Douglass Historical Museum

08/31/2026

08/27/2026

Smileyberg, another Butler County Ghost Town

Smileyberg was not really a town, it only consisted of a Grocery Store, a Blacksmith shop and a school.

In 1904 the tiny community came into existence when Barney Berg bought eighty acres of land on the Northeast corner of section 21 and built a blacksmith shop. Prior to that he had done his “smithy” work under a spreading chestnut tree. The original blacksmith shop was located west of where the grocery store building was located. Barney’s business grew because of the central location he had chosen and along with the current oil boom in the area. He soon expanded his shop and was known as an excellent craftsman and news spread throughout the country side.

In 1908 Thomas Smiley came from Augusta and made a deal with Barney to settle down and he erected a building 16X20 feet on the corner and put in a stock of groceries and dry goods. The following fall he built an addition to his store and increased his stock of goods. After the store was built and more traffic than ever was converging on the corner Smiley and Berg decided the community should have a name. Their first thought was that Rock Center would be appropriate, in that their respective businesses were located in the center of Rock Township. But further deliberations resulted, and the two decided to utilize their own names – thus Smileyberg officially came into its own.

Mr. Smiley had already established a good reputation. He was known for reasonable prices and fair dealings and had a rapid growth of business. Before coming here, he had driven a covered wagon and covered a broad scope of territory selling goods. He made money and many friends for himself. People who knew him then also came to trade with him at Smileyberg.

Smiley was a soft touch for the children and sales of candy at his store and was nonexistent. He gave all the children who visited him candy from the large stock at his grocery store. Smiley later took in a partner named David Welch and the store was known as Smiley & Welsh. Smiley died in 1919 and later Welch sold the store The store changed hands several times during the years and current owners are Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Stollings of Augusta at the time of this writing. (Article from 1974).

The blacksmith shop was operated by a son of Barney Berg named Elmer Berg after Barney died Feb. 21,1926. About that time a new facility was constructed east of the grocery store. A two pump gasoline station now stands on that location. It has been closed now off & on through the years.

Mrs. Fred Frogge of Route 2 Augusta has fond memories of Smileyberg for it was her father Barney Berg who started the whole thing. Mrs Frogge was born at Smileyberg in 1906 and attended school at Waverly school, a mile north of the corner. Although the house in which she was born are now gone and the school also gone. Mrs Frogge said all that remains of her birthplace is a storm cellar her father built to protect his family from the Kansas storms. The store later became a bait store along with the groceries to sell bait to the fisherman heading to the Butler Lake near Latham.

The grocery store and the former blacksmith shop are still standing. The grocery store has been vacant for many years but the other building has changed to be a Transmission shop which has been in business for many years and was always busy and had good ratings. He has now closed up his shop and is retired.

Thomas Smiley was born in Canada on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, seven miles from the New York State line in 1847. He is a son of James and Martha Smiley, both natives of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1866 Thomas left Canada and migrated to Indiana where he and his brother were engaged as contractors. Thomas then married Miss Martha Church, a native of North Carolina, and to this union three children were born, all of whom died in infancy. From Indiana, Mr. Smiley and his wife came to Kansas, living in White Cloud, Augusta, and Rose Hill. He then drove a wagon a “General Store on Wheels” for Sisco Brothers until he came upon Barney Berg and settled in Smileyberg. Martha Smiley died in 1893, and Thomas died in 1919.

Barney Berg was born in LaPorte, Indiana in 1860. While living in Indiana, he married Hannah Hilman in 1883. She died in 1888, and he was left with two small sons, Albert, who resided at Michigan City, Indiana and Harry, of Smileyberg. About 30 years ago, he came to Kansas, first locating in Brown County for a few years, then locating to Smileyberg. In May, 1900, he was married to Sarah Ellen Wilson of Hiawatha, Kansas. They had a son named Elmer, who was a partner in the business, and a daughter, Millie. Barney died Feb. 21, 1926.
Both Thomas and Barney are buried in the Douglass Cemetery.

Original story written by Vivian Woody abt. 1974.
Compiled by Mary Baldwin.

