Rome, Ellis County, Kansas
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Rome was a short-lived postbellum frontier settlement in Big Creek Township,
Ellis County, Kansas Ellis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Hays. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 28,934. The county was named for George Ellis, a first lieutenant of the Twelfth ...
, United States. It is notable for its association with the early plains career of its co-founder, William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Rome was the first town established within the future Ellis County, followed very shortly by rival Hays City.


History

In 1867, William Rose, a railroad contractor, and William Cody founded the townsite to take advantage of the recent relocation of
Fort Hays Fort Hays, originally named Fort Fletcher, was a United States Army fort near Hays, Kansas. Active from 1865 to 1889 it was an important American Frontier, frontier post during the American Indian Wars of the late 19th century. Reopened as a ...
adjacent to the planned crossing of Big Creek by the
Kansas Pacific Railway The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontin ...
. It soon became a recreation center for 1200 railroad construction workers as well as their shelter in the Indian conflict that the railroad construction triggered. However, the railway's selection of Hays City for the station combined with the
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outbreak in Rome the same summer resulted in the wholesale abandonment of the town in favor of Hays City. In 1868, the Clarkson Brothers, Charlie, Matthew, and George, set their buffalo hunting headquarters at the abandoned Rome site. By 1872, they had completed the requirements for their homestead claim on the land Rome had occupied. Although the town had quickly failed, Cody maintained an interest in the location. At the 1876
Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official wo ...
, Cody convinced I. M. Yost (the husband of a cousin) to build a water-powered grain mill at Rome. With assistance from soldiers from Fort Hays, Yost built a wooden dam there on Big Creek to power the mill and provide ice to the fort. While the dam was soon destroyed by animals and flooding and the mill by fire, Yost was committed to the locality and built more mills in and around Hays, and later founded nearby Yocemento. A map of Rome was reconstructed in the 1930s as a WPA project. This map was compiled by H. R. Pollock from newspaper articles, interviews, and correspondence with people with historical connection with the town, including I. M. Yost, the miller, C. L. Henderson, who had a farm adjoining Rome, and Simon Motz, an early settler in Rome. The historic townsite north of Rome Avenue is presently a private gated facility, managed by Rome Corporation.


Hangman's Bridge

In late 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railway completed a wooden through-truss bridge across Big Creek.
Vigilantes Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...
active in early treeless Hays City used the bridge for hangings, and so it is known locally as Hangman's Bridge. Although the bridge was a full mile west from the early Hays City, it adjoined Rome; the Clarkson brothers noted seeing a body hanging on the bridge (probably Jack McGee who had stabbed a police constable, Frank Sheperd). The bridge site is particularly associated with the 1869 lynching of three black soldiers of the
38th United States Colored Infantry Regiment The 38th United States Colored Infantry Regiment was an African American unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War. A part of the United States Colored Troops, the regiment saw action in Virginia during the war and later served on the ...
.


Transportation

The Kansas Pacific track defined the southern edge of the Rome townsite. Here, the railroad was constructed at a significantly elevated grade justified by the potential for flooding on Big Creek. However, town residents suspected that the excessively elevated tracks were built intentionally to interfere with commerce of the town. The combination of the high track with the deeply cut ravine of Big Creek surrounding the remaining boundaries of Rome resulted in the derisive nickname "The Walled City". Today, the track is operated by the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
. In 1867, the Ellis Trail passed along the north side of the town, crossing Big Creek at the east and west ends. The Butterfield Overland Despatch briefly operated a station in Rome, before relocating to Hays City. Originally constructed as "Yocemento Road", present day Rome Avenue passes through the townsite east and west, crossing Big Creek just east of the townsite (This road was named Noose Road in 1989 for
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services; but, was renamed to Rome Avenue in 2020.) While Rome Avenue was the original
U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America (a nickname shared with U.S. Route 66), is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid- ...
alignment (locally "Highway 40"), the United States Highway system vacated this alignment in 1947 when the highway and railroad tracks were realigned at Yocemento, moving the highway just to the south of the tracks between Yocemento and Hays. This newer alignment lost the U.S. Route 40 designation when
Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...
was completed and the road is now named Old Hwy 40. The short spur Rome Road makes a connection across the track between Rome Avenue and Old Hwy 40.


See also

*
List of ghost towns in Kansas This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in the state of Kansas. Causes Many reasons exist as to why a community becomes abandoned (or nearly so). *Transportation: With the development of major highways and interstates, people were willing ...


References


Further reading


External links

* Ellis County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT {{Ellis County, Kansas Buffalo Bill Former populated places in Ellis County, Kansas Populated places established in 1867 1867 establishments in Kansas