TOPEKA

city, capital (1861) of Kansas, U.S., seat (1857) of Shawnee county, on the Kansas (Kaw) River in the east-central part of the state. The name Topeka is of uncertain Indian origin; one interpretation is smoky hill, and another is a good place to dig potatoes. The present site was chosen in 1854 by a group of antislavery colonists from Lawrence, led by Charles Robinson, a resident agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Cyrus K. Holliday helped to found the city, which later became headquarters for the building of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway system, of which he was the first president. Before the Civil War, Topeka was the scene of several conflicts between the Free Soil groups (which opposed the extension of slavery into the West) and slave interests in the Kansas Territory, of which it was the temporary capital (1856). The city's economy is based on agriculture, manufacturing, and governmental services. The Menninger Foundation, an outstanding psychiatric training institution, has made Topeka a national centre for the treatment of mental illness. The city is the seat of Washburn University of Topeka (1865) and of an Episcopal diocese. The State House is modelled after the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Inc. 1857. Pop. (1990) city, 119,883; Topeka MSA, 160,976.