Barton County, Kansas - History and Information


Barton County - Page 2

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The first settlers to file for land ownership in Barton County were John Reinecke and Henry Schultz in April, 1870 in what would become the settlement of Heizer on Walnut Creek about six miles northwest of present-day Great Bend. Others who came to the county in 1870 were W. C. Gibson, Gideon F. Mecklem, William Jous, Antone Wilke, George Berry and Mike Stanton, who settled along the Walnut in what are now Buffalo and Walnut townships. Most of the pioneer homes were rude dugouts and sod houses. The first log house was built late in the year 1870 by Mr. Mecklem, and was provided with loopholes and small windows as a means of defense against the Indians. The principal occupation of the early settlers was killing buffalo. They used the flesh and tongues for food, in some cases selling the meat at the nearest settlements, while the hides were tanned and sent to the markets in the east.
Emigrant Camp near Pawnee Rock, Kansas, Harper's Weekly, 1870s.

A few tried farming, but were unsuccessful, as the buffalo tramped out the crops and wallowed in the soft plowed ground.

Zarah was the first town started in the county. It took its name from Fort Zarah and was established by a party from Ellsworth in 1870. Located about a mile east of the fort, the first post office was established at Zarah in 1871. The town would later disappear when Fort Zarah was torn down, the property sold, and nearby Great Bend began to emerge.

The first recorded settlers in Great Bend Township were made by Edward J. Dodge, who made a homestead entry on January 23, 1871, and D. N. Heizer, who entered land in May of the same year. Some of the other settlers of that year were John Cook, W. H. Odell, Thomas Morris, George Moses and Wallace Dodge.

The first permanent business building in present-day Great Bend was built in the fall of 1871 – a hotel called the Great Western. At the time, there were only about ten people in the settlement. That year, because of its location on the railroad, Great Bend became a secondary market in the cattle trade, bringing it with it all the rowdy aspects of other Kansas cowtowns. The first murder occurred in Zarah when a Texas cowboy was pistol-whipped and shot to death by a man named Jack Jaminson in the winter. A few more would follow during Great Bend's cowtown heydays, before it would settle into a quieter agricultural community and regional trade center. In 1873, one of Great Bend's first settlers, Edward J. Dodge built a stone house that continues to survive and today stands at the Barton County Historical Museum.

For about five years after its creation Barton County was attached to Ellsworth for judicial and revenue purposes, but in 1871, it had the required number of voters and population to entitle it to a separate organization. Accordingly, a petition was presented to the governor asking that the county be organized, and on May 16, 1872, Governor Fred Harvey issued a proclamation for the organization of the county and declared Great Bend the temporary county seat. By the following year, officers and commissioners had been elected and a vote placed Great Bend as the permanent location of the county seat, winning out over Ellinwood and Zarah.

The Barton County Courthouse was built in 1917.

Kathy Weiser, April, 2009.

Soon after Barton County was organized some difficulty arose between the authorities of Ellsworth and Barton Counties with regard to the payment of taxes. Some of the settlers had already been placed on the tax rolls by the assessor of Ellsworth County before Barton was organized, and had paid their taxes to the Ellsworth County Treasurer. For a time the Ellsworth County officers refused to pay over to Barton County the taxes thus collected, but matters were finally amicably adjusted.

The settlement of Barton County was both rapid and steady. The first school in the county was a private one established in 1872 by James R. Bickerdyke. However, in December of that year, bonds were voted for the first public school. Soon an election passed bonds to build a courthouse and jail, which was completed in 1873.

A number of Germans located around Ellinwood, where a store was opened in 1874 by F. A. Steckel, who also started a grist mill. The following year the first brewery in the county, and the first in this part of the state, was erected at Ellinwood. About this time a number of Russians also immigrated to the area, settling about seven miles west of Great Bend.

A number of the early settlers were Catholics, who erected the first church building in the county in Lakin Township in the fall of 1877. The second church was built by the Methodists the following winter.

Though the county did not grow quickly, it had about 10,000 residents by 1880, most of whom worked in farming, timber, and raising livestock. With a number of railroads running through the county, it continued to develop as a transportation hub and by 1910, reported almost 18,000 people.

As the county prospered a new courthouse was built in 1917 in the Classic Revival style which continues to stand today. The 1930s brought more prosperity when oil was discovered near Great Bend. Within no time, there some 3,000 producing wells in the county.

The county’s population peaked in the 1960s with more than 32,000 people calling it home. Today, Barton County's estimated 28,000 residents are supported with a diverse economy including agriculture, oil, manufacturing and medicine as its primary businesses.

Barton County's rich history can be seen at the Barton County Historical Society Museum and Village in Great Bend and the Hoisington Historical Museum in Hoisington, as well as the Pawnee Rock State Historical Site, a sandstone citadel which marked the halfway point of the Santa Fe Trail. The county is also home to the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, a portion of the Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway, and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge Wetlands.

The current towns of Barton County include:

City	Population (estimated 2007)
Albert	181
Claflin	705
Ellinwood	2,164
Galatia	61
Great Bend (County seat)	15,345
Hoisington	2,975
Olmitz	138
Pawnee Rock	326
Red Wing (unincorporated)	?? (ghost town)
Susank	57

More Information:

Barton County, Kansas

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated February, 2010.

About the Article: Much of the historic text in this articles comes from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, edited by Frank W. Blackmar, published in 1912 as well as Kansas: History of the State of Kansas, by William G. Cutler; published in 1883. However, other sources have also been used, the content combined, and heavily edited.

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