Dresden | Jennings | Kanona | Norcatur | Oberlin
Homesteading in Decatur County
Dresden
The Rock Island Railroad established the town of Dresden in 1888. It was located 16 miles south of Oberlin. Dresden was soon growing rapidly with a drugstore, a bank, a hotel, and several grocery stores.
The depot was a major starting and ending point for travelers from other towns in the area, as they had to go to Dresden to get on the train that would take them to Kansas or Denver. By 1910, the population was 325.
The Rock Island railroad shut down the depot in 1960, and that began the town's decline.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Fitzgerald, Daniel. Faded Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas." Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
"Kansas: A cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc." Chicago: Standard Publishing Company, 1912.