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Brown County Kansas History

President Pierce signed on May 30th, 1854, an Act of Congress allowing for a territorial organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.  In a report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, the statement was made that the  county was named in honor of Hon. Albert G. Brown, of Mississippi, who was a United States Senator at the time of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Later the following year the Legislature met and passed an act that would distribute a portion of  the territory into counties and naming  the counties thus laid off. Brown County is situated in the northeastern portion of Kansas, being located in the first tier of counties, from Nebraska. Doniphan County lies to the east, Atchison  and Jackson counties to the south, and Nemaha county to the west.
Prior to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill there was as far as is known,  no settlement of whites in this county. The first records state that Thurston Chase and James Gibbobs staked claims on Wolf Creek on May 11, 1854, and made some improvements to the land, but returned to the east in less that a month. In June of the same year W.C. Foster came to Brown County, but passed through and settled in the eastern part of Nemaha County, having been informed that this section was a part of the Indian Trust Lands.  On learning of his error he returned to Brown County the fall of the same year.

Some Brown County Kansas Firsts

• First territorial election was held Sept., 17, 1855
• First County Clerk was James Waterson, who was appointed in 1857
• First Register of Deeds was D. Peebles who was elected in 1861
• First Probate Judge was W.W. Guthrie elected in 1861
• First county courthouse was built in Claytonville, but by April 1858 removed to presented day county seat of Hiawatha.

In March and April, 1996, a group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database.  The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored.  In addition, the databases would be indexed and crossed linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index.

At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web pages.  This project has been expanded from Kentucky to all areas of the United States .  Construction of the web pages for Kansas began in June of 1996.  In 1996 Nancy Trice volunteered to be coordinator of the Kansas page. In September 1996, Tom and Carolyn Ward joined her as assistant state coordinators. In February 1997 they agreed to change positions and Tom and Carolyn became state coordinators.

It is our hope and intention that these KSGenWeb pages will become your primary source of genealogy research in your quest for your Kansas roots. Finding pieces of your family history is always fun and rewarding.  We hope you enjoy looking for your ancestors as much as we do. We would like to thank all of our previous County Coordinators who have spent countless hours gathering family history, documents, volunteers and creating webpages to help all of us find our ancestors and fill in our family trees!

• Visit the counties where your ancestors lived and post a query and your surnames.
• If the county does not have a coordinator, can you adopt and maintain it? Click here for more information on page requirements.
• If you can't or if it already has a coordinator, you can still help... If you have transcribed or abstracted marriages, wills, deeds, cemeteries, etc, submit them to the county coordinator so they will be available for others. If you have a bible from an ancestor who was in the county, transcribe and submit it. Do you have a biography of your ancestor? Submit it. We are committed to keeping genealogy resources free.  You can help by sending me your GED files, Brown County Kansas information and such!

If you would like to contribute your information to this page, please let us know .

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Should you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact

Tom & Carolyn Ward
KSGenWeb State Coordinators

Rebecca Maloney
KSGenWeb Brown County Coordinator (Temporary)

National Coordinator - Linda K Lewis