Erie, Kansas: A Compromise Town

Erie, Kansas came into being in eighteen sixty-six through a deal between two rival towns that decided competing was more expensive than cooperating. Old Erie and Crawfordsville were fighting over which would become the county seat of Neosho County. The proprietors of both towns eventually agreed to abandon their existing sites, pool their land, and build a new town together on a fresh location.

The result was Erie. It became county seat, won the county seat contest against Osage Mission in eighteen seventy-two. The Neosho River Valley town remained modest but steady, serving a farming region in southeastern Kansas, and today it is the seat of one of the older organized counties in the state.