Wichita
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Kansas, the county-seat of Sedgwick co., on the Arkansas river and on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Missouri Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, and other railroads. It is the center of an important agricultural region and the milling of flour is one of the most important industries. Wichita is an attractive city and has many fine public buildings. There are 90 miles of paved streets, an excellent fire department, over 300 miles of sewer, 37 miles of street railway, and 145 miles of water mains. The park system comprises nearly 400 acres. Boating and bathing facilities are provided in Riverside Park, on the Little Arkansas river. There are 31 public school buildings, in which are enrolled over 13,000 pupils. There are 370 teachers. Two magnificent intermediate high schools, bearing the names of Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt, were erected in 1920. The institutions of higher learning include Fairmount College and Friends' University. There are also an academy, a commercial college, several conservatories of music, and five parochial schools. There are 57 church edifices, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. buildings, a Masonic Home, and Mount St. Mary's Convent and Orphanage. Wichita is an important industrial center. Almost without exception fuel oil produced in local refineries is used by the manufacturing establishments. In addition to flour milling the chief industries are the manufacture of automobiles, beef and pork products, bridges, candy, elevators, furniture, harness, men's clothing, paper boxes, tractors, trunks, and wagons. Wichita is an important live stock market. Two large packing plants are located here. The Kansas National Live Stock Show is one of the important yearly events. There are four National banks, 21 State banks, and 12 Federal farm loan banks. There is also a Guarantee Stock Land Bank. The total bank clearings in 1919 amounted to $604,- 202,200. Wichita was settled in 1870. Pop. (1910) 52,450; (1920) 72,217.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 it listed Wichita's chief manufactures as flour, beef and pork products, harness, trunks and wagons, with automobiles a novelty; within a decade the city had become the self-styled Air Capital of the World, home to Cessna (founded 1927), Beech (1932) and the Stearman works that grew into Boeing Wichita and today's Spirit AeroSystems. The packing plants and the Kansas National Live Stock Show are gone, but aircraft assembly still anchors the economy. The 72,217 residents of 1920 have become roughly 400,000, making Wichita the largest city in Kansas, and Fairmount College became Wichita State University; Friends University remains. Pizza Hut was also founded here, by two Wichita University students in 1958, and the city's Dockum drug store sit-in of the same year was among the earliest successful student sit-ins of the civil rights era.
Written for this edition, 2026.