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for the Indian Reservation that was
cleared to make room for the townsite in 1867.
The Ottawas had moved to Kansas
in 1832 to settle on the new reservation
after ceding their Ohio lands
to the United States. Soon after this
the Reverend Jonathan Meeker
established the Ottawa Indian Baptist
Mission here and brought with him
the first printing press in Kansas –
an old Seth Adams model. Another
name prominent in Ottawa history
is that of Tauy Jones who worked
among the Indians and later helped
to establish the new town. Tauy
Jones Hall is one of the many fine
buildings on the campus of Ottawa
University.
A fast-growing industrial center of
eastern Kansas, Ottawa produces
flour, brooms, dairy products, steel foundry products, gas engines, rural
advertising signs and mill work. Extensive rock quarries are adjacent to
the city which is surrounded by rich Kansas farm lands producing
poultry, corn, wheat and alfalfa.
Points of interest in and about Ottawa include the site of the old
Baptist Mission, Tauy Jones' home and the Chippewa Burial Ground.
- OVERBROOK (26 miles south of Topeka)
-
There seems to be no authentic record of the origin of the name of this
Osage County station on the Topeka branch of the Missouri Pacific
Lines. An agricultural community in an area producing corn, wheat and
kafir corn, it is also a shipping point for sheep and cattle.
- OXFORD (9S.4 miles west of Coffeyville)
-
Although there are a number of towns in the United States with the
same name, it is doubtful if any of the others came by their names in as
novel a manner as this town in Sumner County.
In the early days of migration to the west and southwest there was a
ford across the Arkansas River and a nearby settler, owning a yoke of
oxen, made a profitable side venture of assisting wagon trains across
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the stream with his oxen. When the settlement grew up beside the ford
in 1871 it was called Ox Ford but later this was condensed to Oxford.
Later a bridge was built and the ford was no longer used.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad was built through this territory in 1887
providing dependable shipping facilities. Oil fields at Oxford have been
producing since 1928. Apples, truck crops, wheat, alfalfa, oats and corn
are the chief products of surrounding farm lands.
- PADONIA (44 miles northwest of Atchison)
-
Padonia was named in honor of an early local inn-owner who is said
to have written a book about the vicinity. Not far from Hiawatha,
county seat of Brown County, it lost the county seat election to its
neighbor in 1856 by the narrow margin of three votes.
Surrounded by good farm land, Padonia's principal industries are the
buying and shipping of grain, hay, dairy and other farm products.
- PALMER (30 miles east of Concordia)
-
County Superintendent of Schools Palmer was honored by the first
citizens of this town who named it for him, when it was founded in
1882. Originally Palmer was situated about a mile and one half south
of its present location but, as was true of many other Kansas towns, was
moved near the Missouri Pacific Railroad when that line was
constructed through this area.
Palmer is located in a rich farming section in Washington County where
grain, dairy, stock and poultry farms predominate. Major crops are
wheat, oats and corn.
- PAOLA (52 miles southwest of Kansas City)
-
Originally known as "Peoria Village," Paola was named for an Indian
Chief, Baptiste Peoria, who owned the land on which the town now
stands. The name was changed later to Paola, Indian pronunciation of
the name "Peoria." The square in the heart of the city was a gift from
the Indians who stipulated no building should ever be erected upon
it. The first prospecting for oil and gas in Kansas was done near Paola
in 1860.
A busy industrial community, Paola is the seat of progressive Miami
County whose prosperous, fertile farms produce corn, alfalfa, wheat
and livestock.
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