Cherokee County, Kansas

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

County Seat: Columbus
Year Organized: 1866
Square Miles: 590

Court House:

P.O. Box 14
County Courthouse
Columbus, KS 66725-0014

Named: First named McGee in 1855, for E. McGee of Missouri, who was a member of the Territorial Legislature. In 1866 the name Cherokee was adopted, from the fact that a large portion of the "Cherokee neutral lands," reservation of that tribe of Indians, was included in the geopgraphical area of the county.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Cherokee County, located in the extreme southeastern part of the state, was created by the first territorial legislature and named McGee, but as Mabillon W. McGee, for whom it was named, was a pro-slavery man, the free-state legislature of 1860 changed the name to Cherokee in honor of the Cherokee Indians. At the present time the county is bounded on the north by Crawford county; on the east by the State of Missouri; on the south by the State of Oklahoma, and on the west by Labette county. It has an area of 589 square miles.

Geography

The general surface of the country is undulating prairie, considerably cut up by shallow draws. A water-shed extends through the county from north to south dividing it into two nearly equal parts. The eastern half is drained by Spring river and its tributaries, the most important of which are Cow, Shawnee and Brush creeks, and the western portion is drained by the Neosho river and its tributaries, the largest of which are Lightning, Cherry, Fly and Four Mile creeks.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Crawford County
East: Jasper County, Mo.
Southeast: Newton County, Mo.
South: Ottawa County, Okla.
Southwest: Craig County, Okla.
West: Labette County

Cities:

- Baxter Springs	city	Incorporated Area
- Columbus (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Crawford	township
- Galena	city	Incorporated Area
- Garden	township
- Lola	township
- Lowell	township
- Lyon	township
- Mineral	township
- Neosho	township
- Pleasant View	township
- Roseland	city	Incorporated Area
- Ross	township
- Salamanca	township
- Scammon	city	Incorporated Area
- Sheridan	township
- Spring Valley	township
- Treece	city	Incorporated Area
- Weir	city	Incorporated Area
- West Mineral	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Cherokee County - KS-Cyclopedia - 1912

County Resource Guide

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.”

Penn Foster High School

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