[6] Senator Atchison was interested in ensuring that the population of the new Kansas Territory would be majority pro-slavery, as he had been a prominent promoter of both slavery and the idea of popular sovereignty over the issue in the new lands.

However, not everyone agreed upon the location he had selected, and on July 20, 1854, Dr. John H. Stringfellow, Ira Norris, Leonidas Oldham, James B. Martin, and Neal Owens left Platte City, Missouri, to decide definitely upon a site.

They found a site that was the natural outlet of a remarkably rich agricultural region just open to settlement.

Eighteen persons were present when the town company was formally organized by electing Peter T. Abell, president; James Burns, treasurer; and Dr. Stringfellow, secretary.

By September 20, 1854, Henry Kuhn had surveyed the 480 acres (1.9 km2) and made a plat, and the next day was fixed for the sale of lots, an event of great importance as it had become understood that Senator Atchison would make a speech upon the political question of the day, hence the sale would be of political as well as business significance.

At his meeting on the 21st, two public institutions of vital interest to a new community were planned for—a hotel and a newspaper.

Each share of stock in the town company was assessed $25, the proceeds to be used to build the National Hotel, which was completed in the spring of 1855, and $400 was donated to Dr. Stringfellow and Robert S. Kelley to erect a printing office.

[citation needed] The Squatter Sovereign, a paper with strong pro-slavery sentiments, was first issued on February 3, 1855.

[citation needed] For years there had been considerable trade up and down the Missouri River, which had naturally centered at Leavenworth, but in June 1855, several overland freighters, such as Livingston, Kinkead & Co., and Hooper & Williams were induced to select Atchison as their outfitting point and formed the basis that established Atchison as a commercial center.

Early merchants to establish businesses in the new town were George Challis, Burns Bros., Stephen Johnston and Samuel Dickson.

On February 12, 1858, the legislature issued a charter to the city of Atchison, which was approved by the people on March 2 at a special election.

[citation needed] At the outbreak of the American Civil War there were three militia companies organized in Atchison, whose members enlisted in the Kansas regiments.

Early in September 1861, a home guard was organized in the town to protect it in case of invasion from Missouri, and on the 15th of the month another company was raised, which was subsequently mustered into a state regiment.

Citizens of the town also joined the vigilance committees that so materially aided the civil authorities in suppressing raiding and the lawless bands of thieves that infested the border counties.

[citation needed] During the war, Atchison was also the headquarters of numerous bands of jayhawkers including the notorious Charles Metz, who was known as Cleveland.

He robbed any suspected southern sympathizer and threatened several leading citizens with murder and robbery if they remained in town.

[citation needed] In the late 1850s, plans were underway to connect California to the rest of the country by rail.

Although construction was delayed by the Civil War, a land grant similar to the one given the Union Pacific to construct the first transcontinental railroad was made by the federal government to Kansas in 1863, which was transferred to the newly reformed Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF).

Finally, in 1868, construction was begun on the line in Topeka, but was aimed west and south towards the Colorado border.

Furthermore, Atchison boosters were unable to unite on a single project, instead scattering their efforts to the southwest, west and northwest, none of which proved successful.

Bickering delayed the building of bridges, stockyards, elevators, warehouses and railroad yards, revealing the disharmony that plagued Atchison's entrepreneurs.

[13] However, with the completion of the connector to St. Joseph, which later became part of the Missouri Pacific, and the final connection to the growing AT&SF system, industrialization reached Atchison.

It soon began turning out decorative wrought iron fences, spiral staircases, and hitching posts for horses.

Expanding rapidly in the coming years, it was known as Seaton Lea for most of the 1870s, becoming the Atchison Foundry and Machine Works in 1880.

[citation needed] In 1914, Harry Muchnic invented a revolutionary diesel locomotive piston ring.

In 1924 the John Seaton Foundry built an electric arc melting furnace for efficient smelting.

In 1958 Rockwell purchased the LFM Steel Foundry to make locomotive trucks for EMD and GM (Progress Rail).

It has also undergone various mergers, reorganizations, and renamings, most recently after it was purchased by Bradken, a global manufacturing company headquartered in Australia.

[citation needed] The city lies along the western bank of the Missouri River, which also marks the Kansas-Missouri state line.

Many entities have attempted to restore Lincoln School, which is on the Kansas State Register of Historic Places.