McPherson ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It is home to McPherson College and Central Christian College.
History
19th century
thumb|left|1915 Railroad Map of [[McPherson County, Kansas|McPherson County]]
For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. In 1867, McPherson County was founded.
McPherson was founded in 1870 by the twelve members of the McPherson Town Company. In 1887, city officials began a failed attempt to have the community named the state capital.
The first post office in McPherson was established in 1873. McPherson was incorporated as a city in 1874.
As early as 1875, city leaders of Marion held a meeting to consider a branch railroad from Florence. In 1878, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and parties from Marion and McPherson counties chartered the Marion and McPherson Railway Company. In 1879, a branch line was built from Florence to McPherson. In 1880 it was extended to Lyons and in 1881 it was extended to Ellinwood. The line was leased and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The line from Florence to Marion was abandoned in 1968. In 1992, the line from Marion to McPherson was sold to Central Kansas Railway. In 1993, after heavy flood damage, the line from Marion to McPherson was abandoned. The original branch line connected Florence, Marion, Canada, Hillsboro, Lehigh, Canton, Galva, McPherson, Conway, Windom, Little River, Mitchell, Lyons, Chase and Ellinwood.
In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Herington through McPherson to Pratt. In 1888, this line was extended to Liberal. Later, it was extended to Tucumcari, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. It foreclosed in 1891 and taken over by Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut down in 1980 and reorganized as Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, merged in 1988 with Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged in 1997 with Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island".
By 1888, the community was at the junction of four railroad lines. Major industries have included a large flour mill, an insurance company headquarters, and an oil refinery.
20th century
thumb|left|McPherson Union Hotel, 1907 postcard
Transportation
The National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and was routed through Windom, Conway and McPherson.
Synthetic diamond
In 1926, Dr. J. Willard Hershey of McPherson College -- replicating experiments of other scientists -- claimed to have produced a synthetic diamond, among the first to have done so. (Subsequently, other experimenters could not reproduce their synthesis, drawing doubt about Hershey's claim).
Oil Refinery
In the late 1920s, oil was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas. As a result, the Globe Oil & Refining Company, (subsidiary of Lario Oil & Gas Company), constructed an oil refinery in the county seat: McPherson. Built in 1933, the refinery was soon was producing 200,000 gallons of gasoline per day. This output necessitated a marketing campaign to promote the growing retail gasoline business. Lario, like many in the early radio days and before television, sponsored Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball teams to generate excitement for their product in the sport sections of widely read newspapers. For a small sponsorship fee, Lario Oil & Gas was able to reach many more consumers than by conventional advertising.
First Olympic basketball champions
In the 1930s, the local refinery sponsored the McPherson Globe Refiners basketball team in the (AAU-- basketball's official sanctioning organization at the time). They were coached by Gene Johnson, former head coach of Wichita University (now Wichita State University). Coach Johnson was one of the innovators of the fast break and full-court press.
The Refiners were best known for their tall centers, Joe Fortenberry (6–8) and Willard Schmidt (6–9) and their fast-break style of play. Billed as "The Tallest Team in the World", the Refiners often held their opponents to low scores because of the centers' ability to deflect shots on the way to the basket in what today would be called goaltending. The team invented the "dunk" (so named by Arthur J. Daley, a New York Times sports writer who witnessed it); two of the team's tallest players would demonstrate the technique before a game, to entertain the crowd and intimidate opponents, though the technique was not normally allowed in actual play.
The Refiners won the AAU national championship in 1936 against the Hollywood Universal team. This earned them the right to compete for the first ever USA Olympic basketball team in 1936. Hollywood Universal narrowly beat the Refiners at Madison Square Garden and the USA team was composed of both Universal and Refiners players and one college student. Coach Johnson was selected to be the assistant coach. After a long journey by boat to Europe, the team played in alternating squads at the Olympics. The Refiners' portion of the team took the court to defeat Canada 19–8 in the final gold medal game on August 14, 1936, at the Summer Olympics -- the first team ever awarded Olympic gold medals in basketball.
Aircraft production
From 1964 to 1967 (some say 1962 and 1967), the Alon company produced 245 "Alon Aircoupe" two-seat light planes in McPherson. The Aircoupe was an evolution of the influential and popular ERCO Ercoupe, originally developed in the late 1930s by Fred Weick for Henry Berliner's Engineering Research Co. ("ERCO"), in the Washington, D.C. area. Following ERCO's production, design was then acquired by various companies before being acquired by Alon (a contraction of the names of Beech Aircraft Co. executives John Allen and Al Higdon, who formed Alon). The Alon company sold out to Mooney Aircraft of Kerrville, Texas, who took production there, producing a radically revised version as the Mooney M10 Cadet.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
The community is located on U.S. Route 56, just west of Interstate 135. McPherson is part of the Little Arkansas River Watershed that ultimately empties into the Arkansas River in Wichita. Dry Turkey Creek is a wet weather stream that composes several enhanced lakes within the city limits. It feeds the Lakeside Park Lagoon before crossing under East Euclid Street and Kansas Avenue, where it then forms Wall Park Lake.
South and west of town are four units of the reclaimed McPherson Valley Wetlands, acquired and managed by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Ducks Unlimited, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Prior to 1880, this natural wetlands was an important waterfowl and wildlife habitat second only to Cheyenne Bottoms in importance to migratory bird populations. These wetlands continue to see improvement and development.
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, McPherson has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.