Max Yoho was born in Colony, Kansas, and spent his first ten years there. His experiences in a small town formed him, and are reflected in his humorous fiction, set in Kansas.

We visit Colony occassionally. These photo are from September, 2008, as we were on our way to Iola for the annual Buster Keaton Celebration.

—Select a thumbnail to see the larger photo.

How Colony Came To Be: An eminence known as High Divide, dividing the waters of the Arkansas and Missouri rivers, stood a rail station on the highest point in elevation on the railroad between Kansas City and the Gulf of Mexico. It was named Divide and a town was platted with the probate judge of Anderson County on August 2, 1870. Owing to the difficulty in securing water, few improvements were made at this town site for nearly two years. A store was built in 1871, a corner building on the south of Broad Street, but was of short duration as little was heard of it the next year when the colony arrived.

It was back in Ohio and Indiana four men were making plans to organize a colony to bring to the Kansas territory where they expected to found a town. In March 1872 the new settlers began to arrive and by the middle of May about one hundred people had come to the vicinity of Divide. After the arrival of the colonists a town company was formed and an election held. The name of the station and site was changed to Colony after this settlement of colonists.

History provided by
Mrs. Morris Luedke, Colony News columnist, Iola Register. 2/2/2010