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Kansas Counties

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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.

Meade County, Kansas

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

County Seat: Meade
Year Organized: 1885
Square Miles: 978

Court House:

P.O. Box 278
County Courthouse
Meade, KS 67864-0278

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Major-General George C. Meade, United States Army, who died in 1872.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Meade County, one of the southern tier, is the fourth east from the Colorado line. It is bounded on the north by Gray and Ford counties; on the east by Clark; on the south by the State of Oklahoma, and on the west by Seward and Haskell counties. It was created in 1873 and named in honor of Gen. George G. Meade. The boundaries were defined as follows: "Commencing at the intersection of the east line of range 27 west, with the north line of township 29 south; thence south along range line to its intersection with the south boundary line of the State of Kansas; thence west along said boundary line of the State of Kansas to a point where it is intersected by the east line of range 31 west; thence north along range line to where it intersects the north boundary line of town 29 south; thence east to the place of beginning."

The county was dissolved in 1883, but was reëstablished in 1885 with slightly different boundaries. The northern boundary was made the north line of township 30 south, and the east boundary was extended to the east line of range 27 west, adding another tier of townships on the east. The county was organized in 1885, when a petition signed by 250 householders attesting that the county had more than 1,500 inhabitants and that more than 250 of these were householders, was sent to the governor, John A. Martin. He appointed I. N. Graves census taker. The returns showed a population of 3,507, of whom 1,165 were householders. The governor made the proclamation of organization on Nov. 4. Meade Center was declared the temporary county seat

Both the city and county were named for General George C. Meade (1815-1872), the Union commander at Gettysburg.

O. E. Short and members of his government surveying team were killed in Meade County by Cheyenne Indians in 1874. The six were buried under a lone cottonwood tree that was a well-known trail landmark of the times.

Description

Meade County is part of the High Plains of Kansas: fairly flat and well suited to dry country farming. Early settlers seemed to think they had found the Garden of Eden:

"If there is a more beautiful country than Meade Co. we know it not"
The Call, Pearlette (Meade County), Kansas, August 15, 1879

Crooked Creek drains most of the county and the Cimarron River crosses the southwest corner. Highway US 54 follows the railroad diagonally across the the county leading southwest to Liberal. Highway US 160 crosses East/West and state highway K-23 runs North/South.

Geography

The general surface is a rolling prairie with some rough lands and bluffs in the southeast. Bottom lands average a mile in width and comprise 10 per cent. of the area. Timber is scarce. Crooked creek enters in the northeast, flows east about 10 miles, thence by a devious course to the southeast corner of the county. It has several tributary creeks. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R. enters in the northeast and crosses southwest through Meade into Seward county.

Neighboring Counties:

Gray County (north)
Ford County (northeast)
Clark County (east)
Beaver County, Oklahoma (south)
Seward County (west)
Haskell County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Crooked Creek	township
- Fowler	city	Incorporated Area
- Meade (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Meade Center	township
- Mertilla	township
- Odee	township
- Plains	city	Incorporated Area
- Sand Creek	township
- West Plains	township

County Resources:

Meade County - KS-Cyclopedia - 1912

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."