ATCHISON  , a

city and the county-seat of Atchison county, Kansas, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Missouri river, which is navigable 'at this point but is utilized comparatively little .for commerce . Pop . (1890) 13,965; (1900) 15,722, of whom 25o8 were of negro descent . and 1308 were foreign-born; (row) 16,429 . Atchison is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa FE, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago , Rock Island & Pacific, and the Missouri Pacific railways . The city is the seat of Midland College (Lutheran, 1887), St Benedict's College (Roman Catholic, 1858) for boys, Mt . Scholastica Academy (Roman Catholic) for girls, and Western Theological Seminary (Evangelical-Lutheran, 1843); a state soldiers' orphans' home is , also located here . Atchison's situation and transportation facilities make it an important supply-centre, its trade in grains and live-stock being particularly large; it has large railway machine shops, and its principal manufactures are flour, furniture, lumber, hardware and drugs . The value of the city's factory products increased from $2,093,469 in 1900 to $4,052,274 in 1905, or 93.6 % . Atchison was founded in 1854 by pro-slavery partisans, and was named in honour of their leader, David Rice Atchison, a United States senator . The city was quickly surpassed by Leavenworth in commercial importance, and during the Kansas struggle was never of great political importance . Its first city charter was granted in 1858 . The Atchison Globe (established 1878) is one of the best-known of western papers .