Lincoln Center, more commonly known as Lincoln, is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

of Lincoln County,

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,171.

History

Stouffer's Railroad Map of Kansas 1915-1918 Lincoln County

Settler George Green founded the town of Lincoln in 1870, naming it after the county. "Center" was added to its name to indicate its location in the central part of the county. County residents initially voted to place the

in Lincoln Center. Elections in November 1870 resulted in the seat relocating to nearby Abram, sparking a

county seat war A county seat war is an American phenomenon that occurred mainly in the Old West as it was being settled and county lines determined. Incidents elsewhere, such as in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia, have also been recorded. As new towns s ...

. Another vote in February 1872 reversed the switch, and Lincoln Center again became the county seat. Residents relocated all the buildings in Abram to Lincoln, merging the two communities. The town was incorporated as the city of Lincoln Center in 1879, and is officially referred to as such in the United States Census. Both the city government and local chamber of commerce refer to the city as Lincoln, and it appears as such on state maps and signs. Lincoln grew rapidly over the following decade, more than doubling in size, and the city gradually modernized. Kansas Christian College opened in Lincoln in 1885. The

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

opened a branch line through the city in 1886, bringing mail service. In 1900, after the previous

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

burned down, a new one was built out of native

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

known locally as post rock. Rural mail delivery began in 1904, and

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

service began in 1905. In 1906, the city's first

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

opened, providing

electric power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions ...

. Beginning in the 1920s, the mechanization of agriculture reduced the need for farm work and gradually commercial farming operations consolidated family farms resulting in a reduction in the population. By 1950, the state highway commission had completed K-14 and K-18 through Lincoln. In 1989, given the widespread, long-standing use of post rock limestone in local building construction, the

Kansas Legislature The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state senators ...

named Lincoln County as "The Post Rock Capital of Kansas".

Geography

Lincoln is located at (39.041744, -98.146760) at an elevation of . The city lies on the north side of the Saline River in the

Smoky Hills The Smoky Hills are an upland region of hills in the central Great Plains of North America. They are located in the Midwestern United States, encompassing north-central Kansas and a small portion of south-central Nebraska. The hills are a disse ...

region of the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

. Yauger Creek, a tributary of the Saline River, flows south along the eastern edge of the city to its confluence with the Saline immediately south of the city. The confluence of the Saline and Lost Creek, another of the river's tributaries, is located immediately southwest of the city. Located at the intersection of Kansas Highway 14 (K-14) and Kansas Highway 18 (K-18) in north-central Kansas, Lincoln is northwest of Wichita, west of

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

, and east-southeast of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the city has a total area of , all of it land.

Climate

Lying in the southern periphery of North America's humid continental climate (Köppen ''Dfa''), Lincoln experiences hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters. The average temperature is 55.1 °F (12 °C), and the average yearly precipitation is 27.4 inches (69 cm). Snowfall averages 19.3 inches (49 cm) per year. On average, July is the warmest month, January is the coldest month, and May is the wettest month. The hottest temperature recorded in Lincoln was 117 °F (47 °C) in 1947; the coldest temperature recorded was -27 °F (-33 °C) in 1989.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

, there were 1,297 people, 576 households, and 324 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 1,049.4 people per square mile (405.2/km). There were 734 housing units at an average density of 593.9 per square mile (229.3/km). The racial makeup of the city was 96.6%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 1.1% American Indian, 0.3%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.1% Asian, 0.8% from some other race, and 1.2% from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 2.8% of the population. There were 576 households, of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.8% were non-families. 40.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16, and the average family size was 2.95. The median age in the city was 44.9 years. 25.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 5.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 19.4% were from 25 to 44; 25.1% were from 45 to 64; and 24.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 46.6% male and 53.4% female. The median income for a household in the city was $37,308, and the median income for a family was $47,679. Males had a median income of $33,650 versus $28,438 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $19,949. About 13.0% of families and 15.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 19.6% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Lincoln is a city of the second class with a mayor-council form of government. The

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

consists of five members, and it meets on the second Monday of each month. As the

, Lincoln is the administrative center of Lincoln County. The

county courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

is located downtown, and all departments of the county government base their operations in the city. Lincoln lies within Kansas's 1st U.S. Congressional District. For the purposes of representation in the

, the city is located in the 35th district of the

Kansas Senate The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Members ...

and the 107th district of the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craft ...

Education

Primary and secondary education

The community is served by

Lincoln USD 298 Lincoln USD 298 is a public unified school district headquartered in Lincoln, Kansas, United States. The district includes the communities of Lincoln, Barnard, Beverly, Shady Bend, Westfall, and nearby rural areas. Schools The school distr ...

public school district, which operates two

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

schools in Lincoln: Lincoln Elementary School ( Grades Pre-K-6) and Lincoln Junior/Senior High School (7-12).

Infrastructure

Transportation

Lincoln sits immediately south of the intersection of Kansas state highways K-14, which runs north-south through the city, and K-18, which wraps around the northern and eastern edges of the city. Lincoln Municipal Airport, a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

facility, is located roughly a mile northwest of the city on K-18. A line of the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad runs through the west side of the city.

Media

Lincoln has one weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

, ''The Lincoln Sentinel-Republican''.

Notable people

Notable individuals who were born in and/or have lived in Lincoln include: * William Baker (1831-1910), U.S. Representative from Kansas *

Jessa Crispin Jessa Crispin (born c. 1978 in Lincoln, Kansas) is a critic, author, feminist, and the editor-in-chief of ''Bookslut'', a litblog and webzine founded in 2002. She has published three books, most recently ''Why I Am Not A Feminist: A Feminist Man ...

(1978- ), book critic * Don Wendell Holter (1905-1999),

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

bishop *

Daniel Ray Hull Daniel Ray Hull (1890–1964), sometimes stated Daniel P. Hull, was an American landscape architect who was responsible for much of the early planning of the built environment the national parks of the United States during the 1920s. Hull planned t ...

(1890-1964), landscape architect * Martin Johnson (1884-1937), adventurer, explorer, and documentary filmmaker * Jack Knight (1893-1945), Aviation pioneer *

Bessie Anderson Stanley Bessie Anderson Stanley (born Caroline Elizabeth Anderson, March 25, 1879 – October 2, 1952) was an American writer, the author of the poem ''Success'' (''What is success?'' or ''What Constitutes Success''?), which is often incorrectly attri ...

(1879-1952), poet *

Uncas A. Whitaker Uncas Aeneas Whitaker (March 22, 1900 – September 1975)Anthony Hallett, Diane Hallett, Entrepreneur Magazine Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs, 1997: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 286-287 () was a prominent mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, l ...

(1900-1975), engineer, entrepreneur

References

External links

City of Lincoln

Lincoln - Directory of Public Officials
* , from ''Hatteberg's People'' on

KAKE KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and its transmitter is located in ...

TV news
Historic Images
- Wichita State University Libraries
Lincoln city map
KDOT {{Authority control Cities in Kansas County seats in Kansas Cities in Lincoln County, Kansas 1870 establishments in Kansas Populated places established in 1870