The Whitewater post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1885. Another post office, Ovo (1882), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 184 in 18902020 census: 661155 years
Founding year: the first Whitewater post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1885.The full story ↓
What stands out about Whitewater’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The city originally formed several miles to the east. A post office was established as White Water (as two words) on August 7, 1871. The post office was renamed to Ovo on July 7, 1882.
In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a branch line north–south from Herington through Whitewater to Caldwell. It foreclosed in 1891 and was 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".
Passages that mention Whitewater, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Butler County Kansas1916 · page 175Read the page →
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until about 1888. The Rock Island railroad came through the western edge of the township and located a station and built a depot at the junction of the roads, then the Missouri Pacific, put up a depot and the town of Whitewater was laid off at the junction. Chester Smith moved his house from Annelly to Whitewater in January. 1888. This was the first house in AVhitewater. Two more houses were moved in from Annelly. About this time the town of P)rainerd was put on wheels and
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History of Butler County Kansas1916 · page 604Read the page →
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1875- To Mr. and Mrs. Pace have been born one child, Walter, born in 1893, Enterprise, Dickenson county, Kansas. Walter was only three years old when the family came to Whitewater, so for all practical purposes, Whitewater is his native town. He was educated in the public schools of Whitewater, including the Whitewater High School, after which he took a course in a Wichita business college, when he entered the hardware business at Whitewater with his father, as above stated.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Whitewater, 1871 to 1889
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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