Steuben – Post Office and School

The Steuben Post Office was located in Holmwood Township, Section 12 per Shute and Dillon in Prairie Jewels. It was organized and discontinued three times. First organized on Aug. 19, 1875, it was first discontinued on June 23, 1882. It was reestablished on April 4, 1887, and discontinued for the second time on May 16, 1889. It was reestablished again on April 28, 1891, and permanently discontinued on Oct. 15, 1900.

W. T. Hunter – William Timothy Hunter - was postmaster during the first and second times the post office was established at Steuben. He was replaced by Emily Diamond for the last five years the office was in operation.

Hunter owned the S 1⁄2 of the SE 1⁄4 in Section 12 of Holmwood and the SW 1⁄4 of Section 7 of Richland Township. (These properties are near where present-day 190 Road would intersect with W Road, should that road still exist. This is a mile and a half west and a half mile south of the Highway 14 bridge over the west end of Lovewell Lake.) The 1884 Jewell County Atlas indicates a home in the northeast corner of the Holmwood property and that would be the likely location of the Steuben Post Office.

Hunter's Richland Township property, just across the road, is the location of the Steuben School. Steuben School District 5 was organized on Jan. 10, 1872, three and a half years before the post office. Hunter is credited by Shute and Dillon in Prairie Jewels with naming the school.

Research shows that W. T. Hunter was born in Steuben County, N.Y., on Oct. 26, 1833. His parents, Allen and Olivia Atwood Hunter, had been married in Steuben County on Aug. 27 1827. Allen and Olivia's first three children were born there. Allen Hunter headed west with his family and they were living in Steuben, Marshall County, Ill., before 1860. The name Steuben would seem to come from the county where he was born and the Illinois county where the family lived.

Mary Catherine Hancock married Hunter in 1865 in Illinois. They made their home in Marshall County, Ill., for about 10 years before moving to Jewell County. They were enumerated in Holmwood Township in the 1875 Kansas State Census.

W. T. Hunter was also connected with the short-lived community of Augurville. Augurville is thought to have been located near North Star School District 112 in the NE 1⁄4 of the NE 1⁄4 of Section 36. Hunter's properties would have been just two miles north of that location.

An early settler, Hunter also became a wealthy one. The Sept. 8, 1886 Jewell County Monitor described his 140-foot by 40-foot barn as "one of the largest in the county." He also ran both a store and blacksmith shop in the Steuben community according to reports in both 1879 and 1889 newspapers.

School records show Hunter was the Steuben School's district clerk for some 10 years beginning in 1885. He was still operating his Steuben store in 1895, according to the March 7, 1895, Jewell County Review.

Things seemed to be going well for W. T. Hunter but in the fall of 1895, his fortunes began to unravel. He had "trouble with postal authorities" and lost his postmaster job. This was followed the next spring by an arrest for child molestation. He posted a $1,000 bail bond and was released but committed suicide on May 21, 1896. This information according to the May 22, 1896, Western Advocate.

Emily Mills Diamond became postmistress on Oct. 23, 1895, after Hunter lost the job. The Diamond Homestead was the NE 1⁄4 of Section 24 of Holmwood Township about a mile south of Hunter's property. (The intersection of V Road and 190 Road.) She served until Oct. 5 1900, when the Steuben Post Office was permanently discontinued.

The Diamond name has long been associated with the Steuben area. Emily Mills had married Henry Price (H. P.) Diamond on July 2, 1866, in Vermont and they made the move to the Steuben area of Holmwood Township in 1873.

H. P. Diamond became known in the area as a farmer and stockman. The Aug. 9, 1894, Jewell County Review noted he was "extensively engaged in farming and stock raising" as well as being "one of the heaviest stock dealers in Jewell County." Henry died in 1912, and Emily in 1921. They are buried side-by-side in the Mount Hope Cemetery.

H. P. Diamond was the older half-brother of Charles F. Diamond. Charles is the great-grandfather of Rick Diamond (Mankato) and Becky Diamond Butts (Kearney). Charles was attending Steuben School in 1884, the first-year school records are available at the Jewell County Courthouse.

The school had been organized in 1872, on either Jan. 10 or April 10. There is a handwritten note in the Steuben School District 5 file in the Jewell County Courthouse that states "April 16 – 1872 9 square miles" it is signed "Richard Comstock, Co. Supt."

When Charles was attending the school in 1884, it was housed in a log building and H. P. Diamond was the district clerk. Seventy students attended that school year, learning under a single instructor. There were two terms, a three-month term taught by J. Tinkar for $30 per month. Ray Eastwood taught a six-month term for $29 a month.

Charles Diamond's son, Ed Diamond attended during 1915, when nine of the 20 students had the surname, Diamond. The school was then held in a wood frame structure. By the time Ed Diamond's sons, Richard and Bert, were attending the school, the classes were held in a red-brick building. That building was built in 1926 and dedicated in November of that year. Three generations of the Diamond family attended Steuben School, in three different buildings.

Ray Wharton of Deshler, Neb., attended school in the red-brick building during the 1939 to 1940 school year. He and his older brother, Ed, were part of the group of 14 attending that year. Among others, Wharton remembers Jerry Ahrens and June Cederburg were students and the teacher was Grace McNichols.

Anther student during the '39 to '40 school year was Beth Ferguson, the daughter of John and Letha Bashford Ferguson and mother of Janet Tyler of Mankato. John had gone also to school at Steuben School, attending eight years. He received his eighth grade diploma from Steuben School in 1904 at a ceremony at the Presbyterian Church in Webber. He wrote and delivered an essay "Habit" at the ceremony.

In 1965, John wrote a chronical of his life to that point which is collected in a scrapbook with other memorabilia. It contains much historical information about the Steuben and Rubens areas. Of particular interest is a hand drawn map of the area on which Ferguson located 51 residences, schools, a church and a store. This map confirms the location of the Steuben School.

Starting in 1872, Steuben was a community area for nearly 30 years with businesses, a post office and a school. After the Steuben Post Office closed, Steuben School District 5 educated students for another 59 years. The last school session ended in the spring of 1959. Though used for a home for a time after the school closed, the once proud building now stands in shambles.