Colony, an incorporated city in Ozark township, Anderson county, is located near the southern boundary of the county, at the junction of the Missouri Pacific and two divisions of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway systems, 16 miles south of Garnett, the county seat. The history of the town begins with the construction of the first railroad over the site, the plat being filed on Aug. 2, 1872. Two years later a number of members of a colony formed in Ohio and Indiana settled in the new town, and these gave it the name it bears to this day. Many of these colonists stayed but a short time, and for several years the growth of the town was slow. In Aug., 1881, several of the best buildings were destroyed by fire, and since that time the growth has been more substantial. Colony has a bank, an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, grain elevators, a hotel, an opera house, a weekly newspaper (the Free Press), telegraph, telephone and express accommodations, churches of several of the leading denominations, good public schools, and in 1910 reported a population of 530. A number of gas wells in the immediate vicinity furnish both light and heat for the inhabitants.