Brief History of Doniphan County Towns
Doniphan
The history of the Doniphan townsite dates back to 1675 when
it was first occupied by the Kansa Indians. Capt. Etienne de
Bourgmont, a French explorer, visited the Indian village in 1723
and 1724, and he wrote in his journal that the village contained
at least 150 lodges.
Eagle Springs
More than 200 years before the coming of the white man,
Indian medicine men supposedly discovered the healing properties
of the water at what became Eagle Springs and performed many
miraculous cures. One of the springs-beleived to be the fountain
of youth-was sacred to the Kansa Indians. In 1880 Prior Plank
purchased the springs site and employed chemists to analyze the
water.
Geary City
On March 23, 1856, seven men from Leavenworth surveyed and
organized a new town on the Missouri River, upstream from
Doniphan. The men named the community Geary City in honor or
John W. Geary, the territorial governor.
Iowa Point
Iowa Point, first settled in 1854, was located on the
property of Reverand Samuel Irvin, who received the land from the
U.S. government in payment for his missionary activities at the
nearby Iowa, Sac, and Fox Indian mission. In 1855, Harvey W.
Forman and John S. Pemberton platted the town and advertised lots
in the local newspapers.
White Cloud
Today Kansas Highway 7 winds its way along the Missouri
River and the bluffs region in extreme northeast Kansas,
meandering through a quiet village nestled among the high hills.
At first glance this sleepy little burg hardly seems worth a
stop, but if we can turn the clock back to the 1850s, the view
becomes quite different.
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