Blue Mound, an incorporated city of Linn county, is situated in the southwest corner at the junction of two branches of the Missouri Pacific R. R. 13 miles southwest of Mound City, the county seat. A postoffice was opened a half mile north of the present town in 1854, with John Quincy Adams as postmaster. It was moved several times, but was finally located in the village of Blue Mound on June 1, 1882. The elevation known as Blue Mound was named by a Mr. Adams, who was the first settler, because from a distance it looks blue, and thus the town name followed.

The Blue Mound Town company was organized in April, 1882, and the townsite was surveyed the same month. In May the first building was moved to the town from about 3 miles southeast, and was used by Alley Bros. as a store. The second was moved to Blue Mound from Wall Street, by Innes Bros. and used as a hotel, until the new one was finished for them in June. Religious services were held during the summer by a minister of the United Brethren church named Hinton, and school was opened in October. The growth of the town was phenomenally rapid, for within six months there was a population of 200, with three general stores, a harware[sic] store, furniture store, blacksmith shop, drug store, harness shop and lumber yard. With the building of the second railroad into the town it became a railroad center, and when the coal beds of southeastern Kansas were opened it came into prominence as a shipping point for coal and the manufactured mineral products of that section. Blue Mound is the banking and supply point for a rich and extensive agricultural district. It has telegraph and express offices and is one of the leading cities of the eastern counties. In 1910 the population was 596.