List of Kansas Counties
Alanthus | Buffalo Park | Campus | Gove | Grainfield | Grinnell | Jerome | Orion | Pyramid | Quinter | Teller | Hackberry Community - Plum Creek Community - Swedish Community
Homesteading in Gove County
Prentis, Noble Lovely. "History of Kansas". Winfield, KS: E. P. Greer, 1899.
Gove County was created by the legislature in 1868. The size was 30 x 60 miles with the same boundaries as today. According to Blackmars, "History of Kansas", Gove County was named for a Union soldier, Grenville L. Gove, son of Moses Gove, who was one time mayor of Manhattan.
The University of New Hampshire Special Collections has two letters written by Capt. Grenville Llewllyn Gove in its collection. The following are links to the transcription of the letters, both written to Capt. Gove's cousin, Julia Parsons.
http://www.library.unh.edu/special/transcription/Parsons/18630803.html
http://www.library.unh.edu/special/transcription/Parsons/18631103.html
The first settler of record in Gove County was George Von Dehsen, who came to the county from Colorado with a party of buffalo hunters in 1871 and stayed on at Grinnell settling on the Hackberry Creek.
Early settlers included: Pennsylvania Dutch, Norwegians, Holland Dutch, Volga-Germans, Russians, Germans, Swedes, Canadians, and English, primarily.
Contact Us:
Gove County Historical Museum
Gove, Kansas
(785) 938-2385 (Curator of the museum, Marcia Roemer)
Sources
Gove County Historical Museum
They used the following sources in writing this information.
"History and Heritage of Gove County". Gove County Historical Museum.
Harrington, W. P. "History of Gove County, Kansas".