Columbus, the county seat of Cherokee county, is centrally located at the junction of two divisions of the St. Louis & San Francisco and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroads. The first settler in the city was John Appleby, who located there in Feb., 1868. In the spring following a town company was organized. Among the members were William Little, John Hanson, John Appleby and Dr. Bailey. A town was laid off in the southwest quarter of section 13, but later in the season a second company, consisting of John Appleby, F. Fry, H. and H. A. Scovell, was organized. These four men each owned a quarter of section 13, and each donated 25 acres, so that the new plat consisted of 100 acres in the center of the section. Columbus was incorporated as a town on April 11, 1870, and at the suggestion of Mr. Fry was named for Columbus, Ohio. A two-story school building was erected late in the year, and in April, 1871, Columbus was incorporated as a city of the third class with a population of 700. In Jan., 1873, owing to the high price asked for lots by the founders of the town, a joint stock company was formed for the purpose of establishing a new site half a mile east. This had the effect of reducing the price of lots, and the growth was so rapid that in the spring of 1882 Columbus was incorporated as a city of the second class with a population of about 2,000. On Jan. 3, 1883, ten buildings on the south side of the public square were destroyed by fire, the total loss being about $20,000, but these buildings were almost immediately replaced by structures of a more substantial character.

In 1910 the population of Columbus was 3,064, an increase of 754 during the preceding decade. The city is divided into five wards. It has the largest water power electric plant in the west (11,000 horse power), a $25,000 high school building, a public library, a fine waterworks system, natural gas, carriage and wagon works, a canning factory, brick and tile works, the largest cigar factory in Kansas, a bottling works, machine shops, three weekly newspapers, an opera house, flour mills, 2 national and 2 state banks, and some of the best mercantile houses in southeastern Kansas. It also has an international money order postoffice with eight rural routes, a telephone exchange, express and telegraph offices, etc. Coal of fine quality is found in abundance in the immediate vicinity and forms one of the principal articles of export. Grian, flour, live stock, flax seed and castor beans are also shipped in large quantities.