Bird CIty | Jaqua
| St. Francis
Homesteading in Cheyenne County
Jaqua
This town site was founded by brothers
Ruben and Cassius (Cash) Jaqua who settled in the area in 1886.
By February 1887, the land near the Colorado border had been surveyed
and platted. The town was named Guy and the first application
for the post office was for Tama. That application and the second
application for the name Guy were both turned down by the postal
system. In the meantime, expectations about the railroad coming
through were fueling speculative ventures. A general store, a
hotel and a newspaper were all established by the spring of 1887,
and the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad had stakes set
down within 10 miles of Guy. The town again sent a list of names
to the Postal Department, and Cash Jaqua had written his name
at the end of the list. The postal system decided on Jaqua, and
in the spring of 1887, the Jaqua Townsite Company was formed.
The railroad never did come to Jaqua
and the bad years of 1893-1894 prompted a number of settlers to
leave the area. By 1918, when the post office closed its doors,
the dream of Cassius Jaqua was gone.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Cheyenne County Historical Society,
ed. "The History of Cheyenne County, Kansas" Published
by the Curtis Media Corporation, 1987.
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