Ellinwood, an incorporated city of the third class in Barton county and the third largest city of the county, is situated on the left bank of the Arkansas river 10 miles east of Great Bend, the county seat. It is on the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. and is the western terminus of the Florence & Ellinwood division of the same system. The town site was located and platted in 1871, and the first house—a small frame structure—was erected by William Misner. This building was occupied late in the year by A. Burlisson, who put in a stock of goods and became the pioneer merchant of the town. A few miles west was the old village of Zarah, and when Ellinwood was started most of the inhabitants of Zarah removed to the new town. One of the buildings thus removed in 1872 became Ellinwood's first hotel, conducted by Rugar & Greever. The railroad was completed to the town in the summer of 1872 and the settlement of the place was more rapid. A number of new inhabitants arrived in the spring of 1873, and that year the first school house was built, the first school being taught by Miss Carrie Bacon. For the next five years the growth was slow. Many of the pioneers were Germans, who brought with them the customs of the Fatherland, and in 1875 a brewery was established, one of the first in western Kansas. The big crops of 1878 gave the town a new impetus. Early in that year the Ellinwood Express was started and the new paper aided materially in building up the town. The branch railroad was completed in 1881, a roundhouse was erected, and before the close of the year Ellinwood was incorporated as a city of the third class with F. A. Steckel as the first mayor.

Since its incorporation the growth of Ellinwood has been of a substantial character. In 1890 the population was 684; in 1900 it was 760, and in 1910 it was 976. It has 2 banks, 2 large flour mills, 2 creameries, a weekly newspaper (the Leader), 3 grain elevators, an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, a telephone exchange, hotels, churches, and annually ships large quantities of grain, flour and live stock.