Hartford, an incorporated town, the second largest in Lyon county, is located in Elmendaro township on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R. and the Neosho river 13 miles southeast of Emporia, the county seat. All the leading mercantile pursuits are represented; there are good schools and churches, banking facilities, and a weekly newspaper (the Neosho Valley Times). The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with five rural routes. The population, according to the 1910 census, was 589.

The neighborhood about Hartford was settled in 1857 and the town was founded in 1858. The association which promoted it was composed of H. D. Rice and A. K. Hawkes of Hartford, Conn., W. H. Martin, E. Quiett and others. The first building was a log structure 14 by 16 feet in size, in which C. P. Bassett kept a store. The second was a dwelling and lodging house, a two-story frame building erected by a Mr. Longley. The postoffice was established in 1859, with A. K. Hawkes as postmaster. His wife taught the first school the next year in her home. The first newspaper was the Hartford Call, the first issue of which appeared in 1879. The first bank was incorporated with a capital of $50,000 in Nov., 1881. The Hartford water mills, an important institution in those days, were built in 1873.