OSAWATOMIE  , a

city of Miami county, Kansas, U.S.A., about 45 M . S. by W. of Kansas City, on the Missouri Pacific railway . Pop . (1900) 4191 (227 negroes); (1905, state census) 4857; (1910) 4046 . A state hospital for the insane (1866) is about x m . N.E. of the city . The region is a good one for general farming, and natural gas and petroleum are found in abundance in the vicinity . Osawatomie was settled about 1854 by colonists sent by the Emigrant Aid Company, and was platted in 1855 its name was coined from parts of the words " Osage " and " Pottawatomie." It was the scene of two of the " battles " of the " Border War," and of much of the political violence resulting from the clashes between the "pro-slavery " and the " free-state " factions of Missouri and Kansas . On the 7th of June 1856 it was plundered by about 170 pro-slavery men from Missouri . On the 3oth of August 1856 General John W . Reid, commanding about 400 Missourians, attacked the town . The attack was resisted by Captain John Brown (who had come to Osawatomie in the autumn of 1855) at the head of about 40 men, who were soon overpowered .

Of Captain Brown's men, four were killed and two were executed . The town was looted and practically destroyed . A

park commemorating the battle was dedicated here on the 31st of August 1910 .