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 Hiawatha Story The Hiawatha Story The Hiawatha Story is a 1970 non-fiction book on railroad history by Jim Scribbins, then an employee of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road"). The book covers the history of the Milwaukee Road's most famous passenger train, the "Hiawatha", from its creation in 1934–1935 up through 1970. The book also covered the various other Milwaukee Road trains which carried the name "Hiawatha." "The Hiawatha Story" is organized chronologically. It begins with the construction of the first "Hiawatha" in 1934–1935. The Milwaukee Road created the train to compete with streamliners then under development