Shawnee

Shawnee Methodist Mission

Shawnee, city, Johnson county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. It is a southwestern suburb of Kansas City. The Shawnee Indians made their headquarters there in 1828, when it was known as Gum Springs. The nearby Shawnee Methodist Mission and Indian Manual Labor School (1839) served twice during 1854–56 as the temporary territorial capital of Kansas and has been partially restored. The first newspaper in Kansas (1835), the Shawnee Sun, was printed in the Shawnee language at the Baptist Mission, 2 miles (3 km) east. The first jail in Kansas was built in Shawnee in 1843. In 1855 Shawnee was designated the county seat, but in 1858 it lost that distinction to Olathe. The city is mainly residential but is also a shipping point for the surrounding farming and dairying area. Inc. 1922. Pop. (2000) 47,996; (2010) 62,209.