Organized on March 3, 1868, Russell County was named in honor
of Captain Ava P. Russell, a member of the Second Kansas Cavalry.
Captain Russell was killed in the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas
on December 7, 1862.
A. E. Mathews settled near Coal Creek on the Smoky Hill River
in 1869, and he was most likely the first person to settle in
the newly formed county. The following decade saw a population
boom like no other decade since then. Russell County had 156 residents
in 1870, and by 1880, that number had risen dramatically to 7,351
residents. During 1870-71, individuals or small groups were coming
to the county to take stake claim on land. Several men located
their sites along Wolf and East Wolf Creeks, but most of them
returned to their homes back east. One of those men, John Deering,
constructed a cabin on his claim.
In 1872, large groups of people began arriving and founded towns
that were to become important in the settlement of the county.
Russell, later to be named the county seat, was founded in 1871.
There was a county seat war, albeit a legal war, not a violent
war like some counties to the south experienced. Bunker Hill,
which had also been founded in 1871, was the contender with Russell
for the county seat. The governor had designated Russell as the
county seat in 1872, and an election was held on September 9,
1872, for the selection of county officers. More votes were cast
in Bunker Hill then in Russell, thus giving the Bunker Hill residents
the idea that the county seat should be in their town. Records
were moved to Bunker Hill from Russell, making the residents of
that town outraged. They refused to recognize Bunker HIll as the
county seat. The four commissioners could net even set laws governing
the county since two of them met in Russell and the other two
met in Bunker Hill, and both sets refused to go to the other town
for meetings. This went on for about 1 1/2 years, then another
election was held on March 23, 1874, in which Russell came out
the winner.
Dubuque was settled by Polish immigrants shortly after the Civil
War.
A group of German-Russian settlers came to Russell County in
December 1876 from a village called Kratzka in the Volga Region
of Russia and settled south of Russell in the Smoky Hill River
region. The men had built a hut and lived in it while working
on their claims during the week, and on the weekends they went
to a village that they had built for their families. The Homestead
Act changed that lifestyle when it required that the settlers
lived on their claims year round. They had to build homes on their
lands, and once that was done, the little village disappeared.
These German-Russians were of the Lutheran faith, and they were
accepted by the others in the county after making an effort to
learn the English language and customs.
Another group of German-Russians arrived in Russell County from
Eckheim, Russia, in February 1878. They settled near the Kratzka
colonists. Eckheim was about 50 miles from Kratzka in Russia.
Many more individuals and groups of German-Russian heritage continued
to come to Russell County. A group who had gone to Mexico and
found that it didn't suit them, came to Russell County in 1898.
Most of these people were from Saratov, and others came from Samara
and Bessarabia. Like their predecessors, they were of the Lutheran
faith, although there were a few Catholics among them.
The German-Russians were industrious and hard-working people
who played a huge role in the development of the area, both economic
and agricultural.
Sources
Bowman, Larry G. "Russell
County Settlement and Economic Development." M.A. Thesis,
Fort Hays Kansas State Teachers College, 1959.
