Dorrance was founded in June 1867 when the Kansas Pacific Railway reached the area. It was named after Oliver Dorrance, the railroad superintendant at the time. The first settlers were from Germany, England, and Ireland who arrived in 1870. A prairie fire destroyed much of the town center in March 1879, and the new layout was formalized in 1880.
Volga German families settled in and around Dorrance.
The townsite of Cordia was formed on 1 July 1920 as an offshoot of the Liebenthal Parish on fifteen acres donated by Joseph Legge, Fritz Oelkers and M. Close. It received its charter on August 5th of the same year.
The community of Cordia never really consisted of anything more than the church and the rectory. Today, all that remains of Cordia is the cemetery located east of the former church site.
Volga German families settled in and around Collyer, Kansas.
Catharine was founded 8 April 1876 by a group of Volga German immigrants who had arrived the previous fall in Topeka. The original settlers included the following families (with the total number of people in each family in parenthesis):
from Katharinenstadt
Justus Bissing (7)
Friedrich Karlin (4)
Peter Karlin (3)
Jacob Karlin (3)
Friedrick Koerner (10)
They were joined on 27 July 1876 by another group of families from Katharinenstadt:
Bunker Hill was founded in 1871 along the Kansas Pacific Railway. There had been a station of the Butterfield Overland Express on the site, and the town took its name from it.
Volga German families settled in and around Bison, Kansas.
The Bender Hill community is located in southern Russell County, Kansas. It is named after the Bender family from Kratzke which settled there in 1876.
Many Volga German families settled in and around Bazine, Kansas.
Antonino is an unincorporated community in Ellis County, Kansas. It was established in 1904 by parishoners from St. Francis Catholic Church in Munjor who wanted to establish a parish nearer to their homes. Most of these re-settlers originially came from the colony of Ober-Monjou. They wanted to name the town St. Anthony, but because there was already a town called Anthony in Harper County, they settled on the name of Antonino, the name of the town in Brazil in which several of the families had lived before they came to Kansas.
Volga German families settled in and around Alexander, Kansas.