This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: JimMcMillen75 Surnames: WLKIE HILL SIBBALD Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.kansas.counties.dickinson/487.1.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: The Oregon Trail turned northwest long before it got to Abilene. The Santa Fe Trail was farther south than Abilene. The Merchants Hotel was one of a few operating in Abilene in 1880. The others are probably named on a Dickinson County website: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ksdickin/ OR http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/dickinso/index.html . My great-grandmother, Agnes (Wilkie-Hill) Sibbald was proprietor of the Merchants Hotel in the mid-1880s but I don't know exactly when she started. As both a genealogist and a relative, I've talked to many of Agnes's descendants who still live in Dickinson County, but no one has ever mentioned any records from the hotel. In "Old Abilene Town," a block of old buildings representing early Abilene, there is a "replica" of the Merchants Hotel. One website says it is an almost exact replica--not quite! The original appears to be a noticably larger building, with double windows each place the replica has one, and deeper. The sign runs the whole length of the roof in both, so if the current sign is from the original, I take "larger" back, but the double windows comment still stands. The original porch roof went almost to the bottom of the second floor windows and had fewer supporting posts. The hotel was earlier called the Winnesheik House. It was located on "A Street between Spruce and Cedar" and was described as a "Goodly sized frame building." Have you contacted the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka, http://www.kshs.org They frequently come up with the oddest and most wonderful (for a genealogist) information, including a photo of the Merchants Hotel about the time Agnes was proprietor; unfortunately she's not in the photo. jimmcmillen/-\earthlink.net Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.