Thomas D. "T. D." Wardell
Former Mayor of El Paso
Member of the First City Council of El Paso/Derby
Hardware Merchant 1888 - 1931
Term as Mayor <br />1917 - 1921 <br /><br />Term as El Paso City Council Member At Large <br />Jun. 1903 - Apr. 1905 <br />
<p>Thomas D. Wardell came to El Paso around 1878 as a young man at age 20. Like many other people who arrived during El Paso’s early years, he came from Tuscarawas Township, Ohio, the former home of El Paso co-founder, J.H. Minnich, who promoted the new town heavily to residents of his previous home state.</p>
<p>Being young and single, T.D. Wardell was probably in search of a place to make his fortune, as he is found in the 1880 U.S. census living in Leadville, Colorado, a hot-spot due to its active mining. But his occupation is listed as a farmer in the census instead of a miner, while apparently living in a boarding house with other young men, some of whom did work in the mines. And, like most of those hoping to strike it rich in Colorado, Wardell didn’t stay long.</p>
T.D. Wardell was back in Rockford Township, Kansas, by 1885, where he had married Carrie Moon and they had a one-year-old son. Carrie was the daughter of one of Sedgwick County’s early settlers, Arnold Moon, who preempted his quarter-section farm in 1871, three miles east of the new town of El Paso. Unfortunately, Carrie died a few months after the census was taken in 1885. Wardell remarried two years later, to Carrie’s older sister, Hester Moon, who had also been married previously. <br /><br />
<p><a href="https://derbykshistorymuseum.org/blog/f/td-wardell-community-leader" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here to read more about T. D. Wardell</a> by the Derby Historical Society and Museum.<br /><br />(Image is a slide created in 1969 of an original photo)</p>
Derby Historical Museum
Arkansas River bridge proposition
Wichita City Eagle
Wichita City Eagle
Wichita, KS
Nov. 28, 1872
Page 3
Accessed at Newspapers.com
Public Domain
Lauber Farm & Silo
Brookwood & Redwood
(Historic Landmark #5)
In 1869, Fred Gerteis homesteaded this land. In 1900, he traveled back to Germany to get his 23-year-old nephew, Albert Lauber, to help work the land by promising the farm eventually would become his. After Albert Lauber returned to Germany to get his sweetheart in 1907, he married Theresa Marie Metzger on Ellis Island. In 1909, Albert, Marie and their infant son John moved into the farmhouse (built in 1874 for $1,200), and Fred Gerteis moved his family to Wichita. Lumber hauled by wagon from Salina was used to build many of the first homes in this area.
The Laubers grew wheat, alfalfa and milo. They raised chickens, cattle, hogs and milk cows. Albert served on the board of education for 27 years and served as clerk of Rockford Township. The silo that used to store grain is a short hike east of this sign and is believed to be the oldest structure in Derby today.
In 1943, John Lauber married Juanita Riley (both had a college education), and they moved into the farmhouse where they raised two children, Mary (married Dick Dameron, 1968) and John Albert, Jr. (married Dixie Madill, 1976). They farmed 1,500 acres. Also in 1943, Albert and Marie Lauber moved to a smaller home near the east edge of the Lauber farm at what later became Valley Stream Court (half mile east of Rock Road). Continuing Albert’s commitment to education, John, John Jr. and Dick each took turns serving on the board of education. Juanita was very active in the community, especially the Derby 4-H Club for 25 years. Mary taught in Derby Public Schools for 28 years.
Beginning in the 1950s, the Laubers sold land piece by piece for housing developments and community facilities, including two high schools (now Fire Station 81 and Derby Middle School) and the Derby Recreation Center. In 1972, the 98-year-old farmhouse was demolished and replaced at the same site with a ranch-style home designed by Juanita Lauber (1015 E. Madison Avenue).
With help from the 381st civil engineering group at McConnell Air Force Base, the Derby Jaycees (est. 1958) constructed the town’s first ballfield at Riley Park. After “Jaycee Field” was dedicated July 4, 1966, the Jaycees established Derby Jr. Football, fire safety education and many other youth programs, plus fireworks and a parade on July 4. Throughout the 1970s, the Jaycees oversaw youth baseball and slow-pitch adult softball programs at Riley Park until the magnitude of the operation was too much for these committed volunteers. In 1980, the Derby Recreation Commission (DRC) was established and soon took over management of baseball and softball at Riley and other newer parks.
Commonly thought of as a “city father,” John Lauber, Sr. died in 1986 in a tractor accident. In2019, Mary (Lauber) Dameron’s memory and records played a key role in documenting community history and celebrating the city’s sesquicentennial.
City of Derby
El Paso Cemetery
700 E. Kay St.
(Historic Landmark #6)
El Paso Cemetery sits on a slight hill in the center of Derby but was once surrounded by farmland and was about a mile southeast of the growing settlement. In 1878, the cemetery opened, 9 years after the Garrett family staked a claim near the bank of Spring Creek about a mile south. Over the years, the cemetery expanded, and today the original cemetery comprises just the southeast corner of the entire cemetery. In this historic area lie buried many inhabitants of the early settlement of Rockford Township and the town of El Paso, later renamed Derby.
In 1878, the first interment was Robert H. Stafford, born May 15, 1823 in Indiana and died Dec. 17, 1878 from “lung fever.” He was husband to Mary A. Stafford and was a resident of Gypsum Township at the time of his death. He was buried in Block 7, Lot 20, Space 1. In the spring and summer of 1879, 10 interments were made “from private cemeteries,” which is assumed to mean family members buried on their farms were transferred to the new cemetery.
Today, cemetery officials maintain the original leather-bound Book of Interments, which was custom made by a book binder in Topeka. Copies of pages from that book are on display in the Derby Historical Museum and make an interesting read. One column in the book shows the place of birth but is titled Place of Nativity. Another column lists the cause of death and is titled Disease. Noted “diseases” include “kicked by a mule,” “thrown from a horse,” and “drowned in well.” The most frequent cause of death in early book entries was consumption (later known as tuberculosis). We can only guess what was meant by the disease labeled “pitchfork” and “false statements.” Yikes!
City of Derby
Arkansas River Crossing Landmark
Warren Riverview Park, 321 E. Market St.
(Historic Landmark #1)
In 1871, Dr. Henry Clay Tucker arrived in this area from Ohio and began practicing medicine. With no bridge across the Arkansas River, he often swam across to tend to patients west of the river.
In 1873, an influx of people to El Paso, Kansas (renamed Derby in 1956) meant abridge was needed to replace the ferrying of people, wagons and cattle across the river. After W. J. Hobson secured long timbers for the pilings, the El Paso Bridge opened to the public. Even though the tolls established by county commissioners for this bridge may seem reasonable to us today (25 cents for a wagon with two horses, plus 10 cents for each additional horse or ox), many townspeople didn’t want to pay. They continued to ford the river north of the bridge at a rocky area that allowed a safe crossing. This “rocky ford” was commonly known and became the basis for the name Rockford Township.
Eventually, the bridge washed away, and in 1878 voters of Rockford Township approved $5,000 in bonds to build a new bridge. While several bridges have been built at this site since then, this site remains the original Arkansas River crossing for the first residents of Derby and areas south. In 2000, Sedgwick County built the current Purple Heart Bridge and named it in honor of the sacrifices made by our military heroes for our nation’s freedom.
In 2018, the City of Derby opened Warren Riverview Park, named to honor the legacy of Ray and Virginia Warren’s commitment to outdoor family activities and Boy Scouts, as well as their dedication to the Derby community since moving here in 1955. The park site previously served the city for decades with wastewater treatment and public works facilities
City of Derby