19th century For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by
Native Americans. In 1803, most of
modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the
Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, the
Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861
Kansas became the 34th
U.S. state. In 1867,
McPherson County was founded.
McPherson was founded in 1870 by the twelve members of the McPherson Town Company. In 1887, city officials began a failed attempt to have the community named the state capital. The first post office in McPherson was established in 1873. McPherson was incorporated as a city in 1874. As early as 1875, city leaders of
Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from
Florence. In 1878,
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and parties from
Marion and
McPherson counties chartered the
Marion and McPherson Railway Company. In 1879, a branch line was built from Florence to McPherson. In 1880 it was extended to
Lyons and in 1881 it was extended to
Ellinwood. The line was leased and operated by the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The line from
Florence to Marion was abandoned in 1968. In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to
Central Kansas Railway. In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion to McPherson was abandoned. The original branch line connected Florence, Marion,
Canada,
Hillsboro,
Lehigh,
Canton,
Galva, McPherson,
Conway,
Windom,
Little River,
Mitchell, Lyons,
Chase and Ellinwood. In 1887, the
Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from
Herington through McPherson to
Pratt. In 1888, this line was extended to
Liberal. Later, it was extended to
Tucumcari, New Mexico and
El Paso, Texas. It foreclosed in 1891 and taken over by
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut down in 1980 and reorganized as
Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, merged in 1988 with
Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged in 1997 with
Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island". By 1888, the community was at the junction of four railroad lines. Major industries have included a large flour mill, an insurance company headquarters, and an oil refinery.
20th century Transportation The
National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and was routed through
Windom,
Conway and McPherson.
Synthetic diamond In 1926, Dr.
J. Willard Hershey of
McPherson College -- replicating experiments of other scientists -- claimed to have produced a synthetic diamond, among the first to have done so. (Subsequently, other experimenters could not reproduce their synthesis, drawing doubt about Hershey's claim).
Oil Refinery In the late 1920s, oil was discovered in
McPherson County, Kansas. As a result, the Globe Oil & Refining Company, (subsidiary of Lario Oil & Gas Company), constructed an oil refinery in the county seat: McPherson. Built in 1933, the refinery was soon was producing 200,000 gallons of gasoline per day. This output necessitated a marketing campaign to promote the growing retail gasoline business. Lario, like many in the early radio days and before television, sponsored
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball teams to generate excitement for their product in the sport sections of widely read newspapers. For a small sponsorship fee, Lario Oil & Gas was able to reach many more consumers than by conventional advertising.
First Olympic basketball champions In the 1930s, the local refinery sponsored the
McPherson Globe Refiners basketball team in the (
AAU-- basketball's official sanctioning organization at the time). They were coached by
Gene Johnson, former head coach of Wichita University (now
Wichita State University). Coach Johnson was one of the innovators of the fast break and full-court press. The Refiners were best known for their tall centers,
Joe Fortenberry (6–8) and
Willard Schmidt (6–9) and their fast-break style of play. Billed as "The Tallest Team in the World", the Refiners often held their opponents to low scores because of the centers' ability to deflect shots on the way to the basket in what today would be called
goaltending. The team invented the "
dunk" (so named by
Arthur J. Daley, a
New York Times sports writer who witnessed it); two of the team's tallest players would demonstrate the technique before a game, to entertain the crowd and intimidate opponents, though the technique was not normally allowed in actual play. The Refiners won the AAU national championship in 1936 against the Hollywood Universal team. This earned them the right to compete for the first ever
USA Olympic basketball team in 1936. Hollywood Universal narrowly beat the Refiners at
Madison Square Garden and the USA team was composed of both Universal and Refiners players and one college student. Coach Johnson was selected to be the assistant coach. After a long journey by boat to Europe, the team played in alternating squads at the Olympics. The Refiners' portion of the team took the court to defeat Canada 19–8 in the final gold medal game on August 14, 1936, at the
Summer Olympics -- the first team ever awarded Olympic gold medals in basketball.
Aircraft production From 1964 to 1967 (some say 1962 and 1967), the Alon company produced 245 "
Alon Aircoupe" two-seat light planes in McPherson. The Aircoupe was an evolution of the influential and popular
ERCO Ercoupe, originally developed in the late 1930s by
Fred Weick for
Henry Berliner's Engineering Research Co. ("ERCO"), in the Washington, D.C. area. Following ERCO's production, design was then acquired by various companies before being acquired by Alon (a contraction of the names of
Beech Aircraft Co. executives John Allen and Al Higdon, who formed Alon). The Alon company sold out to
Mooney Aircraft of
Kerrville, Texas, who took production there, producing a radically revised version as the
Mooney M10 Cadet. ==Geography==