A history of Oberlin,
since 1872
Postcards, papers and photographs of Oberlin from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Oberlin was platted in 1878. It was named after Oberlin, Ohio. Its first post office was established in April, 1878, and the city was incorporated in 1885.
On September 30, 1878, Northern Cheyenne, fleeing from Indian Territory to their homes in the north during the Northern Cheyenne Exodus, attacked homesteaders near Oberlin, then a tiny hamlet. The raid's victims are commemorated in the "Last Indian Raid in Kansas" room of the Decatur County Museum, and by a monument in the town cemetery.
On April 29, 1942, an extremely violent tornado swept away three farms south of Oberlin, killing 15 people. Oberlin was spared from direct hit, as it passed 1 mi (1.6 km) east of city. This tornado was retrospectively rated F5 on the Fujita scale.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Oberlin’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewThe Only Remianing Sod School Hou…, 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Oberlin
See all 6 →
Oberlin, decade by decade
1990s
1 historic place in Oberlin
1 place in Oberlin is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as The Only Remianing Sod School House, in Decatur County, Kansas (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (1) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.