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In March, 1874,
Governor Thomas Osborn approved an act that
created several new counties and defined the boundaries of some previously
established. This act created Edwards County and the following year,
another act abolished Kiowa County and Edwards County was enlarged, making
it 972 square miles in size. However, less than a year later, Kiowa County
was re-established in February, 1886 and the original boundaries of
Edwards County were restored, making it 612 square miles in size. The
county was named for W.C. and R.E. Edwards, some of the first settlers, who erected
the first brick building in the county, which was utilized as a courthouse
for several years before a new building was erected by the county.
Long before the the county or any towns existed, Lieutenant
Zebulon M. Pike was one of the first to pass through the county in 1806,
following closely the route which afterward became known as the Santa Fe
Trail. From the 1820's until the railroad barreled through Kansas, the
Santa Fe Trail was utilized by hundreds of traders. During this time, the
Plains Indians, angered over the intrusion into their lands by white
settlers, made frequent attacks on the travelers. One of the most famous
attacks was known as the
Battle of Coon Creek, in which about
200
Comanche
and
Apache attacked
a group of about 140 soldiers.
Both the wet and the dry routes of the Santa Fe Trail ran
through Edwards County and
today there are several remnants and trail ruts to be seen in the area.
Travel on the old trail route drastically declined when the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe railroad was completed as far as Edwards County in the
fall of 1872.
The same year, the Chicago Workingmen's Town Company
founded a town where Kinsley now stands in, naming it "Petersburg" for T.
J. Peter, a director of the Santa Fe Railroad.
In March, 1873, a colony from Massachusetts settled there.
W.C. and R. E. Edwards were among the very earliest settlers and built
the first brick building in the county, which would later be occupied as a court
house for many years. It was for these two that the county was named.
Soon afterwards, a man named E.K. Smart started a lumber
yard, and a little later T. L. Rogers opened the first general store. A
post office called Peter was established on April 23, 1873 with N. C. Boles as
postmaster. The first school was taught the following fall by Mrs. A. L.
McGinnis in a room 12 by 16 feet.
On January 19, 1874, the town of Peters was renamed to
Kinsley after E. W. Kinsley of Boston, Massachusetts, who donated money to
the town to build a Congregational Church. Two months later, in March, the
Kansas Legislature defined Edwards County, appointed commissioners and
officers, and named Kinsley as the temporary county seat. A census was
taken a few months later showing the county population to be 633.
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The
first commissioners met at the Buffalo
House, in Kinsley on September 3, 1874, and Charles L. Hubbs was appointed
chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. One of the first acts of
this Court was to divide the county into the municipal townships of
Kinsley, Trenton and Brown, and designate places for holding elections.
Permanent commissioners were elected in November at at a meeting in
December, a contract was made with W. C. Edwards for three rooms in the
second story of his brick building, to be leased by the county. School
District No. 1 was organized on November 14, 1874, but a school house was
not built until 1877 in Kinsley.
Edwards
County suffered greatly the year it was organized from
grasshoppers. After investigating the conditions in the county, the
commissioners met in special session on September 15th, when they made out a
report to the governor in which they said:
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"Our crops are totally destroyed; not one bushel of
vegetables or grain being saved for man or beast. Our people are mostly
poor people, without wealthy relatives or friends to assist them in their
extremity. We have personally and carefully investigated each case and
find six families, containing 22 persons, totally destitute; five
families, containing 18 persons,
partially destitute. The above are the only persons in the county that
will need aid to carry them to another crop. We believe $500, judiciously
expended, will be sufficient with what they can earn, to keep them in the
necessaries of life."
Continued Next Page
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LEGENDS
OF KANSAS
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