Ludell
Established first as a post office
named Prag in 1876 by A. C. Blume, it became Kelso City after
the Kelso brothers opened a store in the area on June 3, 1879.
It was also known as Danube in 1880-1881 when the Kelso brothers
moved to Atwood. William H. Dimmick laid out the town site and
named it for his daughter, Luella, and on May 9, 1881, the name
was changed to Ludell.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad built tracks through the town, and Ludell benefited from
being a major shipping point in the area. Merchants did well and
the town blossomed until the 1930's when the Great Depression
occurred. Gradually the town declined during the years following
the depression.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Hayden, Ruth Kelley. "The
Time That Was: The Courageous Acts and Accounts of Rawlins County,
Kansas, 1875-1915". H.F.Davis Memorial Library, Colby Community
College, Colby, KS, 1973.
"History of Rawlins County,
Kansas". Rawlins County Genealogical Society, 1988.
Fitzgerald, Daniel. "Faded
Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas.". University Press of
Kansas, 1994.
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