted some 422 residents.

Though several streams and rivers ran through the county, including the Sand Arroyo Creek, which joins the North fork of the Cimarron River in western Grant County, and the two forks of the Cimarron wander around and come together in the southeast part of the county, this did not ensure there was plenty of water, as these waterways were often dry. As a result, Grant County was one of the first in Kansas to utilize irrigation. At a special legislative session in 1908, Kansas passed an act authorizing the county commissioners to appropriate money to drill artesian wells for irrigating purposes. This created further prosperity and large farms, even though the area doesn’t get much rainfall.

All was going well for Ulysses in but, for the old debt which hung like a weight on the town. The bonds, due in 1908, amounted to $84,000 with accrued interest. Of the citizens of Ulysses, only two, from the time the county seat was established, remained in the town and the newcomers could not see the justice of their having to pay a debt from which they derived no benefit. So, in 1909, the citizens just decided to up and move the town. A new and better site was selected, about half way to the old site of Appomattox, which had, in the meantime, become a field.

It was no light work to move the whole town, which included the Edwards Hotel with 35 rooms, a bank, a printing office, a number of fair sized stores and a several residences. Moving outfits were brought in from Garden City and St. John to do the heaviest hauling, while several local teamsters handled the lighter work. Only a masonry school was left behind for the East Coast bondholders.

As a result of damage done to the bank building, the safe sat out in the street for several weeks without being disturbed. The courthouse was left on the old site and the county officers continued to do business there. The school house was not moved, so the people did not take with them any of the "benefits" for which the town had been bonded. The relocated town was then called New Ulysses and the old townsite referred to as Old Ulysses.

By 1910, the population of Ulysses had grown to 1,087 people and when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad extended to the county, it brought more prosperity area. On June 9, 1921, the post office officially changed its name from "New Ulysses" to simply Ulysses.

In 1922, the Hugoton Natural Gas Field was discovered near Liberal, Kansas. However, for several years, it wasn’t developed, as it did not produce oil. However, that changed in 1927 when the first company began to produce gas and by the following year, five well had been drilled and the first pipeline began transporting gas to local markets. The 5th largest gas field in the United States, it was named for the nearby town of Hugoton, Kansas. Today, approximately 11,000 wells produce gas and oil in the region and thousands of miles of pipeline carry gas to many parts of the U.S. and Grant County has offices of many of the major gas production companies in the United States.

"New Ulysses" in its early days, photo courtesy Wichita State University.

Continued Next Page

<< Previous 1 2 3 Next >>

From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Great American Bars and Saloons By Kathy Weiser

Owner/Editor of Legends of America

Kathy Weiser's first venture into the publishing world takes you into the many watering holes of America's past, particularly the numerous saloons that sprouted up during our nation's Wild West days. This great photographic review displays hundreds of vintage photographs from California to Arizona, the mining camps of Colorado, all the way to New York and its turbulent days of Prohibition.

Hardcover, 2006, 224 Pages. Signed by the author!!

New - Autographed - $17.95 Item #kw001 Domestic U.S.*