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Homesteading in Hamilton County

Prentice, Noble Lovely. "History of Kansas". Winfield, KS: E. P. Greer, 1899.

Hamilton County was created on March 6, 1873, when an act of the Kansas Legislature was passed. A census, taken earlier in the year, showed that there were 1893 people living in the county. The Governor issued a proclamation on January 29, 1886 which declared that Hamilton County was officially organized. At that time, the boundaries included what is now Stanton County, a strip of land 12 miles wide each in what are now Kearney and Grant Counties.The present boundary is the same as the original boundary in 1873.

Settlers had begun arriving in the 1870's, but the 1880's saw a number of families come from Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and Eastern Kansas with the last settlers coming in 1907-1908. These settlers were several Mennonite families from McPherson and Marion Counties that came to Hamilton County, and settled in the southeast part of the county. This was known as the Menno community, and a church was built, but due to their disappointing years of farming on the land they bought, they began to leave within 3 years.

Contact us:

Hamilton County Museum
108 E. Highway 50
Syracuse, KS 67878
(620 384-7496
URL: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Syracuse/museum.html

Sources

"Hamilton County, History". Syracuse, KS: Hamilton County Historical Society, 1979.