[2] The settlement was founded in the late 1800s by a Frenchman named Ernest de Boissière, who believed in Fourierian utopian socialism.

However, because he poured some of his money into supporting orphaned black children, he garnered heavy criticism from wealthy whites; desiring to escape the hostile opinions of his neighbors, Boissière was left with no choice but to leave the American South.

In 1869, Boissière purchased between 3000 and 3500 acres of land in the county from the Kansas Educational Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church and went about setting up his intentional settlement.

[4][5] After operating under myriad names, including Kansas Cooperative Farm, Prairie Home, and Valeton, Boissière's colony came to be known as Silkville, as it was intended to be a Fourierian commune that survived via silk production.

[9] To educate the children of the colony, Boissière established a school that, according to author and historian Daniel Fitzgerald, was "the first in Kansas in which the instructors attempted to teach the contemporary world literature of the day".

Despite this critical reception, Silkville struggled to make money, largely because it was competing with comparatively cheaper fabrics imported from Asia, and because Boissière refused to use cost-effective American dyes.

Financial reasons compelled the Order to give up the property, and after a long court battle, it passed into the hands of lawyers from Topeka.

[14] One of the modern day barns was once the settlement's cocoonery, although it was reduced to a one-level building after a tornado damaged the top floor.