Anthony | Attica
| Bluff City | Crystal
Springs | Danville |
Freeport | Harper | Runnymede
| Waldron
Homesteading in Harper County
Runnymede
Located nine and one-half miles northeast
of Harper, the town of Runnymede was founded by an Englishman
for the purpose of creating a colony that consisted of wealthy
young Englishmen. Francis J. S. Turnley came to the area from
England around 1880. He advertised for young men to come to "a
western paradise where golden birds sang in the trees and silver
rivers ran tinkling to the sea". (pg. 139 of The Harper County
Story.)
There were two other communities in
Kansas that were doing the same set up -enticing men to come from
England and learn how to farm. Studley
(Sheridan County) advertised for the middle-class, while Victoria
(Ellis County) and Runnymede wanted the sons of well-to-do English
families. In the cases of both Runnymede and Victoria, these men
became known as "Remittance Men" because they would
received a monthly remittance from their families. The British
brought their fun-loving and free-wheeling nature to the Kansas
prairies and never really participated in the one thing that they
were supposed to learn - farming.
Mr. Turnley purchased 1700 acres and
started a ranch called Chikaskia Ranch, which was named for the
river that was close by. Another gentleman name Robert W. Watmough
was the one who came up with the idea of starting a town. The
town was laid out, businesses and residential properties lined
up, and by January 1889, there was a store. Their plans came to
fruition when the first boatload of English people, sixteen men
and women (two of whom were Turnley's sisters) left England on
May 29, 1889. By 1890, a church and a hotel called the Runnymede
Arms had been built. The peak population was between 100 and 200.
Then came tragedy... Mr. Watmough was
a guest of honor at a ball held at the hotel the night before
he was to leave to return to Ireland. He was going to be married
to Hilda Turnley, who had already returned to their home country.
A fire in the community barn that night, May 14, 1890, killed
him, and that was the beginning of the end for the town of Runnymede.
By 1895, it was virtually empty, as all the buildings had been
moved away and their occupants had moved back to England or to
Harper.
Sources
Sanders, Gwendoline and Paul.
"The Harper County Story". North Newton, Kansas: The
Mennonite Press, 1968.
