Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's steel water tank, Concordia, Kansas
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: May 1931
This black and white photograph shows a Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company's steel water tank at Concordia, Kansas. The tank was built in 1906.

Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot, Concordia, Kansas
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: May, 1931
This photograph shows the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company depot at Concordia, Kansas. The depot was built in 1887 and located on the Middle Division, Strong City District.

Bird's Eye View of Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas
Creator: Stoner, J. J.
Date: 1879
This lithograph is a bird's eye view of Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas. The legend at the bottom identifies the following: Concordia College, the high school, the Courthouse, several churches including a Swedish Baptist Church, hotels, a livery stable, a feed stable, the U. S. Land Office, two commercial land offices, two law offices, and the Concordia Mill. Street names are given. A railroad is shown but the company is not identified. The lithograph was published by J. J. Stoner of Madison, Wisconsin.

Boston Corbett's personal documents
Date: 1855-1886
Personal documents belonging to Thomas P. "Boston" Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth following President Lincoln's assassination. Corbett moved to Kansas in 1878 and lived in a dugout near Concordia, Kansas. In 1887, Corbett was given the position of assistant doorkeeper for the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka. However, when he brandished his pistol during a session of the legislative that same year, he was arrested and sent to an insane asylum. In 1888, he escaped and his whereabouts remained unknown until his presumed death. Documents include his Y.M.C.A. membership cards, signed checks, baptism certificate, a hatmaker's traveling card, and his naturalization certificate dated June 19, 1855.

Boston Corbett correspondence
Date: 1866-1888
Letters received by Thomas P. "Boston" Corbett, known by most as the man who killed John Wilkes Booth following President Lincoln's assassination. Corbett moved to Kansas in 1878 and lived in a dugout near Concordia, Kansas. In 1887, Corbett was given the position of assistant doorkeeper for the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka. However, when he brandished his pistol during a session of the legislative that same year, he was arrested and sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane.

Brown Grand Opera House, Concordia, Kansas
Date: Between 1930 and 1970
These six photographs show the Brown Grand Opera House in Concordia, Kansas. The Brown Grand Opera House was built in 1907 and became a national bicentennial landmark in 1976.

Camp Concordia, Cloud County, Kansas
Date: Between 1943 and 1945
These five black and white photographs show Camp Concordia in Cloud County, Kansas. The facility was one of several camps built across Kansas during World War II to house German Prisoners of War.

Catholic Church in Concordia, Kansas
Date: Between 1910 and 1915
A postcard showing a Catholic Church in Concordia, Kansas.

Clergyman's pocket diary and visiting book belonging to Boston Corbett
Date: 1870-1877
Pocket diary belonging to Thomas P. "Boston" Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth following President Lincoln's assassination. Before moving to Cloud County, Kansas in 1878, Corbett was pastor of the Siloam (Methodist) Mission Church located at 328 Pine Street in Camden, New Jersey. The book contains a list of members, records of funerals and baptisms, and diary entries.

Cloud County Drug and Book Store, and Iron-Clad Boots and Shoes; Concordia, Kansas
Date: Between 1880 and 1890
This photograph shows an exterior view of two merchandising stores in Concordia, Kansas: Cloud County Drug and Book Store, and Iron-Clad Boots and Shoes. Several men are visible standing in front of the stores on a wooden boardwalk. Some items are partially visible in the window display of the Cloud County Drug and Book Store.

Cloud County organization records
Creator: Kansas. Secretary of State
Date: 1870
In order for an unorganized county to be recognized by the state of Kansas, a certain number of householders/legal electors had to petition the governor. The governor would appoint a census taker. Initially, unorganized counties were required to document that they had at least 600 inhabitants in order to be recognized as a county by the state legislature. Over time the number of residents needed to organize a county changed to 1500 and later to 2500 residents. The census was submitted to the governor who then issued a proclamation indicating that the requirements had been met, appointing county commissioners and a county clerk, and naming a county seat. Not all of these documents are available for each county. Included in this file is the report of votes cast for the county seat, with Concordia being declared the town with the most votes. A complete transcription is available by clicking "Text Version" below.

Correspondence of George Huron concerning Boston Corbett
Date: 1887-1913
Correspondence of George A. Huron who was appointed guardian of Boston Corbett after he was committed to an insane asylum in Topeka, Kansas. Corbett is known as the man who killed John Wilkes Booth following President Lincoln's assassination. Corbett escaped from the asylum in May 1888. This correspondence relates to Huron's guardianship of Corbett and matters of his estate following his disappearance and presumed death.

Donald Bolman to Senator Arthur Capper
Date: July 06, 1943
This letter, from the head of the Concordia Mercantile Company in Concordia, Kansas, addresses the difficulties that the company has faced with regard to supplying the Post Exchange at Concordia with the necessary amount of goods. In particular, the Concordia Mercantile Company is having difficulty acquiring sufficient quantities of beer for the German POWs being held at the internment camp in Concordia.

