De Soto, an incorporated town of Johnson county, is located in the northwestern part on the south bank of the Kansas river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 16 miles east of Lawrence. The town was laid out in the spring of 1857 by a company and named after the great Spanish explorer. A store was soon opened and a sawmill built on the river. Late in the year several more buildings were elected and the De Soto hotel was opened. In 1860 the postoffice was established with James Smith as postmaster. The Methodist church was the pioneer religious denomination, an organization having been perfected in 1858, but no church was erected until 1870. De Soto now contains several general stores, a hardware and implement house, lumber yard, good public school system, money order postoffice, telegraph and express facilities, and is the shipping and supply point for a considerable district. The population in 1910 was 500.