EMPORIA

city, seat of Lyon county, east-central Kansas, U.S. It lies between the Cottonwood and Neosho rivers. Established in 1857 by a town company and named after the ancient city in North Africa, the settlement developed as a trading centre after the arrival of the railroad in 1869. Severe droughts that plagued the city were ended in 1938 with the damming of the Kahola valley. The Emporia Gazette became probably the best known and respected small-town newspaper in the United States under the editorship of William Allen White, who bought it in 1895. After his death in 1944, the paper was edited by his son, William L. White. The city is now the trading and shipping centre of a large farming and dairying area and is the seat of Emporia State University (founded 1863). Inc. 1870. Pop. (1992 est.) 24,936.