Information about early Maple Hill is difficult to come by and often confusing. In May 1941, the “business” students of Maple Hill High School published a special edition of the “Maple Hill High School Cowboy,” which was dedicated to providing the early history of Maple Hill. I have one of the original copies of this little newspaper and I was using it so often it was falling apart, so I finally typed all of the information into a Word file. I also spent much time hand-copying all of the information about ownership of town lots in Maple Hill between the lot sale in 1887 and 1968. In addition, we have some good early photographs of Maple Hill to compare to the other two sources.

The portion of the “Cowboy” dedicated to location of early businesses in Maple Hill is provided below:

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THE MAPLE HILL OF EARLY DAYS

Taking a glance back in the past from 1941 to the summer of 1887, we find some interesting things taking place. The town was laid out and a town lot sale was held. People boarded special trains from Kansas City, Topeka, and elsewhere to come here to purchase lots. Incidentally, some of those people have never been in Maple Hill since.

During this sale and the laying out of the town there were hundreds of people here. The town was divided into two parts, the west end and the east end. Maple Hill, as it is now, is the site of the old east end of town. Grocery stores were first started here by Joe Dolley. He was the leading merchant until 1904 when he was burned out by fire. Mr. David Stewart, who was Mr. Dolleys partner, then took over the stores and was the outstanding merchant until 1917.

During the fall of 1887, when Turnbulls (Mr. John Turnbull Juniors parents) came here John Verity and Steele Romick were running livery barns, Gilbert Stewart had a butcher shop, Miss Banta, a restaurant, Jim Herington, the blacksmith shop, and George Oliver, Sr., a butcher shop. The year of 1888 found George Smith with a drugstore, and R. T. Uptegraff, a lumberyard.

John Turnbull, Sr., had a blacksmith shop which was started in late 1887. The original site of the lumberyard was just east of our present elevator.

During 1888, Reinarson sold out his stone store to Brecken. Brecken sold out to Verity, who moved from the west end of town to the east end into the Brecken stone store. That also was the end of the west end of town. Turnbulls blacksmith shop stood where Glogaus garage is now and Miss Bantas restaurant stood where Herrons grocery now stands. The restaurant was later made into a store.

In 1896, Brownlee started a store in his own building which stood on the site of our present Stockgrowers Bank. The store was later taken over by Green, Axley, and Mauney. R. T. Uptegraff then formed a partnership and took over in a frame building when his other store was destroyed by fire.

The grain elevator is the only original business building in town.

Voting for the first national election was held in Updegraffs lumber yard office in 1888.

Mr. John Turnbull, Jr., our present blacksmith, is the only business man in town that was in business at the time when the town was first started. The town was incorporated in 1909.

The old town of Maple Hill was started southwest of here on the Walter Hamilton farm. This was south of Mill Creek at a time before the railroad was built.

There have been numerous post offices here, one east of Paul McClellands and one on the Steele Romick place run by Smiths.

In 1905, J. D. Weaver built the two halls where they are now standing. One of them was used for a store. The rock walls of our present hall are the walls of the original hall which burned.

The old Woodman Hall was the John Verity Store. He moved from the west end of town to his new store in 1888. The store later became the first hardware store in town. It was run by Robert Bob Smith. The hardware stayed there until Banker bought it and moved it up town to be located on the vacant lot between Motes Store and J. D. Weavers. The building was owned by Harry Williams and burned down in December, 1915.

Banks began in 1905 with C. P. Banker, originator. The Stockgrowers State Bank was established in 1906. Our present post office was built by C. P. Banker for the first bank. The site was also our first drug store, which was started in 1888.

A hardware was also started by Bob Smith. On the site south of Mr. Howard Adams present home once stood a large hotel. It was built in 1889 and was called the Windler Hotel. W. B. Small, better known as Jersey was the owner. It was extremely modern for the time. The building had a furnace, was gas-lighted, had a bathroom, recreation room, etc. It stood three stories high. Mr. R. T. Updegraff was W. B. Smalls son-in-law. The hotel was torn down and the two small houses were built on the old hotel site from some of the lumber. Jersey was a great fisherman and when people came to stay he would take them fishing. In all the hotel was really a sporty place and social center.

