The communities of Emden and Hartsburg are only 6 miles apart. Both towns were founded in 1871 and, like most communities in Logan County, were a result of the Railroad in the mid/late 19th Century. They are examples today of small town living with only hundreds of residents in each. 

Emden has chosen to preserve some of the prairie history with renovating the Bethel Schoolhouse, the one room schoolhouse used from 1862-1948; and Bethel Church, built in 1873.