Ellis, Kansas: A Railroad Town With a Soldier's Name

Ellis, Kansas, is named for Lt. George Ellis of the 12th Kansas Infantry, who was killed at Jenkins’ Ferry, Arkansas, on April 30, 1864. The name reached the town through the county, which the Kansas Legislature named for him three years later.

From a county to a town

The 1883 History of the State of Kansas, edited by William G. Cutler, puts it plainly: “Ellis County was named after Lieut. George Ellis, of the Twelfth Kansas Infantry, who was killed April 30, 1864, in a battle at Jenkins’ Ferry, Arkansas.” Until 1867, Cutler adds, the area was part of the unorganized western end of the state, and that year the Legislature drew the county’s lines and gave it the lieutenant’s name. Blackmar’s 1912 cyclopedia of Kansas history dates the act to February 26, 1867, and places Ellis in Company I of the regiment.

The town took the county’s name. Henry Gannett, the Geological Survey’s geographer, covered both in a single line in 1905: “county, and city in same county, in Kansas, named in honor of George Ellis, first lieutenant, Twelfth Kansas Infantry.” Who picked the name for the town itself isn’t recorded in any of these books; they only show that it matches the county.

“What is usually known as a railroad town”

The railroad got there before the town. The City of Ellis says the Kansas Pacific set up a water station on the tracks at the site in 1867 and later bought the land for $1,200. According to Cutler, the company laid out the town in 1873, and Holland Wheeler, a civil engineer on its payroll, surveyed and platted it on the north bank of Big Creek, about a mile (1.6 km) east of the county’s west line.

Cutler didn’t dress it up. “It is what is usually known as a railroad town,” he wrote. Ellis was the end of the Kansas Pacific’s third division, with a roundhouse holding fourteen locomotives, machine shops and a two-story stone building that served as depot and hotel at once. The country around it was “rough, broken,” he said, and the town lived mostly on what the railroad paid its workers. In his day the business district sat on the street facing the tracks, so if you lived in Ellis then, you most likely crossed the railroad to go from home to the stores.

Cattle, a women’s council and a carmaker

From 1875, the city says, Ellis was a shipping point for cattle herds driven up from the south. It was incorporated on January 10, 1888. In 1896 a women’s “Law and Order Committee” slate won the town election, and Ellis ended up with an all-woman council and a woman mayor.

The railroad shop left one more mark. Walter P. Chrysler grew up in Ellis and, by the city’s account, learned mechanical repair in the Union Pacific shop there before founding the carmaker that carries his name. If you’re curious about him, his boyhood home is one of the town’s museums. Fourteen miles (23 km) east, by Blackmar’s count, is Hays, the county seat, which got its name from an Army fort.

Quick answers

Which soldier is Ellis, Kansas, named for?

Lt. George Ellis of the 12th Kansas Infantry, killed in the battle at Jenkins’ Ferry, Arkansas, on April 30, 1864. The county was named for him in 1867, and the town shares the county’s name (Cutler, 1883; Gannett, 1905).

Did George Ellis live in Ellis County?

The sources we read don’t say he ever saw it. The area was unorganized territory when he died, and the county was created and named three years after the battle.

When was the town of Ellis laid out?

In 1873, by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, with Holland Wheeler as surveyor (Cutler, 1883). The railroad had a water station there from 1867, according to the city.

Key dates

1. 1864April 30: Lt. George Ellis of the 12th Kansas Infantry is killed at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas.
2. 1867The Kansas Legislature defines Ellis County and names it; the Kansas Pacific sets up a water station at the future town site.
3. 1873The Kansas Pacific lays out the town of Ellis, platted by its civil engineer Holland Wheeler.
4. 1875Ellis becomes a shipping point for cattle herds driven up from the south.
5. 1888January 10: Ellis is incorporated as a city of the third class.
6. 1896A women's slate wins the town election, giving Ellis an all-woman council and a woman mayor.

Getting there

Open Ellis in Google Maps

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• Satellite
• Terrain

Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Ellis in the USGS place-name record.

The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Ellis.

Airports

• Hays Regional (HYS) 17 mi 27 km
• Garden City Regional (GCK) 94 mi 151 km

Amtrak trains

• Dodge City station (DDG) 86 mi 138 km
• Garden City station (GCK) 98 mi 157 km

Intercity buses

• Greyhound Hays Roth Avenue 13 mi 21 km

Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.

Historical Sources & References

• William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (1883), Ellis County, part 5. The town laid out by the Kansas Pacific in 1873, Holland Wheeler’s plat, “a railroad town,” the roundhouse for fourteen locomotives and the stone depot-hotel. Part 1 gives the county’s name, George Ellis’s death at Jenkins’ Ferry and the county’s creation in 1867.
• Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, 2nd ed. (1905), p. 117. County and city named in honor of George Ellis, first lieutenant, Twelfth Kansas Infantry.
• Frank W. Blackmar, ed., Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, vol. 1 (1912), pp. 577-578. The act of February 26, 1867, Company I, and Ellis 14 miles (23 km) west of Hays on the Union Pacific.
• City of Ellis, Kansas. The water station of 1867, the $1,200 purchase, cattle from 1875, incorporation on January 10, 1888, the council of 1896 and Walter P. Chrysler.
• GNIS feature 475174 (U.S. Geological Survey). Ellis in the national gazetteer, with coordinates and a history note, “Founded in 1870 and incorporated in 1888,” that puts the founding three years before Cutler’s date.