10/21/2021
New signs installed today on the front of Roth LAW Office 10 North Main Ellinwood, Kansas 67526. I purchased the building in 1997 from Mildred Hartenbower. She and her late husband ran the Tip Top Cleaners dry cleaning business out of this location. Louie Hartenbower who passed away in 1989 also ran a record shop in the basement when I was growing up in Ellinwood. Prior to the Hartenbower ownership William L. Southern and Mabel F. Southern starting around 1924 operated a dry cleaning upstairs and Flower Shop in basement; the location had previously been a Brewery and Cigar Store operated by John Hess starting in 1877. A fire in 1887 destroyed the wood buildings on the block facing east. Thereafter, the City passed an ordinance requiring brick be used to rebuild. A new store front, with higher quality bricks, was installed in 1938.
The initial proposed improvement project was for Quality Glass, LLC a licensed Barton County Contractor, to replace the front windows with energy efficient double pained four and one half (4 1/2') inch wide windows and the boarded over windows above the two (2) front doors would have stained glass inserted which would be viewable from the inside and outside of the building.
After submitting the matching grant application, I was advised the County Commission was interested in a greater improvement in the appearance of the business. The grant was then supplemented to include Mark's Custom Signs a licensed Barton County Contractor to cover over two (2) 33" by 87" signs advertising no longer going concerns with historical images illustrating Ellinwood: "Where the Santa Fe Trail Intersects the Cox Cattle Trail."
The Santa Fe Trail 1821 to 1880 angled across the present townsite of Ellinwood, what is now the Grove Park Golf Course was a favorite campground.
The Cox Cattle Trail was an offshoot of the Chisholm Trail. As Rail Tracks were constructed west across Kansas, Texas Long Horn Cattle would be driven from Texas to the nearest rail station for loading at Abilene, then Ellsworth and eventually Dodge City. The survey by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company was led by William M. Cox the general livestock agent for the railroad. His route near Ellinwood from the mid-1860s until 1873, saved the cattle drovers about 35 miles. The Cox Cattle Trail crossed the Arkansas River at Ellinwood before making its way to Ellsworth.
