1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chanute

CHANUTE, a city of Neosho county, Kansas, U.S.A., 1 m. from the Neosho river, and about 120 m. S.S.W. of Kansas city. Pop. (1890) 2826; (1900) 4208, of whom 210 were foreign-born and 171 were negroes; (1910 census) 9272. Chanute is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways, the former having large repair shops. The city is in the Kansas-Oklahoma oil and gas field, and is surrounded by a fine farming and dairying region, in which special attention is given to the raising of small fruit; oil, gas, cement rock and brick shale are found in the vicinity. Among the city’s manufactures are refined oil, Portland cement, vitrified brick and tile, glass, asphalt, ice, cigars, drilling machinery, and flour. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks, a natural gas plant, and an electric lighting plant. Four towns— New Chicago, Tioga, Chicago Junction and Alliance—were started here about the same time (1870). In 1872 they were consolidated, and the present name was adopted in honour of Octave Chanute (b. 1832), the civil engineer and aeronautist (see Flight and Flying), then the engineer of the Lawrence, Leavenworth & Galveston railway (now part of the Atchison system). Chanute was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1873, and its charter was revised in 1888. Natural gas and oil were found here in 1899, and Chanute became one of the leaders of the Kansas independent refineries in their contest with the Standard Oil Company.