Colokan | Greeley
Center | Hector | Reid
| Tribune
Homesteading in Greeley County
Reid
On July 25, 1887, the Denver, Memphis,
& Atlantic Railroad constructed a rail line that was two and
one half miles west of Greeley Center, which would ultimately
be the place of a new town site called Reid. On September 22,
1887, the D. M.& A. Town Company began to lay out the town
of Reid, and started to build the town alongside the railroad.
Reid began to grow as a town in the fall of 1887, and had major
competitions with Tribune and Horace as to which town would be
the county seat.
In November 1888 the town of Tribune
was declared the count seat over Horace and Reid; with 420 votes
in favor of Tribune, 202 votes in favor of Horace, and only 2
votes going to Reid. Due to Tribune becoming the count seat, all
the business from the different towns began to move their stores
to Tribune. The moving of these businesses ultimately led to the
demise of Reid. In 1891 there was a total of 26 people living
in Reid, now called Astor by the people living there. By 1897
the town became a ghost town, and the land was eventually sold
for $35.01 by the town company in 1901 to pay the back taxes on
it. Reid/Astor faded into the Kansas background just like so many
other settlements of the time period.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Smith, Winifred, et al. History of Early
Greeley County: A Story of its Tracks, Trails and Tribulations.
Vol. 1. Tribune: Greeley County Historical Book Committee,
1981.
Sorensen, Conner. Ghost Towns of Greeley
County Kansas. Tribune: Greeley County Republican, 1967.
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