08/17/2026

H. M. Logan, historian, in V. P. Mooney’s book, History of Butler County, has this to say about the Anti-Horse Thief Association. It was founded by Major David McKee in 1876 and held their first assembly in Humboldt in 1882. It was an association of law abiding, peaceable and liberty loving citizens banded together for mutual protection and fraternal assistance to make the commission of crime more difficult and the capture of the criminal more certain. It was not a vigilance committee…so says Mr. Logan. He went on to say, it is opposed to mob violence in any form. A member who takes part in the actions of a mob will be expelled, and a lodge taking part therein will have its charter taken away. It turns the captured criminal over to the legal authorities and assists in the prosecution with evidence. Thus, the innocent are protected and the guilty brought to justice.

In 1911 bank robberies became so frequent, that the State bank commissioner said, “I am simply appalled at the number of bank robberies in Kansas.” As a remedy, it was recommended that bankers join the Anti-Horse Thief Association. Many did so and bank robberies stopped!

However, Lawrence P. Klintworth, wrote in True Tales of The Kingdom of Butler: “Violence was not unusual during pioneer days in Butler County. Horse thieves did a brisk business until vigilante committees were organized to hunt them down, drive them out of the county and on more than one occasion make them pay with their lives.
It remained for one of these vigilante groups to chalk up perhaps the worst black mark in the county’s history. Out looking for horse thieves and not averse to violence, one of these groups surrounded a cabin occupied by George and Lewis Booth on the Walnut River near Douglass. In a gun fight in November 1870, the vigilantes killed both men and captured a companion, one Jack Corbin. They hanged him. It was reported that Corbin was placed upon his horse, a noose put around his neck and left dangling when the horse was forced to bolt. Still not satisfied with its grisly work, members of the group then killed Jim Smith who was riding toward the Booth cabin.

Some thought that the four victims had not had a fair trial before being ‘executed’. As a result, warrants were issued for eighty-seven men and one woman. But the killing didn’t stop. On December 4, just one month after the bloodbath at the Booth cabin, four more men were killed by the vigilantes. They were Bill Quimby, Mike Drea, a Dr. Morris and his son. Accused of being horse thieves, they were taken to the timber a mile and a half below Douglass and hanged. Ultimately, the vigilantes were promised a fair trial and all but three were freed when brought before justices of the peace who conducted preliminary hearings. The remaining three were finally discharged by the trial judge the following April without the formality of a trial.”

I imagine that the truth lies somewhere between the two accounts. It is certain to say that whatever the truth may be, horse thieving and bank robbing was curtailed in Butler County by the existence of the Anti-Horse Thieving Association!

The picture shown depicts some Augustans, members of the Elm Creek Anti-Horse Thief Association. We do not know if they took part in any of the gruesome activities at the Booth cabin or elsewhere. We have the names of only four of the twenty-one men shown: The second man from the left is Frank Buffum; the fifth man from the left is Grant Holmes (white horse); the man on the far right (white horse) is Henry Boucher; and, the fourth man from the right is Jim Shreve.

08/13/2026

Settlement of Rock, Kansas, started in 1869, and a post office was established on August 12, 1870.

Rock Creek Township’s population rose to 1,170 in 1880, but its decline started by the early 1900s. Today, only about 94 remain.

More on Rock, Kansas 👉 https://legendsofkansas.com/rock-kansas/

[image: Beamon Store in Rock, Kansas. early 1900s.]

08/13/2026

Thank you to the Douglass Community Foundation for their donation.

Today we gave some support to our Douglass Historical Society to help with repairs and much needed upgrades.

Their building holds our history and they need our help! We are happy to partner with one of the many great things that make Douglass a special place to call home ❤️

08/03/2026

Bodarc - Bois D’ Arc, Kansas

This is the story of another Ghost town in Butler County Kansas.

An Unincorporated town in Butler Co. Kansas named Bodarc Kansas.

It is believed the town was named after Bodark orange trees that were brought to Kansas from Texas and were planted close together to form living fences on properties before wire fences existed. Today we know those as Hedge trees. The Osage Indians lived in the settlement just East of the little walnut river, as the Indians were being forced off their land further south. This tribal community located in Bodarc was settled in 1863. The Indians thrived for seven years before they sold their land to the United States Government. On July 15, 1870 the Drum Creek Treaty was signed and the rest of their land was sold for $1.25 per acre to the new settlers arriving in Kansas. The tribe was anxious to sell their land because the white men were beginning to settle on their land without permission before it was sold.

