Eskridge, Kansas was founded in 1869 by Colonel Ephraim. H. Sanford who platted the town built on the rolling prairie of Wilmington Township. Sanford’s town was located at “the Corners”, an intersection Bronc Rider Road and Eight Mile Road, just about a mile east of the current downtown.

Sanford was an accomplished criminal attorney, and he had been a judge, a former esteemed member of the State Legislature, a newspaper publisher and editor at papers in Akron, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a highly regarded Union army officer.

The home of Col. Ephraim Sanford sat atop a hill overlooking his town of Eskridge. This house is located on Locust Street in Eskridge. Photo courtesy Dean Dunn.

Col. Sanford platted his town and named it Eskridge after a friend of his, C.V. Eskridge, the publisher of an Emporia newspaper, the Emporia Republican.  Sanford purchased Eskridge’s paper and moved the equipment to his new town, starting a newspaper called the Landmark.

Although a few people built houses and even had businesses in Col. Sanford’s Eskridge located at the Corners, the town never flourished.

It was almost a dozen years later that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway sought to lay a rail line between Burlingame and Manhattan. Every town and settlement in the vicinity of the proposed line eagerly wooed the railroad, hoping that it would run directly through their town. Such was not the case. With the exception of Alma, Wabaunsee, and Manhattan, the railroad chose to create new towns on property that they owned by virtue of land grants, rather than run their tracks through property owned by settlers.

Thus, Eskridge was platted by the ATSF on a section of property that the railroad owned which bordered Col. Sanford’s town along its west side. With the new depot and the proposed business district being located a mile to the west, the businesses at the Corners moved their buildings to the new town’s Main Street. Within two years of the creation of the new town, it boasted a population of over 400 residents. Thus, Eskridge, as we know it, was born.

A crowd lines the street for a 4th of July celebration at Eskridge, Kansas. This is the only known view of the west side of the street taken before the fire of 1890.

One curiosity with regard to the layout of the Eskridge streets is that the new town’s streets were all drawn to run parallel and perpendicular to the railroad tracks as they pass the depot. However, as the rails pass through Eskridge, they travel across that portion of the township at a 45 degree angle.  So, all of the roads in the new town are shifted 45 degrees clockwise relative to a north-south orientation.

Once the railroad had come to Eskridge, the town flourished. Perhaps the biggest growth came in the cattle business.  While the expansive tallgrass pastures had provided great opportunities for the earliest settlers who had owned livestock, the ability to transport large numbers of cattle into Eskridge by rail made the cattle pasturing business explode.  The Eskridge railhead became one of the leading shipping points for cattle in Kansas.

A load of cattle are being moved off ATSF cattle cars and into the Eskridge, Kansas stockyards.

Two banks were established in town, the Security State Bank and the Eskridge State Bank, each located on opposite ends of the 100 block of Main Street. By 1900 there were two dentists, three physicians, two druggists, two dry goods stores, two general merchandise stores, a hardware and machinery store, two hotels, two lawyers, two lumber yards, two newspapers, a meat market, livery stable, a restaurant, a photographer, and two stores, Trusler’s and Earl’s, that “sold everything.”

In 1890, disaster struck Eskridge, as a fire destroyed all of the buildings on the west side of the 100 block of Main Street  to Trusler’s store, where a stone “firewall” saved that building and two buildings to the south. The town quickly rebuilt, with virtually every shop that was destroyed replacing their loss with a new building.

On April 11, 1911, a fierce tornado struck Eskridge, inflicting severe damage to many homes and other buildings. While the business district was undamaged by the winds, the east part of town suffered severe losses. Two churches were destroyed and the Eskridge School was damaged beyond repair, leaving twenty to thirty students injured.

This cabinet card, dated 1911, shows the Eskridge, Kansas Christian Church after it was destroyed by a tornado. Many houses and buildings, including the Eskridge Public School, located across the street from this church, were also destroyed.

Then, in 1913, the unimaginable happened. Another fire on Main Street destroyed nine buildings on the west side of the 100 block, all located on the same lots which had burned in 1890.  Again, the Trusler building’s firewall stopped the fire’s advance, but all buildings to the north were lost.

This real photo postcard by Easter Studio, Eskridge, Kansas, shows the destruction wrought by a 1913 fire which destroyed nine of the twelve buildings on the west side of the 100 block of Main Street of Eskridge. The same section of this block had been destroyed 23 years earlier in an 1890 fire which swept down the street. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.

Once again, Eskridge rebuilt.  In fact, in the years that would come, the town would experience growth and prosperity as it had not yet known.

This real photo postcard is titled, “Westside Main Street, Eskridge, Kansas” shows the town’s business district in about 1940. Handwritten in the left corner are the words, “Scales of Lumberyard.”

As with many towns in the Midwest, time brought change to Eskridge.  In the post-World War II economy virtually no one commuted outside of the county to work, but by the 1970s, the coming of paved highways and the Interstate Highway system made commutes to Topeka, Manhattan and Emporia commonplace. In many ways, Eskridge has been redefined as a bedroom community for those who seek to escape urban living.

Click on any image below to view photos in a gallery format.

When this view of the Manhattan, Alma & Burlingame Railway Depot at Eskridge Kansas was taken in the late 1890s, the depot was 42-feet in length. In 1918 it was lengthened by 15-feet. Notice the stack of bricks beside the depot which had arrived by rail.

