Oswego is a city in and the county seat of Labette County, Kansas, United States, and situated along the Neosho River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,668.
History Oswego is located on the site of an Osage village called No tse Wa spe, which means "Heart Stays" or more loosely translated, "Quiet Heart."Burns, Louis Francis, A History of the Osage People, pages 58-59. Jesuit Missionaries from Osage Mission (now St. Paul, Kansas) who worked among the Osages called the village "Little Town," probably because the band of Osages who lived in the village were of the "Little Osage" division of the Osage People. More specifically, the Osage Village of Little Town was described as "Little Town Above" by the Jesuits, to distinguish it from another village, which was sometimes located just to the east of Little Town, called "Little Town Below."Burns, Louis Francis, A History of the Osage People, page 58-59. See, also: Burns, Louis Francis, Osage Mission Baptisms Marriages and Interments 1820-1886; and, White, W.W., Annals of Osage Mission. While Osage villages were moved quite often (according to weather, hunting conditions, and sanitary conditions)See Rollings, William H, The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. Pages 20-22.; See, also. Mathews, John Joseph, The Osages: children of the middle waters. Little Town Above was generally located on the bluff overlooking the Neosho River, where Oswego sits today. Little Town Below often sat near Horseshoe Lake, in the Neosho River Valley about a mile due east of Oswego.Burns, Louis Francis, A History of the Osage People, pages 58-59. See, also: O'Connell, Wayne. Centennial History: The Story of "Little Town" (Oswego, Kansas) and Its Founder John Mathews. Oswego, KS: Oswego Independent, 1961. During the 1850s, Little Town was often referred to as "White Hair's Town," in honor of a resident of the village named Iron Hawk. Iron Hawk was named Grand Tsi Shu Chief (or Peace Chief) of the Osage Nation (through the 19th Century, it was traditional for the Osage Chief to take the name "White Hair".)Jenk Jones, jr. "Osage County History" , 06 April, 2003; accessed 27 January 2010).
A study of the baptismal records of the Jesuits at Osage Mission reveals that several white or mixed white and Osage families lived in or near Little Town before the Civil War.Burns, Louis Francis, Osage Mission Baptisms Marriages and Interments 1820-1886. Several mixed white and Cherokee families also lived in or near the present site of Little Town, likely just east of the village in the Cherokee Neutral Lands or to the south, near Chetopa.Cheatham, Gary L., "If the Union Wins, We Won't Have Anything Left: The Rise and Fall of Southern Cherokees in Kansas" Kansas History, Autumn 2007. Pages 154-178.
One family of mixed Osage blood that lived at Little Town before the Civil War was the John Allen Mathews family, who operated a blacksmith/gunsmith shop on the site and ran a trading post here, as well as one at Osage Mission and one at Fort Gibson.O'Connell, Centennial History. Mathews first purchased the trading post at Little Town from Augustus Chouteau in either 1838 or 1843, depending upon the source.Mathews, William S., quoted by Case, Nelson in History of Labette County Kansas: from the first settlement to the close of 1892, page 24. See, also Case, History, page 22. Mathews was married to Mary Ann Williams until her death and then to her sister Sarah Jane Williams, daughters of William Sherley Williams, better known as "Old Bill Williams" and his Osage wife, A-Ci'n-Ga or Wind Blossom.Burns, Osage Baptisms appendix: Mathews Family. See, also. Favour, Alpheus H., Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man, page 130.
Mathews was a slaveholder from Kentucky, as evidenced by the baptismal records of the Osage Mission.Burns' Osage Baptisms cites at least two slaves that were noted by the Jesuits as belonging to John Mathews. Before the Civil War, Mathews was involved in driving off settlers from the adjacent Cherokee Neutral Lands and in stirring Southern sympathies among Native Americans living on the frontier. Early in the spring of 1861, Mathews was commissioned a captain in the Confederate Army and given orders to organize a company of soldiers from among sympathetic Native Americans, specifically, the Quapaw. In June 1861, he held a meeting at the house of Larkin McGhee in the nearby Osage village of Chetopa and organized a company of Osages and mixed-blood Cherokees for the Confederate Army.Abel, Annie Heloise, The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist. page 235, 239. See, also, Mathews, John Joseph, The Osages One of his sons, John Mathews, Jr. joined this company.Cheatham, Gary L., "If the Union Wins..." page 170. September 8, 1861, Mathews led another company, this one made up of Osages, mixed-blooded Osages and Cherokees, and border ruffians. This second company raided and looted Humboldt, Kansas, capturing no less than a dozen freed slaves.Burns, A History of the Osage People, page 251. James Lane put a $1000.00 bounty on the head of Mathews,Letter from James H. Lane to Captain Prince, September 12, 1861, Documented in The War of the Rebellion, Volume I-3, page 490-91. who was soon betrayed by a man who worked at his ranch. The man helped James G. Blunt and the Kansas 6th Volunteer Cavalry (and the Humboldt Home Guard) track down Mathews. He was killed at the house of William Blythe, rented by Lewis Rogers, just southeast of Chetopa on the Cherokee Neutral Lands.Cheatham, Gary L., "If the Union Wins, We Won't Have Anything Left: The Rise and Fall of the Southern Cherokees of Kansas." Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 30, Autumn 2007, page 172.
