Talmage History

In the beginning: Talmage from 1870 to 1900:

(Compiled from Juanita Bathurst’s History of Talmage and Helen Dingler’s Past and Present: Towns of Dickinson County.)

Pioneers came to the sparsely settled northwestern Dickinson County area in 1870 and erected crude homes on their claims.

A homesteader, Robert Wilson, asked an Abilene preacher to conduct religious services in his new four-room home and invited his neighbors to the ecclesiastical meetings.

Thomas C. Iliff also came to the area in 1870. He donated land in the southeast corner of his farm in Willowdale Township (Sec. 1-12-1) for the school. Iliff School, District 29, was often referred to as Mud Creek School since Mud Creek was nearby.

In January 1873, Iliff was appointed postmaster at Willowdale. It is assumed the mail collection and dispersal point was located in his home or in the W.D. Fulton general store at the northeast corner of present Talmage Road and K-18.

An 1875 Dickinson County map located Willowdale in Buckeye Township, in the southwest corner of Section 6-12-2. (State Board of Agriculture, 4th Annual Report, Page 107.

An early newspaper reported the Mud Creek Methodist Church was founded in 1879 at the Iliff schoolhouse. A parsonage was built on a tract of this man’s land a mile north of the schoolhouse. The pioneers continued to worship in the schoolhouse until a white frame edifice was erected in 1883 on a slope beside the Prairie Dale Cemetery on the north side of the road in Flora Township (Sec. 36-11-1). Prairie Dale Methodist Episcopal Church was the first church in northwestern Dickinson County.

The school, church, and the Fulton’s general store formed the nucleus of the community of Willowdale until the Chicago, Kansas, & Western Railroad (ATSF, now BNSF) was built through here in 1887, when area residents platted the town of Talmage, registered in Dickinson County in January, 1888.

Talmage, named after a Presbyterian circuit riding preacher Rev. Dewitt Talmage, was the market and supply center for farmers. Families continued to migrate here, and railroad land was available for purchase and government land was obtainable through the Homestead Act of 1862.

Soon after the railroad track was completed, a depot was built. Elmer Carnine and Hoyt Wolfenburger were agents in Talmage during most of the 85 service years of the station, 40 years and 45 years respectively.

W.D. Fulton’s general store was moved to the west side of Main Street (Fair Road) in the fledgling village of Talmage. Several years later the store building was destroyed by fire. Fulton built the first grain elevator here. A horse powered treadmill manipulated the elevator’s internal machinery.

John Fulton, a brother of W.D., was appointed postmaster on December 22, 1887, and he served 12 years. Other longtime postmasters were Jacob Minick, 19 years; Laura Field, 8 years; Clare Knerr, 15 years; and Frank Coup, 20 years.

Belle Springs Creamery Co. built a station here in the early 1890s. Farmers brought their cans of milk to the station to be separated, and the cream was sold to the creamery while the farmers returned home with the skimmed milk. Tom Parrish was a longtime manager, and the Talmage Belle Springs station churned butter for sale to local customers.

A second creamery, the Fairmont Cream Station, managed by William Koelling was located on the east side of Main Street for several years.

When William Bowyer arrived in town in 1891, there were only six houses in Talmage. At that early day, Main Street was the east boundary of the town. Bowyer lived in the village until his death and was a blacksmith for many years.

In the beginning: Talmage from 1900 to 1910:

(Compiled from Juanita Bathurst’s History of Talmage and Helen Dingler’s Past and Present: Towns of Dickinson County.)

Prior to 1900, some of the families who arrived from Pennsylvania, Ireland, England , Canada and other places to settle  in the Talmage area included Robert Wilson, T.C. Iliff, John Curts, H.C. Harvey, Ot Smith, Tom Purvis, Jarvis Moore, Tom and Mary Fisk, John and Margaret Whitney, John Fulton, David and Rebecca Stokley, William Fenn, George and Sarah Tyrell, Frank Faron (who married Adalaide Forman already living here), Gilbert Cheney, and the Saylor family.

Many who settled here, like Millard Engle from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, wrote to families and friends back east about the prospects available in the Talmage area, so others followed. The families of John Garver and Mrs. Garver’s father, Mr. Beck, Sam Garver, William Coup, Isaac Book, and J.H. and Annie Cundiff arrived in the 1880s.

Other names include T.J. Laney, J.L. Watt, George Sterl, Miles Huitt, Bob Lockridge, Henry and Melinda Book, J.A. Engle, the Holzworth family, Elmer Carnine, and William Bowyer.

The town’s livery stable was purchased by John Britt in 1900. He enlarged the business to hold four teams, a buggy, and a riding horse. By 1920, Britt was selling livestock feed in conjunction with his livery service.

The National Aid Agency assisted the community in building a meeting hall in 1901. The lyceum was the center of local entertainment, meetings, and meetings of Modern Woodmen and Royal Neighbors Lodges. In later years, the town hall building was the J.H. Wallace Feed Store and a market for farmers’ poultry and eggs. A lean-to at the north end of the feed store served as the ice house. The town hall was torn down in the mid 1960s, and lumber from it was used in the Dale Bathurst home.

Through the early years, three doctors cared for the community. Dr. F.W. Montgomery and Dr. Mannes practiced here before Dr. S.N. Chaffee arrived in 1905. Dr. Chaffee built a new home, office, and drug store complex on the west side of Main Street and practiced in Talmage until 1939.

A.C. Bathurst was a Talmage merchant from 1906 until 1918. He was joined by his nephew Bryon Leighton Bathurst from Pennsylvania.. In 1919, he purchased the business, which was open until 1930. The former Bathurst store is presently owned by the local water district.

The first Briney Addition was registered on May 8, 1906. The late Lydia Jolitz recalled that each family could only buy two lots to keep the addition residential rather than small farm plots. Walter Watt, a rural mail carrier built a number of homes in the Briney Addition. The second Briney Addition was registered October 22, 1907 and a third on October 25, 1911.

In 1906, the first bank opened in Talmage as the Citizens Bank on the west side of Main Street until a new building was erected on the east side of the street. This building remained a bank building until 2010 when Pinnacle Bank closed the Talmage Branch and donated the building to the Talmage Historical Society.

Telephones came to the Talmage community in 1909, and directors of the newly formed telephone company were Alfred Dodge, Henry Book, Mart Whitney, Anten Musil, George Ayers, and Frank Schopp. Telephone operators were the Naylors, Cowans, Edith and ross Walker, Patti Coup, Iva Coup, and Lulu Book.