THE STATE OF KANSAS. ORIGIN OF NAME, LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT AND DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF EACH COUNTY. Allen. Organized in 1855. County seat, Iola. Named in honor of William Allen, of Ohio, who was for many years a member of the United States senate from that commonwealth, and also its governor. He favored the doctrine of popular sovereignty on the opening of the territory of Kansas to settlement, and the most ultra measures for the perpetuation of slavery. Anderson. Organized in 1855. County seat, Garnett. Received its name from Jos. C. Anderson, of Missouri, who was a member of the first Kansas territorial legislature, and speaker pro tem. of the house of representatives. He figured in the "Wakarusa war" in December, 1855, and his name appears in connection with a proposition to march under the "black flag" to Lawrence. Atchison. Organized in 1855. County seat, Atchison. Named for David R. Atchison, a senator from Missouri, and president of the United States senate at the date of the passage of the act for the organization of the territory of Kansas. He was a pro-slavery democrat, and zealous partisan leader in the discussions and movements affecting the interests of slavery and its attempted establishment in the new state to be created. He was conspicuous among the mob at the sacking of Lawrence, on the 21st of May, 1856. Barber. Organized in 1873. County seat, Medicine Lodge. In honor of Thomas W. Barber, a free-state settler of Douglas county, who was killed in consequence of the political troubles, near Lawrence, December 6, 1855. (The county was originally named in the statute as "Barbour," but was corrected by special act of the legislature in 1883.) Barton. Organized in 1872. County seat, Great Bend. In honor of Miss Clara Barton, of Massachusetts, who won great distinction during the war for the union by her remarkably effective philanthropic career in the sanitary department of the army. Bourbon. Organized in 1855. County seat, Fort Scott. Received its name from Bourbon county, Kentucky, the latter having been one of the nine counties organized in 1785 by the Virginia legislature, before Kentucky became an independent State. It was so called as a compliment to the Bourbon dynasty of France, a prince of that family (then on the throne) having rendered the American colonies important aid in men and money in their great struggle for independence. Col. Samuel A. Williams, a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, was a member of the house from Fort Scott in 1855, and it was at his request that the county was so named. Colonel Williams was a pro-slavery man, but was not a rebel colonel, as has been published. He was mustered in as captain of company I, second Kansas cavalry, November 22, 1861, but resigned March 28, 1862. He died at his old home, Fort Scott, in August, 1873. Brown. Organized in 1855. County seat, Hiawatha. After Albert G. Browne, of Mississippi, who had been senator and member of the house of representatives from that state, was United States senator at the date of the act organizing Kansas territory, was reëlected for six years in 1859, but withdrew with Jefferson Davis on the attempted secession of the southern states. The name is properly spelled with an e in the original statute, but on the county seal the e was left off-accidentally, probably. All later statutes present the name without the final e. Butler. Organized in 1855. County seat, Eldorado. For Andrew P. Butler, who was United States senator from South Carolina, from 1846 to 1857. He was a bitter partisan, and a zealous advocate of the right of the south to introduce slavery into the territory of Kansas. Chase. Organized in 1859. County seat, Cottonwood Falls. Created out of portions of Wise and Butler counties, and named in honor of Salmon P. Chase, successively governor of Ohio, United States senator, secretary of the treasury, and chief justice of the supreme court. In the senate he was earnest in his opposition to the extension of slavery into Kansas. Chautanqua. Organized in 1875. County seat, Sedan. Created out of a portion of what was first Godfrey county, named after "Bill" Godfrey, a noted trader among the Osages; then Howard county, in honor of Major Gen eral O. O. Howard, for his efforts in behalf of the colored race. Chautauqua county, New York, was the former home of Hon. Edward Jacquins, a member of the Kansas legislature in 1875 from Howard county, who introduced the bill which divided Howard into Chautauqua and Elk; hence from his native place this county derives its name. The name originally given (in 1855) to Howard county was Godfrey, and the name was changed to Seward in 1861. In 1867 the legislature, ignoring former names, created the county of Howard, which embraced all the territory of Seward and a five-mile strip additional on the west. Cherokee. Organized in 1866. County seat, Columbus. First named McGee in 1855, for E. McGee, who was a member of the territorial legislature, and held to the doctrine that the term "inhabitant," as employed in the organic act creating the territory of Kansas, was meant to designate any person who might reside in, or have an existence in, or happened to be in Kansas territory on election day, or during the sitting of a legislature. So he voted in Kansas, helped to make laws for Kansas, but never lived in Kansas, always persistently adhering to his citizenship of Missouri. In 1866 the name Cherokee was adopted, from the fact that a large portion of the "Cherokee neutral lands," reservation of that tribe of Indians, was included in the geographical area of the county. Cheyenne. Boundaries defined in 1873. Organized April 1st, 1886. County seat, Bird City. Named after the celebrated Indian tribe of that name. Clay. Organized in 1866. County seat, Clay Center. Named in honor of the distinguished Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay, who was chosen United States senator in 1806. He afterwards served in both houses, and was in public life most of the time during a period of forty-six years. He had been minister to England and France, and candidate for President in opposition to Polk. He died in Washington in 1852. Clark. Organized May 5, 1885. County seat, Ashland. Originally and correctly Clarke, with a final e, in memory of Charles F. Clarke, captain and adjutant general, United States volunteers, who died at Memphis, December 10, 1862. The legislature of 1873 dropped the final e under misapprehension, as the legend goes, that the county was named for another, and, to many of them, an obnoxious individual, whose name was spelled with an e. Cloud. The county Organized as Shirley, in 1860. County seat, Concordia. was originally named after Governor William Shirley, colonial governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1756. The name was changed to Cloud in 1867, in honor of Colonel William F. Cloud, of the second regiment, Kansas volunteers. This change was made at the suggestion of Hon. J. B. Rupe, then representing the county in the legislature. Coffey. Organized in 1859. County seat, Burlington. Named in honor of Colonel A. M. Coffey, a member of the first territorial legislative council. Colonel Coffey died at Dodge City in 1879. Comanche. Organized February 27, 1885. County seat, Coldwater. Named from the Indian tribe of that name. (The county was first organized in the fall of 1873 under a general law then in force, and was represented in the legislature under that organization in 1874; but that organization was held fraudulent and void. Organized in 1870. Cowley. County seat, Winfield. Named in honor of Matthew Cowley, first lieutenant of company I, ninth Kansas cavalry, who died in the service, October 7, 1864, at Little Rock, Arkansas. The county was originally named Hunter. (Bogus Laws of 1855, page 208.) The name was changed to Cowley in 1867. (Laws 1867, ch. 33, 28 1-7.) Crawford. Organized in 1867. County seat, Girard. This county was by an act of the legislature of 1867 created out of the northern half of Cherokee, which prior to that date reached to Bourbon. It was named in honor of Samuel J. Crawford, who was elected governor in 1864, and served nearly four years. The legislature named the county in obedience to a resolution passed in convention held to petition for its organization. Governor Crawford resigned in October, 1868, to become colonel of the nineteenth Kansas infantry, specially raised for the Indian war of 1868-9. He was colonel of the second regiment colored volunteer infantry, during the war for the union. Ex-Governor Crawford is now state agent at Washington; his residence is Topeka. Decatur. Organized in 1879. County seat, Oberlin. legislative enactment in 1873. Named in honor Decatur, a distinguished American naval officer. Commodore Barron, U. S. N., in 1808. Boundaries defined by of Commodore Stephen He fell in a duel with |