The next day, local residents were tried by James G. Blunt in an impromptu court martial. Mathews' ranch and trading post at Little Town were subsequently burned. The ranch had consisted of a two story double log cabin (covered with burr siding and sporting plastered walls), a blacksmith shop, a stable, slaves quarters, a well house, a smoke house, a woodshed, and other outbuildings, as well as two race tracks. He had title to on the bluff and below. He had no less than 100 head of cattle and 50 horses. His possessions and the stock of the trading post (including 50 buffalo robes and six bear skins) were distributed among the volunteers who had tracked him down. Little Town and many houses at Chetopa were also burned. The site of Little Town remained unoccupied by whites during the war. Most, but not all, of the Osages fled Kansas during the Civil War. Mathews's own children fled to Texas and Kentucky.
In 1865, a number of settlers located at this point and called the town "Little Town." Two years later, the Oswego town company was organized and so named for Oswego, New York, whence many of the settlers had come. Lots were given away to every person who would erect a building, with the result that the town grew very rapidly. The organization of Oswego as a city of the third class took place in February 1870. The town was made a city of the second class by proclamation of the governor in 1880.
The first frame house was put up by Dr. William S. Newlon in September 1865. The first frame store building was erected by Thomas J. Buntain, though the first store was opened in a log building in 1865 by Rexford & Elsbee. The post office was established in 1867 with Nelson Carr as postmaster. At that time, there were two provision stores, since Oswego was on the military road. M. George had opened a blacksmith shop and D.W. Clover a hotel, which was not only an inn for the public, but the county headquarters, a political rendezvous and a news center. This was the second hotel, the first having been built in 1866 by William A. Hogaboom. In 1868, Mr. Shanks operated the first pottery and made several kilns of stoneware; a cotton gin was set up the same year. The first bank was opened in 1868 by W. M. Johnson, who was forced two years later to make an assignment of all that he had to satisfy his creditors. The second bank was started in July 1870 by B. F. Hibart and H. L. Taylor, which was a success. The State Bank of Oswego started business a few weeks later, but discontinued after a short time, as there was not business enough for two banks. In September 1870, a steam sawmill was erected by Macon, Krell & Cowell.
The first newspaper was the Oswego Register, established in 1868 by E.R. Trask. The first church was the Congregational, organized in May 1868; the Presbyterian church was founded in July of the same year. The first school was opened in 1867. The public library association was organized in 1877 and continues in the form of Oswego Public Library, a Carnegie Library, today. The telephone system was put into operation in 1882, the waterworks in 1887, and the first electric lights were turned on July 12, 1888 (but were turned off a few months later).
In 2011, the City Council voted to annex city-owned Oswego Municipal Airport into the city limits, expanding Oswego into neighboring Cherokee County.
Geography Oswego is located approximately north of the Oklahoma state line and west of the Missouri line. It is situated along the southern bluffs overlooking the Neosho River valley at the junction of U.S. Route 59 and U.S. Route 160.Oswego, KS, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1974 According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
Climate The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Oswego has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Oswego, Kansas
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Oswego had a population of 1,668, with 678 households and 427 families. The median age was 42.3 years. 23.0% of residents were under the age of 18, 7.6% were from 18 to 24, 22.3% were from 25 to 44, 24.8% were from 45 to 64, and 22.4% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 101.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.2 males age 18 and over.
The population density was 692.7 per square mile (267.4/km). There were 797 housing units at an average density of 331.0 per square mile (127.8/km). Of all housing units, 14.9% were vacant; the homeowner vacancy rate was 3.3%, and the rental vacancy rate was 7.9%.
Of households, 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 45.9% were married-couple households, 18.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 27.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 1,441 86.4% Black or African American 27 1.6% American Indian and Alaska Native 44 2.6% Asian 2 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 3 0.2% Some other race 19 1.1% Two or more races 132 7.9% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 66 4.0%
Non-Hispanic White residents were 84.83% of the population.
Demographic estimates The average household size was 2.1 and the average family size was 2.7. The percent of those with a bachelor's degree or higher was estimated to be 12.8% of the population.
Income and poverty