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Kansas Counties

Hunter County, Kansas [defunct]

Date Established:
Date Organized:
Date Defunct: February 24, 1864
Location: Kansas map showing location of Hunter County
Boundaries: The boundaries of Hunter County were created as: "Beginning at the southeast corner of Butler County; thence south to the southern boundary of the territory; then west 30 miles; thence north to a point west of the point of beginning; then 30 miles to the place of beginning." The new county was thus thirty miles east to west and about seventy-eight miles north to south.
Origin of Name: Probably named for Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809-1887), a Virginia congressman and senator, who favored the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. He was expelled from the Senate in 1861 for supporting the rebellion, and he served in the Confederate Senate and as Confederate Secretary of State.
History: Hunter was one of the original 33 counties created by the first territorial legislature in 1855. In 1860, Irving County was created out of the northern part of Hunter. The county was never organized, and In 1864 it was annexed into Butler County. The greater portion of what was Hunter County is now included in Cowley County, with the remainder scattered among Sedgwick, Sumner, Butler, Elk, Chautauqua, and Greenwood counties.
Population: No Data Available.
Other Resources: Post offices in Hunter County
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