Atwater

The Atwater Townsite Company, incorporated Oct. 18th, 1887, with James E. McCall, John J. Mohler, John I. Jones, Wm. B. Long, H. L. Markley, John E. Maxwell, and Lewis Maston, directors. Atwater comprised the southeast forty acres of Section 34, Township 33, Range 29. The plat was filed Nov. 9th, 1887. 

Patty Brown Haskins wrote in the Meade County History book of when Timothy and Elizabeth Bonham first came to Meade County: My grandfather's claim was south of the present Meade State Lake. Here on the claim, or near it, was Sand Creek where the water was better than usual and if there was no water in the creek there was always water a few inches below the surface. After grandmother arrived, looking over the claim and noting the good water she remarked, "This is a good place to be, at water." So here they stayed and called it Atwater. A post office was established here and served the community for a number of years, also a school house was built where they had church and Sunday School. 

Frank Sullivan wrote that Atwater had a general store, blacksmith shop, public hall, etc. "It was quite a social center, the principal social activity of those days being confined to dances at the hall, at which dances Bill Long usually furnished the music and Fred Judd did the calling; the proceeds, after paying the rent, being divided between Long and Judd in the ratio of 2 to 1." 

A post office bearing the original name was maintained in the neighborhood of the old town even after the town's demise. The town site was vacated by the Legislature of 1899.

In the Museum we have a copy of what must have been the original map of Atwater. It was certified by James McCall, president of the Atwater Town Site Company, surveyed and drawn by Moses Black, Meade County surveyor. There are 28 blocks laid out and divided by 12 streets with names such as High Street, Logan Street, Decatur Street, Market Street, Bonham Street, Maxwell Street, these going north and south, plus Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana Streets going east and west. How many of these lots were occupied is unknown, but it certainly was an ambitious plan to began with.

The town only lasted 12 years, but one can still visit the Atwater Cemetery which was located one mile north of the town, in the SW/4 sec 26-T33-R29, just east of the intersection of Highway K23 and X Road.