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Kansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase, which became annexed to the United States in 1803. It was included in the Missouri Territory until 1821. For a period of 33 years, it was known as an unorganized territory, which was primarily inhabited by Indians. The trouble between the white settlers and the Indian tribes of the area continued until the Indians were finally pushed out of their homes and into the Oklahoma territory.

The first community in the area was Fort Leavenworth, which was established in 1827. It became a primary stop-over to those en route to Utah and the California gold fields as a place for outfitting their wagon trains. The population as of its admission as a state consisted mostly of Southerners and New Englanders with a few settlers from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. It is said that many Civil War veterans took up homesteads in Kansas following the war. You will find that many of the foreign born settlers came from Germany, Russia, Sweden and England as well as Mexico. Kansas became a territory in 1854 and on 29 January, 1861, was admitted as our 34th state.

Rather than waste the readers time with rhetoric on this state and re-invent the wheel, I am going to refer you to the Kansas History Web Site, which contains a huge on-line library on all subjects regarding Kansas. I must state that this is one of the best organized websites on States History that I have seen thus far. To return to the Tin Type Shop, please use your back arrow. I also highly recommend you visit the Kansas State Historical Society website. The Kansas historical preservationists have really done a lot to put their state histories out there for us.

Many of the Kansas counties were named after people who became involved in the leadership of the Confederacy. Because of this, names were changed after the Civil war and those who were Confederate sympathizers no longer had counties named after them.

