The names settlers originally gave to many places were different than the ones they have today.

The city of Lawrence was first called Wakarusa, then New Boston and finally Lawrence.

Baldwin was originally Palmyra, preserved today in the name of its Masonic lodge.

Franklin was a pro-slavery settlement near where Eudora is now situated. Black Jack was in the extreme southeastern part of Douglas County. Big Springs was the scene of political conventions for the territory; legislative sessions took place in Lecompton and Lawrence (Douglas County) as well as at Topeka. Constitutional conventions were at Lecompton, Topeka and Wyandotte (Kansas City, Kan.).

Here’s when many communities in the area were founded:

Sept. 19, 1827 — Fort Leavenworth

July 13, 1854 — Leavenworth Town Company

Sept. 18, 1854 — Lawrence

Dec. 5, 1854 — Topeka

Dec. 23, 1854 — Valley Falls (incorporated May 19, 1869)

March 1855 — Winchester

April 1855 — Ozawkie

May 14, 1855 — Lecompton

June 11, 1855 — Palmyra (became Baldwin City in 1858)

July 11, 1855 — Clinton-Bloomington

Aug. 25, 1855 — Douglas County organized

August 1855 — Oskaloosa

Aug. 10, 1857 — Shawnee

1857 — Olathe, De Soto, Gardner

April 18, 1857 — Eudora

1860 — Marion-Globe

1864 — Ottawa

1865 — Perry

1868 — Vinland

1869 — Lenexa

1870 — Wellsville

1881 — McLouth