Hepler, an incorporated city of Crawford county, is situated in Walnut township and is a station on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R., about 15 miles northwest of Girard, the county seat. The town was established in Jan., 1871, by a company of which B. F. Hepler of Fort Scott was president and T. H. Annable was secretary. The first settler was John Vietz, who erected the first business building. On Jan. 4, 1883, appeared the first issue of the Hepler Leader, which was published by W. D. Wright. Hepler has a bank, a money order postoffice with two rural routes, a weekly newspaper (the Enterprise), telegraph and express facilities, telephone connections, hotels, churches, good public schools, and a number of good mercantile houses. It is a shipping point for a rich agricultural section in the northwestern part of Crawford and the southwestern part of Bourbon county, and in 1910 reported a population of 275.