Towns and Places

Fargo Springs (1885-1890, or so)

Fargo Springs, Kansas 1887 

     Fargo Springs, the first town in Seward County, Kansas, was surveyed 20 May 1885 by the Southwestern Town Company of Emporia, Kansas. It was located several miles north of the present day town of Liberal on the north side of the Cimarron River east of present day US Highway 83. The town was named for C H Fargo, a Chicago shoe manufacturer who owned land in the area (and near many other new towns of the West) and the town was situated a short distance from several springs hence the name Fargo Springs. At its largest in 1889 the population was 517. The town had a two block main street with a drug store, a bakery, two or three general stores, three newspapers and a two story brick school house which cost $10,000 to construct.

Fargo Springs School in 1909 long after it was abandoned

      Fargo Springs became the county seat on 9 Aug 1886 but on 6 Jun 1887 the county seat was moved back to Springfield, Kansas. The town began to die when the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railroad by-passed both Fargo Springs and Springfield, crossing the Cimarron River several miles downstream. Nothing remains of the town today.

     Three newspapers were published in Fargo Springs at one time or another. The very first newspaper in Seward County, The Prairie Owl, began publication 27 August 1885. Another paper, the Fargo Springs News later became the Arkalon News. The post office was established 25 July 1885 and discontinued 15 June 1888.

     In 1886, the great red brick Fargo Springs school with its towering wooden bell tower was the center of a young girl named Fanny Hooper's love and loyalty to Fargo Springs. In June 1888, as Fannie, now age 13, watched her closest friend leave Fargo Springs for Arkalon with her family and possessions, she went to the school house and wrote the following verses which she mailed to the editor of the Arkalon News. Abe Stouffer, editor published the verses in the paper on June 21, 1888, and called attention to it. It reads as follows:

 

Fargo Springs by Fannie Hooper (age 13)

 

                                                                                    In this little village under the hill,

                                                                                    Business is very still.

                                                                                    For a dreadful doom has come to be,

                                                                                    Its groom.

                                                                                    And few are left with this western town,

                                                                                    Who had no faith in the towns around --

                                                                                    Excerpt A.C. Happe and H.R. Keller,

                                                                                    Who have faith in the coming fair weather.

 

                                                                                    A.C. Happe with his field of grain,

                                                                                    Stretching across the plain,

                                                                                    Seems to think that Arkalon will prove,

                                                                                    The best location if he has to move.

                                                                                    And H.R. Keller, -- Well, he has his stand

                                                                                    of groceries and hardware for his little band,

                                                                                    And thinks that Liberal this time next June,

                                                                                    Won't know anything about a boom.

 

                                                                                    The school was closed up long ago,

                                                                                    For there are not many children around to go,

                                                                                    The Post Office is closed up, too

                                                                                    And the people left don't know what to do,

                                                                                    The lovers are not unlike the birds and bees,

                                                                                    The spend their hours in the evening breeze;

                                                                                    And now my friends, this is all I have to say,

                                                                                    Of this little western village that is fast fading away.

 

 

 

About Seward County Historical Society

The Seward County Historical Society provides historic and entertainment opportunities for the local, regional and international visitors to Southwest Kansas. From Dorothy's House to traveling exhibits and a repository of local history from the Spanish exploration of Coronado to current events, SCHS provides a venue and a committed group of staff and volunteers to insure local history is preserved and to reinforce the belief that Kansas truly is a place over the rainbow.

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Address: 567 E. Cedar, Liberal, KS 67901

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The Seward County Historical Society provides historic and entertainment opportunities for the local, regional and international visitors to Southwest Kansas. From Dorothy's House to traveling exhibits and a repository of local history from the Spanish exploration of Coronado to current events, SCHS provides a venue and a committed group of staff and volunteers to insure local history is preserved and to reinforce the belief that Kansas truly is a place over the rainbow.

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