Pittsburg Township is a

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England, New York, and Wisconsin to re ...

in Mitchell County,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Its area includes the point at the intersection of Latitude 39.35 and Longitude -98.43333. The township's name is derived from William Augustus Pitt, one of the founders of the central town of the township, Tipton. Through about 1901, the township name was spelled "Pittsburgh," and it surrounded a town that had the same name. From 1902 on, the township name dropped the final H.Atlas and Plat Book of Mitchell County, 1902

The first white settlers came to this Pittsburg in 1871. We know from official records that Mr. W. A. Pitt lived here in 1872, one-half mile east of the present town site, on a farm he owned. Mr. Pitt's house served as the local post office. Hence it was hardly surprising that the scattered settlers in and around this territory began to call it Pitt's-burg.

But at the request of the United States Postal Service, the town was renamed to avoid confusion with the larger town of Pittsburg, Kansas in Crawford County. Because some early settlers of the area had also resided for a time in the industrial city of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, it is often popularly thought the township name derives from that city, but that is mere speculation.

References

Townships in Mitchell County, Kansas 1871 establishments in Kansas Townships in Kansas {{MitchellCountyKS-geo-stub