Place:Bethel, Wyandotte, Kansas, United States

Description and History

Bethel is currently a neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

Historical References

From The History of our Public Schools Wyandotte County, Kansas (accessed May 20, 2011):

Bethel was started by the White Church Town Company in 1887 (approximately 1/4 mile south of Leavenworth Road and 1/4 mile east of White Church). The center of old Bethel was what we know today as 81st and Roswell. Bethel was bounded on the North by Roswell Avenue, on the west by 83rd Street (formerly known as White Church Rd. and Gerding Rd.), on the east by 80th Street, and on the south by Georgia. The train station was located at 81st and Leavenworth Road. In the 1880's there was a railroad, town hall, general store, blacksmith shop, wagon works, terra cotta works and residents. The train station was at 81st and Leavenworth Rd.

From pages 177-178 of Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, ... (1912):

Bethel, a post hamlet in the central portion of Wyandotte county, is situated on the Missouri Pacific R. R., about 10 miles west of Kansas City, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, which is the center of two rural free delivery routes, telegraph and express facilities, and in 1910 had a population of 25.

From chapter 27 of History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and Its People (1911):

On the Kansas City-Northwestern Railroad, nine miles west from the mouth of Jersey creek at Kansas City, Kansas, and three hundred feet higher than that point, the town of Bethel was laid out in 1887 by the White Church Townsite and Improvement Company, David D. Hoag, president. It is about three quarters of a mile northeast of the town of White Church and one-half mile southwest of Bethel station on the Kansas City Western Interurban Electric Railway. It now contains a large general store, brick and terra cotta works, a railroad depot, telegraph and express office, a town hall, blacksmith and wagon shop, etc. It is very pleasantly situated, and, lying on the ridge, as it does, above the mosquito line, it is never infested with these troublesome insects. From this point can be seen Kansas City, Leavenworth, Parkville and other points in the distance. Bethel is designed as a suburban residence town for the two Kansas Cities. Many lots have been sold to parties in the cities, who contemplate building residences there.

Research Tips

Resources

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog