Fort Scott, Kansas

Fort Scott, Kansas, the county seat of Bourbon County, is situated in the Southeast part of the state, four miles from the Missouri State line. It sits on the south bank of the Marmaton River and was named for General Winfield Scott. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,552.

In 1837, the old Military Road between Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, was surveyed, and provisions were made for a camp between two forts. However, it was not until 1842 that a fort was founded approximately midway between the two and named in honor of General Winfield Scott.

Soldiers at Fort Scott helped protect the permanent Indian Frontier. Until the establishment of Kansas Territory, Fort Scott was administratively attached to Bates County, Missouri.

The first settler was John A. Bugg, who located there as a sutler. Bugg became the first postmaster when a post office was established on March 3, 1843. The Fort Scott Post Office was the second one established in Kansas. That year, H.T. Wilson bought a partnership in Bugg’s business and, six years later, purchased the entire stock and became postmaster.

In 1854, the troops were withdrawn from the military post. The families of Colonel Wilson and Captain John Hamilton were the only ones not employed by the Government at the time. Colonel Wilson continued to run his store on Market Street. Colonel Thomas Arnett opened the first hotel in the city’s West block of the old Government buildings.

That year, Kansas Territory opened to settlement, and several settlers came into Bourbon County from Missouri, many of whom settled at Fort Scott. Some of the first men included Dr. Hill, R. Elarkness, D. F. Greenwood, and Thomas Dodge. At the time, nearly all the land in the area belonged to the New York Indians; nothing could be done but select and hold claims until they were, by purchase or treaty with the Indians, opened to settlement. Though several claims were taken, no effort was made to organize a town company until 1857.

On May 16, 1855, the government-built buildings, costing about $52,000, were sold at auction. One group of former officers’ quarters, afterward known as the Free State Hotel, was bought by A. Hornbeck for $500; Colonel H. T. Wilson purchased another building for $300; the next by Edward Greenwood for $505; and the next one farthest toward the East by J. Mitchell for $450, for a total of $1,755.

The first newspaper was published in Fort Scott, and the first in Bourbon County was in Southern Kansas in 1855. A man named Kelley edited it.

Lying only five miles from the Missouri Line, the town, before and during the Civil War, became the rendezvous for both Free Staters and pro-slavery sympathizers, and guerrillas and ruffians along the border plundered and stole from both sides.

Soon after the settlement of Fort Scott began, it became the leading pro-slavery town in southeastern Kansas, holding the same relation to the southeastern part of the territory that Atchison did to the northeastern.

Between 1855 and 1861, Fort Scott’s citizens experienced the violent unrest that preceded the Civil War on the Kansas-Missouri border. The violence, referred to as “Bleeding Kansas,” resulted from the national controversy concerning the extension of slavery into the new territories. On January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state, but the turmoil of “Bleeding Kansas” continued throughout the Civil War.

On June 8, 1857, the Fort Scott Town Company was organized and consisted of George A. Crawford, President; G. W. Jones, Secretary; H. T. Wilson, Treasurer; Norman Eddy, D.H. Wier, D. W. Holbrook, William R. Judson, T. R. Blackburn, and E. S. Lowman. Soon afterward, Dr. Blake Little became a conditional member of the company, and Judge Joseph Williams purchased G.W. Jones’s interest. The town company purchased the claims of several others.

In July 1857, the government land office was opened in Fort Scott. The receiver was ex-Governor E. Ransom of Michigan, accompanied by George J. Clark, who was appointed register. In August, several settlers arrived, and the town began to grow. O. Darling made a plat of the town site immediately after, and O. Edwards made a second.

A store was opened in the old quartermaster’s building by Dr. Blake Little & Son; John G. Stewart started a blacksmith shop; George A. Crawford, W. R. Judson, Sheriff Hill, and William Barnes each opened a saloon, and C. Dimon bought the Free State Hotel, which had become a popular stopping place for travelers. The first school in Fort Scott was private.

In 1857, a private school opened, and the following summer, Mrs. C. H. Haynes taught in the old hospital building.

One of the old fort’s officers’ quarters was occupied by the Free State Hotel in the late 1850s, so named because it was a favorite stopping place for such Free Staters as John Brown, Charles Jennison, Captain James Montgomery, and scores of other Free-State sympathizers. The hotel became nationally known through the columns of the New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore papers as the headquarters of Captain Montgomery, who had widely publicized raids upon pro-slavery sympathizers in the vicinity. Local tradition in Fort Scott asserts that the term Jayhawker originated with the patrons of the Free State Hotel.

Captain Montgomery took up Jayhawker as a nickname for his band and eventually made it the name for all of Kansas. The Western Hotel, a stopping place for pro-slavery men, stood directly across the Plaza from the Free State Hotel in the days preceding the Civil War. The rivalry between the two hostelries was as bitter as between the North and the South. Here, it is said, the Marais des Cygnes Massacre was plotted, and here, two pro-slavery men organized a Blue Lodge by which they hoped to drive Free State men from the Territory by scaring them off their claims. The Free Staters, in turn, organized the Self-Protective Association headed by Captain Montgomery.

Friction between the two factions came to a head in October 1857 when Judge Joseph Williams of the United States District Court, a pro-slavery sympathizer, began hearing lawsuits between the Free State and the pro-slavery men over homestead claims. Declaring that the court’s partiality favored the pro-slavery side, the anti-slavery faction set up its own court in a log cabin a few miles from town. They called it the “Squatters’ Court.”

Pro-slavery sympathizers arrested a man named Rice, who was charged with the murder of one of their comrades and held him at the Free State Hotel pending his trial in the district court. Montgomery, with about 70 men, returned to Fort Scott to release the prisoner. A storekeeper named Little, also a United States Marshal, fired into the group outside the hotel from the transom of his shop. Immediately, one of Montgomery’s men returned fire, shooting Little through the forehead as he looked out. Shots rang out through the Plaza for several minutes. Montgomery and his party surrounded the store, believing it garrisoned with pro-slavery men. Ruffians in the band looted nearby stores. The Free Staters broke into the store, and Montgomery stopped the looting. The Free Stateman was released.

J. E. Jones started the Fort Scott Democrat newspaper in the Winter of 1857-1858.

On January 1, 1858, William T. Campbell, who had just moved to Fort Scott from Barnesville, succeeded C. Dimon as proprietor of the “Free State Hotel,” and on the 18th gave an “opening ball.” One fiddle furnished the music, and Joseph Ray did the calling to the eminent satisfaction of all, except one Pro-slavery young lady, who said she “didn’t like that darned Abolition prompting.”

Across the Plaza to the Southwest, in early 1858, Mr. McKay opened the Western Hotel, which immediately became the Pro-slavery headquarters and was henceforward known as the “Pro-slavery Hotel.” That year, another school was opened in the old government hospital building.

Early in the Winter, Alexander McDonald, E.S. Bowen, and A. R. Allison arrived. On January 6, 1859, McDonald and Bowen selected a site at the foot of Locust Street for a sawmill they had purchased in St. Louis. In early spring, the mill was erected, and it sawed all the lumber for the town company’s building and some frame dwellings. In the fall, they added a corn cracker to the mill. The First Presbyterian Church, established in 1859, was the town’s first religious organization. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church was partially organized the same year.

The years 1859 and 1860 were, for the most part, peaceful and focused on material interests and building up the town.

Up to 1860, the city’s school population was about 300. The town was incorporated in February, and Colonel Judson was the first mayor elected under the charter. In the spring, two stores had been erected on Market Street — one by W. I. Linn, the other by J. S. Caulkins, the store of the former being the first frame building erected in the city outside the Plaza. In the fall, “Uncle Billy” Smith erected the first frame dwelling house on the corner of Locust Street and Scott Avenue. Around the same time, O.H. Kelley started a second blacksmith shop, and “Fort Roach” was built at the corner of Jones and Hickory Streets. It was a small log structure and often served as headquarters for the “Jayhawkers” during their numerous raids into the city. George J. Clark and William Gallaher erected a small log building, and B. P. McDonald and A. Campbell erected a small house on Main Street. The Catholic church was established that year.

The Tri-Weekly Stage ran between Kansas City and Fort Scott in the 1860s. The fare between the two points was $10 and “carry a rail,” the term of the day for walking alongside the stagecoach when the roads were terrible. When the roads were good, a male passenger only had to carry a rail about a third of the way. But it was worth the Price to ride into the Wilder House with a grand flourish.

The town company obtained title to its land on September 17, 1860. The townsite initially consisted of 320 acres, but the company later purchased an additional 200 acres. Dealing liberally with the old settlers, the company donated to them the lots upon which the houses purchased from the Government stood. They also donated lots to all the religious denominations, to the Government for a National Cemetery, and a square to the county for a courthouse and jail.

In the early Winter, a sawmill was erected at the foot of Locust Street, where lumber was sawed for the town company’s building and several frame dwellings.

On April 24, 1861, a Union demonstration was held at Fort Scott, and local differences were set aside in the face of the great issue. At the outbreak of the Civil War that month, many loyal citizens enlisted to defend the Union, and Fort Scott would gain a long roll of honor for those who lost their lives in defense of the country. Fort Scott again became an important military post, storing ample supplies for troops as far South as the Red River. Several forts were built in the town, including Fort Henning, at the corner of First Street and Scott Avenue; Fort Blair, at the corner of Second Street and National Avenue; and Fort Insley, North of the plaza. At one time, there were 2,000 troops stationed in the town, and while it was menaced, no Confederate force ever reached it.

Fort Scott was a U.S. Army district Headquarters, quartermaster supply depot, training center, and recruitment station during the Civil War. It was strategically vital to defending Kansas and the Midwest. A battle over the fort occurred in August 1861, just across the Missouri line, in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek. The Confederates, led by Sterling Price and his Missouri State Guard, won the battle. However, Price did not hold the fort and continued a northern push into Missouri to recapture the state. Senator James H. Lane was to launch a Jayhawker offensive behind Price from Fort Scott that led to the Sacking of Osceola.

Lieutenant Colonel Lewis R. Lewell, commanding the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, was appointed Post Commander in 1862, and fortifications, consisting of breastworks, stockades, and three blockhouses, Fort Henning, Fort Insley, and Fort Blair, were erected. General James H. Lane, appointed Union commander for recruiting in the Department of Kansas in July 1862, also established his headquarters at the fort. Fort Scott was noted for its gaiety during the 1860s and 1870s. Even during the tense days before the war, the Free State Hotel was as gay a spot as was to be found in southeastern Kansas. According to early newspaper accounts, the “elite of the town” gathered and frequently “danced and joshed each other until seven o’clock in the morning.”

The Western Volunteer newspaper was started in 1862. Within a few months, it expanded and was renamed the Fort Scott Bulletin.

Early in its history, Fort Scott became recognized as a manufacturing center. J.A. Bryant established the Pioneer Wagon Manufactory in 1862. By the early 1880s, the establishment was manufacturing the “Bryant” wagon and enjoyed a large, prosperous business.

In 1863, school attendance was 248, and in 1864, it was only 210. Before 1863, the city had no regular buildings for school purposes. Seeing the necessity of the matter, the ladies took steps toward some improvement in this direction. Accordingly, a petition signed by Mrs. Jane Smith and 33 other ladies was laid before the City Council, asking them to take steps toward erecting a suitable school building. The matter was referred to a committee, which reported that the city had no jurisdiction, and it was dropped.

In the summer of 1863, the city built a City Hall that served as a hall, church, school, etc. In 1869, the school board purchased Block 158 and erected the Central School Building the following year. The large three-story brick building contained 12 rooms and cost about $60,000.

The city made little progress during the Civil War. However, afterward, it made steady and sure progress and was justly called the “Metropolis of Southeastern Kansas.”

After the war ended in 1865, the remains of those buried in the old military cemetery and other soldiers buried nearby in Missouri and Kansas were reinterrereinterredScott National Cemetery, which the Government established on November 15, 1862. Following the close of the Indian Wars and the resettlement of Native Americans, the Army closed or consolidated many of its small military outposts in the West. As a result, between 1885 and 1907, the federal government vacated numerous military post cemeteries, such as Fort Lincoln, Kansas, and reinterred them at Fort Scott National Cemetery. Fort Scott National Cemetery sits two miles Southeast of historic Fort Scott.

A. Butler started the Fort Scott Brewery in 1865 to manufacture beer. That same year, a permanent school building was erected, serving the three-fold purpose of schoolhouse, church, and city hall.

The Wilder House, just off the Plaza on Main Street, replaced the Free State Hotel as a rendezvous in the late 1860s. The hotel keeper’s reply was well known in the vicinity when new arrivals asked, “Is this the Wilder House?” “You stay here awhile,” he would drawl, “and you’ll find there ain’t a wilder house in the country.”

The city’s school population in 1869 was 520. A school was established for the colored children, and the hospital building was purchased and fitted out. The Freedman’s Home Mission sent a missionary to take charge. The school now comprises four departments. The last school census shows the school population of the city at 2,300, the enrollment at 1,500, and the average attendance at 1,100.

The City Brewery was established in 1869 by F. Schultz and C. Smith. It started small and gradually grew to a capacity of 5,000 barrels of beer per year.

The Fort Scott Foundry and Machine Shops, owned by George A. Crawford, began operations in the fall of 1869. By the early 1880s, it employed about 100 men to manufacture boilers, engines, and improved machinery.

The same year, the first railroad to reach Fort Scott was the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, which was completed to the city in December.

In 1870, the central school building containing 12 rooms was erected for $60,000.

The First National Bank was organized on January 10, 1871, with a capital stock of $50,000.

E.A. Deland and F.C. Bacon started the Excelsior Mills to manufacture flour in June 1871. Before the end of 1871, a large mill was completed at a cost of about $40,000. The main building was three and a half stories high and had an engine house. The machinery was of the most approved patterns, complete in every detail, and ran on a 40-horsepower engine. The mill could manufacture about 300 barrels of flour daily, for which it had a market in Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and other areas.

The same year, the Fort Scott Gas Works were built and completed on October 8 at a cost of about $45,000. The works initially produced 10,000 to 15,000 feet of gas daily.

In 1872, the “East Side” school building was erected for about $12,000. It was later destroyed by fire and replaced in 1880 by a two-story brick schoolhouse with four rooms, built for $6,000.

The Goodlander Flour Mill, built by C. W. Goodlander the same year, had a capacity of 125 barrels per day. Unfortunately, an explosion occurred in January 1876, and the mill then passed to the First National Bank. By 1880, it was operating again.

A. Polsgrove & Son established the Fort Scott Woolen Mill in the spring of 1873. The mills were built to manufacture hosiery. At first, it began on a small scale, and during the first year, only 25 pairs of hose were made. The mills were then enlarged, and before long, the operation manufactured 4,000 dozen pairs of hose. At first, only one knitting machine was employed, but that grew to 14. Steam and windmill power ran the mill. Later, the operation was enlarged to include a one-story stone building 87 feet long by 36 feet wide, with an engine house, knitting apartments, and other outbuildings. Before long, production increased to about 20 dozen pairs of hose per day, requiring 22 employees.

H. Mahew & Son began the Castor Oil Mill in 1873. The mill used a horsepower press and manufactured about 80 gallons of castor oil per day, for which it found a market in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Texas.

A Planing Mill was started in the fall of 1876 by S. S. Peterson and J. H. Gardner. It began as a sash and door factory, and the light machinery ran on tread power. As the business gradually grew, it added other machinery and employed horsepower. In 1880, a four-horsepower engine was procured, and about 18 months later, a ten-horsepower engine was installed. Several machines are employed, and all sorts of job woodwork is done. The principal business is manufacturing sash, doors, blinds, stair railings, and moldings. About 10,000 feet of lumber is consumed monthly, and the mill employs a force of eight men.

The Kansas Normal College was established at Fort Scott in 1878 by Professor I.C. Scott and Professor D.E. Sanders. The institution was designed to meet the needs of students who wanted practical preparation for life’s demands in the shortest time and at the lowest possible expense. The school was first held in the Congregational Church and had about 60 students under the instruction of two teachers.

In 1880, Kansas voters approved an amendment to the Kansas Constitution prohibiting all manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors.” At that time, C. Herring used part of the Fort Scott Brewery to manufacture soda and mineral waters and soon made about 300 gallons per day. Unfortunately, the City Brewery failed.

John E. Petty started the Foundry and Sickle Factory in 1880 with one assistant. It manufactured plows, sickles, grinders, harrows, scrapers, spring wagons, cultivators, shovels, single-trees, neck yokes, and shovel plows. The company initially employed 16 men but increased dramatically in the following years.

The company initially employed 16 men but increased dramatically in the following years. The building contained seven large recitation rooms and other rooms necessary for learning institutions. Citizens of Fort Scott contributed toward the erection of the building. The following year, a two-story frame boarding hall was built to accommodate students. The terms were exceedingly low and easy, thus placing the advantages within reach of persons of limited means. Attendees included students of both sexes from various States and Territories.

D. W. and R. L. Milligan started the Acorn Flour Mills in January 1882. The mill building was a two-story frame. Four runs of stone were used, with a capacity to grind 150 bushels of wheat and 200 bushels of corn per day. A 40-horsepower engine ran the mill machinery.

The Fort Scott Water Company was organized and incorporated on June 5, 1882. The system operated on the principle of gravity, using an elevated reservoir and tower. The earth reservoir, with a storage capacity of two million gallons, was built about 75 feet above the city. The pumping house was stone masonry, with a 50-foot-high brick smokestack. A residence near the reservoir was constructed for the engineer.

Cohn’s Restaurant and Confectionery on East Wall Street became the town’s social hub in the 1880s. One local newspaper called it “The Delmonico of the West. It was “a royal restaurant with dining parlors handsomely painted and papered in the highest style of art, the popular and stylish resort of the city… Elaborate dishes included “Quail a la Marmaton” and “Turkey a la Pawnee.”

Fort Scott’s population peaked in 1890 at 11,946.

The Fort Scott Normal School closed in 1899.

By the beginning of the 20th Century, social life was greatly subdued. The town was developing as a manufacturing and trading center. Then, in the early 1900s, came a slump in business activity, a gradual letdown after a half-century of bustling activity. For years, nearby farmers produced grains and vegetables with only moderate success.

In 1909, the city had 36 manufacturing establishments, with $626,000 in capital invested and $340,000 in net product value. Natural gas, waterworks, and lighting systems, and an electric street railway lit and heated the city.

In 1910, a survey was made. Fort Scott businessmen offered to promote ice cream factories and creameries if farmers would devote their resources to raising dairy cattle. Local banks extended credit to farmers who bought dairy cows and marketed their milk in Fort Scott. Progress was slow initially, for money was scarce, and a limited market retarded production. At the time, abundant building stone, lime, cement, coal, water, and natural gas were available. At that time, its population was 10,463.

In 1918, the Borden Company erected a condensery, furnishing a year-round market that ensured the success of the dairying program.

Fort Scott Community College was established in 1919. The first graduating class in 1921 had two members. Originally, Fort Scott Junior College shared the Fort Scott High School building and operated as an extension of the high school program for students in the 13th and 14th years of public education. It is the oldest public community college in Kansas today.

In 1938, 30 milk trucks covered the territory, carrying approximately 150,000 pounds of milk daily into Fort Scott. Farmers received almost $1,000,000 yearly for dairy products, most of which was spent in the area or deposited in local banks. Dairymen and businessmen promoted an annual Dairy Show. In addition to the dairy industry, Fort Scott had two railroad shops, an overall factory, a monument factory, foundries, and paving brick plants. A hydraulic cement plant just North of town was among the largest in the Middle West, and coal deposits, which accompany the cement rock deposits, furnish fuel for the plant’s operation. Coal mining is an industry of steadily increasing importance in the area.

By 1939, Fort Scott boasted eight hotels, five tourist camps, and several boarding houses. It also had three motion picture theaters, segregated swimming pools, and several parks. At that time, it was described as “a city of jogging” streets and fine old trees, with buildings older than Kansas itself sandwiched between modern structures. At the junction of three railroads, the city was also a significant distribution and shipping point and a manufacturing center in southeastern Kansas.

Fort Scott remained an agricultural and small industrial center in the following decades, though its population gradually decreased.

On March 11, 2005, a fire destroyed several historic buildings in Fort Scott’s downtown. The Victorian-era buildings are among many that symbolize the town.

Today, the city covers 5.59 square miles: 5.55 square miles of land and 0.04 square miles of water.

Fort Scott Community College, founded in 1919 and the oldest community college in Kansas, continues to serve the community.

The Fort Scott USD 234 public school district serves primary and secondary education. It includes two public elementary schools, one public middle school, and the Fort Scott High School. It also includes a Catholic school for grades K–5, Fort Scott Christian Heights for grades K–12, and a few other small private schools for students in grades K–12. A public preschool is also in the old middle school building.

The community offers several museums, including the Fort Scott National Historic Site, which features the historic fort and its history, including the Indian frontier, Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War, and the Railroad Expansion. The city also provides narrated Trolley Tours featuring the National Cemetery’s beautiful homes, mansions, landmarks, and more. A Historic Downtown Fort Scott Walking Tour is also available. Lake Fort Scott is located just a few miles Southwest of Fort Scott, Kansas, providing fishing, recreational boating, and camping.

Fort Scott sits at the intersection of U.S. Routes 54 and 69 in Southeast Kansas, about 54 miles North of Joplin, Missouri, 92 miles South of Kansas City, and 143 miles East of Wichita.

 

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated September 2026.

Also See:

Bourbon County, Kansas

Every Place in Kansas

Fort Scott National Historic Site

Kansas Destinations

Sources:

Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Cutler, William G.; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Federal Writers’ Project; Kansas, A Guide to the Sunflower State, Viking Press, New York, 1939.
Wikipedia