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 Home >  Forsyth Library > Kansas Heritage > Ellis County >


Antonino | Catharine | Czech Colony | Ellis | Emmeram | Hartsook/Herzog | Hays | Munjor | Pfeifer | Schoenchen | Turkville | Victoria | VincentWalker | Yocemento

Volga Germans
Fort Hays
Other Colonies

Homesteading in Ellis County

Munjor

Settlers from part of the largest group to emigrate from Russia were founders of the town of Munjor after arriving in Herzog from New York in August 1876. They went to a site along Big Creek just north of the present location of Munjor, which they moved to a couple of months later. Several more groups joined them over the next couple of years, with the last group coming in September 1878.

Munjor's first church was a frame structure built in 1877, and it was added onto several years later. The frame church was replaced in 1889 by the present stone building, which was dedicated on Trinity Sunday of 1890. It has been enlarged over the years, but it has also been damaged by fire and the elements of nature. The steeple that was originally on the church was damaged, and has not been replaced.

A parochial school building was also built in the late 1800s, and is still being used today by the public school system in Hays.


St. Francis Church with steeple


St. Francis Church


Sanctuary of St. Francis Church


Nave and Sanctuary of St. Francis Church

Sources

Color pictures taken by Patty Nicholas, archivist

Dreiling, Norbert R. "Official Centennial History of the Volga-German Settlements in Ellis and Rush Counties of Kansas, 1878-1976." Hays, KS: Volga German Centennial Association, 1976.

Dreiling, B. M. "Golden jubilee of the German-Russian settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas, August 31, September 1 and 2, 1926." Hays, KS: Hays Daily News, 1926.

 

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