My great-grandmother’s Christensen family were among the early residents of Leonardville, Kansas. Hans and Christiane Christensen, were drawn to the region after their immigration from Denmark to be near Hans’ brother Niels Christensen, a nearby resident who had immigrated fifteen years earlier. Hans and Christiane were shown in the 1875 Kansas census in the region, moved to Wisconsin to live near Christiane’s brothers - and sometime not long after they sold their Wisconsin land in 1881, came to Riley County with most of their children. Sons (and twins) Chris and John, became Leonardville businessmen during this period, owning a harness shop, a skating rink, and a photography business.

A few photos of early Leonardville survive, quite likely taken by Chris, as they show his studio marking. They were in the possession of his sister (and my great-grandmother) Ida - who was in Leonardville with the family in the 1880’s until she married and moved to Dakota Territory (later South Dakota), nearby her brother Fred Christensen.

These early photos passed from Ida to her daughter Josephine, and then to her daughter - my mother - Dorothy Ofstedahl (Laird). One of the photos was in an envelope marked “Mother’s - from Leonardville, Kansas” - which was in Josephine’s handwriting and is posted just below. I sent one of the images to a Leonardville web site a few years ago. But there are seven in total, which I believe are of historic value. I have enhanced and colorized the images. A few are of scenes in Leonardville, and two others are of Christensen family homes. The backside of the photos are posted if there are identifying notes or studio markings. Most are undated, but all appear to be from the early years of Leonardville - as John left in the 1890’s and Chris left not long after 1900.

There are many more photos of family members, and as web pages are developed on this site for each Christensen, those photos will be posted as well. Some of those photos were taken at Chris Christensen’s studio, some were taken at the Ostlund Studio in Leonardville, and the one photo below not taken by Chris was taken by the E. Anderson Studio in Leonardville. A few surviving letters from that period will be posted with on the page of the sibling that was the letter writer or recipient. All this gives us a view of Leonardville in that early time of its history.

Photo One - Swagerty’s Store and an Adjoining Business. This photo is posted at the top of this page, and contains many unidentified people. A history of Leonardville prepared for the 50th anniversary of the city in 1931 includes this paragraph: “Among the men who were prominent in the early history of the town were Dr. F. M. Thomas, A. Swagerty who started a harness shop and the Christensen Bros., who later became the harness men. They also opened a roller skating rink which for a time did a big business.” The backside of this photo, with the Christensen Brothers markings, is posted below.

Photo Two. This early photograph of Leonardville, which notes the marking C. A. Christensen, artist, at the right and lists Leonardville in the bottom middle of the photograph - was the one I provided to the Leonardville website linked earlier on this page. On that sight, they have the caption: “South end of Erpelding Avenue, looking north from the Railroad Crossing (circa 1890)  [photo received from John Laird (California)].”

Photo Three. This photo is of a farm, has Chris Christensen’s markings on front and back of the photo, and has a handwritten note in pencil describing the name of the farm. It appears to be “Otorchein Farm”.

I tried in many ways to enhance and enlarge the pencil note on the back of the photo. It appears to read “Otorchein Farm”, but it is not totally clear. The enhanced note is posted below.

An image of the entire backside of the photograph, including the handwritten note, is posted below.

Photo Four. This photo has the markings of Chris Christensen’s Leonardville studio on the back, but otherwise has no identifying information. It appears to be taken from some height. It has an orchard in the foreground and a “city” in the background. I could use help. Is this Leonardville? The process of enhancing and then colorizing the photo adds texture to this - whereas the original is in a very faded browntone, and the enhancement brings the scene to life.

The backside of this photo shows the Christensen Brothers photo business marking - which likely places the image in Leonardville.

Photo Five. This photo, also with the marking of the Christensen Brothers Photography business on the back - is quite likely of Leonardville, once again from an elevated location. Maybe it was taken from the roof of a building on the main street, looking back toward the rest of the town. The photo has been enhanced and colored - and while, like other photos in this collection, was a very faded browntone, the underlying photo has been brought out by that improvement process.

Posted below is the very familiar backside of this photo with the markings of the Christensen Brothers photography business.

Photo Six. As the note on the backside further below shows, this was the house of Chris Christensen in Kansas. It looks like a person is standing on the front porch. Since the familiar markings of the Christensen photography business were on the front as well as the back, indicating Leonardville, that is likely where this house was. The photo has been enhanced and colorized.

The backside of the photo, with the familiar Christensen Brothers photography marking, also contains a note that indicates the photo was owned by Mrs. Ida Nash (my great-grandmother and Chris’ sister), and reads “Chris’s house in Kan.”

Photo Seven. This photo, taken by a Leonardville studio, was of the house of Niels Christensen - uncle of Chris Christensen. He lived outside of Randolph in Swede Creek Township, and it is likely that this is where the house in the photo was located. I know the house was not in Leonardville, but I thought I would post it here anyway. The inscription - “home of N. Christensen” - is inscribed on the lower right of the photo.

The backside of the photo shows that it was taken by E. Anderson of Leonardville.

A photo that I had thought was from Leonardville . . .

The photo below was made for what was known as a “Stereoscopic image viewer”, which would give the viewer the chance to see the view in a way that was believed to give more depth to the view. I thought it was from Leonardville, but none of the names listed seem to match - as I could not find any of these names in the 1885 Riley County census. It’s a mystery - but I will keep researching where this might be from, as it was clearly a location where our family was. Any recognition of this location or these names would be welcome.

In Photo One, there is a sign that also states the same thing “Groceries & Provisions”. There is also a sign “post office” that indicates a post office at the location. A larger building can be made out at the left.

The significant thing here is that handwritten notes give us more details. At the top of the photo is a note “Taken in the spring of 1882”. Below the left photo are written the names of some of the people in the photo: A. W. Gilbert, J. Fisher, H. C. Wills(?), J.. Cochran, Wm. Gilbert, ass (?), C. Burroughs (?), and J. Baldwin.

The backside of Photo Two is shown below, reading “N. E. Chandler’s Store in 1881 & 1882”.

I welcome any questions, comments, or help on these photos.

Posted December 2022