Vera is a
ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
in
Wabaunsee County, Kansas
Wabaunsee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat is Alma. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 6,877. The county was named for Chief Waubonsie of the Potawatomi Indians.
History
19th century ...
, United States.
It was located approximately 3.6 miles east of
Paxico near Mill Creek, a tributary of the
Kansas River
The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...
.
History
Frederick L. Raymond was an early settler. When the
Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway
The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway (CK&N) was formed in 1885 and Marcus Low, a former attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, was its president. The CRI&P advanced the CK&N about twenty-five million dollars to begin cons ...
built a line through the area in 1887, part of it ran through Raymond's farm. Raymond was influential in getting a
flag station
In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or drop ...
and post office named "Vera" erected at the location. The residents of Vera paid for a siding to be built, and donated of land on which the flag station, as well as a platform and stock yard, were built. The railway was soon after acquired by the
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
At ...
. In 1893, residents of Vera filed a complaint with the Kansas Board of Railroad Commissioners, claiming the settlement needed a depot and additional storage facilities. They argued that because Vera was separated from its two neighboring rail stations at
Paxico and
Maple Hill by ranges of hills, it was difficult to haul grain and farm products to these places. The Railroad Commissioners ordered the railroad to erect a depot at Vera which could shelter passengers and protect local freight.
Vera was noted as having a store, operated by John Verity.
References were made in 1913 and 1939 to a school existing in Vera.
In early 1920s, a steel bridge was built along Vera Road where it crossed Mill Creek north of the settlement. The bridge was replaced with a concrete bridge in 2004.
Notable people
* Frederick L. Raymond, member of the
Kansas House of Representatives
The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...
.
* Alden E. True, member of the
Kansas Senate
The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of about 73,000 inhabitants. Members o ...
during the 1890s.
References
Further reading
External links
* Wabaunsee County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT
{{Authority control
Former populated places in Wabaunsee County, Kansas
Former populated places in Kansas