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County Courthouse
Homesteading In Rooks County
Plainville
The area surrounding what is now Plainville
was first called the Paradise Flats. The name was derived from
the fact it is a large and level plain situated at the head of
Paradise Creek, where buffalo, deer and antelope were once so
plentiful, it was given the name, "Hunters Paradise".
The north half of the original town
site of Plainville was first settled upon by Mr. Washington Irving
Griffin on July 1, 1876. Mr. Griffin, from Pennsylvania, and his
wife, Lydia R. Griffin, settled near what is now the east corner
of Washington and Mill Streets. Mrs. Griffin was the first lady
resident of the town and, for some time, was the only woman on
the prairie between the Solomon and Saline Rivers.
In May 1878, the Plainville post office
was established with Mr. Griffin as postmaster. He soon started
a store, which was then the only trading point between Stockton
and Hays City, a distance of 45 miles. The name "Plainville"
was arrived at when Mr. Griffin went to the homestead of Lambert
P. Darland to fix up the papers to start the new town. Mr. Darland
suggested the name Plainville, and without questioning, Mr. Griffin,
on whose farm the town was to be started, agreed, and Plainville
it was.
Charley Weeks started a store farther
to the south in a "soddy". Mrs. Weeks served meals in
the back of the store, and Plainville's sod house became well
known.
The G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic)
Monument stands in downtown Plainville next to the new library,
which was built on the site of the previous library. The G.A.R.
Hall, built by the "GAR boys", was a one-story frame
hall located in what is now the 100 block of west Mill Street.
It served as the first city library beginning on May 24, 1902.
A fire in October of 1909 destroyed
as many as sixteen business buildings and the opera hall in downtown
Plainville. The fire destroyed buildings on both sides of Mill
Street and one of the few structures left standing were the stone
walls of what is now the True Value Hardware store. Damage estimates
of the time showed over $45,000 in damage of which only $19,600
was covered by insurance.
The first Plainville school system
was formed on May 14, 1880. The first school building was erected
the following summer. In 1888, a two-story frame building was
erected on the grounds where Plainville High School is located.
The PHS football program began in 1904. The old junior high gymnasium
was constructed as a Works Progress Administration project. The
current high school was complete in 1952 at the site of the original
two-story structure.
Several former Plainville teachers
went on to become very important figures. C. E. Rarick, who served
as principal, became president in 1933 of Fort Hays Kansas State
College, the forerunner of Fort Hays State University. Rarick
Hall, on the FHSU campus, is named for the former president. Also,
Jack Hartman, a football coach at PHS, would go on to become legendary
at Kansas State University as a basketball coach and was inducted
into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Information from Roger Hrabe,
Rooks County Economic Development Director
