Situated in east central Kansas, the county was initially created as Breckenridge County by the first Kansas Territorial Legislature in 1855, it was named for John C. Breckenridge, who was elected Vice-President of the United States the next year. When first created, it was attached to Madison County for all civil and judicial purposes, and Columbia was designated as the county seat, but no county business was transacted. By an act of February 17, 1857, the county was fully organized and detached from Madison County, with the temporary county seat located at Waterloo. In the fall of 1858, Americus was voted by the people to become the county seat.

One of the first settlers in the area Charles H. Withington, who located in the extreme northern part of the county on the Santa Fe Trail, a short distance south of present-day Allen, Kansas in 1846. In 1854, he opened a store, which was the first in the county and the only one in the region outside of Indian posts. His store also served as a hotel and supply station. Withington was influential in the settlement of the county and prominent in all public affairs. In April, 1855 Oliver Phillips located on One Hundred and Forty-Second Creek. In 1859, he was elected to the legislature, was a delegate to the Osawatomie Convention, and held a number of county offices. Others who came around the same time were Chris Ward, J. S. Pigman, Charles Johnson, James Pheanis, David Vangundy, John Rosenquist, Joseph Moon, Reverend Thomas J. Addis (at that time, the only free-state man), and many more, who, with very few exceptions, settled along the creeks in the northern half of the county.

One of the first settlements in the County was established in 1856, first called Florence, before changing to Neosho City, then Italia and finally to Neosho Rapids. The next year Emporia and Americus were laid out and 1858, the settlements of Hartford, Waterloo, Fremont, and Forest Hill.

As more new settlers continued to make their homes in the county, and by 1857 the problem of getting their mail became a large concern. Previous to this time the mail for the area settlements had been thrown off the Santa Fe Trail wagons at Withington's Store and was distributed by a horseman at private expense. When the government began delivering the mail by way of Westport, Missouri and Council Grove to an established a post office at Columbia. This caused a great deal of dissatisfaction, as the settlers did not wish to trust the pro-slavery men who handled it. Finally they secured a box at Lawrence, where all mail was sent, and then brought in by private conveyance to the hotel at Emporia. John Fowler, the postmaster at Columbia in the fall of 1857, resigned and the office was moved to Emporia, where W. H. Fick became postmaster. In August, hack lines were established to Topeka and to Lawrence. A great deal of the mail was lost, there being about three bushels of mail belonging to Emporia lying at Osawatomie in January, 1858. The next year, regular mail routes were established from Council Grove to Fort Scott by way of Emporia, and from Lawrence to Emporia.

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