Menlo / Zillah
In 1888 the town of Zillah was created
in Thomas County to help support the Union Pacific Railroad that
had just laid track within the county. In 1889 the government
changed Zillah to Menlo due to a new post office that had just
opened there. From 1890 to 1910 the people of Menlo built many
useful buildings. In 1890 a new school was built. After 1890 the
people of Menlo then built a general store, an implement building,
and a broom factory. Other businesses included the Shellabarger
Grain Co., the Farmer's Cooperative Creamery, the Robinson Grain
Company, a doctor's office, a drug store, a lumberyard, and a
hardware store.
Menlo continued to grow as a settlement
after 1910, but the Great Depression of the 1930s caused many
businesses to close. Menlo never recovered from the Great Depression,
and the population of Menlo decreased over the years.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Fitzgerald, Daniel. Faded
Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas. Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 1994.
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