Name	Date Formed	Parent County	County Seat
Allen	1855	Original County	Iola
Anderson	1855	Original County	Garnett
Arapahoe (Disorganized) (see Finney)	1)August 30 1855 2)new action was taken in 1883.	Two separate formations existed of this county. (1)This county comprised all the land west of the present Kansas/Colorado border to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. In early 1859 it was split into six counties (Arapahoe, Broderick, El Paso, Fremont, Montana, and Oro). When Colorado Territory was established Feb. 28, 1861, the new Colorado legislature created seventeen counties, which are considered the original counties of the state. Arapahoe County is still extant, but today is a relatively small county (12 miles north-south, 72 miles east-west), with its western end in the Denver metropolitan area.(2)In 1883, Arapahoe was merged into an expanded Finney County; in 1887, when Finney was broken up, that part which had been Arapahoe was created as Haskell County.	(Inc. some of Colorado)
Atchison	1855	Original County	Atchison
Barber	1873	Harper	Medicine Lodge
Barton	1867	Ellsworth	Great Bend
Billings (See Norton)	March 20, 1873	Norton County was named Billings as a joke, then changed back to Norton in 1874
Bourbon	1855	Original County	Fort Scott
Breckenridge (See Lyon)	August 25, 1855	In honor of John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875), congressman from Kentucky and subsequently vice-president of the United States under James Buchanan from 1857 to 1861. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1860, he was expelled the following year for supporting the rebellion; he served as a major-general in the Confederate Army and briefly as the southern Secretary of War. Breckinridge County was renamed Lyon County due to Breckinridge's political sympathies.	defunct February 05, 1862
Brown	1855	Original County	Hiawatha
Buffalo	March 20, 1873	Formerly was Foote, then according to map, it was split and became the upper part of Gray County and Finney	March 13, 1881
Butler	1855	Original County	El Dorado
Calhoun	1855	Name changed to Jackson after the Civil War
Chase	1859	Butler	Cottonwood Falls
Chautauqua	1875	Howard	Sedan
Cherokee	1855	Unorganized Territory	Columbus
Cheyenne	1875	Kirwin Land District	St. Francis
Clark	1873	Ford	Ashland
Clay	1856	Original County	Clay Center
Cloud	1860	Formerly Shirley County	Concordia
Coffee	1855	Original County	Burlington
Comanche	1875	Kiowa	Coldwater
Cowley	1867	Formerly Hunter	Winfield
Crawford	1867	Bourbon	Girard
Davis	August 25, 1855	Riley (See Geary, Junction City)	defunct March 07, 1889
Decatur	1873	Norton	Oberlin
Dickinson	1855	Original County	Abilene
Doniphan	1855	Original County	Troy
Dorn (See Neosho)	August 25, 1855	In honor of either (1) Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863), an army officer during the Mexican War and Indian campaigns, or (2) Andrew Jackson Dorn (1815-1889), also a Mexican War veteran and Indian agent at the Neosho Agency during Buchanan's administration. Both men joined the Confederate Army in 1861, and the county was renamed Neosho.	defunct June 03, 1861
Douglas	1855	Original County	Lawrence
Edwards	1875	Original County	Howard
Elk	1875	Howard	Hays
Ellis	1865	Unorganized Territory	Hays
Ellsworth	1867	Saline	Ellsworth
Finney	1884	Arapahoe, Foote, Sequoyah	Garden City
Foote (See Finney)	March 20, 1873	Unorganized Territory defunct March 13, 1881 (Map shows it now part of Finney)	Dodge City
Ford	1873	Original County	Ottawa
Franklin	1856	Original County	Ottawa
Garfield	March 23, 1887	In 1892, the Kansas Supreme Court decided Garfield County was illegally organized, having less than 432 square miles; it was annexed to Finney County the following year	(1)defunct 1893
Geary	1889	Davis Co. 1875 to 1888	Junction City
Godfrey	August 30, 1855	(Name changed to Howard in 1855) In some sources, the county name is spelled 'Godfroy,' but this is apparently a misprint.
Gove	1880	Unorganized Territory	Gove
Graham	1880	Rooks	Hill City
Grant	1873	Finney, Kearney	Ulysses
Gray	1887	Finney, Ford	Cimarron
Greeley	1873	Wichita	Tribune
Greenwood	1855	Original County	Eureka
Hamilton	1873	Unorganized Territory	Syracuse
Harper	1879	Kingman	Anthony
Harvey	1880	McPherson, Sedgwich	Newton
Haskell	1887	Finney	Sublette
Hodgeman	1879	Indian Lands (Est. 1868)	Jetmore
Howard	February 26, 1867	(Originally Godfrey, later split in two and became Elk and Chautauqua Counties)	officially defunct March 25, 1875
Hunter (See Cowley)		Probably named for Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809-1887), a Virginia congressman and senator, who favored the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. He was expelled from the senate in 1861 for supporting the rebellion, and he served in the Confederate Senate and as Confederate Secretary of State.
Jackson	1855	(See Calhoun)
Jefferson	1855	Original County	Oskaloosa
