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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.

Montgomery County, Kansas

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

County Seat: Independence
Year Organized: 1869
Square Miles: 646

Court House:

217 E Myrtle, PO Box 446
County Courthouse
Independence, KS 67301-3758

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, born in Ireland, December 2, 1736; was an officer of distinction in the British Army; resigned and settled in New York State in 1773; was appointed one of the eight generals to command the revolutionary army, in 1775; was killed in the attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, shouting, "Death or Liberty!"

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Montgomery County was established February 26, 1867. It was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, in Canada, after successfully capturing two forts and the city of Montreal.

When Kansas was admitted to the Union as a state in 1861, the Osage Indian reservation occupied a large tract of land near the southern border. The reservation had been established in 1825. After the Civil War ended, the Osage lands were coveted as the largest and last reserve of good land in the eastern part of the state. As early as 1866, the Osages were forced to cede tracts at the eastern and northern edges of the reservation. This treaty conceded white settlement on land in the eastern part of what is now Montgomery County. For a brief time, the Osages attempted to maintain a boundary at the Verdigris River. The Verdigris flows from north to south through the center of Montgomery County. From the west the Elk River joins the Verdigris at a confluence slightly northwest of the geographical center of the county. In 1867 Frank and Fred Bunker established a primitive cattle camp on the west side of the Verdigris south of the confluence. Like the Osages, the Bunkers thought they were beyond the boundaries of civilization. Early in 1869, however, settlers began to cross the Verdigris River, "at first under protest of the Indians, but the immense throng of settlers soon made all protests futile." Montgomery County was surveyed and organized in 1869; the governor appointed commissioners June 3.

Geography

The general surface of the county is prairie. The bottom lands along the creeks and rivers average over a mile in width and comprise 25 per cent. of the area. The timber belts on the streams average a few rods in width and contain walnut, cottonwood, hickory, oak, pecan, hackberry, ash, mulberry, sycamore, elm, maple, box-elder and locust. The Verdigris river enters from the north and flows south into Oklahoma. The Elk river enters in the northwest and flowing east joins the Verdigris. Big Hill, Drum, Pumpkin, Sycamore and Onion are important creeks.

Neighboring Counties:

Wilson County (north)
Neosho County (northeast)
Labette County (east)
Nowata County, Oklahoma (southeast)
Washington County, Oklahoma (south)
Chautauqua County (west)
Elk County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Caney	city	Incorporated Area
- Cherry	township
- Cherryvale	city	Incorporated Area
- Coffeyville	city	Incorporated Area
- Dearing	city	Incorporated Area
- Drum Creek	township
- Elk City	city	Incorporated Area
- Fawn Creek	township
- Havana	city	Incorporated Area
- Independence (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Liberty	city	Incorporated Area
- Rutland	township
- Sycamore	township
- Tyro	city	Incorporated Area
- West Cherry	township

County Resources:

Montgomery 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."