Remembered by Name
Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa and other cities are hard to miss on maps of Johnson County. Ever heard of the communities of Jerusalem or perhaps Frisbie? Finding Romance might be difficult in present day Johnson County. These places, as well as many others, once existed here.
Potosi, better known to the townspeople at the time as “Little Shab,” survives in the recollections of J.L. Morgan, a pioneer of De Soto. A little more is know about Phila, a nearby town. This town had a Post Office from 1890 – 1894 and again in 1898 – 1899, documenting the town’s existence. It then promptly disappeared into obscurity. Jerusalem, two miles northeast of Gardner, was noted as having a store, blacksmith shop, school and several residences. It later vanished from the maps, the school renamed “Concord.” No mention can be found of why they changed the name of the school or what happened to the town of Jerusalem.
Historians note Chouteau as a stop on the Santa Fe Railroad, located between Wilder and Holliday. It was named for the Chouteau brothers who established a small trading post here in 1827. Switzer was listed as a station on the Frisco Railroad, 12 miles north of Olathe. It was known for the vast quantities of milk shipped through the station. Craig also was a stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, seven miles to the north of Olathe. Lackman, a station on the Frisco Line, was credited at one time with two claim shanties.
Some places in Johnson County can only be found as points on historic maps. Mastin, located 11 miles east of Olathe on the Kansas/Missouri border, was a station on the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield Railroad. Nel-Aro, another border community, lay to the north. Just south and west of Wilder was the railroad stop of Frisbie. Allendale, Bartleson, Meadowbrook, Newington, Red Clover, Romance, Sherman, Spring Place, Wainwright and others are mentioned as Post Offices, but little else is known about these sites or the surrounding communities they served. Johnson City was to be located on what remained of Turpinville in central Johnson County, one stop to the south of Lackman. It may have existed only in local legend as what is commonly referred to as a “paper town,” a promoter’s vision that never came to fruition.
However obscured by time, the names of these small communities provide an interesting, but brief, chapter in county history.
--ALBUM vol. 17, no. 3 (summer 2004)