St. John, the judicial seat of Stafford county, is located on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. in the central part of the county. It has a county high school, 2 national banks, 2 flour mills, a grain elevator, 2 newspapers (the County Capital and the News), a large number of retail establishments, a telephone exchange, a hotel, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with six rural routes. It is an incorporated city of the third class, with a population in 1910 of 1,785, which is more than twice the population in 1900.

The town which originally occupied this site was called Zion Valley, and was founded by the Mormons. Just before the county was organized, a town company purchased the land and platted it for a town which they called St. John, in honor of the man who was then governor, in hope that it would influence him to name it as the temporary county seat. The first building was erected by Henry Rohr in 1879. The first store was opened by John Fish. In 1880 the Zion Valley postoffice was changed to St. John and C. B. Weeks was the first postmaster. The first child born in the new town was St. John Cox, son of Frank Cox, in Sept., 1880. A savings bank was established in 1879, and a weekly newspaper, the Advance, was started in 1880 by T. C. Austin.