Almost every state has a ghost town, with some having hundreds, like Texas. The Lone Star State tops them all with over 500. Kansas isn’t far behind Texas, with 308 such locations.
Alaska has approximately 100 ghost towns, with me having visited the most recognizable, Iditarod. Add to that Phoenix, Alaska, and Susitna Landing, two sites that most Alaskans don’t know existed. The 100 former Alaska ghost towns also include villages, fishing and cannery sites, military posts, and mining locations.
An old postcard I stumbled across isn’t from Texas or Alaska, but rather from Kansas. Englewood, Kansas, still exists, but most of the buildings are vacant or uninhabitable. A video I watched on Englewood shows things to be quite forlorn and void of people. The population in 2025 was recorded as 49, with a yearly decline.
The town organizers of Englewood in 1884 had high aspirations for its success, having “Veritable New Chicago of the Great Southwest” printed in the local newspaper. At one time, there were four dry goods stores located there, three drug stores, two lumber yards, and The Leader-Tribune newspaper. Part of that success had to do with the railroad passing through.
During the early years, crime was kept quite low, even though Englewood was only four miles from the Oklahoma border. That section of Oklahoma, known as no man’s land, had zero law enforcement, with criminals often coming across state lines to raise havoc in Englewood. They were sometimes sent home in a pine box or strung up by vigilantes.
On July 4, 1885, a drunken cowboy fired his pistol off as part of the celebration. John Sconce was eventually tracked down by the Englewood sheriff, and after an exchange of gunfire, Sconce was shot dead.
During a social dance in Englewood on August 6, 1885, a few women with their chaperones, Charles and W.G. Peck, decided to leave the event around midnight. An inebriated cowboy, Philip Scannon, not wanting to see the ladies go because he still wanted to dance, tried to stop the party from leaving.
When a fracas broke out, the liquored-up cowboy struck Charles Peck over the head with his pistol, inflicting a nasty wound. Philip Scannon was immediately shot dead by the Peck brothers. The Pecks must’ve been found not guilty later on because newspaper articles have them still buying and selling property soon after.
Getting back to my postcard, times were probably not as rough and tumble in Englewood in 1909 as they were in the 1880s. Someone named Leonard sent Miss Margaret Rusco in Great Bend, Kansas, this card from the Englewood post office on August 19, 1909.
A one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp was hand-cancelled by Thomas Todd, the acting postmaster. Leonard’s short letter reads as follows:
“Englewood, KS 8/18
Dear Margaret
This town is worse than nowhere. Not much of a buy. Am going by coach in morning and drive across to Pratt and will work the R.I. the rest of week. Leonhard”
Research shows that one month later, on September 9, Margaret Rusco became the bride of Leonhard Adler. Despite Leonard’s lack of writing with a romantic flair, the couple stayed together until both passed away in 1966 and 1967.
The R.I. that Leonard mentioned in the postcard is the Rock Island Railroad, which was built through various Kansas towns but not Englewood. A different railroad stopped there. Leonhard Adler was evidently traveling for business when he wrote Margaret.
Leonhard and his wife owned Adler Elevator and Grain Company and were well-to-do financially. Leonhard served as Mayor of Goddard, Kansas, for several terms. They had no children.
The couple lived normal and respectful lives based upon newspaper accounts, which include their obituaries. Those two cowboys, Philip Scannon and John Sconce, along with other desperadoes, would have lived much longer had they merely stayed away from the bottle.
Unfortunately, nothing has really changed where excess drinking and deaths are concerned. The major difference today is that unruly cowboys generally drive pickup trucks rather than ride horses.
I like to write junk... 