It’s Worth Repeating: Stories of Early Southwest History
Loss of a Railroad Spells the Doom of Ryansville, Ford County Ghost Town
SECOND INSTALLMENT
By Henie Schmidt
Last week I introduced the story of Ryansville, Ford county ghost town, which appears on an old map, and in an old promoter’s booklet.
This week I want to tell about the personality of Pat Ryan, founder of Ryansville, and about the railroad which never came to the little Southwest Kansas town.
I have a letter from R. R. Bentley of Granby, Mo., who gives some interesting sidelights on Pat Ryan and his ranching.
Bentley was four years old when his father, J. C. Bentley, and his uncle, William Heskett, took up residence on claims 3 miles southwest of the city of Ford in November of 1884. At that time, Ford was just started.
"My aunt, Mrs. Heskett, my stepmother, sister and myself landed in Spearville on election day 1884," Bentley says. "Pat Ryan had wild cattle all over the country at that time. The herd law came into effect in the spring of 1885.
"Pat Ryan's home ranch was on east of the Mulberry creek were it emptied into the Arkansas river. They had a long soddy that had loop holes in it to be used in their fights with Indians.
"Pat Ryan told my people that they could not raise a blackeyed pea on that prairie land, but the spring of 1885 was very wet. My folks broke sod and chopped it with hoes to raise a lot of things--among others, watermelons. Pat and Mrs. Ryan came to see us and ate melons. Pat said he knew the land was all right, but he just wanted to keep the nestors out.
"He built a bridge across the little Mulberry, and the first time he was driven across it, he was in a coffin.
"My recollection of him was that he was a good man.
"One time my father and aunt had been to Spearville to get some coal and other supplies. They started to ford the Arkansas river and got stuck in the quicksand. Father rode the team out and went to Pat's ranch for help. Pat told him he got in the river, he could get out the same way. Father said his sister was in the wagon. Pat said that was different. They took a fresh team and a bunch of cowboys. They hitched the team on lasso ropes to the wagon, and out they came with a lot of good-natured yells.
"My aunt said that was a lonesome wait. The river was covered with ducks and wild geese so she had music all the time.”
Al Olive of Dodge City, son of I. P. Olive, pioneer rancher and cattleman, tells me Ryan was an expert rifle and pistol shot as well as horseman, roper and all around cattleman. Olive described Ryan as a gentle, lovable fellow, and I remember that H. B. (Ham) Bell described him that way, too.
Pat Ryan was a young man, by our standards, when he died at the age of 45 in 1885. He must have been little more than a boy when he was a teamster with Custer.
The town established on his ranch barely was started when Ryan died, if we can take the Bennett and Smith date of Sept. 15, 1885, as the date of its incorporation. Ryansville was a little over two months old when Ryan died. This may have had something to do with the fact that no plat was filed, and with the fate of the little community.
There were great contests in those days between towns for the lion's share of population, railroads, county seats and other community-building facilities. Usually, passions ran high, and there was trouble to the point of shooting down men on the opposing side. There was rivalry between Ford City and Ryansville, but the procedures there were very different from the usual town "fights."
A mimeographed account of the history of the city of Ford published on the occasion of that town's 50th anniversary has some interesting information on this fight. Some of the excerpts from this account are as follows:
"There were but two houses in Ryansville. The Hatfield grocery store and the Gray brothers hotel were there. The store had been moved from Ford to Ryansville.
"After the dispute between the two town companies it was decided that Ryansville town-site was to be located by its few residents, and the grocery store and hotel were moved to Ford. The hotel is now owned by J. F. Small. The population of the town (Ryansville) was about 8.
“During this period (when Ford was struggling to get a required population of 200 people) the Ryansville Town company was formed in competition with the Ford company. Men from Dodge City aided in this, and through their influence a school was erected in Ryansville. However, this did not prove to be a very great success, for as far as we have learned, there was only one pupil.
"Ford and Ryansville both claimed a quarter section of land owned by Lyman McKean, which joined both towns. After quite a discussion, the Ford Town company sent C. E. Hatfield to make a midnight visit and he obtained the land. This purchase broke the back of the Ryansville Town company and ended the building there.
"In the latter part of 1885 the Wichita and Western railway company built their line as far as Ford county. They wanted county aid to complete it and stopped on the Ford county line until it could be obtained.
“Meanwhile, Ford and Ryansville were quarreling as to which was to have the railroad.
“During this quarrel, the Arkansas, Kansas and Colorado railway was built through Ford by a private company, not waiting for either town to decide which was to have the road.
"The grade of the Wichita and Western now stands west of Mullinville at points between Mullinville and the Ford county line. The depot is used as a dwelling in the north part of Mullinville.''
(continued next week)
The USGS map above shows the town of Ford, Mulberry Creek to the west, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific rail line, and the Arkansas River north of town. Highway 154 heads west and north to Dodge City, Kansas. NOTE: This map was not included in the original newspaper article. It is included here to help identify the georaphic features referred to in the article.
–Newspaper clipping saved by Verna (Dawson) Karns.
[This article, second of a series of three, appeared on Page Two of The High Plains Journal dated Thursday, July 8, 1954.]
