Wheat, Cattle & Flight: The Industries That Built Kansas

Kansas fed the nation, drove its cattle to the rails, and then learned to fly.

The wheat state

Volga-German (German-Russian) immigrants brought hard Turkey Red winter wheat to Kansas in the 1870s, and it turned the prairie into the breadbasket of America — the crop that still defines the state.

The cattle towns

After the Civil War, Texas longhorns were driven up the trails to the Kansas railheads, and Abilene, Newton, Wichita, and Dodge City became the wild, short-lived cow towns of legend.

Air Capital of the World

In the twentieth century Wichita became the Air Capital of the World, home to Cessna, Beechcraft, Stearman, and later Boeing — building the light aircraft that carried the American century aloft.

Finding your Kansas ancestors

• Company, union, and census occupation records tie a family to this industry — start with the occupation column and the local company’s payroll and union rolls.
• Census records (free through 1950) list occupation and residence — placing your family in a specific Kansas county and town, decade by decade.
• Death & cemetery records — search our Kansas database for the people in this story and the generations around them.
• The Kansas Historical Society in Topeka holds the deeper collections — company, church, military, and county records.
• Newspapers on the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America carried the obituaries, accidents, and milestones of these communities.

Frequently asked questions