KAPIOMA.
According to Captain Elberhant, of Golden, Colo., the Kickapoo Indians once had a village on the Grasshopper river in Atchison county, called Kapioma, after the chief of the band, and it is from this source that Kapioma township took its name. Captain Berthoud says that Father Duerinck, a native of Belgium, who was probably the first Jesuit priest in Atchison county, gave the pronunciation of the name of his Atchison county station as Kah-pi-oma, accent on the syllable “Kah.”
In an affidavit of H. H. Skiles, volume 69, page 63, in the records of the office of the register of deeds of Atchison county, Kansas, the following appears:
“This affiant further states that there was in 1857 and 1858 a company formed, called and known as the Kapioma City Company, and the individuals composing that company were B. Gray, S. C. Russell, W. W. Weston, H. H. Skiles and W. Y. Roberts, who united themselves together for the purpose of laying out, locating and establishing a town called Kapioma, on what was then known as Grasshopper creek, just north of its confluence with Straight creek, in the western borders of Atchison county, Kansas. The entire purpose and scheme in laying out and establishing a town fell through and was wholly and totally abandoned by all and every person connected with it without prejudice to any one, and the title to the land intended by the company to become town property reverted to the original owner. The law required to establish a town was never complied with.”