Bloomington Township was established in 1872. Samuel Rankin was documented in 1867 as the first white settler in Bloomington township. As pioneers came to settle the land, Bodarc was established in 1875. The first settlers arrived from Kentucky and Tennessee. The strong hearted ones that headed for Bodarc, Kansas include the Rodgers, Elders, Bradfords, Bares, Guthries, Taylors, Harrisons, Wilsons, Rices, Baums, Thompsons. The original name of the town was Bois D’ Arc named after the Indians that settled there near osage orange trees. They made bows out of the wood of the trees and other things also. Bois D’ Arc is a translation of “Wood of the Bow” in French language.

Bodarc was chartered & became an official town on Nov. 25, 1899. Just as the mill was being built by George Bradford from Kentucky on the Little Walnut river near Elders Ford in Bloomington township. George Elder Sr. took his wheat to the mill to be ground into flour. It is said that he brought a sum of money with him from Kentucky and his neighbors did not have much money so he would also take their wheat to the mill and have it ground into flour for them. The Bodarc bridge was built by Kansas City Bridge & Iron Company from Kansas City, Missouri in 1885 It was placed on the National Historical Registry on March 26,2003. The mill was built and the post office was established Oct. 26, 1892. L. T. Elder was the first mail carrier. Mail was brought out once a week from Douglass.

The first meeting of a church in 1876 was in a three room log cabin which was the home of John Rodgers.

The Cumberland Church was built by several religious groups in the Little Walnut area in 1883. It is located across from the cemetery. It burned to the ground in 1928 and was rebuilt and on June 29, 1929, the new church built of brick was dedicated. The church is still in service today.

The first Blacksmith shop was built by an Englishman named John Dauverson, who was from Wichita about 1909 to 1936.

The Bodarc store’s first merchant was George Bradford, later Gladys Bailey and Bert Winzer ran the store. Mr. Bradford moved to Oklahoma to live with his sister. There was a cellar under the store where ice chunks were stored in the winter and surprised people that they remained frozen for months. It was common for people to carve their initials into the rock building.

The Woodsman of America and Royal Neighbors used to meet on the second floor of the store. The first house East of the store was the home of George Bradford and the house West of the store was the Shaffer’s house.

The burying ground was on George Elders land east of the Walnut river in 1877. When Mrs. Taylor died, they could not get across the river to the cemetery because the river was high, so Mr. Taylor decided to bury her on his own land on a little knoll. It was a pretty piece of land so he donated his 2 acres of land for a new cemetery and about the same time Michael Baum had a son that had passed away and had buried him on his land, so he also donated 2 acres of his land to form the new cemetery which was adjacent to Mr. Taylor. It is known as Cumberland cemetery. It is located across the road from the Cumberland Church.

The Union school was built & organized July 5, 1871. In 1903 38 pupils attended from Numa, Bodarc & Douglass. In 1945, 24 students attended. It consolidated with #87 Bloomington District on April 12, 1946. Union school was located 5 miles East and 3 ½ miles North of Douglass.

The other school named Tadlock School District #76 was organized April 30, 1872. The last day of school held at Tadlock school was 1963-1964.

Although the Mill brought jobs & economic growth to this community, it was torn down in 1918 after Frank Martin purchased the land to build him a house close to that spot. As the mill was torn down, the school closed and Post Office discontinued, it seemed Bodark’s future was uncertain. In 1910 a dam was constructed by Empire Gas & Oil Co. a quarter of a mile upstream from the bridge and this became a great fishing spot for the locals and the tourists started realizing it also. It soon became a camping and fishing area and people came from all over the state to camp out and picnic and fish. It was a thriving community again. After the dam was destroyed in 1944 for unknown reasons things changed, the fishing was not as good as it was. Wichita began opening up camping areas and fishing spots and parks, the people began to leave Bodarc and the town dwindled down. Ralph Kennedy was the sixth and final owner of the general store. He leased it in 1946 and it closed down in 1951. Those who owned the farm land kept working the land but moved to larger towns for more convenience. Today all that remains are the General Store and the old iron bridge and is on private land today.

Our thanks go to Roxie Olmstead who spent countless hours researching and interviewing people and consolidating material that was given to the Douglass Muesem. Our sources came from the museum Stories written by Gladys Elder Hart, and Mrs. Adrian Hall and from The Douglass Tribune articles.

Compiled by Mary Baldwin.

08/01/2026

Good morning! It’s the first Saturday of the month and much cooler today! We will be open! Come see us.