In 1886 Kiowa county was reestablished out of that part of Edwards south of the north line of township 27 and that part of Comanche north of the sixth standard parallel. (Laws of 1886, p. 54.) Stevens county was reestablished with the same boundaries assigned to it in 1873, plus a strip three miles wide on the western side of the county. Morton county was created out of the territory which had been established as Kansas county in 1873, less the three-mile strip given to Stevens. Seward was reduced to the limits assigned in 1873 (id., p. 57). The south boundary of Rice county was changed slightly, to include eight sections of township 22, range 8, which were detached from Reno (id., p. 56). The boundary between Lyon and Coffey was changed to the Neosho river for a distance of sixty rods in township 20, range 13 east (id., p. 58).
Gove, Hamilton, Kiowa, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Sherman, Stevens, and Wichita counties were organized in 1886.
In 1887 the area of Finney, Hamilton and Ford counties was reduced. Haskell was created out of that part of Finney which had been established as Araphaoe in 1873. Ford, Hodgeman and Hamilton again took the boundaries of 1873, and Grant, Stanton and Kearny were reestablished with their former boundaries. Gray, abolished in 1883, was reestablished with different boundaries. The north line was now the north line of township 24, the east line the east line of range 27, the south line the north line of township 30, and the west line the east line of range 31. Garfield county was created out of six townships from the northeast corner of Finney and six from the northwest corner of Hodgeman. (Laws of 1887, pp. 111-113.) The name of St. John county was changed to Logan (id., p. 255).
Garfield, Gray, Haskell, Logan and Stanton counties were organized in 1887.
In 1889, the name of Davis county was changed to Geary (Laws of 1889, p. 182.) In 1893 an act was passed providing for the restoration of the name Davis, in case a majority of the voters should decide in favor of it at the next general election (Laws of 1893, p. 88). The majority vote, however, was opposed to the change, so that the county has retained the name of Geary.*
In 1889, the last of the counties - Grant, Greeley, and Kearny - were organized.
* The vote was taken at the general election November 1894. The highest vote cast was 1686, but 475 did not vote on the question of restoring the name to Davis. Of the votes cast upon the question, there were 523 for Davis and 588 for Geary, being a majority of 65 for Geary, in honor of John W. Geary, third territorial governor, a distinguished major-general, and twice governor of Pennsylvania. This is probably the only instance in Kansas of a name being adopted by a popular vote.
 Map I, 1855 includes origin of county names for those counties not existing in 1904. |
 Map II, 1857-'59 |
 Map III, 1860 |
 Map IV, 1861-1864 |
 Map V, 1865-1866 |
 Map VI, 1867 |
 Map VII, 1868 |
 Map VIII, 1869-1872 |
 Map IX, 1873 |
 Map X, 1874 |
 Map XI, 1875-1880 |
 Map XII, 1881, '82 |
 Map XIII, 1883,'84 |
 Map XIV, 1885 |
 Map XV, 1886-1892 |
 Map XVI, 1893-1904 |
Article Introduction |
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