.

Civil War

At the outbreak of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 there were three militia companies organized in Atchison, whose members enlisted in the Kansas regiments. They were known as Companies A, C and “At All Hazards”. Early in September 1861, a home guard was organized in the town to protect it in case of invasion from Missouri, and on the 15th of the month another company was raised, which was subsequently mustered into a state regiment. In 1863 the city of Atchison raised $4,000 to assist the soldiers from the county and after the Lawrence Massacre a like sum was subscribed to assist the stricken people of that city. Citizens of the town also joined the vigilance committees that so materially aided the civil authorities in suppressing raiding and the lawless bands of thieves that infested the border counties.

Postwar

Soon after the war, when industrial life became normal, entrepreneurs set up small factories. Elevators and mills were erected in the late 1860s and early 1870s; a flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

 mill was built; the Atchison Foundry and Machine Works, one of the most important commercial enterprises, was started; also many wood working factories, and carriage and wagon works. The city gained a reputation for its fine flour mills, car-repair shops, foundries, wooden ware, and furniture factories.

Atchison was one of the first cities in Kansas to be connected by telegraph with the east. In 1859 the St. Louis & Missouri Valley Telegraph company extended its line from Leavenworth to Atchison. A railroad reached the town in 1854, connecting it with St. Joseph, Missouri. Atchison was originally selected the northeastern hub of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad but construction of the railroad began in Topeka

Topeka, Kansas

Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

 in 1868. The citizens of the town were outraged by this, and the construction of the railroad was temporarily halted two years later so the line could be built northeast to Atchison, which was completed in 1871. By 1911, the following railroads all ran into the city: Burlington & Missouri River

Burlington and Missouri River Railroad

The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was an American railroad company incorporated in Iowa in 1852, with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. It was developed to build a railroad across the state of Iowa and began operations in 1856...

; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...

; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:...

; Hannibal & St. Joseph

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad

The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first railroad to cross Missouri starting in Hannibal in the northeast and going to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwest...

; Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs; and the Missouri Pacific

Missouri Pacific Railroad

The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...

.

The city tried but failed to become a major railroad center, and was surpassed by Kansas City, Leavenworth, and other cities as a railroad center. Atchison's boosters try to open eastern connections through St. Louis rather than through the more important Chicago. Instead of concentrating on building economic links in one direction, boosters scattered their efforts to the southwest, west and northwest, and none proved successful. Bickering delayed the building of bridges, stockyards, elevators, warehouses and railroad yards, revealing the disharmony that plagued Atchison's entrepreneurs.

Geography

Atchison is located at 39°33′45"N 95°7′42"W (39.562499, -95.128257). The city is situated along the western bank of the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 which also marks the Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

-Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 state line. Located at the junction of U.S. Route 59 and U.S. Route 73, it is 21 miles (34 km) southwest of St. Joseph, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 along US-59 and 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Leavenworth

Leavenworth, Kansas

Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 along US-73. The section of US-73 between Atchison and Leavenworth is part of the Glacial Hills Scenic Byway which follows K-7

K-7 (Kansas highway)

K-7 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is mostly a small country highway winding its way through the Osage Questas and Glaciated Regions of eastern Kansas, although a portion of the highway passes through the Kansas City metropolitan area. Significant portions of the highway overlap...

 northward from Atchison.

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 7.2 square miles (18.6 km²), of which 6.8 square miles (17.6 km²) is land and 0.4 square miles (1 km²), or 5.27%, is water.

Climate

Atchison has a humid-continental climate with variable winters and hot, humid summers. Over the course of a year, temperatures range from an average low of nearly 15 °F (-9.4 °C) in January to an average high of nearly 90 °F (32.2 °C) in July. The maximum temperature reaches 90 °F (32.2 °C) an average of 38 days per year and reaches 100 °F (37.8 °C) an average of 3 days per year. The minimum temperature falls below the freezing point (32 °F) an average of 106 days per year. Typically the first fall freeze occurs between the second week of October and the first week of November, and the last spring freeze occurs between the end of March and the third week of April.

