Old Runnymede Church - Harper, KS - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

County of Church: Harper County
Location of Church: 11th St. & Pine St., Harper
Historic Person connected to this church: Francis J. S. Turnley
Cornerstone laid: 11/28/1889

"On November 28, 1889, the cornerstone was laid for the Runnymede Episcopal Church. It was a small wood-frame structure with minimal Gothic Revival detailing. It was erected in a little more than a month and dedicated in May 1890. The pride of the English colony was the Runnymede Arms, which opened as a hotel in December 1889.

"As popular as the town was to English immigrants, it was not enough to attract a rail line. Turnly was part of a group that was in negotiations with the Wichita & El Paso for several years. However it became clear in 1892 that the railroad would not be coming, and Turnly realized that the town would not be able to survive. Turnly left Kansas in July 1892 never to return." ~ Kansapedia: Kansas Historical Society

"This is the church that once stood in Runnymede, an English village, nine and one half miles northeast of Harper. The church was first dedicated as St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in 1889, but was rededicated in 1893, when the Episcopalians of Harper purchased the frame building and moved it to its present location at llth and Pine Streets.

"Runnymede was established by an Irish promoter who persuaded wealthy English and Irish families to send their sons to America to study farming. During a period of five years, this community flourished, then withered and died from the lack of a railroad, leaving us with a solitary grave in a lonely field and to the people of Harper, this church." ~ Historical Marker on site

"Two miles northeast of here, in 1890, stood a typical English village. Curving driveways led to English-style houses set among rows of clipped hedges. Nearby were polo grounds, a steeplechase course, a race track, tennis courts, and a football field. Red-coated hunters rode to hounds across the buffalo grass prairie. Farms and orchards were modeled after English estates and on the townsite a three story hotel and other businesses were established. The promoter of all this British activity was an Irishman who persuaded wealthy families to send sons to the colony to learn American farming methods. In practice, Runnymede strongly resembled a modern dude ranch. Although at one time, a hundred young Englishmen lived in the settlement, a number of whom owned estates, it was a failure as a colony. When hard times came old Runnymede collapsed and most of its remittance men returned to England. Today wheat fields cover the townsite." ~ Historical Marker