Hillsboro, KS

Hillsboro is a Marion County city of 2,732 where Mennonite Brethren history, college life, and a very good September Saturday all meet. John Hill homesteaded here in 1871, and the town grew into a regional center with Tabor College at its heart. Tabor opened in 1908 with 39 students and three instructors; a 1918 fire destroyed its first building, but supporters rebuilt, and the 1920 H.W. Lohrenz Building still stands on campus. The college remains affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren church and gives Hillsboro a student population that changes the rhythm of the town during the school year.

Then comes the Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair, held on the third Saturday in September and drawing makers from across the country. The fair is as much a food memory as a shopping event, with smoked sausage, zwieback, bierocks, kettle corn, and funnel cakes alongside handmade furniture, jewelry, garden art, and seasonal decorations. Unified School District 410 and Tabor are among the community’s longstanding education employers, while Hillsboro Industries adds a manufacturing thread. Hillsboro is a Flint Hills town with a campus, a fair, and a Mennonite kitchen counter all feeding into the same Main Street story.