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History of Kensington, Kansas - Centennial Edition,
1987
Early Kensington Businesses:
The name, Kensington, was given the town by the
President of the Chicago, Kansas, Nebraska Railroad
Company, who chose the name in honor of his native
city of Kensington, England. The Railroad Company
laid tracks as far west as Phillipsburg in the fall
of 1887, and the first trains were run late in
December of that year.
Shortly after the railroad was established, the
Kansas Town and Land Company, who president was M.A.
Low, purchased of George Boyd a 40 acre tract north
of the tracks and laid it out in blocks and lots to
be sold to people who wished to settle here. The
blocks were numbered from the Southeast corner of
the block where The First National Bank is now
situated. The first store was on the east side of
the first block, north of the tracks and east of
Main Street. It was a grocery store, and Theo Clark
was its owner. The first homes were tar paper
shacks, one on the Northeast corner of the second
block north of the tracks and west of Main Street.
It was the home of the Peter Pyle family who moved
from Reamsville to the Kensington site in November
1887 and occupied the shack while erecting a hotel
on that corner. The hotel was known as the Pyle
House. The other tar paper home was situated on the
present site of the Kensington Lumber Company and
was the home of a carpenter, W.W. Orkett, who was
building a livery barn and a two story square house
for a family named Ingersoll. The house he was
building was located on the southwest corner of the
bank block and was used as a rooming house. The
livery barn was across the street west of the home.
Peter Pyle had one son, Ulysses, who was seven years
old when his family moved from the farm to what was
to be the town site. In December of 1887, Peter
Sanford located on the town site and built a
building just north of the present First National
Bank. The family, Mr. and Mrs. Sanford and daughter,
Lillie, lived in the back part of the building and
had a stock of general merchandise in the front
part. Their son William was born in that building in
1892. Lyss (as he was known) Pyle and Lillie Sanford
were the first Children in Kensington and grew up,
married, raised their family, and spent all their
lives here.
Mrs. Peter Sanford
established a millinery store in the spring of 1888
and continued to operate it until 1901. Soon after
the railroad came, the Sanford brothers, Allen and
Walter, moved their stock to hardware and implements
from Kirwin into a two story frame building they
erected on the Northwest corner of the first block
North of the railroad and east of Main Street. The
second story of this building was used as apartments
to house four families: the Allen Sanfords, Dr
Laphams, Theo Clarks, and Chas. Bowens. Later it was
used as an opera house for a number of years.
Main Street looking
North, 1918
Chas. Bowen and family had moved from their
homestead (now the Leo Grauerholz farmstead) to the
young town and worked at the carpenter trade the
remainder of his working years. Blacksmithing was a
flourishing business in the pioneer days, and at one
time there were seven shops in Kensington. A. N.
Beers was the first one. When both were quite aged,
Chas. Bowen and Peter Pyle were reminiscing of the
early days when an argument arose as to which had
lived here longest. Peter Pyle remarked "Why
Charlie, I was here long before you were. I came in
November of "87 and you didn't get here until
January of '88." Most of the data for this history
was gleaned from files of the Kensington Mirror,
which was established on May 10th 1888 by C.E.
Nelson and Jas. Beacom. to illustrate the fast
growth of the town I quote from an editorial in
Issue I. Vol. I of the Mirror:
"The town was started in January with nothing to
urge settlement but the determination of some two or
three businessmen that used their efforts to the
best possible advantage, and have been rewarded by
the satisfaction of seeing a population on May 1st
of some two to three hundred people, and a list of
business places comprising of some 26 to 28 firms,
all of whom are determined upon success for the
town."
Copied also from that first issue of the Mirror are
the names of the following firms; The Pyle House:
B.D. Vessey, hardware, harness, groceries and
implements; W.W. Orkett, Carpenter Dr.Nelson Lapham
and Beck; Cal Lewis, barber; C.T.W. Davis, grain
dealer; J.F. Greuter, furniture undertaker and
painter; Mrs. S.N. Goddard and daughter, millinery;
P.A. Sanford, general merchandise; F.C. Ingersoll,
livery barn; Theo Clark, groceries; Ketchen and
Wood, General merchandise; Mrs. E.L. Worley, variety
store; The Farmers Exchange Lumber Yard, managed by
Henry Campbell; Walt Morrell, notions; C.S. Uhl,
notary public; Uhl Bros. groceries and stationary;
The Bank of Kensington J.R. Burrow, President and
L.C. Ahlborn, Cashier. A few years later, L.C.
Ahlborn purchased the Burrow interest in the bank
and it continued under the same name until banks
were nationalized when it became the First National
Bank. during the early 1890's there were two other
banks established, The Book Brothers Bank, and the
Exchange Bank, neither lasting long. The Citizens
Bank was established in 1907, with C.H. Baird as
President, and Rudy Detwiler, Cashier. Stockholders
were L.A. Golden, C.V. Eberstein, Mike Trump, Isaac
McCormick, and others. This bank continued doing
business until the depression, when thousands of
banks throughout the United States were forced to
close in 1933.
First Postmaster was L.M. Uhl, followed by Peter
Pyle, L.C. Ahlborn, M. Cowan, H.H. Rice, D.M. Dimond,
W.F. Kunze, Homer Brunow and Presently Jim Kusel.
Before Kensington became a town, several homes in
the community were used as Post Offices among them
being the Joe Ball home at Clifford, the Wagner home
at Germantown, and the Allen Sanford home west of
town.
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