The first hall in Maple Hill was moved here from the old site of Maple Hill on the Walter Hamilton farm. Pierce moved it just north of Joe Dolleys store in 1888. The building consisted of a hall above and a store in the lower part. It burned in the fall of 1901. Also burned at the same time was the barber shop, which at one time was the butcher shop in the old west end.

In 1902, Dolleys store burned. He moved into the old Dolley stand where the bank is now. Brownlees store burned in 1903. It was also located on the bank corner.

The first fire was the Pierce Hall. Numerous other fires occurred including store buildings, hardware, drugstore, and other buildings. Also burned during this period of fires were four fine houses. These fires were very expensive.

The causes of most of the fires were never determined except for one or two. Sam Wileys store was supposedly a man-made fire. A big man hunt was then held and bloodhounds were used to track the criminals. The Rock Island Depot was burned down twice.

The oldest house in Maple Hill is the one in which John Woehr now lives. It was Goerge Fowlers ranch bunk house. What was once the Ollie Harris home was the Fowler residence on the ranch. It was located on Horace Adams ranch. It was torn down and moved to town in Sections. Gilbert Stewart bought the Fowler ranch house. John Turnbulls father built the first house on the street west of the school house. It is the house where George Watt now lives. New houses continued to be built until the war. After that very few new buildings have been built.

After so many fires, J. D. Weaver and Charles M. Lemon built the drugstore and Frank Stevens store. The city passed an ordinance prohibiting anything but fireproof buildings. Later Weaver added Jack Herrons building and his own office. John Turnbull built his stone blacksmith shop in 1911. Jim Fyfes stone store was built in 1906 and is where the Maple Hill Caf is now located. In 1912, the north part of the Mackie Garage and the barbershop were built.

Tom Rutledges feed store was on the site of the old Woodman Hall. It was a hardware store and was vacated before becoming a feed store. The first pool hall was started in 1888. It lasted only six months.

The first harness maker was James Waxy Clark. His building was located on the lots across the street south of Lee Raines Hardware. Bing Robinson bought it and made it into a carpenter shop. Bradshaw ran a harness shop here twice. He bought out Clark and moved to Topeka. Later he moved back and ran a shop where the post office is now located.

The material for this article was secured from Mr. John Turnbull, one of our older citizens. Mr. Turnbull was very cooperative in talking and answering the reporters questions. We thank him for his fine information. By: Glen W. Smith
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I have checked this information against the lot ownership and have found very, very few exceptions. I believe that John Turnbull, Jr. did an excellent job of talking about the location of these early businesses in 1941.

In this article, I’m also going to include photographs of early Maple Hill that I have from my post card collection, those scanned from early publications, etc. I believe that the reader will be able to discern most if not all of these early business locations.

There were some surprises. For instance, I thought that the stone building that housed the Turnbull Blacksmith Shop on Main Street, was much earlier than 1911-12. Their original shop was located in a frame building on the west side of Main Street very nearer the depot and the little cement block building owned for many years by Shorty Kimble.

I was surprised to learn that the Maple Hill Depot on the Rock Island Line had burned twice and that the depot most of us remember is the third actually built.

Note also the several two-story buildings that were located at the far south end of Main Street. Most of them had “halls” on the second story for various purposes. None of them survived the terrible fires that occurred during the early 1900s and up until about 1920 when buildings constructed on Main Street were required to be of non-combustible materials.

I’m hoping some of my readers may have stories about their ancestors that owned businesses or early photographs of buildings of Maple Hill’s Main Street that they are willing to share. I’m sure many readers will be interested, and remember, what we publish on this page will be available to our family and friends much longer than we are—hopefully! Have a great day! Nick Clark