Wathena, one of the principal towns of Doniphan county, is located on Peter's creek, 4 miles from the Missouri river on the St. Joseph & Grand Island and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroads. It is 10 miles from Troy, the county seat, and 5 miles from St. Joseph, Mo. It is a well improved little city with electric lights and pavements, public library, excellent schools and an annual Chautauqua. All lines of business are well represented. There are 2 banks, 2 newspapers, a washing machine factory, feed mill, and a creamery. Fruit-growing is an important industry and there is a fruit growers' association which attends to the marketing of the fruits grown by its members. Poultry is another leading product. There are telegraph and express offices and an international money order postoffice with five rural routes. The population in 1910 was 761.

The earliest settler was Peter Cadue, an interpreter for the Kickapoo Indians, who came not later than 1840 and left in 1847, going to the Cadue reserve. The Kickapoo chief Wathena located on the spot which afterward became the town site, and in 1852 his squaw built him a wigwam where the flour mills were afterward built. The land was sold in 1856 by S. Cox to Milton Bryan, P. Morse and W. Ritenbaugh, promoters of the town, for $750. Wathena was well paid for his improvements. The first building was a log house erected in 1854 by Cox and M. E. Bryan. The first general store was opened by Thompson Kemper in 1856 and was called "The St. Joe Store." The first hotel was established by Albert Heath, who was also the first lawyer. The first druggist was G. Miller; the first hardware man, H. D. Hunt; the first tinner, D. B. Jones; the first blacksmith, F. Leber, and the first physicians were Drs. Smith and Crossfield. From the time the postoffice was established in 1854 with M. E. Bryan as postmaster, until the incorporation of the town in 1873 the place was called Bryan's postoffice. O. Craig was the first mayor and James Mitchell, city clerk. The first school house was built in 1857.