Dunn Home Supply Company opened on September 17, 1949 at 118 South Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas. Dean and Inez Dunn opened their variety store just across the street from Dean’s father’s Rexall Drug Store. The Dunns operated Dunn Home Supply until their retirement in 2007. Photo from the Dean Dunn collection.

This view of Dunn Home Supply in Eskridge Kansas dates from about 1950, shortly after the store opened for business. Dunn Home Supply was owned by Dean and Inez Dunn, lifelong Eskridge residents. Notice the window above the front door. Barely visible to the left is the Rissler Plymouth dealership. Photo from the Dean Dunn collection.

This aerial view of Eskridge, Kansas was taken by Eskridge businessman and pilot, Dean Dunn. This view, from about 1960, provides an excellent illustration that the town was platted at a 45-degree angle relative to the section lines. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe tracks are visible horizontally across the bottom of the photo. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.

Three of the founders of the Eskridge Labor Day Rodeo are seen in the rodeo grounds in this photo dated 1956. Seen here, from left to right are Wendell Tranter, Bob Widau, and Ed Van Petten. Photo courtesy Bob Widau.

Cloice Meeker stands in front of his Sinclair gas station, located at 122 Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas. This view of the station dates from the 1920s, and the station operated on the corner of 2nd and Main until it was demolished to construct a new Post Office in 1962.

This view of Eskridge, taken in the late 1880s, shows a very busy town, curiously, with no trees. Eskridge was created in 1880 when the Manhattan, Alma & Burlingame Railway platted towns along its line. The original town of Eskridge was located a mile to the east, far in the distance in this view, and the town moved to the new site in 1880 when the railroad established the depot and sold lots.

This real photo postcard from about 1908 shows the west side of the 100 block of Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas. The nearest nine buildings in this view were all constructed after an 1890 fire destroyed most of the business district. In 1913 these same nine buildings were destroyed in a second disastrous fire.

This real photo postcard shows Duff Produce Company, located at 100 Main Street, in Eskridge, Kansas. At the bottom of the card it lists, “Phone 7, Eskridge, Kansas”. Photo courtesy Bob and Carol Kraus.

This real photo postcard is titled, “Westside Main Street, Eskridge, Kansas” shows the town’s business district in about 1940. Handwritten in the left corner are the words, “Scales of Lumberyard.”

This view of the interior of the Eskridge State bank was taken in the 1920s. Identified standing at left is B.C. Taylor, cashier; seated, W.T. Echols, President; and Mary Echles, bookkeeper, standing at the window. Photo courtesy Russell and Arlene Taylor.

In this 1950s view one sees Marshall Harkness’ Department Store and the Eskridge State Bank, located at 101 and 105 Main Street in Eskridge. Notice the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe depot at the far right of the photo. Russell Taylor recalls his 1950 Ford parked in front of the bank as being mint green. Photo courtesy Russell and Arlene Taylor.

This view of the Elreco gas station, located at 107 North Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas was taken just months before Dale and Hazel Kemp purchased the station. The Kemps operated the station for 55 years. Elreco was a brand owned by Eldorado Refinery Corporation which was purchased by Fina Petroleum in the mid-1950s. Photo courtesy Bob and Carol Kraus.

This view of the interior of Preston Dunn’s Rexall Drug Store dates from the late 1940s. This modern soda fountain was installed in the store after World War II. Dunn is seen standing at left at the far end of the fountain. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.

This view of Preston Dunn’s Rexall Drug Store, located at 111 South Main Street, Eskridge, Kansas, dates from the early 1950s. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.

This real photo postcard, circa 1908, shows E.R. Brown, left, in his drug store located at 111 South Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas. Notice the many pieces of stuffed game that Brown displayed on his walls. This store was destroyed by fire in 1913. Photo courtesy Greg Hoots.

George Waugh, center, and a group of men stand in front of the Security Bank, located at 121 South Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas shortly after it opened this new building in 1887. Photo courtesy Bruce Waugh.

This real photo postcard shows the new Eskridge State Bank, constructed by the Waugh brothers in 1906. While the bank occupied the front half of the building, the U.S. Post Office had their office in the rear of the building. Photo courtesy Greg Hoots.

This real photo postcard view of the bandstand in the City Park at Eskridge, Kansas shows long rows of newly planted trees surrounding the gazebo. This view dates from about 1910. Photo courtesy Greg Hoots.

This real photo postcard by Easter Studio, Eskridge, Kansas, shows the destruction wrought by a 1913 fire which destroyed nine of the twelve buildings on the west side of the 100 block of Main Street of Eskridge. The same section of this block had been destroyed 23 years earlier in an 1890 fire which swept down the street. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.

This cabinet card, dated 1911, shows the Eskridge, Kansas Christian Church after it was destroyed by a tornado. Many houses and buildings, including the Eskridge Public School, located across the street from this church, were also destroyed.

The Trusler hardware store, seen in this 1910’s photo, was one of the first buildings constructed in 1880 in the new town of Eskridge, Kansas. Twice, massive fires swept the 100 block of Main Street, both times stopping at the Trusler building, leaving it and the two buildings to the south unharmed. Photo courtesy the Dean Dunn collection.