Appomattox (1885-1894) - A town with four names during its relatively short life, this small town was first established with the name of Surprise in 1885. A post office opened on March 17, 1886 in what was then, Hamilton County, as Grant County would not be created until 1887. Some of its first settlers were John Arthur, E. R. Watkins, Frederick Ausmus. Henry H. Cochran, and George W. Cook.

When the work on creating Grant County began, a number of settlers wanted Surprise to vie with Ulysses for the county seat. However, they were unable to come to an agreement with the Surprise Town Company so decided they would create a new town about two miles south of Surprise, which was first called Cincinnati and the two towns merged. However, the county seat supporters felt the town should have a more patriotic name like Ulysses, which was named Ulysses S. Grant. On May 26, 1887, the post office name was officially changed from "Surprise" to "Tilden," named so in honor of Samuel J. Tilden who was a presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket in 1876 against Rutherford B. Hayes.

The town grew quickly and soon included a number of businesses, The Peoples Bank, three physicians, and the Grand Hotel. Though Tilden had laid the groundwork to become the county seat in 1887, the governor's proclamation was not made until June, 1888, which named Ulysses as the temporary county seat.

A few months later, an election was held to determine the permanent location of the county seat in October. The voters had to decide between Ulysses and Tilden, which resulted in the decision that the county seat would stay in Ulysses. But like many other Kansas Counties, the fight wouldn’t end there. With charges of corruption, the fight went all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court, where evidence was submitted by a Tilden partisan named Alvin Campbell. He introduced facts to show that the city council of Ulysses had bonded the people to the extent of $36,000 to buy votes, claiming that the total votes paid for was 388. It was an “open secret” regarding the voting fraud and “professional voters” had been brought in and boarded for the requisite 30 days before the election, and each given $10 each when they had voted. But, it was not known at the time that this had been done at public expense. It was also alleged that “professional toughs” were also hired to intimidate the Tilden voters.

The exposure of the fact that public funds had been used created excitement among the citizens of the county, who found themselves subject to the payment of bonds, and those to blame for the outrage retaliated upon Alvin Campbell by tarring him in August, 1889.

It was also shown in court that Tilden had bought votes and engaged in irregular practices, and Ulysses finally won, though it was a dearly bought victory.

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