Bedford | Hudson
| St. John
Homesteading in Stafford County
St. John
Two different groups, one religious
and one ethnic, settled in the Ohio Township. The religious group
was a dissident branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints led by William Bickerton established a city called
Zion Valley north of St. John in 1875. Mr. Bickerton, born in
England, had formed the branch in Pennsylvania and came to Kansas
to find a God-chosen area for his church.
A member of the Bickerton Church of
Jesus Christ, Calvin Glasscock, parted from this branch and donated
a large hill that he had purchased to the Utah Mormons. This group
then purchased the German Baptist church building, and they moved
it to a new location in St. John. The Utah Mormons then established
their own headquarters in St. John in a hotel they built for their
offices and living quarters. This operation did not last long,
but their church continued by taking members from the Bickerton
colony. The Utah Mormons built their own church in 1899. The Mormons
moved to Pratt, Kansas, in 1968, and the Bickerton church was
allowed to regain their original hill and the site of worship
that they did not have for seventy years. For many years, two
different groups of Mormons lived in Stafford County.
African-Americans homesteaded on several
different sections of the township. The highest number of African-Americans
living in Stafford County has been estimated to be 400-425 in
the year 1914. They established the Martin Black cemetery named
for a family of settlers in the area named Martin. This cemetery
still exists. The African-American people became members of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Baptist Church located
in St. John. These churches had been founded by African-Americans
who lived in town.
Sources
History Book Committee. Stafford
County, Kansas, 1870-1990. Stafford, KS: Stafford County
Historical and Genealogical Society, 1990.
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