Chautauqua, one of the incorporated towns of Chautauqua county, is a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. in Belleville township, in the southern part of the county, 7 miles from Sedan, the judicial seat. It has a bank, a grist mill, a weekly newspaper (the Globe), express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice. It is the shipping point for a large agricultural area. The population in 1910 according to the census report was 348. The chief incentive for founding a town at this point was the mineral springs. The landscape is interesting and picturesque, and the springs are said to have great curative properties. The town was located in 1881, and by the next year there were 300 inhabitants. The first newspaper, the Chautauqua Springs Spy, was established in 1882 by C. E. Moore and L. G. B. McPherson. It had 350 subscribers. Some of the early business men who came in during the first two years were: B. F. Bennett, drugs; T. J. Johnson, drygoods; F. M. Fairbanks, livery barn; Thomas Bryant, drygoods; Bennett & Binns, grocery store; George Edwards, drugs; Richard Foster, hardware; C. C. Purcell, drugs; James Randall, grocery store; Mrs. Bush, millinery; James Allreid, who owned a saw mill; Castleberry, the hotel man, and six others who established livery barns, backsmith shops and wagon shops. The school district was organized in 1880.

The original town site consisted in 80 acres, belonging to Dr. G. W. Woolsey and Dr. T. J. Dunn, to which additions were made by J. C. Kyles and Binns & Bennett. Chautauqua was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1882 and the following officers were chosen at the first election: mayor, Thomas Bryant; clerk, S. Booth; treasurer, I. H. Wilson; marshal, B. F. Atkinson; councilmen, O. F. Shoupp, N. M. Lee, F. A. Fairbanks, E. Moore and S. Cheney.