People occasionally made fun of the name Journeycake by calling it "Johnny Cake."

In May 1860, a treaty was signed at Sarcoxieville, 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Linwood, by Chief Sarcoxie of the Delaware and by the United States.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government established a trading post near Stranger Creek until the tribe was moved to the Indian Territory in 1867.

Located beside the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, the trading post became the first school in the community.

The first 40 miles (64 km) were opened in 1864 from Wyandotte (now a suburb of Kansas City) to Lawrence.

William A. Harris moved to Kansas in 1865 employed as a civil engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad.

The original community of Journeycake was officially platted[7] as Stranger on July 11, 1867, and recorded at the Leavenworth County Courthouse.

Legend has it that one day when the citizens were cutting wood for the church, Colonel Loring suggested they change the name to Linwood, because of the many linden trees that grew in the area.

In 1884, Harris became a prominent citizen of Linwood, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising.

On a high hill within sight of the city he built a modest two-story mansion with fifteen rooms, the Harris House.

Harris was elected as a Democratic Congressman to the Fifty-third Congress (1893–1895) and as a Populist to the U.S. Senate (1897–1903).

After the 1903 flood damaged and endangered much of Linwood, the city was relocated about one mile (1.6 km) north to its present location out of “the bottoms” (as they are still known today) near the river.

Present-day Linwood is a small city that is accessed mainly from K-32, as the Golden Road bridge over Stranger Creek collapsed in the early 2000s and has never been rebuilt.

Linwood has several businesses including a gas station, tavern, landscaping company, salsa plant and a Dollar General retail store.

On May 28, 2019, an EF4 tornado with Doppler windspeed measurements of over 187 mph struck the outlying areas of the city and severely damaged homes.

The 2020 United States census counted 415 people, 153 households, and 105 families in Linwood.