Russell, the county seat of Russell county, is centrally located on the Union Pacific R. R., nearly 200 miles west of Topeka. It has 2 banks, 3 weekly newspapers (the Record, the Recorder and the Reformer), an opera house, a public library, grain elevators, good hotels, daily stages to Fay and Fairport and tri-weekly stages to Milberger and Hawley. The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices, and has an international money order postoffice with four rural routes. It is an incorporated city of the third class with a population in 1910 of 1,692. The town was founded in May, 1871, a large number of houses and a school house being erected in that year, and by December the population was 200. The next year a hotel was opened, a lumber yard started, and a number of business houses established. Russell was made the county seat in 1874. The depot was burned that year and was replaced by a fine stone building. From 1875 to 1880 extensive improvements were made. The population in 1880 was 861, in 1890 it was 961, and in 1900 it was 1,143, showing continuous growth.