City of Marion

The City of Marion, Kansas was founded June 1860 when settlers in five covered wagons were told by surveyors at Emporia that there was good, virgin farmland about 60 miles to the southwest. The surveyors called it the best land in the territory.  One of the travelers in the group, George Griffith was the first to build a shanty on the site where the Santa Fe Depot (now the Santa Fe Depot Library) stands and was also the first in Marion County to file for a homestead, doing so on August 8, 1860.  Marion became a member of the Kansas Power Pool in 2009.

The official naming of the settlement came when a post office was established in 1862. Because the settlement was located near the center of the county, the name Marion Centre seemed appropriate.  Marion Centre had increased in population by the early 1870’s to a point where it could file for incorporation as a third-class city.

Marion has the distinction of being the oldest settlement in Marion County and boasts a population today of 2,110 residents. Each year Marion commemorates this fact with the celebration of “Old Settlers Day”.