Hiawatha, Kansas Hiawatha, Kansas Hiawatha (Ioway: "Hári Wáta" pronounced ) is the largest city and county seat of Brown County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,172. Hiawatha was founded in 1857, making it one of the oldest towns in the state. John M. Coe, John P. Wheller, and Thomas J. Drummond were instrumental in organizing the city, and the site was staked out February 17, 1857. B.L. Rider reportedly was responsible for naming Hiawatha, taking the young Indian's name from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Song of Hiawatha". Hiawatha became the Brown County Seat in
The Song of Hiawatha It was composed by ‘Neil Moret’ (Charles Daniels) while on the train to Hiawatha, Kansas, in 1901 and was inspired by the rhythm of the wheels on the rails. It was already popular when James O'Dea added lyrics in 1903, and the music was newly subtitled "His Song to Minnehaha". Later treated as a rag, it later became a jazz standard. Duke Ellington incorporated treatments of Hiawatha and Minnehaha in his jazz suite "The Beautiful Indians" (1946–7). Other popular songs have included "Hiawatha’s Melody of Love", by George W. Meyer, with words by Alfred Bryan and Artie Mehlinger (1908), and