Elk County in the mid-1880s

[Marcia Moore]

     The actual plat of Union Center, though it is not labeled as such, is shown in the 1885 Elk County Atlas.  The plat was actually southeast of Lynn Perkin's home, and was situated just north of Limestone Road.  Towards the west side of the plat, Road 11 traveled north and south through the town.  The plat was laid out in the SE1/4 of SW1/4 of Sect. 32, Twp. 29S, Range 10E.  The Union Center school house was not situated within the borders of the plat, but was just outside the border, lying west of the northwest corner of the plat.
     As for the community of Elk River - it was never platted, and the post office at Elk River was there only thirteen months total.  It was situated in the home of Woodson Gideon, who lived in the NE1/4 of Sect. 36, Twp. 29S, Range 9E. 

[evanstrail]

1887 map of Elk County:

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/56647/Elk+County/Kansas+State+Atlas+1887/Kansas/

Note Elk River (the stream, not the locale) is labled as such above its confluence with todays Rowe Branch.  

Union Centre P.O. and School No. 2 in W 1/2 of SW 1/4 Sec 32.

Western Park in N 1/2 of NE 1/4 Sec 22.

Of course this map also really messed up how the main stem (labled S. Fork) and north branch of the Wildcat join up north and east of Moline.  On modern topos, South Fork is the name applied to the branch that joins the main Wildcat below the Martin Marietta and Durbin Quarries, after flowing through Corky Durbin's watershed lake.

[Marcia Moore]

     My information on the Elk River Post Office came from the National Archives.  There was only ever one post office at Elk River and it was in existence only thirteen months.
     As for Union Center - there were most likely post offices in up to seven different locations in or around the Union Center community, as there were eight different postmasters throughout the history of the Union Center Post Office, two of whom were married to each other.  Some of the postmasters operated the Union Center Post Office out of their homes and others out of their businesses.  It was their choice if they were appointed postmaster, as long as the Post Office Department approved the site location.  The town of Union Center had a post office (or I should say post offices) for 16-1/2 years.

[W. Gray]

Frank,

My Uncle always said the Elk started in Butler County, and I figured he would know.

With his mule, his dogs, and a few other hunters, he probably had been coon hunting all over the place in both counties in that area.

Evanstrail,

Thanks for the maps, I discovered I have a copy of the 1887 one in a book.

I came across a copy of an old Howard County map that had all county streams flowing toward Cowley County.

[frawin]

Waldo, I agree with you on that. He definitely hunted every River, Creek, and draw in the county and then some.

[evanstrail]

Back to Ham Fork - in 1883 it is on the Elk county map from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas:

http://www.kancoll.org/graphics/maps/elk.htm

It's Ham Fork on the 1885 USGS Topo, but in the 1887 State Atlas Ham Fork dissapears and is renamed Elk River.

Three questions:

1.  Marcia, what does your 1885 Elk County Atlas show?

2.  Why the change?

3.  Does the name Ham Fork or Ham Creek still apply to a tributary somewhere above Clear Creek?

[Marcia Moore]

I don't have an 1885 atlas.  I copied the plat map of Union Center out of the atlas at the Register of Deeds office in Howard.

[Janet Harrington]

Mother, Don't you have an old Elk County Atlas that might show something about Ham Fork?

Also, I was always told by old Jim Radar and Jimmy Radar that Elk River started in Elk County on Radar property.

[Wilma]

The old atlas I have is dated 1903.  This is the Northwest corner of Union Center where the Elk River originates.  The red dots are where the river is named.  The first mention of Elk River is quite aways inside Elk County.  However, the map shows tributaries that extend back into Butler County.

The yellow dot is where Mr. Jim Rader was living when he died.

The green dot is the location of the old Forrest School and the Forrest Cemetery.

The blue dots show the names of two of the creeks close to Howard.

The map show locations of schools, churches and cemeteries, but does not name them.

I hope your eyes are better than mine tonight.  Maybe you can see more than I can.

[evanstrail]

Found an older map with Elk River (the stream) labled as such into far NW corner of Howard County.  Of course, This map has two place names of Elk River, and does not have the different branches of the Caney River drawn correctly, but the route of the Elk River is pretty acurate.



http://cartweb.geography.ua.edu:9001/StyleServer/calcrgn?cat=North%20America%20and%20United%20States&item=States/Kansas/Kansas1870b.sid&wid=500&hei=400&props=item(Name,Description),cat(Name,Description)&style=simple/view-dhtml.xsl