Maitland

History

Maitland was platted on May 12, 1880. The town is named after John Skirving Maitland, who was a surveyor for the Nodaway Valley Railroad (the construction company for the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad) that arrived in Maitland in 1880 when its superintendent, John Fisk Barnard, purchased the land for the town from John S. and Delila Swope. The railroad would eventually be taken over by the Burlington Northern Railroad before eventually being abandoned. Maitland is a farming community. One of the farmers from Maitland was David Ward King, inventor and promoter of the King road drag—an invention that essentially was two logs lashed together and dragged behind horse or mule teams that was an effective and inexpensive method to grade dirt roads. It was the horse-drawn forerunner of the modern road grader. The invention came at the time Henry Ford started to mass-produce automobiles. Before its invention, wet country roads became muck and were often nearly impassable. The use of the King Road Drag kept rural roads solid, even when wet, which rendered them passable all the time. These improved rural roads made possible both the advent of the automobile and rural mail delivery. In the first half of the 20th century, Maitland claimed to have the largest bluegrass seed producing farm in the world. John Q. Weller was to claim that the of seed produced on his farm was more than the harvested seed output of the entire state of Kentucky. In some years, Weller would get permission to pile up bumper crops of seed on the city streets. During the harvest time in late June/early July, the town hosted a Bluegrass festival. Bluegrass seed production in the late 1950s/early 1960s moved to farming communities in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The Festival had been…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. The Nodaway River forms the east boundary of Maitland city limits; it also separates it from its sister town, Graham across the river in Nodaway County. Maitland is also located in the northeastern portion of the Whig Valley.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• MOUND CITY ELEM.
  Elementary · MOUND CITY · 113 students · 14.1:1 ratio
• NODAWAY-HOLT ELEM.
  Elementary · MAITLAND · 112 students · 11.2:1 ratio
• MOUND CITY HIGH
  High · MOUND CITY · 87 students · 9.7:1 ratio
• MOUND CITY MIDDLE
  Middle · MOUND CITY · 76 students · 12.7:1 ratio