Edson | Eustis
| Gandy | Goodland
| Itasca | Kanorado
| Ruleton | Sherman
Center | Voltaire
Homesteading in Sherman County
Prentice, Noble Lovely. "History of Kansas". Winfield,
KS: E. P. Greer, 1899.
Initially inhabited by Native Americans,
the area of what is now Sherman County became the place that J.F.
Collier, a buffalo bone gatherer, called home. He moved to the
area in 1879, but did not establish a residence until 1882. Other
settlers, John Bray and a Mr. Darling, came to the vast area in
the western part of the state of Kansas to establish ranches in
the spring of 1880. Mr. Bray's sheep ranch was on Beaver Creek,
and Mr. Darling's horse and cattle ranch was on the North Fork
of the Smoky Hill River. The homes established on these ranches
were the first in Sherman County. In 1882, Barney McClusky established
a cattle ranch on Beaver Creek, W. T. Clayton established a cattle
ranch in the north-eastern part of the county, and a Mr. Holmes
and a Mr. Cox established a sheep ranch on the Smoky Hill River
at about the same time. All of the gentlemen were the frist settlers
and were soon joined by hundreds more in the next few years.
Free or inexpensive land was the reason
many of these settlers came to this area. The foreign immigrants
came from Germany, Sweden and Austria. By 1893, the Sherman County
Immigration Association was established for the purpose of advertising
the area. All of the population was white in 1900 with 8.9% being
foreign-born people.
The county was named in honor of General
W. T. Sheman by the Kansas Legislature in 1873 and was organized
per Governor John A. Martin's proclamation of September 20, 1886.
The same proclamation named Eustis the temporary county seat.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific
Railroad issued a charter to the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska
Railroad on March 19, 1886 to build tracks into Colorado. Railroad
tracks were built to Goodland and onto the Colorado border. Three
new towns were established along the railroad: Ruleton on June
22, 1888; Lanborn, soon after June 22, but on July 5, the name
was changed to Kanorado; and Edson on August 10, 1888. Goodland
and Kanorado are the only two towns that became incorporated.
Sources
"They Came to Stay".
Sherman County Historical Society, 1980.
Olson, Daryl A. "A History of Sherman County, 1880-1960".
Masters Thesis, Fort Hays Kansas State College, 1966
Rock Island Railroad. "Yard Clerical Manual". 1970 -
http://www.simpson.edu/~RITS/histories/RIHistory.html
