Salina Post proudly presents Flashback Friday in partnership with the Smoky Hill Museum. Enjoy a weekly tidbit of local history from the staff at Salina Post and the Smoky Hill Museum as we present "Salina-Flashback Fridays."
By SALINA POST
In a small community near Mulberry Creek, just north of Interstate 70, dusty roads connect under a dozen modest rural homes in Glendale Township.
Before the small community established itself in 1915, French explorer Etienne Veniard de Bourgmont visited the region in 1724 to develop new relations with Native American Nations.
According to the Smoky Hill Museum, Bourgmont brought his allies from the Missouri, Otoe, Iowa, Kaw and Osage Nations to meet with trade representatives from the Comanche Nation just two miles east of what became Glendale.
Within the historic Comanche Territory, Bourgmont successfully negotiated agreeable trade relations with the Native Nations,
Undocumented history continued in the Glendale area throughout the next few centuries until the early 1900s, when the Salina Northern Railroad came to the budding community.
READ MORE: 📸 Flashback Friday: Salina Post - H.D. Lee Mercantile - Vol. 34
The Salina Northern Railroad initially scouted Mulberry, a nearby community that already had a post office and general store.
Mulberry community members decided that the town lacked true growth potential, and citizens formed a "town founding committee" with Henry House as its president.
House and the founding committee established Glendale across the road from Mulberry, and the Salina Northern Railroad brought its line to the small community.
According to the Smoky Hill Museum, Glendale experienced a "growth spurt early in its history." One year after its founding, the Glendale State Bank opened for business on Main Street in 1916, quickly followed by a Lutheran Church and Township Hall in 1917.
Citizens continued opening businesses throughout the late 1910s, including a mercantile and grain elevator. In 1922, the town funded and constructed a $13,000 school with five teachers. Adjusted for inflation, the school cost just under $240,000.
Like similar small, growing communities in Saline County, the 1920s and 1930s Great Depression and Dust Bowl decimated the community, driving many citizens away from the financial stress of low crop yields and farm prices.
By the mid-1930s, the town reported a population of 33 residents.
Glendale Township continues today in its scenic portion of Saline County, with a few residents continuing the quiet history of the community.
