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Rice County (standard abbreviation: RC) is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas. In 2020, 9,427 people lived there. The county seat is Lyons. Lyons is also the biggest city in Rice County. The county was named after Samuel Allen Rice, Brigadier-General, United States volunteers, killed April 30, 1864, at Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas.
Although Rice county was created and its boundary lines fixed by the legislature of 1867, it was not until 1870 that it was settled The first homesteader was John A. Carlson, who came in February of that year. He was followed by Andrew J. Johnson, C. S. Lindell, August Johnson, John Enrick Johnson, John P. Johnson, O. W. Peterson, John Ouincy Adams of Mass., and Leonard Russell. In Aug., 1870, R. M. Hutchinson, A. J. Howard and J. E. Perdue, of the firm of Hutchinson & Co., stopped upon the Little Arkansas with 4,000 head of cattle. Howard and Perdue returned the next January and located claims. A great many settlers came in 1871. A colony from Ohio located at Union City, 3 miles from the present city of Lyons. Buffalo was still plentiful in the vicinity, and was a great help to the homesteaders as a source of food and cash income. The first frame houses were built in this year, the lumber being hauled from Salina, a distance of 60 miles.

Rice County Coordinator
AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION

Assistant

Rebecca Maloney

State Coordinators:

Tom & Carolyn Ward