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 Poem of the Soul of Fine Arts of Lyon. The Poem of the Soul The Poem of the Soul is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Louis Janmot, produced between 1835 and 1881 and totalling eighteen paintings and sixteen charcoal drawings, all inspired by a 2800 verse poem by Janmot himself. The first works in the series were exhibited at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. The series tells of a soul's life on earth, incarnated in a young man, accompanied by his female double. His companion then disappears and he spends the rest of his life alone, as did the artist. The series