Haysville In The Mid 1900s

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Submitted anonymously by a former resident…

Grandpa Tyson: Managed the old grain elevator when we first moved to Haysville in 1938. I don’t know his first name, everyone (at least the kids) just called him Grandpa Tyson. At the time Grandpa Tyson was there, the elevator included a hardware store that was a throwback to the early 1900’s.
Also, I believe Mr. James Mitchell ran an icehouse on the north side of Baughman’s store. Electrification put the icehouse out of business and Mr. Mitchell went to work for Beech Aircraft during the war. Mr. Ward ran the blacksmith shop, which was still in business until the war, but he also went to work in the defense industry (Boeing, I think). He tried to reopen the shop after the war, but modern farm equipment made blacksmithing obsolete so he went back to working in industry.
Rev. Reese was the pastor of Christian church all of the time I can remember.
The Methodist church had several pastors. The one I remember was Mr. Miller. He was a part-time preacher that also held services at Peck and worked at Boeing (I think?).

Growing up in the 70s

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Submitted anonymously…

Some of the things I remember about Haysville in the 70s as a kid.
A lot of the entertainment as I recall was centered around the Cowskin. Some of these activities were
Crawdad fishing.
Making rafts – sometimes using big pieces of Styrofoam that were packing material obtained from the old appliance store that was located at the grain elevator.
The big swing that swung out over the creek behind Grandlane.
Also walking/scooting the pipe across the creek.
There was a swimming hole at the big ditch near the seneca street bridge. I think it was referred to as the bluffs.
Before there were video games I remember playing pinball at a barber shop that was in the south end of Grandlane.

What Happened To The Peaches?

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Haysville was once known as the “Peach Capital”. Some of the area orchards were…

Cain
Hurley
Nelson
Blood
Hancock
Nicholson

Local residents suggest the orchards may have closed due to the following…
With unpredictable weather (like early warm temps and late frosts) it became just to risky of a crop. This at a time when modern transportation probably made it faster and cheaper to ship them in from places with better growing climates.
Bad ground water from the oil companies pumping in salt water to increase oil production.

Sources at the KSU John C. Pair Horticultural Center also add the following reasons…

Possibly not salt water being pumped into the ground but salt veins in the earth.
A glut on the market at one time during the peak time when there were a lot of peaches.

Another problem was that at one time a lot of the growers switched to two varieties of Peaches called Topaz and Loring but, those two varieties proved to be very poor performers for this area.

From a Kansas City Times article dated May 25th 1972…

Haysville, Kan.—Haysville or­chardmen plagued by freezes, hail and adverse peach crops have turned to raising hogs. The April 1 freeze destroyed nearly all the peach crop. Hail last year did much damage to the peaches. Not since 1967 have the orchards produced what owners consider a bumper peach crop. For years Haysville has been recognized as the peach capital of Kansas. “We’re just getting more diversified, for this peach crop will let you down sometimes,” explained John Garner, manager of Nicholson’s Orchards. Gerald Blood said winter kill da peaches motivated him to start a 1,000-head hog operation a year ago. “There is a great need for market hogs in Kansas,” Blood asserted.

Haysville Newspapers

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The Sun-Times. Began publication in 2007.


The Haysville Sun. Began publication in 2007. At first it was a competitor of the Haysville Times and later purchased the Haysville Times to become the Sun-Times.


The Haysville Times.


The Daily Reporter.

The Haysville Register

The Haysville Herald. Circa 1950s.

The Haysville Pioneer

Keyword: newspaper