Pendennis
The townships of White Rock, Wilson
and Cheyenne voted to raise a $1600 bond for the Denver, Memphis
and Atlantic Railroad Company in February 1887. By May, the railroad
was building tracks five mile east of the White Rock store, and
eventually the railroad had set up stations in Cheyenne Township
(Healy), Wilson Township (Shields), and White Rock Township (Dennis).
Dennis was founded on August 7, 1887,
by the president of the Memphis and Denver Town Company, John
V. Moffitt. Several days later on the 19th, the name was changed
to Pen Dennis due to another town in Kansas already called Dennis.
A post office was not established there until the Dupont Post
Office east of Pen Dennis was change to Pen Dennis on July 13,
1892. A couple of years later, the name was changed, once more,
to Pendennis on August 25, 1894.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
"A Historical Record of
Lane County, Founded June 3, 1886." Dighton, KS: Lane County
Historical Society, 1961.
Stanley, Ellen May. "Early
Lane County History: 12,000 B.C.-A.D. 1884". Newton, KS:
Mennonite Press, 1993.
Stanley, Ellen May. "Early
Lane County Development". Newton, KS: Mennonite Press, 1999.
