Alanthus | Buffalo
Park | Campus | Gove
| Grainfield | Grinnell
| Jerome | Orion
| Pyramid | Quinter
| Teller | Hackberry
Community - Plum Creek Community - Swedish Community
Homesteading in Gove County
Gove
The Gove City Improvement Company was
organized at Davenport, Iowa. The Company acquired land on Hackberry
Creek, 12 miles south of Grainfield. The Gove City town site was
laid out in 1885. Like the county, the city was also named for
the Union soldier, Grenville Gove.
Gove was off the railroad line, but
located in the center of the county. The first building in Gove
was a sod structure. The first church services and first school
were held in the sod building. The first hotel built was called
the Benson house and has served as the County Court House since
1886 when Gove City became the county seat.
Churches were very important to the
community. The first church was a Presbyterian Church built about
1888. All denominations used the building. The Methodists built
a small church in 1890. Eventually the Methodists purchased the
Presbyterian building in 1916. A Pilgrim Holiness Church existed
for a time around 1934.
A red brick schoolhouse was built around
1887. The Gove High School was built in 1921 and became the Gove
County Historical Museum in 1970.
The Gove City Library was started in
1805 by ladies of the community.
In the early days, Gove had a lumber
and coal company and a brick kiln, which furnished the bricks
for the Grainfield Opera House. Between 1888 and 1890, Gove had
a livery barn/hotel called the Hackberry House, a blacksmith shop,
a wagon shop, a harness shop, a hardware store, the Clifford Hotel,
the Redwing Hotel, the Brown Hotel, drug store, several doctors,
2 banks, 4 abstractors, a butcher shop, an opera hall, and several
ice houses.
The Gove Post Office was established
in 1886. The first newspaper in Gove City was the "Gove County
Gazette" founded in 1886. It eventually became the "Gove
County Republican Gazette".
Gove City continues to celebrate its
heritage each year with Gove Old Settlers Day.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Gove County Historical Museum
They used the following sources in writing this information.
"History and Heritage of
Gove County". Gove County Historical Museum.
Harrington, W. P. "History
of Gove County, Kansas".
