Communities of long ago: College Hill
In the early days of Marion County, numerous small communities developed, usually based on mutual religious, educational, social, and economic interests.
Often, the country schoolhouse served as a center for all public meetings. A resident of the community would open a small general store and, usually, the post office was located there. Sometimes one or two other small businesses would open, such as a blacksmith's shop.
This is the first in a series highlighting these rural communities which no longer exist.
Perhaps the shortest-lived rural community in Marion County was Carola. It is mentioned by J. Neale Carmen in an article titled, "German settlements along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad." It existed in 1881 north of Youngtown near Lincolnville, and was comprised of a group of 10 German families. More were expected to come, according to immigrant agent, C.B. Schmidt.
Aside from the above facts, contained in an entry in Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 28, no more is known about this community.
College Hill
One mile east of K-15 at Indigo and 370th stands a monument to College Hill Presbyterian Church, which existed from 1899-1952. Nearby is a small cemetery containing headstones with names such as Dahlinger, Rhodes, Gardner, and Stegeman.
A survey of the surrounding area reveals miles and miles of grass land, creek bottoms, and few farmsteads.
In the early 1870s, approximately six or seven families settled in this area around the present Marion/Dickinson county line.
School district #66 was organized in February 1876, in the home of John M. Rhodes, a rancher with large holdings in the area. Officers elected were Emmanuel Kuhn, director, Alfred Pray, treasurer, and Henry Rhodes, clerk.
Taxes were levied (10 mills on taxable property) and a teacher hired. Eva Kaiser was paid $12 a month to conduct school in a room provided in the Rhodes home.
The next year, a school house was built at a cost of $203.30. It was situated along the Chisholm Trail. It must have been an impressive structure because the name College Hill was supposedly given to it by passers-by who thought it looked like a college on a hill.
The trail later became K-15 highway and was rerouted one mile to the west.
Ed Stegeman, the late grandfather of Darlene Carlson, 60, rural Lincolnville, attended the school. He lived to be 102. Carlson's grandmother, Frances Stegeman, wrote poems for the Abilene Chronicle.
When the school building was outgrown, a second building was constructed in 1914 and used until the 1936-37 school term.
The building then was sold to Tabor College and moved to Hillsboro where it was used as a music practice building until it was struck by lightning and burned.
The school district was disorganized in 1950 and students went to Tampa.
In 1899, a Presbyterian circuit rider organized the College Hill Presbyterian Church.
Services were held in the school building until a church was built nearby. This church served the religious and social life of the community until 1952.
When the church was dissolved, members transferred to Carlton and Abilene Presbyterian churches and the building was torn down.
Carlson spent four years of her childhood on the Stegeman farm one-half mile west of College Hill. She attended the church, but the school no longer was in existence.
Her parents, Winfred and Dorothy Carlson, are buried in College Hill Cemetery.
Ed Stegeman organized an effort to erect a monument at the church site. It was erected in May, 1970.
John Rhodes found gypsum on his farm southeast of College Hill and made plaster with it. In 1872 or 1873, the Acme Cement Company built a mill there. Rhodes had a contract to haul the milled product mainly to Tampa for shipment. Twenty or more teams and wagons were used daily, each making three trips a day.
Employees and their families lived in what was known as "The Row," houses standing side by side. After the mill closed, some of the houses were moved to Tampa and remodeled for homes. One became the Tampa Hotel.
