Humboldt, one of the principal cities of Allen county, is on the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, 8 miles south of Iola, the county seat. The place was first visited by B. M. Blanton, a Methodist missionary, who told his brother, N. B. Blanton, and J. A. Coffey, of Lawrence, of the advantages of the location for a town. In March, 1857, the town site was located by Mr. Coffey, who returned to Lawrence, where he found some German colonists looking for a location and induced them to settle in his new town, which was named for Baron von Humboldt. In the spring of 1870 the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad was completed through that portion of Allen county, and the following October the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston was run through Humboldt. Since then the growth of the city has been steady, until at the present time Humboldt is one of the busiest cities of its size in the state. It was organized as a village in 1866 and incorporated as a city of the second class by the act of Feb. 28, 1870. Being located in the gas and oil fields, it is a good manufacturing center. It has large cement and brick works, an oil refinery, flour mills, elevators, two banks, express and telegraph offices, and the press is well represented. The city is supplied with waterworks and electric lights, and in 1910 reported a population of 2,548.