LAZETTE.

[See “Cambridge” for further details.]

From Volume I, History of Cowley County, Kansas...

Lazette.

The first settler in this part of the county was J. W. Tull, who built the first house (November 1869), raised the first crop, and taught the first school (in 1870) in the valley. Elder Wm. Gans preached the first sermon. John Thonburgh was the first to settle here.

Dr. T. J. Raybell opened the first store in 1870 and was the first postmaster. In the same year Edward Sutton erected a blacksmith shop and saw and grist mill. The first marriage, December 25, 1870, was Richard Miller to Flora Dudley, by E. Simpson, the first justice of the peace.

The town of Lazette was laid out in 1872 by H. D. Wilkins and S. M. Fall. H. D. Gans was the proprietor of the first hotel (the Black Bear); Thos. Walch opened a blacksmith shop; and B. H. Clover started a steam sawmill. M. Hemenway was the first merchant; and R. C. Story the first attorney-at-law.

The post office opened March 5, 1872, with Manley Hemenway as postmaster. The office closed January 30, 1880, when the town changed its name to Cambridge. Prior to this the town name had been Jeffersonville and Gazette.

When the K. C. L. & S. K. railroad was built south of Lazette, and the town of Cambridge laid out, most of the buildings were moved to that locality, and the early day landmark was eventually destroyed.