After the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act first allowed settlement in Kansas, speculators flooded across the Missouri River to survey new towns. Within a few days, Leavenworth was platted as the first city in Kansas, and other towns on and near the river were soon established, including White Cloud, Iowa Point, Troy, and Atchison. Named after the ancient Greek city, Troy was surveyed as Doniphan County's seat in 1855. Among its first buildings was the Nelson Rodgers House, followed by several commercial buildings still visible downtown. The town grew gradually at first as a stop on the wagon route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to California. Incorporated in 1860, it played a secondary role to the river towns because it stood 15 miles from the Missouri River until the railroad arrived. In 1869, the St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad connected Troy to the expanding rail network, and it became an important local hub and shipping point, growing until its population stabilized around 1,000 at the turn of the century. Fruit growing became increasingly important through the 1920s and 1930s, with an estimated 25,000 acres of apple orchards around the city, and Troy remained a farming community. The current Doniphan County Courthouse is the county's fourth courthouse building. In Troy's early years, the former Higby House served as a courthouse until 1859, when a new courthouse was built on the central square. About a decade later that building was destroyed by fire and replaced, and additions to the next courthouse eventually proved inadequate, leading to its demolition around the turn of the century to make way for another. The present courthouse, designed by George P. Washburn, was completed in 1906 on courthouse square. This three-story Romanesque building has towers at each corner, a prominent cupola, red brick exterior walls, and a native limestone foundation, and its third story contains artifacts from the Iowa and Sac and Fox Mission, a chair displaying native woods from the 1896 Chicago World's Fair, and items from the S.L.K. Library established by the state's oldest women's club.