Alma, the judicial seat and principal city of Wabaunsee county, is located a little northwest of the center of the county on Mill creek and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., and is the terminus of a division of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. which connects with the main line at Burlingame. The first house in Alma was built in the fall of 1867 and the following December the town was made the county seat. In 1868 a hotel and school house were erected, and after the advent of the railroads the growth was more rapid. Mill creek furnishes water power for operating a flour mill and some other concerns. Being located in the heart of a rich agricultural and stock raising region, Alma is a shipping point of considerable importance. It has a bank with a paid up capital of $50,000, an international money order postoffice with four rural delivery routes emanating from it, excellent express, telegraph and telephone facilities, an electric lighting plant, two weekly newspapers—the Enterprise and the Signal—and a monthly publication called the Emblem, devoted to the interests of a fraternal organization. The city has a modern high school building, erected at a cost of $16,000, and both the Lutherans and Catholics have parochial schools. The mercantile establishments of Alma rank favorably with those in other cities of its size. Good building and cement stone are found in the vicinity. The altitude of Alma is 1,055 feet. In 1910 the population was 1,010.