ABOUT ATCHISON
Over 300 years ago, the area around present-day Atchison was home to the Kansa Indians. Their abandoned village was noted by Lewis & Clark when they explored the area on July 4, 1804 and celebrated the first Independence Day in the American West.
Fifty years after Lewis & Clark’s visit, the Kansas Territory was opened and Atchison became one of its first settlements. On July 20, 1854, men from Platte City, Missouri, crossed the Missouri River and staked out a townsite they named for David Rice Atchison, a noted Missouri senator. The city thrived because it had one of the best steamboat landings on the Missouri River, wagon roads to the West, and it was several miles nearer Denver than other river towns.
In early years, at least two steamboats and sometimes four or five, landed at the Atchison levee daily. A regular line of side-wheelers traveled between St. Louis and St. Joseph. Atchison’s economic status continued to grow as the Overland Stage Line and Salt Lake City-based freighters made it their eastern terminus. The U.S. Post Office made Atchison the headquarters and starting point for mail to the West. The stage coach line from Atchison to Placerville, Calif., was one of the longest and most important lines in the country.
When the boom days of overland trade faded in the 1860s, Atchison leaders set their sights on making the city a railroad hub. With $150,000 from Atchison investors as the financial basis, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was founded. By 1872, when the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad arrived, eight different railroad lines terminated within Atchison and four connected on the Missouri side.
Industries grew, along with the railroads, dealing in grains and milling, lumber and manufacturing. During the 1870s, only two cities in Kansas – Leavenworth and Topeka – were more important than Atchison as a manufacturer. John Seaton’s foundry, which moved to Atchison in 1872, occupied an entire block and was the largest west of St. Louis. By 1894, it employed 2,000 men.
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Near the beginning of the 20th century, the Topeka Mail & Breeze described Atchison as having more rich men and widows in proportion to its population than any other city in Kansas. These wealthy citizens built scores of grand mansions, many of which still stand today.
Among Atchison’s early settlers were Benedictines who established St. Benedict’s Abbey in 1858 and Mount St. Scholastica in 1863. The Benedictine Brothers and Sisters have played an integral role in the community’s cultural, religious and educational development for more than 150 years.
Probably the most famous Atchison native is Amelia Earhart, the world-famous aviatrix. She was actually born in Atchison, in her grandparents’ home on the bluff above the Missouri River. She spent her childhood there and the house is now a museum. Atchison is also home to the popular Nell Hill's home decor shop. The store and its owner, Mary Carol Garrity, are known nationwide and bring nearly 100,000 people to the city every year.
With over 20 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, Atchison reveals its glorious heyday through its impressive Victorian-era architecture and museums that showcase its diverse history, railroad heritage, Victorian past, and art.
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