Concordia, the county seat and largest city of Cloud county, is beautifuly[sic] situated, a little north of the center of the county, on the Republican river and at the junction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads. When the county seat was located here by vote of the people in the fall of 1869, there was not a building of any kind on the site of the present city. That winter a one-story building 16 by 20 feet was erected for the use of the county commissioners, but only two meetings were held there, the board adjourning to Clyde, where better accommodations could he secured. Two town companies were organized soon after the election of 1869. The first, which was composed of G. W. Andrews, S. D. Houston, Sr., and J. M. Hagaman, owned what was known as the deeded part of the site, and the second, consisting of S. D. Houston, J. J., W. M. and Frank Burns, owned the Congressional site. Two surveys were made before the plat was finally adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties. In July, 1870, a United States land office was opened at Concordia and remained in operation there until consolidated with the Topeka office in Feb., 1889. There was a rush of applicants for lands, and the town grew accordingly. In Jan., 1871, Henry Buckingham removed the publication office of the Republican Valley Empire from Clyde to Concordia. On Aug. 6, 1872, Concordia was incorporated as a city of the second class, with R. E. Allen as the first mayor.

The Concordia of the present day is one of the prettiest and busiest cities of its size in the state, as well as one of the most progressive in the matter of civic improvements. Its streets are well kept, and it has an electric lighting plant, a good sewer system, waterworks, a telephone exchange, a fire department, etc. The early settlers were mostly people from the eastern states, who understood the advantages resulting from good schools, and it is due to their influence that the city has three fine graded public school buildings. A Catholic school and convent are also located there. The commercial and industrial enterprises include 3 banks, 3 grain elevators, a flour mill, a creamery, brick and tile works, marble and granite works, a broom factory, ice and cold storage plant, cigar factories, planing mills, hotels, well stocked stores, etc. Concordia also has a Carnegie library of over 5,000 volumes, express and telegraph offices, and an international money order postoffice, from which six rural routes supply daily mail to the inhabitants of a rich and populous agricultural district. The population of the city in 1910 was 4,415, a gain of 1,014 during the preceding decade.