Burlingame, formerly the judicial seat of Osage county, is located northwest of the central part of the county, 16 miles from Lyndon and 26 miles south of Topeka, and is one of the important towns in that section of the state. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. from Topeka diverges at this point, one branch going to Emporia and the other to Alma. Potter's clay and coal are found in the vicinity and these, with live stock, grain and produce, form the chief shipments. There are three weekly papers, ample banking facilities, planing mill, electric lighting plant, churches, graded and high schools, an opera house and public halls. All the leading fraternities are represented. The town is well supplied with express and telegraph facilities and has an international money order postoffice with six rural routes. The population in 1910 was 1,422.

Burlingame is the oldest town in Osage county having been built up from the nucleus started under the name of Council City in 1855. In 1857 the site was surveyed which took in a larger area and the name was changed to Burlingame in honor of Anson Burlingame afterward minister to China. The name of the postoffice was not changed until Jan. 30, 1858, and later in the year the town company was organized. Being at the crossing of Switzler creek, Burlingame was the most important stop on the Santa Fe trail with the exception of Council Grove.

The trail formed the principal street of the town. Improvement was rapid from 1857 until the breaking out of the war. A bridge was put across the Switzler, saw mills and grist mills were built, and durable buildings, some of them of stone, were put up. In 1860 it was incorporated as a city by act of the legislature and became a city of the third class in 1870. Three years afterward the city hall with the records were burned. The first officers elected were: Mayor, Phillip C. Schuyler; councilmen, S. R. Caniff, George Bratton, F. P. Sheldon and Joseph McDonald. The next year the county seat was located here, and remained until 1875 when it was taken to Lyndon.

During the war growth was suspended. A large round fort was built in 1862 and a number of armed men stationed within to protect the town from destruction threatened by Bill Anderson, one of Quantrill's guerrilla band. As soon as peace was restored again business activity was renewed. A large three-story grist mill was built in 1866. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. reached Burlingame in 1869, and the event was duly celebrated by an excursion from Topeka on Oct. 4. Two destructive fires have occurred, one in 1873 and the other in 1883 the latter causing a property loss of $10,000.