Medicine Lodge, the county seat of Barber county, is located in the northeastern part of the county on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. and is also the terminus of a branch of that road which is extended from Kiowa in the southeastern part of the county. The town is situated at an altitude of 1,468 feet. It has substantial business blocks, good graded and high schools, 5 churches, 2 state banks, and two newspapers (the Barber County Index and the Medicine Lodge Cresset). There is a daily hack to Eagle and Lasswell. The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices and has an international money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 1,100. This is the home town of Chester I. Long, and was the home of the late Carrie Nation, before she began her career of wrecking saloons. Medicine Lodge was named after the river which flows along its southern edge. The Indians were in the habit of camping here to make medicine. The town was not founded until 1873, but there were settlers at this point before that date, as it is recorded in the historical collections that the Indians made a raid through this territory in 1868 and murdered women and children at Medicine Lodge. In Feb., 1873, John Hutchinson came with a party of men and laid out a town on a site of 400 acres. The first building was a hotel erected by D. Updegraff. A number of buildings were erected, including two stores. Immigration was very rapid during the first year. The first physician to locate was C. T. Trigg; the first attorney, W. E. Hutchinson; the first druggist, S. A. Winston; the first merchants, Bemis, Jordan & Co. The postoffice was established in 1873, with S. A. Winston as postmaster. It was made a money order office in 1879. The town was incorporated in that year, and the first officers were: Mayor, W. W. Cook; police judge, H. M. Davis; city clerk, S. J. Shepler; councilmen, W. W. Staniford, J. N. Iliff, George Mitts, J. Storey and D. M. Carmichael. The first newspaper was the Barber County Mail, which was started in 1878 by M. J. Cochran. The first school was taught in 1873 by Miss Lucinda Burlingame.