Geary County History
"A New Centennial History of Kansas," Charles A. Tuttle, 1876
Davis County was named and organized in 1855, in honor of
the president of the confederacy already in the egg, only waiting
for time, Pierce and Buchanan to hatch it out. When the county
was named, Jefferson Davis was secretary of war and chief director of the conspiracy against the peace and prosperity of Kansas.
There are 407 square miles in the area of this county and the
population in 1875 was 4,611, showing a decrease of more than
900 in five years. The males preponderate here to the number
of 360. More than half of the population, 57 per cent., are
occupied in farming, 11 per cent, are employed in mines and
manufactures, and 8 per cent, in trade and transportation. Junction City, the county seat, is 62 miles west from Topeka, is situated at the crown of a low bluff, at the confluence of the Smoky
Hill and Republican rivers, when the Kansas river is formed by
their union. This post village has the advantage of two lines of
railroad, the Kansas Pacific, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Bailroads. There are many churches and schools in Junction
City, besides which a savings bank, flouring mills, manufactories
of various kinds and water powers equal to all demand. Quarries
of magnesian limestone abound near Junction City, very easily
worked and much used in building. Near the town Clark's
creek is crossed by three Howe truss bridges, and the town is a
busy centre all the year round.
There are two weekly papers,
the Union and Tribune, and those serve the whole county in local
matters.
The Davis County Savings Bank is located at Junction City. Only two water powers have yet been improved at
this point, one on the Smoky Hill and one on Clarke's creek.
Two water power flouring mills and a steam flouring mill are
busily employed, giving work to great numbers of hands in the
county seat; and besides these, there are a cigar factory, two
breweries, and factories for the manufacture of furniture, soap
and brooms. Agricultural implements and wagons, and all the
necessary lines of business requisite for a country trade, are made
and supplied in Junction City. The other manufactures in the
county are � in Jackson township, a water power flouring mill;
in Milford, a steam grist and saw mill; and in Smoky Hill township, a cheese factory, a water power flouring mill and a salt bore.
The number of school districts and school houses agree, both
being thirty-four, and the value of the property $39,790. There
is a parochial Catholic school also at Junction City. There are
seven church edifices in the county, valued at about $43,000, but
other buildings are now projected, as the demand is always increasing. There can be no information procured as to libraries.
The population of Davis county was much larger before the
locust plague fell upon the land, but in the winter of 1874 there
were 375 persons reported in want of food and 500 in want of
clothing. Many left the locality until the return of spring and
had not resumed their avocations when the census was taken in
the beginning of March, 1875.
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Geary Co. KHHP
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