Jewell	1870	Mitchell	Mankato
Johnson	1855	Original County	Olathe
Kearny	1873	Finney	Lakin
Kingman	1874	Unorganized Territory	Kingman
Kiowa	1886	Comanche, Edwards	Greensburg
Labette	1867	Neosho	Oswego
Lane	1877	Finney	Dighton
Leavenworth	1855	Original County	Leavenworth
Lincoln	1870	Ellsworth	Lincoln
Linn	1855	Original County	Mound City
Logan	1881	Wallace	Russell springs
Lykins (See Miami)	August 25, 1855	For David Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Confederated Tribes (Weas, Piankeshaws, Peorias, and Kaskaskias), whose mission was located just east of the modern city of Paola. Lykins was a pro-slavery member of the territorial council. After the Free State forces came to political ascendancy, Lykins left the state and his namesake county was renamed Miami.	(defunct: June 03, 1861
Lyon	1857	Madison (See Breckenridge)	Emporia
McGee (See Cherokee)	August 25, 1855	Named for Mabillon W. McGee (born 1818), a member of the Kansas house of representatives in 1855. As he was a pro-slavery man, the free-state legislature of 1860 changed the name to Cherokee	defunct February 18, 1860
McPherson	1870	Unorganized Territory	McPherson
Madison	August 25, 1855	Divided to Morris & Lyon Counties	defunct January 31, 1861
Marion	1860	Chase	Marion
Marshall	1855	Original County	Marysville
Meade	1873	Unorganized Territory	Meade
Miami	1855	Formerly Lykins	Paola
Mitchell	1870	Kirwin Land District	Beloit
Montgomery	1869	Labette	Independence
Morris	1858	Madison (Formerly Wise)	Council Grove
Morton	1881	Stanton	Richfield
Nemaha	1855	Original County	Seneca
Neosho	1855	Original County	Erie
Ness	1873	Hodgeman	Ness City
Norton	1872	Unorganized Territory	Norton
Osage	1855	Formerly Weller	Lyndon
Osborne	1867	Mitchell	Osborne
Otoe	February 18, 1860	according to the map, it primarily went into Sedgwick, Harvey and Butler Counties	defunct February 24, 1864.
Ottawa	1866	Saline	Minneapolis
Pawnee	1872	Rush, Stafford	Larned
Phillips	1872	Kirwin Land District	Phillipsburg
Pottawattamie	1857	Riley, Calhoun	Westmoreland
Pratt	1879	Stafford	Pratt
Rawlins	1873	Kirwin Land District	Atwood
Reno	1877	Sedgwick, McPherson	Hutchinson
Republic	1868	Washington, Cloud	Belleville
Rice	1867	Reno	Lyons
Richardson	August 25, 1855	Named for William P. Richardson, a pro-slavery member of the territorial council. renamed Wabaunsee county in 1859.	defunct February 11, 1859
Riley	1855	Unorganized Territory, Wabaunsee	Manhattan
Rooks	1872	Kirwin Land District	Stockton
Rush	1874	Unorganized Territory	La Crosse
Russell	1867	Ellsworth	Russell
Saline	1860	Original County	Salina
Scott	1873	Finney	Scott City
Sedgwick	1867	Butler	Wichita
Sequoyah( See Finney County)	March 20, 1873	Created out of the Peketon Territory was once part of the eventually disorganized Arapahoe County, formed in 1855; became part of the Territory of Colorado in 1861. Sequoyah County renamed Finney County in 1883.
Seward	1873	Finney	Scott City
Shawnee	1855	Original County	Topeka
Sheridan	1873	Unorganized Territory	Hoxie
Sherman	1873	Kirwin Land District	Goodland
Shirley (See Cloud)	February 27, 1860	The county was possibly named for William Shirley, governor of Massachusetts Colony from 1741 to 1756. Andreas's History of Kansas, however, asserts it was as a joke named for Jane Shirley, a lady of questionable character in the Leavenworth area. By request of the first representative, J.B. Rupe, the name was changed in 1867 to Cloud County.	defunct May 27, 1867
Smith	1982	Unorganized Territory	Smith Center
Stafford	1870	Unorganized Territory	Saint John
Stanton	1873	Reorganized	Johnson
Stevens	1873	Indian Lands	Hugoton
St. John (See Logan)	March 13, 1881	Chartered as St. John County and later renamed to Logan County.	defunct: February 25, 1887
Sumner	1857	Cowley	Wellington
Thomas	1873	Kirwin Land District	Colby
Trego	1879	Ellis	Wakeeney
Wabaunsee	1855	Riley, Morris	Alma
Wallace	1865	Indian Lands (See Logan)	Sharon Springs
Washington (old) Washington (current)	August 30, 1855 1856	originally took up almost a quarter of the southwest part of the state. Original County-located in the upper middle east side fo the state.	defunct: February 20, 1857 Washington
Weller (See Osage)	August 30, 1855	Named for John B. Weller (1812-1875), who served at various times as congressman from Ohio, senator from California, and U.S. Minister to Mexico. Name later changed to Osage.
Wichita	1873	Indian Lands	Leoti
Wilson	1855	Original County	Fredonia
Wise (See Morris)	August 25, 1855	Named for Henry A. Wise (1806-1876), an outspoken proponent of slavery, congressman from Virginia from 1833 to 1844 and governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860; one of his last official acts as governor was to sign John Brown's death warrant. He served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.	defunct February 11, 1859
Woodson	1855	Original County	Yates Center
Wyandotte	1856	Original County	Kansas City

KANSAS