Named in honor of Civil War Captain Edgar
Poe Trego (picture) who was killed
at Chickamauga, Tennessee, while trying to recover his wounded
comrades, Trego County was first surveyed in 1867. Although he
was a Pennsylvania native, Captain Trego enlisted for service
in Illinois. Eventually his unit was attached to a Kansas unit,
the 8th Kansas Volunteer Infantry.
Trego County was sparsely populated before the introduction of
Union Pacific Railroad lines in the 1860s. Primarily obtaining
homesteads through veterans’ claims and timber claims, most
settlers came by railroad or covered wagons. Although most came
from the East, from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Vermont,
and North Carolina, some came from Nebraska. Few came directly
from overseas.
Still, the ancestry of Trego County settlers can be traced to
England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Ireland, Holland, Germany,
Russia, Switzerland, Bukovina and Czechoslovakia. Germans who
had lived in the Volga region of Russia and immigrated to America
also settled in Trego County.
Organized on June 21, 1879, Trego County
was originally part of Ellis County.
Tricia North wrote the history of Trego County with assistance
and expertise from Nadine Kroeger.
Contact Us:
Trego County Historical Society Museum
S. Thirteenth
Fairgrounds
WaKeeney, KS 67672
(785) 743-2964 or
(785) 743-6651
Sources
Baker,
Mrs. Walter. “History of WaKeeney & Trego County and
the Coming of the
William George Baker Family from Aurora, Illinois to WaKeeney,
Kansas in 1878.” Chap. in Local History as Presented to
the Trego County Historical Society. 2d ed. n.p. 1974.
Harvey, Ethel M. “The Churches of Collyer.” Chap.
in History of Collyer, Kansas. n.p.
n.d.
“Facts Concerning Collyer, Trego County, Kansas.”
Chap. in History of
Collyer, Kansas. n.p. n.d.
Karst, Martha Deines. “The Deines Family.” Chap in
Local History as Presented to
the Trego County Historical Society. 7th ed. n.p. 1979.
Kroeger, Nadine. Interview by author. Trego County Historical
Society. WaKeeney, KS.
5 August 2002.
Kroeger, Nadine. Telephone Interview by author. 15 March 2002.
Millard, Cathy, compiler. “100 Year Files of the Western
Kansas World.” Western
Kansas World, 12 December 1991.
“Park’s Fort.” Dwayne Scott. Exhibit at the
Trego County Historical Society. WaKeeney,
KS.
Shearer, Ruth. “Ghost Towns in Trego County.” Chap.
in Local History as Presented to
the Trego County Historical Society. 2d ed. n.p. 1974.
Simmons, Sadie Yetter. “History of Ogallah, Kansas.”
Chap. in Local History as
Presented to the Trego County Historical Society. n.p. 1973.
“The Yetter Family.” Chap. in Local History as Presented
to the Trego County
Historical Society. 8th ed. n.p. 1980-1981.
Whisler, Robert. “The Wissler Family Record.” Chap.
in Local History as Presented to
the Trego County Historical Society. 9th ed. n.p. 1985.