The area receives nearly 38 inches (965.2 mm) of precipitation during an average year with the largest share being received in May, June, and July—with a combined 29 days of measurable precipitation. During a typical year the total amount of precipitation may be anywhere from 25 to 52 inches (1,320.8 mm). There are on average 96 days of measurable precipitation per year. Winter snowfall averages almost 23 inches, but the median is less than 16 inches (406.4 mm). Measurable snowfall occurs an average of 13 days per year with at least an inch of snow being received on eight of those days. Snow depth of at least an inch occurs an average of 27 days per year.
> > > > > > > > > > > > >

align="bottom" style="padding:0 0;margin:0 0;"| Source: Monthly Station Climate Summaries, 1971–2000, U.S. National Climatic Data Center

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Notes: Temperature Temperature Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot... s are in degrees Fahrenheit. Precipitation Precipitation (meteorology) In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...  includes rain Rain Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...  and melted snow Snow Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...  or sleet Rain and snow mixed Rain and snow mixed is precipitation composed of rain and partially melted snow. This precipitation can occur where the temperature in the lower part of the atmosphere is slightly above the freezing point...  in inches; median Median In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...  values are provided for precipitation and snowfall because mean Arithmetic mean In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean, often referred to as simply the mean or average when the context is clear, is a method to derive the central tendency of a sample space...  averages may be misleading. Mean and median values are for the 30-year period 1971–2000; temperature extremes are for the station's period of record (1939–2001). The station is located in Atchison at 39°34′N 95°7′W, elevation 945 feet (288 m).

Demographics

As of the U.S. Census in 2000

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

, there were 10,232 people, 3,863 households, and 2,437 families residing in the city. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,498.2 people per square mile (578.4/km²). There were 4,220 housing units at an average density of 617.9 per square mile (238.6/km²). The racial makeup

Race (United States Census)

Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

 of the city was 88.56% White

White American

White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...

, 7.80% Black or African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, 0.51% Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

, 0.41% Asian

Asian American

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

, 0.09% Pacific Islander

Pacific Islander American

Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...

, 0.65% from other races, and 1.99% from two or more races

Multiracial

The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with...

. Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 or Latino

Latino

The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...

 of any race were 2.58% of the population.

There were 3,863 household

Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....

s out of which 30.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.8% were married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 13.8% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 88.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.3 males.

The median income for a household

Median household income

The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...

 in the city was $31,109, and the median income for a family was $37,100. Males had a median income of $31,027 versus $20,262 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $14,441. About 9.5% of families and 17.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.4% of those under age 18 and 22.0% of those age 65 or over.

Education

The Atchison Public Schools school district (USD 409), with three schools, serves more than 1,600 students.

• Atchison Elementary School, grades K–5
• Atchison Middle School, grades 6–8
• Atchison High School, grades 9–12 http://usd409.net/vnews/display.v/SEC/AHS
• Atchison Alternative School, grades 6-12

The Bert Nash Intermediate School is a public school separate from the district which serves less than 100 students in grades 7–12. Bert Nash School is no longer open as of December 2009.
Other private schools in the city include:*

• Trinity Lutheran School
• Atchison Catholic Elementary School (ACES)
• Maur Hill Mount Academy
  Maur Hill Mount Academy
  Maur Hill Mount Academy is a coed Catholic, boarding high school in Atchison, Kansas. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas....
  
  

Colleges and universities

• Benedictine College
  Benedictine College
  Benedictine College is a co-educational university in Atchison, Kansas, founded in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College for men and Mount St. Scholastica College for women. It is a Roman Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, and residential college located on bluffs overlooking the...
  
  
• Highland Community College
  Highland Community College
  Highland Community College may refer to:*Highland Community College *Highland Community College...
  
  
• Northeast Kansas Technical College

Notable people

• Willis J. Bailey
  Willis J. Bailey
  Willis Joshua Bailey was a United States Representative from Kansas and the 16th Governor of Kansas.Born in Carroll County, Illinois, Bailey attended the common schools, Mount Carroll High School, and the University of Illinois at Urbana.He moved to Nemaha County, Kansas, in 1879.He engaged in...
  
  , U.S. Representative and 16th governor of the state.
• Laura M. Cobb
  Laura M. Cobb
  Laura Mae Cobb was a member of the United States Navy Nurse Corps who served during World War II. She received numerous decorations for her actions during the defense of Manila and her 37 months as a POW of the Japanese, during which she continued to serve as Chief Nurse for ten other imprisoned...
  
