A History of Andale

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Andale is located in Sherman Township in Sedgwick county Kansas. The land which Andale is on was part of old Indian lands which the government had considered worthless plains. By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, most of the Indian lands previously opened up for white settlement were taken, and the influx of white hunters and settlers upon the Indian ground began.

The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged veteran soldiers to take up claims. The first five who arrived in this area were disabled Civil War veterans: Ellis and Mifflin Shaner, George and Henry Johnson and George Barnhart. They arrived in Wichita on August 8, 1870. Sedgwick County was organized in 1870 with Wichita as the county seat. By 1877 Sherman Township, named for General Sherman, had been created; it is shown on the 1880 map of Sedgwick County.

A Wichita Beacon article stated that Andale was as “old as the rails.” Since it was chartered the same year as the railroad went through the area, 1855. Andale is a compound of Anderson and Dale from the pioneer families of J. Will Dale and George Anderson. There were three brothers in the Dale family. It was the Honorable Frank Dale whose name was incorporated in the town’s name; he was “appointed Supreme Justice of the state of Oklahoma, and it is with pardonable pride that Andale points to him as one of her early settlers. Another brother was the Honorable David Dale who was county attorney and later Judge of the Sedgwick County District Court. A third brother was a banker who was instrumental in bringing the first bank to Andale.

G.W. Anderson owned the farm later occupied by Jacob Grassl, and he encouraged the building of the Catholic Church. The original copy of the warranty deed shows the G.W. Anderson sold land for the city for the consideration of $15,000 “which should be known as An Dale Kansas. There was a small controversy over the selection of the name of the proposed town. Neither Anderson nor Dale would sell ground for the site unless the town was named after him; so, they compromised on a combination of their names.

Railroad development spurred Andale’s early growth. The community is surrounded by fertile farmland. German immigrants and German decedents of immigrants from other parts of the United States settled it. Today, community leaders who have a variety of backgrounds guide Andale. Some of these leaders draw from a long heritage, while others are newcomers.

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