Earl M. Smith to Senator Arthur Capper
Creator: Smith, Earl M.
Date: April 20, 1945
This is a telegram from Earl M. Smith, Concordia, Kansas, to Kansas Senator Arthur Capper, Washington D.C. With World War II taking much of the male labor force overseas, prisoners of war were brought in to do many of the jobs left behind. Smith, the president of the Cloud County Farm Bureau, requested that more prisoner of war workers from the Concordia camp be available to help with a labor shortage that the area was having.

Edward's atlas of Cloud County, Kansas
Creator: Edwards, John P.
Date: 1885
This atlas shows maps of each township with the names of landowners. It also includes a history of Cloud County, a patrons' list, and an advertising directory. Plats of towns are included as of the year of publication.

Edward David Wells, World War I soldier
Creator: Wells, Edward David
Date: 1917-1918
Around 1919, the Kansas State Historical Society and the American Legion solicited biographical information from returning veterans (primarily members of the 35th and 89th infantry divisions) and the families of those who died in service, notably from the Gold Star Mothers. Each veteran or family member was asked to provide letters, photographs, a biography, and military records. This file contains information on Edward David Wells, Headquarters Company, 168th Infantry, 42nd Division. Wells was killed in action on September 12, 1918.

Elaine Hammer Walser
Date: Between 1940 and 1945
This is a photograph of Elaine Hammer Walser dressed in her nurse's uniform and cape on graduation day from Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia, Kansas. Elaine was born September 22, 1922 in Norway, Kansas, to Philip Ingvald Hammer and Ellen Ovedia Larson Hammer. She served as a nurse at Camp Concordia during World War II and met her husband John Everett Walser, a nurse, at the camp. The two were married January 15, 1945, and later lived and worked in Des Moines, Iowa.

Elaine Hammer Walser with an airplane
Date: 1939
This is a photograph showing Elaine Hammer Walser with an airplane on her first and only flying lesson in Mankato, Kansas. Elaine was born September 22, 1922, in Norway, Kansas, the daughter of Philip Ingvald Hammer and Ellen Ovedia Larson Hammer. Alma was trained as a nurse at the Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia, Kansas. She served as a nurse at Camp Concordia during World War II.

Emigrants Guide or Handbook of the Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad & Company
Creator: Vaughan, W.R.
Date: 1879
This publication is from the Central Branch, Union Pacific Railroad Company. It promotes land sales targeting recent emigrants interested in purchasing agricultural land in central and eastern Kansas.

Farmers to Arthur Capper
Date: June 2, 1944
Concerned about the possibility of a shortage of labor during the upcoming harvest season, several farmers in Concordia, Kansas, write to Senator Arthur Capper in the hope that he can ensure that German prisoners of war will be available to work during the harvest season.

Fourth of July parade in Concordia, Kansas
Date: July 04, 1910
This photograph shows a Fourth of July parade in Concordia, Kansas. One of the parade participants is holding a Knights of Pythias banner. The man on a horse near the center of the photograph might be Francis E. Ruff, who was the first town marshall of Concordia, Kansas. He homesteaded in Clyde County [possibly Cloud County] in 1879 and donated a plot of land for the first cemetery. Ruff was a stone mason and made grave stones.

German POW Camp Concordia, 14CD322
Date: 2006
Shown are four views of the German POW camp near Concordia, Kansas, taken in 2006 as the last of foundations were being removed. At one time over 4,000 German prisoners were housed here. The site has been heavily altered from its original construction by razing of structures at the end of World War II, bulldozing, farming, and a race track built in 1965.

Gomer Davies to Senator Arthur Capper
Creator: Davies, Gomer T.
Date: April 29, 1942
In this letter, Gomer T. Davies, proprietor of The Kansan Printing House in Concordia, Kansas, informs Senator Capper that the "business and professional interests" in the town of Concordia support the establishment of a POW camp near the town.

Governor's proclamations
Date: 1869-1977
This collection of proclamations issued by Kansas Governors declares first, second or third-class status for Kansas towns and cities. Proclamations are arranged in alphabetical order by town name. Included are descriptions of city limits, plat maps and censuses.

John F. Cunningham
Date: Between 1900 and 1919
This black and white photograph shows Bishop John F. Cunningham,(1842-1919), copied from the" Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas" by Mrs. E.F. Hollibaugh. Cunningham a native of Kerry, Ireland, began his spiritual career when he graduated in 1860 from St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas. After theological courses from St. Francis' Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was ordained as a priest on August 8,1865 in Leavenworth, Kansas. As a priest Cunningham became the first Catholic residential pastor of Fort Scott, Kansas from 1865 to 1868. Later in 1868, he transferred to St. John's church in Lawrence, Kansas where he helped parishioners build a new church. For a number of years he ministered throughout Kansas before he became pastor of Assumption church in Topeka, Kansas from 1876 to 1882. Cunningham's spiritual responsibilities to his parishioners and to the Catholic church were further recognized when he became vicar general of the Leavenworth diocese in 1881. The following year he was appointed rector of the Leavenworth cathedral 1882 to 1887. On September 21, 1898 Cunningham became the Bishop of Concordia a position he held until his death on June 23, 1919 at the age of seventy-seven.