Harper County is located in south-central Kansas, about 50 miles southwest of Wichita. The 2008 census reported 5,857 residents. The adjacent counties are Kingman County, Sumner County, Barber County, Grant County (Oklahoma), and Alfalfa County (Oklahoma).

The history of the Harper County Conservation District is a little bit amiss. We aren’t sure if the actual history reports were destroyed in a misfortunate explosion in 1984, or if it ever existed. So we went on a search for the closest history as possible. Here is what we found in copies of the Anthony Republican at the Anthony Public Library:

February 3, 1944
Soil Conservation
Roy Higginbotham, of Wellington, with the U.S. department of agriculture, soil conservation service, told members of the Lions club at their meeting last Thursday of the steps necessary to organize county soil conservation districts, and of the benefits that might be expected from such organization. A moving picture film, “The Living Land,” depicted the ravages of soil erosion and the consequent loss of fertility.

August 3, 1944 - It wasn’t until six months later, did the newspaper run another notice
Soil Conservation
Kansas now has 39 organized soil conservation districts, 14 more than were in existence one year ago. Counties listed by R.C. Lind, extension soil conservationist, Kansas State College, Manhattan, as having established districts during the past year are: Atchison, Nemaha, Decatur, Saline, Phillips, Sheridan, Ellsworth, Lane, Chase, Osborne, Graham, Woodson, Anderson and Scott. After a district has been established, the soil conservation service will furnish the district one or more technicians to work with individual farmers on their soil conservation problems. The salary of the technician, who works under the direction of a local board composed of five farmers of the county, is paid out of federal funds appropriated to the United States department of agriculture. A district can be established in Harper County per county if a majority of the farmers favor the organization.

November 9, 1944
Soil Conservation
Farm families and business men interested in soil conservation work and community organization are invited to attend a community meeting, sponsored by the Harper County farm bureau, to be held at the Anthony Courthouse at 8:00 pm Wednesday, Nov 15. Arrangements have been made for moving pictures, showing the results of soil conservation work and food preservation.

November 16, 1944
Seven Points Listed in Soil Conservation was an article written by Professor R.I. Throckmorton, head of the agronomy department. 
“Proper land use, maintaining the organic content of soils, adapted and conserving rotations, proper use of lime and phosphorus, and the use of good tillage methods are factors listed as necessary complements of contouring and terracing.”

At a meeting of the Harper County agriculture leaders, it was decided to petition the state soil conservation committee to take the first steps in organizing a soil conservation district for the county. The petitions had to be signed by twenty-five land occupiers requesting establishment of a district. By January 18, 1945 there were 45 soil conservation districts already organized in the state of Kansas under the state law. Thirteen were organized in 1944 alone. At that time, the program was carried out cooperatively by the district, the state, and the U.S. soil conservation service.

On February 6, 1945 a petition to organize a conservation district, signed by 135 Harper County land occupiers was filed in the office of the State soil conservation committee. On February 22, 1945 George W. Reinhart, the State Soil Conservation Committee Chairman, submitted a notice of hearing in the Anthony Republican for the organization of the proposed Harper County soil conservation district. The hearing was held on March 8, 1945 at the Anthony Municipal Hall. Anyone that owned, rented or leased land was invited to attend this hearing. It was the unanimous opinion of the attendees at the hearing that Harper County was in need of a Soil conservation district. All would vote at a referendum on March 24th, 26th, and 27th on whether the county wanted the services of an expert technician to assist them develop practices to reduce soil erosion.

A notice from the State Soil Conservation Committee dated April 3, 1945 was published on April 12, 1945 in the Republican. It was reported that out of 259 votes cast at the referendum 233 favored the organization of the Harper County Soil Conservation District. The number of votes needed for the proposal to carry was 194 or 75% of the total votes. According to the State Conservation Commission (SCC), the Harper County Soil Conservation District charter date was April 28, 1945. Harper County was the 49th county in the state to organize a soil conservation district.

The next step in the process of the formation of the district was to elect 5 local supervisors to handle the affairs of the district. Initially, two of those supervisors were to be appointed by the State Soil Conservation Committee to serve as election officials, with the remaining three being elected by county voting. We are under the assumption that Henry Schmidt and Ellis Stackfleth were the two appointed by the State Soil Conservation Committee, because their names do not appear on the ballot. The candidates, which could be anyone, were selected by a nominating petition, which required 25 signatures of local farmers. After the nominations were received by the two appointed supervisors, elections were held allowing all land occupiers of Harper County to vote. Those nominated were Casper Rife, Anthony; Claude Meade, Anthony; W. Clarence Fulton, Harper and O.D. Hanna, Corwin.

The election was held May 12th, 14th, and 15th, 1945. According to a notice submitted by the State Soil Conservation Committee on June 21, 1945, the three elected supervisors and voting totals were as follows; Claude Meade – 44; Casper Rife – 34; O.D. Hanna – 31. In an article published on June 14, 1945 in the Anthony Republican Casper Rife of Anthony, was elected president, Henry Schmidt of Freeport was elected vice-president and Ellis Stackfleth, secretary. Other members of the board of supervisors were O.D. Hanna, of Corwin and Claude Meade, of Anthony.

We would be glad to hear from you! Please let us know if you have other history facts about the Harper County Conservation District. You can use the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Harper County Conservation District
803 Fanning Drive | Anthony, Kansas 67003 | Phone: (620) 842-5910