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Names Of Towns In Kansas
Town names come from many different sources. Sometimes a town was named in honor of an army officer or a town-founder or pioneer woman. Some towns were named for Native Americans, or for a grove of trees or a nearby river. Occasionally, foreign words instead of English were used. Our first town falls in the last category.
EUREKA (Greenwood County). The word “Eureka” is of Greek origin. It means “I have found it.” In 1857, the first settlers to the area found a spring of cool clear water near where the Eureka City Fire station is today and one of the men shouted “Eureka!”
HOWARD (Elk County). Howard City, as it was called in earlier times, was founded in 1870 and later the town was just called Howard, after General O.O. Howard.
AMERICUS (Lyon County). Named after Americus Vespucius who was the Italian navigator for whom America was named.
HUMBOLDT (Allen County). Named for Baron von Humboldt, a German, by the settlers of German origin who settled in Humboldt. It was organized as a village in 1866.
YATES CENTER (Woodson County). Mr. Albert Yates gave the tract of land for the town site. Yates Center was founded in 1867.
PEABODY (Marion County). The officials of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad were asked by the settlers of the village of Cowsburg to decide on a different name for this little railroad stop. In honor of F.H. Peabody of Boston, the treasurer of the railroad, the officials named the town Peabody in 1871.
AUGUSTA (Butler County). In 1868, the U.S. government made a treaty with the Osage Indians and a twenty- mile strip of land was opened for settlement. This strip of land was bought by C.N.
James for the sum of $40. Augusta was founded and named in honor of James’s wife.
GREENSBURG (Kiowa County). Named for O.R. Green, a stagecoach driver at Kingman. He got the nickname “Cannonball” because he always drove his route so fast and recklessly.
EL DORADO (Butler County). The name is of Spanish origin. “El” is Spanish for “the” and “Dorado” means “Gilded.” El Dorado means, therefore, “The Gilded.” Shortly after the discovery of America, the Spanish heard of a people living in South America who had much gold. Once a year, a handsome young man would adorn himself with gold dust from head to toe. Facing the setting sun, he would dive into a pool of water washing off the gold dust. This story of the gilded man was told many times and the words “El Dorado” became a symbol of riches. In 1857 a party of men came over the crest of a hill above the Walnut River, it was evening, the sun was setting and the valley was gilded in the sunset glow. The leader, inspired by the sight, exclaimed “El Dorado.” Later the town company selected that name for their town.
NEODESHA (Wilson County). The name is a corruption of Osage origin and means “The meeting of the waters.” Here, the Verdigris and Fall River meet.
OSAWATOMIE (Miami County). The town site was selected in 1855 by agents of the Emigrant Aid Society. The name was formed by combining the “Osa” of Osage Indians with “watomie” of the Pottawatomie Indians.
TOPEKA (Shawnee County). A group of men purchased land from a local land owner for a railroad center. Cyrus Holliday, who became president of the Santa Fe Railroad, proposed the name Webster for the town site. The other men wanted a name with more local meaning. One of the men suggested Topeka, an Omaha Indian word meaning “a good place to dig potatoes.” The other story of the origin of the name Topeka goes this way. A Shawnee Indian and his son were walking along the banks of the Kaw River one day. The father looked down and saw the son’s toes sticking through the toe of his moccasin. The father pointed to the toes and exclaimed, “Toepeek-a!” You pick the one you like best.
BURLINGTON (Coffey County). The Burlington Town Company was incorporated in 1857. The town is named after Burlington, Vermont.
ERIE (Neosho County). Originally called Erie City. Three ideas of the origin; named after Erie, Pennsylvania, named for the Erie tribe of Indians and others say it was named for Lake Erie. There was formerly a large lake by that name northwest of town.
FREDONIA (Wilson County). Named for Fredonia, New York. The first building erected on the town site was in 1868.
HARTFORD (Lyon County). The town was laid out in the shape of an “H” and named after Hartford, Connecticut.
MANHATTAN (Riley County). Originally two towns, Poleska and Canton. A New England group of settlers consolidated these towns into one and called it New Boston. In 1855, eighty settlers from Cincinnati, Ohio were granted one half the New Boston site and named it New Cincinnati. They compromised and named the town Manhattan after the New York City borough.
EMPORIA (Lyon County). Emporia as a name probably comes from the Latin word “emporium,” meaning “market” or “trade mart.” There was once a country in Africa, a great financial center, which was called Emporia. Emporia, Kansas was named after this country with the hope it would one day rival its ancient namesake.
SEDAN (Chautauqua County). Established in 1871, it received its name from Sedan, France, where the Battle of Sedan was fought.
CANEY (Montgomery County). This town was originally known as Cana and later Caneyville, a name it retained for years. Caney was the name taken when the city became incorporated. Caney was named for the Caney River which had been named by pioneers because of the growth of cane near the river.
CHERRYVALE (Montgomery County). Named for its location in the valley of Cherry Creek, it was founded by the Kansas City, Leavenworth, and Southern Kansas Railroad in 1871.
FALLRIVER(Greenwood County). Named for the river it is located by and the falls that are very close to the town. The town was laid out in 1879 by the Fall River Town Company.
CEDAR POINT (Chase County). Originally, this town was named Cedar Grove. It was named for the large number of cedar trees in the surrounding community.
COUNCIL GROVE (Morris County). This town was the starting point of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1825 the U.S. Commissioner signed a treaty with the Osage Indians under the Council Oak tree for a right-ofway through the lands. In 1827, Kit Carson cut the name Council Grove on a buffalo hide and nailed it on the Council Oak. Thus, the town received its namebecause it was a spot where people met and held council, and because of the grove of oaks.
GRENOLA (Elk County). Originally, there were two small villages located within a short distance of the present site of Grenola. Canola lay to the south and Greenfield to the north. The Santa Fe railroad built the railroad through from east to west and the settlers moved all the buildings from both villages to a site near the railroad, and they called their new town Grenola, a combination of Greenfield and Canola.
NEAL (Greenwood County). Named after a railroad official, Moses Neal, from St. Louis.
PIEDMONT (Greenwood County). Piedmont means “lying or formed at the base of mountains.”
REECE (Greenwood County). Named for W.S. Reece, one of the owners of the land on which the town was founded.
SEVERY (Greenwood County). Originally named Gould City in honor of financier Jay Gould, a railroad magnate. In 1883, the city’s name was changed to Severy, in honor of Luther Severy, a director of the Santa Fe railroad that ran through the town.
VIRGIL (Greenwood County). Named after the Latin Poet “Virgil.”
HAMILTON (Greenwood County). Originally called Fullerton, it changed its name to honor Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of Treasury, under George Washington.
CLIMAX (Greenwood County). Named for its elevation or Climax College in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
MADISON (Greenwood County). Originally called Hesperia and later named Madison Center until Madison County, which was created in 1855 by the Kansas legislature, was divided in 1861 between Lyon County and Greenwood County. Town name came from the fourth President, James Madison.
