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Kansas Counties

Kansas has 105 counties, the sixth-highest total of any state.  No Kansas county has two words in its name. Wyandotte County and the city of Kansas City operate as a unified government, and Greeley County and the city of Tribune are in the process of converting to a similar system.

 

 

 
 

Barber County, Kansas

Barber County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

 

County Seat: Medicine Lodge
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 1136
Court House:

120 East Washington Street
County Courthouse
Medicine Lodge, KS 67104-1421

Etymology - Origin of County Name

In honor of Thomas W.Barber, a Free State settler of Douglas County, who was killed in consequence of the political troubles, near Lawrence, December 6, 1855. (the county was originally named in the statute as "Barbour," but was corrected by special act of the Legislature in 1883.)

 

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

 

History

Barber County, one of the southern tier, is bounded on the north by Pratt county, east by Kingman and Harper counties, south by the State of Oklahoma and west by Kiowa county. It was organized in 1873, from territory that was originally embraced in Washington county. The county was named for Thomas W. Barber, who was killed near Lawrence on Dec. 6, 1855. It was intended when the county was organized that it should bear the name "Barber," but in some manner the spelling was changed to "Barbour" and stood that way until 1883, when the legislature passed an act changing the name to "Barber," its present form, according to original intention. Its area is 1,134 square miles and, according to the Kansas Agricultural reports of 1908, it then ranked 73d in populatio

Geography

The eastern part of the county is undulating and in some places nearly level, while the western portion is hilly, breaking into bluffs along the streams. In the east the river bottoms vary from one and a half to two miles in width, but in the western part are narrower and deeper. The timber belts are usually about a half mile wide along the water courses, the native trees being walnut, elm, cottonwood, hackberry, ash, mulberry, cedar and willow. The county is a good agricultural country and stock raising is an important industry. Winter wheat, corn and Kafir corn are the staple products, while there are more than 50,000 bearing fruit trees on the farms of the county. Barber county is exceptionally well watered. All the streams have a general southeast course. Medicine Lodge river, the largest stream, flows diagonally across the county from northwest to southeast. Little and Big Mule, Big Sandy and Salt Fork creeks in the south, and Elm creek in the north are also important streams. Springs are abundant throughout the county, while good well water is reached at from 10 to 12 feet on the lowlands.

Neighboring Counties:
  • North: Pratt County
  • Northeast: Kingman County
  • East: Harper County
  • Southeast: Alfalfa County, Okla.
  • Southwest: Woods County, Okla.
  • West: Comanche County
  • Northwest: Kiowa County
Cities and Towns:
- Aetna township  
- Deerhead township  
- Eagle township  
- Elm Mills township  
- Hardtner city Incorporated Area
- Hazelton city Incorporated Area
- Isabel city Incorporated Area
- Kiowa city Incorporated Area
- Lake City township  
- McAdoo township  
- Medicine Lodge (County Seat) city Incorporated Area
- Mingona township  
- Moore township  
- Nippawalla township  
- Sharon city Incorporated Area
- Sun City city Incorporated Area
- Turkey Creek township  
- Valley township
County Resources:

Barber County - KS-Cyclopedia - 1912
 

 

 

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

 

 

 

 

 
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