Kansas History and Heritage Project-Cowley County History

Cowley County History
From "A New Centennial History of Kansas," Charles Tuttle, 1876


Cowley County was organized in 1870, being named in honor of an officer in the ninth Kansas cavalry, who died at Little Rock, Arkansas, after the Camden expedition. The area of Cowley is 1,112 square miles, and the population 8,963, males preponderating to the number of 715. There was in 1874 a much larger population before the locust famine overtook the locality, and since the census for 1875 was collected, the number has increased again very considerably. When the report was prepared in 1874-5, to submit to the legislature of Kansas, there were 475 in want of rations, and 1,400 in want of clothing for winter. Unfortunately, the legislators bickered among themselves, and there was not as much appropriated as would pay for framing the report. Illinois gave the largest quota of population to this county, Missouri next, then Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. Agriculture employs eighty-two per cent, of the population, manufactures and mining seven per cent, and trade and transportation a little over three. Winfield is the county seat of Cowley county. It is 144 miles from Topeka in a southwesterly direction. Bottom lands rise in this county to the average of thirty-three per cent, so that it will be seen that Winfield is the center of a fine agricultural county. Woodlands average six per cent., the timber being of choice varieties, valuable for manufacturing, such as walnut, oak and other such woods. The bottom lands of Arkansas river average five miles, the Walnut two miles; Grouse, Dutch and Hock creek, one mile. The principal streams are the Arkansas river and its tributaries, Walnut and Grouse. The Walnut tributaries are the Rock, Dutch and Timber creeks. The Grouse has one important tributary. Silver creek. This county has good springs, and excellent well water can be procured at depths varying from fifteen to forty feet. The mineral resources of the county are coal and building stone. The quantity of coal is yet unknown, but the quantity and quality of magnesian limestone are both excellent. No railroads have yet been constructed here. Butter is largely manufactured in this county, but cheese is a small product; farm animals thrive and sheep would prosper but for the dogs. The increase of land in cultivation in 1875 was over 82,000 acres. The water powers of the Walnut are perfectly reliable except in heat of summer when there is apt to be a failure. Three mills are now depending on this stream. The manufactures of Cowley county are, in brief, in Cresswell township, a steam saw mill and two water power grist mills; in Spring Creek township, a steam lumber and grist mill ; in Winfield township a steam saw mill, three water power grist mills and one brewery ; in Lazette township, one grist and one saw mill, and in Silverdale township, one saw mill and one grist mill. There are several banks in Arkansas City, at the confluence of the Arkansas and Walnut. This town commands a large trade, and although it is only three years old it already runs ahead of all competitors. There is a good weekly paper, the Traveler now published on a spot which was an Osage hunting ground three years since. The Indians come back to their old grounds to trade occasionally. The support of Arkansas City is the Texan cattle trade, traffic with the Indians and supplying the fine agricultural country by which it is surrounded. The Arkansas City Bank and the Cowley County Bank in this town transact a considerable business. There are two banking houses in Winfield also, the aggregate capital of the four banks being $51,300. There are three papers published in Winfield. The county has fifty-eight school houses and 108 districts: the value of school property being $63,476. There are four church edifices valued at $11,500. There are seventy private libraries and one public, with an aggregate of 4,631 volumes, but returns only came from six townships out of twenty-two.





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This website created Feb. 10, 2013 by Sheryl McClure.
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