Transcribed from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

Eudora, one of the largest towns of Douglas county, is located in the northeastern part of the county on the south bank of the Kansas river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 7 miles east of Lawrence. Early in the summer of 1856 a company of Germans organized in Chicago, Ill., for the purpose of making a settlement some where in the west. From 50 members it grew to 600 stockholders and in March, 1857, a locating committee left for the west to select a town site. They spent some time in Missouri and Kansas and finally decided upon the site where Eudora now stands. A tract of 800 acres of land was bought from the Shawnee Indians through Pascal Fish, their chief, who was to receive every alternate lot. The land was surveyed and named Eudora in honor of the chief's daughter. When the committee returned to Chicago it was determined to colonize the place and men representing different trades and professions were sent out by the association, under the leadership of P. Hartig. These pioneers arrived at Eudora on April 18, 1877, and at once erected rude cabins and made other improvements. Pascal Fish had built a cabin on the town site before the advent of the whites, which was used as a hotel and locally known as the "Fish House." In May a sawmill and corn cracker was sent out by the association and was put in operation. The first store was opened the following summer and the village began to flourish. A postoffice was also established in the summer of 1857. with A. Summerfield as the first postmaster. On Feb. 8, 1859, Eudora was incorporated under the territorial laws and ten years later the town was divided into two wards for municipal purposes. It is now an incorporated city of the third class. A fresh impetus was given to the town with the building of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, and it has become the shipping and supply point for a rich agricultural district. Fudora has many beautiful homes, good public schools, several general stores, hardware and implement houses, a drug store, wagon and blacksmith shops, a money order postoffice, express and telegraph facilities, 2 banks, and a population of 640, according to the U. S. census of 1910.

Page 598 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.