IOLA

iola, a city and the county-seat of allen county, kansas, u.s.a., on the neosho river, about 100 m. s. by w. of kansas city. pop. (1890) 1706; (1900) 5791, of whom 237 were foreign-born and 207 were negroes; (1905) 10,287; (1910) 9032. it is served by the atchison, topeka & santa fe, the missouri pacific and the missouri, kansas & texas railways. it is pleasantly situated in a level valley where there is a great abundance of natural gas and some fine building stone. the city has large zinc smelters and zinc rolling-mills, a foundry, machine shops, and manufactories of cement, sulphuric acid and brick. the municipality owns and operates its waterworks, gas plant and electric-lighting plant. iola was founded in 1859 by a company whose members were dissatisfied with the location of the county-seat at humboldt. it became the county-seat in 1865, was chartered as a city of the third class in 1870 and became a city of the second class in 1898. the rapid growth of the city dates from the discovery of natural gas here, on christmas day 1893.