  , United States Navy
  United States Navy
  The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
  
   nurse during World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  .
• Amelia Earhart
  Amelia Earhart
  Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
  
  , aviatrix.
• Rory Lee Feek
  Rory Lee Feek
  Rory Lee Feek is an American country music singer and songwriter. In his career, he has written singles for Clay Walker, Blake Shelton, Tracy Byrd and other artists. He and his wife, Joey Martin Feek, comprise the duo Joey + Rory, who placed third on the first season of the CMT talent show Can You...
  
  , songwriter and half of county duo Joey and Rory.
• George W. Glick, Ninth governor of the state.
• Sheffield Ingalls
  Sheffield Ingalls
  Sheffield Ingalls was a banker, attorney and politician in the state of Kansas. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Kansas from 1913-1915 under George Hartshorn Hodges. Outside of politics, he was a successful investor and banker in Atchison, Kansas. He served in the Kansas House of Representatives...
  
  , former Lieutenant governor of Kansas
  Kansas
  Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
  
  .
• John James Ingalls
  John James Ingalls
  John James Ingalls was an American politician.John James Ingalls was born in Middleton, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1833. He graduated from Williams College in 1855. Foreshadowing his later reputation as a wit, his graduation thesis, entitled Mummy Life, was a satire of college life. He studied...
  
  , Former state and U.S. senator who coined the state motto, Ad Astra per Aspera.
• James Edmund Jeffries
  James Edmund Jeffries
  James Edmund Jeffries was a U.S. Representative from Kansas from 1979 to 1983.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Jeffries attended the public schools. He graduated from Cranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1943....
  
  , politician.
• Oscar Johnson
  Oscar Johnson (baseball)
  Oscar "Heavy" Johnson was a baseball player in the Negro Leagues. He played catcher and outfielder. Johnson was one of the Negro League's foremost power hitters in the 1920s, reportedly weighing 250 pounds, and known for hitting home runs...
  
  , baseball player with Kansas City Monarchs
  Kansas City Monarchs
  The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro Leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri and owned by J.L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J.L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time...
  
  .
• John Alexander Martin, Tenth governor of the state.
• Jesse Stone
  Jesse Stone
  Jesse Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres...
  
  , American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter. Developed the basic rock 'n' roll sound.

Points of interest

• Santa-Fe Depot Rail Museum
• Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum
• International Forest of Friendship
  International Forest of Friendship
  The International Forest of Friendship is an arboretum and memorial forest beside Lake Warnock in Atchison, Kansas. It is a memorial to the men and women involved in aviation and space exploration, and open to the public daily....
  
  , arboretum
• Lewis and Clark Trail
• Atchison Storage Facility
  Atchison Storage Facility
  Most people who visit Jackson Park in Atchison, Kansas do not realize that they are standing on top of one of the largest single floor government bunker complexes in the world. The Atchison Storage Facility, commonly known as the "Atchison Caves" lies below the park under the limestone bluffs...
  
  
• Haunted Atchison Tours Atchison is known as the most haunted town in Kansas

Further reading

Atchison

• Turk, Eleanor L. "The Germans of Atchison, 1854-1859: Development of an Ethnic Community." Kansas History 2 (Autumn 1979): 146–156. online

Kansas

• History of the State of Kansas; William G. Cutler; A.T. Andreas Publisher; 1883. (Online HTML eBook)
• Kansas : A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc; 3 Volumes; Frank W. Blackmar; Standard Publishing Co; 944 / 955 / 824 pages; 1912. (Volume1 - Download 54MB PDF eBook),(Volume2 - Download 53MB PDF eBook), (Volume3 - Download 33MB PDF eBook)

External links

• City of Atchison
• Atchison - Directory of Public Officials
• Atchison Area Chamber of Commerce
• Atchison Public Schools USD 409
• Glacial Hills Scenic Byway
• International Forest of Friendship
• Atchison Globe
• Atchison Facebook Community
• Atchison Low Power FM Project
• The Atchison Globe, est. 1877, the newspaper of record in Atchison County