Editing Manhattan, Kansas (section)

===1854: Polistra and Canton===
The [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]] opened the territory to settlement by U.S. citizens in 1854. That fall, [[George S. Park]] founded the first Euro-American settlement within the borders of the current Manhattan. Park named it Polistra (some histories refer to it as Poliska or Poleska).<ref name=reference2>{{cite book | last = Parrish | first = Donald | title = This Land is Our Land: The Public Domain in the Vicinity of Riley County and Manhattan, Kansas | year = 2004 |publisher=Riley County Historical Society| isbn = 0-9677686-2-4 |oclc= 54769277}}</ref>

Later that year, Samuel D. Houston and three other pioneers founded Canton, a neighboring community near the mouth of the Big Blue River.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Kaw: The Heart of a Nation|last= Streeter|first= Floyd Benjamin|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MZEJR647HyIC|author-link= Floyd Benjamin Streeter|year= 1975|publisher=Arno Press|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-405-06889-8|oclc= 2180188}}</ref> Neither Canton nor Polistra ever grew beyond their original founders.<ref name=Frontier/>