Parsing the Plains: Placing Emporia, Kansas in the Great Plains Midwest

This thesis examines the formation of a region that can be called the Great Plains Midwest. It shows this formation through the city of Emporia, Kansas, which grew in tandem with the region. The thesis also examines Emporia as a case study of the cycle of birth, growth, and stagnation visible across the Great Plains between the 1850s and 1910s. This era traces Emporia from its humble beginnings to a period of population stagnation that followed the Panic of 1893. Three chapters cover Emporia’s agriculture, railroads, and colleges and universities, comparing each to the same elsewhere in both the midwestern and western portions of the Great Plains. An epilogue reflects on Emporia’s legacy from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the rise of the Great Plains Midwest. The thesis argues that history, geography, and human-development rather than political or state boundaries, played the largest roles in creating distinctions between the midwestern and western portions of the Great Plains.