Greeley County, Kansas

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

County Seat: Tribune
Year Organized: 1888
Square Miles: 778

Court House:

208 Harper Street, Box 277
County Courthouse
Tribune, KS 67879-0000

Named: Named in honor of the founder of the New York Tribune

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Horace Greeley (1811-1872) was publisher of the New York Tribune and fought for Kansas entry into the Union as a free state. He was also famous for his boosterism of the West: "Go west young man."

Greeley County, one of the western tier, is located midway between Oklahoma and Nebraska. It is bounded on the north by Wallace county, on the east by Wichita, on the south by Hamilton, and on the west by the State of Colorado. It is crossed by the 5th guide meridian west. Greeley was the last county in the state to be organized. In 1879 it was created and the boundaries fixed as follows: "Commencing at the intersection of the east line of range 39 west, with the 3d standard parallel; thence south along said range line to where it intersects the 4th standard parallel; thence west along said 4th standard parallel to the west boundary line of the State of Kansas; thence north along said west boundary line of the state to where it is intersected by the 3d standard parallel; thence east to the place of beginning."

Proclamation of organization was made by Gov. Martin in July, 1888. Tribune was named as the temporary county seat.

Geography

The surface is prairie and the elevation is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The principal stream is White Woman creek. The streams have no water in them the greater part of the year, but that there are under currents is evidenced by the fact that water is found at the depth of a few feet.

Neighboring Counties:

Wallace County (north)
Wichita County (east)
Hamilton County (south)
Prowers County, Colorado (southwest)
Kiowa County, Colorado (west)
Cheyenne County, Colorado (northwest)

Cities:

- Horace	city	Incorporated Area
- Tribune (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Greeley 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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