Sterling, the largest town in Rice county, is located in the southern portion of the county on the Arkansas river and the Missouri Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, 10 miles south of Lyons, the county seat. It is beautifully laid out with broad streets and has an abundance of delightful shade trees. It is the seat of Cooper College, and has a number of profitable factories which work on the various raw materials yielded by the surrounding country. Among these are two broom factories, a salt works, machine shops, washing machine factory, flour mill, marble works, feed mill and a seed cleaner factory. The city has an efficient sewer system, waterworks, fire department, electric light plant, library, an opera house, 3 banks, and numerous churches and lodges. There are two weekly newspapers (the Bulletin and the Journal), telegraph and express offices, an international money order postoffice with six rural routes. The population, according to the census of 1910, was 2,133.

The old town of Peace, Sterling's predecessor, was established in 1871, and was incorporated in 1876 by an official order of Judge Samuel Peters, of Marion, as the "city of Sterling." He ordered an election for city officers to be held on May 10, when the officers chosen were as follows: Mayor, J. S. Chapin; councilmen, W. H. Lape, E. B. Cowgill, A. G. Landis, W. H. Page and Patten Nimrod; police judge, W. M. Lamb. The name of the town was changed in honor of Sterling Rosan, one of the early settlers.