History of Penokee (formerly Reford), Kansas

Written by Dorothy Taylor

Reford - 2227 feet above sea level

Ben Chadsey was instrumental in founding the town of Reford, now "Penokee", by procuring the services of the Union Land Co. to plot the town on legal description of N ½ N ½ NW ¼ of Section 23, Township 8, Range 24 in Graham County, Kansas. The land grant reputedly was granted to a Mr. Paxson by President Chester A. Arthur on February 15, 1884 and sealed by Wm. H. Cook, then Secretary of State.

This land, procured by Mr. Chadsey, was founded and platted into the town of Reford in 1888. The Lincoln & Colorado Railroad, soon to become part of the mighty Union Pacific, came through in October of 1888. Shortly after, the first Post Office was established with a man named Byerts as the first Postmaster.

Not long after that Reford mail was consistently being mixed with that of Rexford, the Post Office and Railroad officials ask Reford to change its name so the townspeople, along with the officials and the conductor of the jitney (passenger service) got together. The conductor suggested "Penokee" after the Penokee Mountains where he was raised near Lake Superior.

"Times" newspaper (F. P. Groves, Editor & Publisher; of Gettysburg), dated 6 June 1889 stated "There will be a mass meeting of the officers of Graham County at the Post Office in Reford on next Tuesday evening June 11 for the purpose of making arrangements for the celebration of the 4th of July at this place.

"It is requested that everyone turn out to this meeting and take an active part as there is not much time to spare between now and the Fourth.
"By order of the Com.
13 June 1889: "On July 4th there will be a celebration at Reford, Kansas June 11, 1889 pursuant to call the citizens met at the Postoffice to consider the propriety of holding a celebration at Record on the 4th of July."
20 June 1889: "Penokee - How's that for a name?"

It seemed like a good idea so they adopted Penokee as the name. Reputedly, Penokee is the only Post Office in the world bearing that name. Although on June 6th, 2006 the United States Postal Service notified the residents the Post Office was closing with the last day of service to be June 24, 2006. That was a very sad day because when they take your Post Office, they kill your town.

On August 26, 1915, the original depot was stuck by lightning and burned to the ground. The new one was completed in 1916. It was one of only four built with that design. The Coop board gave it to the town of Ellis.

Pat Millirons established the first grocery and hardware store and he was instrumental in getting the first rural mail delivery in 1904 with Charley Clark as the first mail carrier.

Other businesses were Jim Chadsey and Calvin Green livery barns, Geo. Lovelady Veterinarian, Fred Sherrill, Wm. H. Summers & Ed Grant ran blacksmith shops, Floyd & Clifford Egee Hardware and it grew to be the best Hardware store in western Kansas. After 1891, Lampier built and ran the first Hotel. Jeb Shearer put in the first mercantile business and his wife ran a millinery story.

Penokee State Bank's first cashier was Roscoe Collins. He also established the Penokee Lumber Company. James Ebnother put in a drug store in 1918 in about the same year Robinson Elevator with Pat Millirons as first manager. Other businesses were the Cyrus Super garage, the Clint Nickelson garage, the Geo. Franklin hotel and Frank Nickel's meat market (whose building is still standing). Frank Bean had a barbershop. Sadie Paxson and Oran Brandt both had creameries.

Ed Grant and Br?d Hilderbrand built many of the houses in Penokee.

In 1917, William Summers, Sr. donated the land for the Penokee Community Church, which was built by John and Bob Clark and Dowell Jaminson. The church was dedicated in 1918.

The biggest thing to hit Penokee was the chartering of the Farmers Union Coop on May 20, 1913 with W. H. Higer, Wm. Patterson, F. H. Clark, Art Kobler, T. C. Brummage, J. H. Rutherford, Cyrus Paxson, H. L. Nickelson, C. L. Kobler, Geo S. Albertson, D. W. Kohart, Fred Kohart, Herbert Kobler, A. G. Clark, William M. Nickelson, A. J. Clark, J. F. Belveal, J. M. Bell, C. O. Spenser and G. F. Welty as charter members. The Penokee Co-op grew to be one of the biggest enterprises in both membership and volume, with branches in Bogue and Hill City.

The very first test oil well ever drilled in Graham County, was drilled on Paxson land in 1925. South and East of Penokee, the well had one of the old-fashioned wooden derricks with crude looking machinery. It was quite the attraction for many years.

Penokee was at its highest boom about the time of the Model T Ford. At that time, it had 24 live businesses.

The school, south of Penokee, was Riverside school. It was later moved to a new school in Penokee, which was built in 1923 and closed in 1971. With the school closing, the grocery store closed in 1973. The church closed in 1969. The coop sold 1 April 1995. Last, the Post Office closed in 2006. The only businesses in Penokee now are Joe Keith's Spraying Service, Don Paxson's Electric & Water Well service, Kenny Shepard's fencing business.

It is a shame they closed everything in Penokee.

As attractions, we have the story of the old sod fort where the battle between the Horse Soldiers and the Cheyenne Indians took place. (William Y Chalfant's book Cheyennes and Horse Soldiers). We have living people who used to play on the remains of the Fort. If you want to learn about this, contact me. I have the information on this. The location of the fort was near the center of the SE ½ of Section 13, Township 8, Range 24 five miles west and 1 mile south of Hill City.

There are only 39 residents in Penokee now. But to me, Dorothy Taylor, it's still the best place to live.

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Last updated 26 July 2009.


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