The next year, in 1878, Great Bend saw some very substantial improvements, including the building of the Union Block on the west side of the square by J. H. Hubbard and Burton and the Moses Brothers. The two-story stone and brick building contained two good store rooms beneath and several offices and a Union Hall above. On the north side of the square G.L. Brinkman erected a two story stone and brick building and on Nagie Street, G. P. Townseley put up a building of similar material, the lower story of which was used as the post office, while the upper story is used as the printing office of the Inland Tribune. Directly opposite to this building, on the same street, C. F. Wilner built a good two-story stone and brick, in which he housed a furniture store. Adjoining the Tribune building on the west, Troilett Bros. and D. Merton put up, each, a one-story building, having stone walls and brick front. Other buildings included the frame Occidental Hotel, built by C. E. Birdsale, and the Central House, built by John Barth. Three grain elevators were also built and the Walnut Creek Mill was greatly enlarged and refitted with new and improved machinery.

More homes and buildings were erected in the next several years, but building began o slow down. In 1882; however, a much larger brick schoolhouse was built.  It was also in this year, that Great Bend saw one of its saddest times in its history. Beginning in December 1, 1882 and lasting until February of the following year, a small pox epidemic broke out.  It began at the end of November, 1882 when an African-American man named Gilmore was on his way East from New Mexico and being sick, left the train at Great Bend. He soon found his way to a one-room "shanty" in the northeast part of the town, where he was taken in by a man named John Howell. Gilmore was soon diagnosed with having the most malignant type of small-pox and when word got out, many fled to escape the dreaded plague. Though Howell's home was closely quarantined, it was too late, and so many people contracted the disease that the entire town was placed under strict quarantine for two months.  Nobody was allowed to come or go and the streets were deserted. The mail was stopped, churches and schools were closed, all society meetings were discontinued, and people were prohibited from assembling in groups. In the end, some 30 people contracted the disease, 15 of whom died including Gilmore and John Howell.

By the early 1900s, Great Bend was called home to more than 1,000 people and supported some 34 businesses including eight merchandise stores, seven grocery stores, three hardware stores, two banks,  three grain elevators, two flour mills, and a brick-yard.

Though it’s lawless cowtown days were over, violence still periodically erupted in the town and on April 30, 1885, the first lynching occurred in Great Bend, when the murderer of a pool hall owner was lynched. A few years later, the “frontier” was almost gone when the last buffalo was killed in the county in 1889.

A second lynching occurred on June 16, 1898 when some 300 vigilantes lynched the murderer of a 15-year-old girl named Myrtle Hofmaster.

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Native American Photo Prints  - Vintage photographs of famous chiefs, heroes, and Indian life in the 19th century.