About

The St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad Company founded the town of Axtell. Dr. Jesse Axtell was an officer of the railroad company. J. Taylor, J. Hebbard and David Smith donated 160 acres of land for a town site. The earliest trace of Axtell was a small building erected by W. H. "Shoestring" Dickinson in the year 1872, the year the town site was laid out. That same year the railroad built a depot and sidetrack and the first school was built in 1872-1873. Michael Murray, who moved to the newly established town of Axtell from St. Bridget, six miles north, opened a mercantile store on the north side of the railroad tracks, where all of the original businesses were located. Thomas Hynes, another St. Bridget resident, came to Axtell in May, 1874 and built his drug store in 1875. A post office was erected and R. F. White assumed the position of postmaster. The year 1872 also marked the first birth in Axtell, a son to W. H. Dickinson. The first death had been George W. Earl, who had been the town's first blacksmith; Earl died in 1874 and was buried at Seneca, Kansas. No marriages were recorded until 1879.