Enterprise, an incorporated city of Dickinson county, is located on the right bank of the Smoky Bill river 6 miles east of Ahilene, the county seat, at the junction of the Union Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railways. A settlement was started on the site as early as 1868, when C. Hoffman built a frame mill there. The following year Senn & Ehrsam opened a store, and in 1872 the Methodists erected a small church building. The town was not laid out, however, until 1872, when the survey was made by G. R. Wolfe, the county surveyor. In Jan., 1875, a town company was organized with V. P. Wilson as president; John Johntz, vice-president; T. C. Henry, secretary, and C. Hoffman, treasurer. Before the close of the year several new business enterprises had been launched, a hotel was built by Edward Parker, and Mr. Hoffman erected a larger mill, which was used as a woolen mill until 1881, when it was converted into a flour mill with a capacity of 200 barrels a day. Five years later the population had grown to such proportions as to demand better educational facilities, and a new school house was erected at a cost of $7,000.

Enterprise has an appropriate name, as it is one of the most energetic and progressive cities of its size in Kansas. It has one of the largest flour mills in the state, machine shops, a manufactory of flour mill machinery, wall plaster works, 2 banks, a creamery, good hotels, a weekly newspaper (the Push and Journal), waterworks, graded public schools, a normal academy, and is the center of trade for a large and populous agricultural district. The population in 1910 was 706.