A brief history of Kansas counties

Kansas became a state of the United States of America on January 29, 1861.

The U.S. state of Kansas is divided into 105 counties. Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Butler, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin, Greenwood, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Nemaha, Shawnee, and Woodson counties were among the first counties created on August 25, 1855, and the last county to be formed was Garfield County on March 23, 1887, which was later dissolved.

Today’s Kansas counties did not always exist in the present form. They went through many different changes in the space of a few short years. Kansas Counties were first formed while part of the unorganized territory of the Louisiana Purchase, and after that the organized Kansas Territory.

On May 30, 1854, all of present-day Kansas became part of the newly created Kansas Territory; the territory was organized amidst fierce national debates over the expansion of slavery.

The first territorial legislature was organized in 1855 from the eastern portion of the Kansas Territory. The original territorial boundaries included all of present Kansas and extended west to the summit of the Rocky Mountains into present-day Colorado.

There were originally 33 Kansas counties when it was first organized by the Bogus Legislature in 1855, they included Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Butler, Calhoun, Coffey, Davis, Doniphan, Douglas, Dorn, Franklin, Godfroy, Greenwood, Hunter, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lykins, Madison, McGee, Nemaha, Richardson, Shawnee, Weller, Wise, and Woodson Counties.

The State of Kansas entered the union as the 34th state on January 29, 1861.

Former counties and history

  • Calhoun County Created on August 25, 1855, by the territorial legislature. It was named for John C. Calhoun, the pro-slavery Southern statesman from South Carolina. Following the Civil War and the triumph of free-state forces, the anti-slavery sentiments of the population led the state legislature to rename it Jackson County in 1859 to honor President Andrew Jackson.
  • Dorn County Created on August 25, 1855, from unorganized territorial lands. It was named in honor of Andrew J. Dorn, a prominent pro-slavery Indian agent. Because of Dorn’s eventual secessionist alignment and service as a Confederate officer, outraged Kansas lawmakers stripped his name from the map in 1861 and renamed the area Neosho County.
  • Garfield County Created on March 23, 1887, from parts of Finney and Hodgeman counties. It was named for James A. Garfield, the assassinated 20th President of the United States. Following a fierce county seat war between the towns of Ravana and Eminence, a legal challenge exposed that the territory had less than the constitutionally mandated 432 square miles. The Kansas Supreme Court declared the county illegally organized and dissolved it in 1893, annexing its remains back into Finney County.
  • Howard County Created on March 3, 1867, from the western sections of original frontier counties. It was named for Oliver O. Howard, a distinguished Union General and head of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Due to intense regional rivalries, political gridlock, and the massive geographic size of the district, the state legislature completely abolished Howard County on March 11, 1875, dividing its land evenly to form Chautauqua and Elk counties.
  • Lykins County Created on August 25, 1855, along the Missouri border. It was named for David Lykins, a pro-slavery territorial legislator and physician to local Native American tribes. As anti-slavery settlers gained political control of the state, they eliminated the pro-slavery namesake on June 3, 1861, renaming the region Miami County after the indigenous Miami people.
  • Weller County Created on August 25, 1855, by the first territorial legislature. It was named for John B. Weller, a pro-slavery U.S. Senator from California who supported the territorial slave policies. In 1859, before the county could even fully complete its local administrative organization, free-state politicians renamed it Osage County after the headwaters of the Osage River

Kansas 1900 – I clearly only looked my family up back when I did this, but all of the indexes are on Ancestry now anyway.

Partain James

 JamesWM33HeadMarFarmerGAOH
 NancyWF34WifeMarKeeping HouseGAGA
 AiryWF11Dau.SAt HomeGAGA
 CoraWF10Dau.SAt SchoolGAGA
 CarryWF7Dau.SAt SchoolMSGA
 HermanWM4SonS KSGA
 LemuelWM3SonS KSGA