Lecompton, founded in 1854 on a 640-acre Wyandotte Indian land claim, was originally named Bald Eagle because of the many eagles that nested along the Kansas River. Renamed the same year to Lecompton to honor Judge Samuel D. Lecompte of Maryland, chief justice of the Kansas territorial supreme court and president of the Lecompton Town Company. The territorial legislature chose Lecompton to be the capital of Kansas Territory in August, 1855.