Amish Village | Bellefont | Bloom | Bucklin | Dodge City | Ford | Howell | Kingsdown | Lasker
Mexican Village | Spearville | Windthorst | Wright

Homesteading in Ford County

Kingsdown

James A. Fishback, a settler in the area deeded part of his land to the Rock Island Railroad on April 13, 1887, and on May 13, sold another part of his land to the South Ark (Arkansas) Valley Town Company. Settlers from the east came to this area and it was called Kingsdown. The name came from the "downs" in England. Downs are open grasslands, and as one story goes, an English homesteader was heard to say that the prairies reminded him of the King's Down.

The Rock Island Railroad built a roundhouse, a depot and section houses in Kingsdown during 1887-1888. But because of bad economic times, the railroad had left and the land was sold for taxes by 1898. The railroad came back in 1910 after new businesses that had started were doing well and houses were being built. A new depot was built later that year and the railroad stayed until the depot was closed in 1968.

The ethnicity of its settlers is most likely English.

Sources

Ford County Historical Society. Dodge City and Ford County, Kansas 1870-1920: Pioneer Histories and Stories.
Dodge City, KS, 1996.