COFFEYVILLE

city, Montgomery county, southeastern Kansas, U.S., on the Verdigris River. Founded in 1869, it was named for James A. Coffey, a pioneer settler. During the early 1870s, following the completion of a railroad, Coffeyville became a major shipping point for Texas cattle and later developed into an important trading and industrial centre. It is located in the mid-continent gas and oil field (natural gas was discovered there in 1892) and is the seat of Coffeyville Community College (1923). The Dalton Museum in Coffeyville commemorates a family of local desperadoes, the Dalton brothers, who lost several of their members in a running gunfight there in October 1892. Inc. 1872. Pop. (1990) 12,917.