Shields
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).
John V. Moffitt, president of the Memphis
and Denver Town Company, founded this town site which was platted
on August 17, 1887. Richard Shields, a homesteader southeast of
the platted land, was the namesake for the new town. On December
22, 1887, a post office was established. A church and a school
were built soon after, and in the 1890's, Shields had the Cottage
Hotel and a general store. By 1910, its population was forty-eight.
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.
