Hamilton County, Kansas
Hamilton County was organized on January 29, 1886, by J. H. Luman; Laurence Hardy; Dennis Foley; and Thomas Ford. Named for Alexander Hamilton, it contains the cities of Coolidge and Syracuse.
Both Zebulon Pike, in 1806, and Stephen Longs' (1820) expeditions passed through the county. The county seat wars, beginning in 1886, between Syracuse, Kendall and Coolidge saw county government, at one time or another, partially located in all three. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on November 9, 1888, that Syracuse was the permanent county seat.
The first church was a Presbyterian church founded on September 21, 1885. The first county fair was held October 4 and 5, 1907, in a tent on main street in Syracuse. It continues. The first school district was founded in the fall of 1885 in Syracuse. The first sessions were held in Barber Hall.
The Kansas legislature gave women the vote in city elections on February 13, 1887. That cleared the way for voters to elect an all-woman city council in Syracuse on April 5, 1887, the first in the nation. N. E. Wheeler was elected mayor; Caroline Johnson Barber, Mrs. W. A. Swartwood, Mrs. S. P. Nott, Mrs. Charles Coe, and Mrs. G. C. Riggles were elected members of the council; and J. D. Woodruff was elected police judge.
Easton C. Bray, a resident of the county, was the first to practice the technique of "summer fallow" farming. He became known as the "wheat king of Kansas," was a director of the State Highway Department, and was a campaign manager for Alfred M. Landon's presidential campaign in 1936.
A story has been handed down through the years that at some time prior to 1885, a doctor's wife was buried on what is now Syracuse's main street, where the law enforcement office now stands.
Buggy Tracks, by Mrs. Bess Harrison, tells of life in the county.
For more information about the history of Hamilton County:
- Search the Archives Catalog for county records.
- Search the Newspapers database for historic newspapers.
- Search the Places database for historic towns, post offices, and townships.
- See our Counties database for population statistics.
- Search our Register database for historic sites.
- Search Kansas Memory for historic records and plat atlases.
- Search the Directories database for phonebooks, city and farm directories.
- See bibliographies from our catalog of publications about county history and historic schools.
Entry: Hamilton County, Kansas
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: February 2010
Date Modified: June 2019
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
