Eudora Fish – Mother, Wife, Shawnee Tribe Member (1848 – 1877); Eudora
By Ben Terwilliger, Eudora Community Museum Director
Eudora Fish was only 8 or 9 years old when she had an entire town named after her!
Eudora was born in 1848 and was the daughter of Shawnee tribal Chief Paschal Fish and Hester Armstrong Fish. Eudora’s father operated a hotel and a ferryboat in the Eudora area. As a child, Eudora probably attended the Wakarusa Mission school, which was the first school established in the area. In 1857, Paschal sold his land for $10,000 to a German immigrant company. The Germans formed the town of Eudora, naming it in honor of Paschal’s daughter.
Eudora Fish married Dallas Emmons and had several children. Like most of the Shawnee tribal members of this region, she was forced to leave the Eudora area. Eudora died tragically young, at the age of 29, in 1877, in LaCygne, Kansas. She is buried in the “Huron Indian Cemetery” in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.
Eudora has many living descendants. One of her descendants gave to the Eudora Community Museum the only known photo of Eudora Fish. The photo is a tintype photograph (below), showing Eudora as a young adult, probably wearing her wedding dress.
Image: Eudora Community Museum
