Victoria, Kansas

Victoria is a city in Herzog Township, Ellis County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,129.

The town site originated in the 1867 construction of the Kansas Pacific Railway into western Kansas to connect St. Louis to Denver and to open the land to settlement. The railroad's sudden rerouting and construction west of Junction City was opposed by a Cheyenne military society who attacked the Campbell camp who were establishing a bridge grade across the North Fork of Big Creek at this location (pictured). Commanded by Captain George Armes, the immediate U.S. military response resulted in the Battle of the Saline River, which was followed by two years of open conflict.

George Grant was a Scottish entrepreneur who had established wealth and a clientele that counted the British nobility. In 1873, George Grant arrived in Kansas leading a party of 30 young adults and youth of Scottish and English nobility, including some remittance men sent away by their families to live on stipends. Founding the first of several organized transatlantic settlements in Ellis County, Grant intended to create a ranching community, some lesser nobles of the party hoping to establish large estates in the frontier. Notably, this group brought a herd of thoroughbred Aberdeen Angus cattle, some from Queen Victoria's own stock. Including four bulls, this herd is credited with establishing the American Angus breed.

The colony occupied a roughly 10 mile-wide swath land sections from the tracks south to the Smoky Hill River. With the settlement named Victoria to honor the Queen, the Kansas Pacific Railroad immediately constructed a relatively elaborate stone station-hotel for the colony. At Grant's specification, the Victoria Manor had accommodations befitting gentry waiting for completion of their new homes. The ground floor held a ballroom intended for community gathering. Over 200 Britons arrived in the following years.

Grant brought British architect Robert William Edis to the colony to design his manor house and to lay out his dream town. Grant's Villa became a historic landmark, but the ultimate Victoria plat was an unprepossessing 3 by 3 grid of square blocks. Grant also directed the construction of the St. George Episcopal church, a stone building. Completed in 1877, this was the first church built in the county.

Many of the colonists, however, were reputed for being more interested in sports and dancing than in raising livestock, hiring overseers to manage some estates. The home families of the remittance men learned of this and reduced the stipends, driving these colonists to leave. Having lost his fortune, Grant's sudden death in 1878 accelerated the departure of others of the colony. Some returned to Britain; others left for South America. Grant was buried before the steps of the St. George Church, which would never be consecrated. After Grant's death, the Victoria townsite was platted in 1880 by remaining colonists, particularly Margarat Grant Dunan, niece, caretaker, and executor of the George Grant estate.

Today, the platted church grounds are a largely unoccupied cemetery with a monument to Grant's contribution to American Angus breeds.

While most of the English left, certain Scottish families remained, notably the descendants of Grant as well as the Philips, four of whom served as Mayor of Hays.