Langley, Kansas, old photos, old stories

I have driven by Langley many a time over the years. But I have to thank a man named Paul Burmeister, of Claflin, who came by the office one day, saying he always wanted to know more about the little stop in the dirt road by Kanopolis Lake. 

Here's a few stories Burmeister tracked down for me through his diggings at the Ellsworth County Historical Society. The old photos were provided by Max Buffington, who owns the Marquette hardware and is a local historian.

The Langley Ladies Literary Club, 1916.

The depot in Langley, taken in 1915. The railroad closed the depot in 1951.

The lumberyard, probably taken in the 1910s.

Stories of Langley

Clayton Griggs wrote to the Ellsworth County Historical Society in 1961 with one handed-down family story of Langley.

"When I was in about the second grade at Langley School, Mr. Charlie Ruppert (an old man at that time) came to school one day and told us about a band of outlaws that had lived in a cabin on the creek years ago. (Mr. Ruppert's parents were one of the first settlers in this community.) These three outlaws were notorious train robbers until the army sent a detachment to clean them out. The gang was killed. ... Mr. Ruppert said that undoubtedly some of their ill-gotten loot is buried somewhere around the vicinity since none of them escaped."I later found the rock foundation outline of the cabin and dug down through the black soil about two feet where I found ashes and an old knife."

Another incident occurred before the town was founded and was recounted in a Feb. 18, 1982, story in The Ellsworth Reporter.

The article stated that the newspaper's 1882 edition printed a story that Philip Agley, a farmer residing in what would soon be the Langley area, "had been foully dealt with and then burned in his house."

"On Sunday evening, Jan. 1, W.E. Graham, a nephew of the murdered man, was arrested under a complaint made by Harry Anderson, stating he believed Graham had committed the murder," the newspaper reported.

Anderson, according to John Hughes, his great-nephew, had seen Agley's dugout burning and pulled Agley from the fire.

According to the story, Graham didn't have a fair trial. Instead, a few hundred men from all parts of the region assembled at the courthouse and rushed in, overpowering the sheriff and his guards.

The mob took Graham to the first telegraph pole by the courthouse "where he was tried found guilty and strung up by the neck until he, W.E. Graham, was dead! dead! dead!" according to the Jan. 5, 1882, issue of The Reporter.

1917 = can't figure out how to flip this photo as it appears the right way.

The Methodist Church closed in 1964 and joined the Marquette church.

Windthorst, Kansas - A Ford County dead town.

Out of the Kansas prairie

Far removed from a town

Stands a lofty pinnacled structure

Well worthy of renown

For it speaks of the hopes of people

Unswerving, devoted and true;

The spirit to live, to toil, to give

And a faith all needs to renew.

Once lately, I stood near its portal,

Admiring it from the street

When a snowy dove alighted

ON the stand at the Virgin’s feet

At the base of the white marble statue

It rested as though to give

A message of peace to a tired heart,

An ideal for which to live.

- Charlotte Mofatt-Kinsley,

Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish – Windthorst, Kansas centennial book, 1978.

A few weeks ago, I visited the old town of Windthorst - which wasn't ever much of a town, but it has the coolest church. Built in 1913 - Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish closed as a parish in 1997. However, locals are supportive of the building and have been caring for it ever since. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places and it is open daily for tours.

Windthorst is in Ford County.

Beautiful windows! The Windthorst Heritage group is raising funds to repair them. The windows were installed in 1916. Work is planned for this summer. Project cost is around $105,000.

WINDTHORST - There are no stores and only a few homes along the wide main street.

Windthorst never had much of a business district. The post office closed at the turn of the 20th century. The old school, which closed as a high school in 1970, burned about a decade ago, and the gymnasium - where standout athletes took to the hardwood - was torn down in recent years.

Yet, from several miles away, a steeple of a church emerges on the nearly treeless prairie - one of just a few vestiges of a town centered on the Catholic faith.

It hasn't been a parish church since 1997 - when the Catholic Diocese of Dodge City closed it largely because of a shortage of priests. But folks here don't want to forget their past, nor do they want to see the nearly 100-year-old church, crumble away.

"It's one of a kind," said retired farmer Bob Hattrup, whose farmstead is not far from the townsite.

Hattrup talks lovingly about the prairie church - the pillar that has long held the community together - even after the parish closure.

"We've always been a pretty close-knit community," he said.
To read more on this community, click here