Burr Oak, one of the principal towns of Jewell county, is located in Burr Oak township 11 miles northwest of Mankato, the county seat. It is on White Rock creek and the Missouri Pacific R. R., and is connected with Otego by daily stage. It has banking facilities, an opera house, a hospital, fire department, a weekly newspaper, churches and schools, express and telegraph offices, and a postoffice with four rural mail routes. The population in 1910 was 1,132. Grain and livestock are the principal products shipped.

Burr Oak was settled in 1870 by A. W. Mann, Zack Norman, Lee M. Tingley, Thomas Richard Comstock, James McCormick, Frank Gilbert, A. J. Godfrey, D. H. Godfrey, Allen Ives, John E. Faidley and F. E. Blake. The town was laid out in 1871 by A. J. Godfrey, and the postoffice established. John F. Faidley kept the first store. It was incorporated as a city of the third class in April, 1880, the first officers were J. K. McLain, mayor; W. M. Spurlock, city clerk; A. W. Mann, treasurer; T. W. Carpenter, O. F. Roberts, A. J. Godfrey, George Quigley and Dr. J. E. Hawley, councilmen.