Athol | Bellaire
| Cedarville | Claudell
| Gaylord | Germantown
| Harlan | Kensington
| Lebanon |
Old Salem | Reamsville
| Smith Center |
Home on the Range
Homesteading in Smith County
Reamsville
The Charles G. Schwarz family immigrated
to the United States from Grauenhagen, Michelenburg, Germany;
Mr. Schwarz came in 1873, then returned to move his wife and son
to America in 1876. They came to the northern part of Smith County
in 1877. Mr. Schwarz planned to build a flour mill in "Sod
Town" which consisted of a frame store and three houses,
a school and a blacksmith shop all made out of sod. Because of
the lack of water in Sod Town, the timbers for the mill were moved
to the present site of Reamsville, and the town of Sod Town was
also moved. In 1882, the name was changed to Reamsville.
The mill was built beginning in 1882.
"The eight posts were 12 inches by 12 inches and about 40
feet long. The mill was octagon in shape, forty feet in diameter
at the bottom, tapering to eighteen feet at the top. The height
to the turntable as forty-two feet and to the top of the roof
was fifty-four feet from the foundation stone. For harnessing
the wind a huge fan was built with a spread of sixty feet. A sail
cloth could be spread or taken up as the wind velocity got higher
or lower. The tailwind was ten feet in diameter. The building
was five stories high and shingled from top to bottom" (pages
217-218 from "A History of Smith County Kansas to 1960".)
It became known as the Old Dutch Mill and was moved to a park
in Smith Center where it stands after being restored following
a fire in 1955.
The ethnicity of most of its settlers
is German.
Sources
Pletcher, Vera Edith Crosby.
"A History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960". Masters
thesis, Kansas State University, 1960.
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