In 1892, the state instituted quo warranto proceedings against Garfield county to test the validity of its organization. The supreme court decided that it was illegally organized, having less than 432 square miles of territory (State v. Garfield Co. 54 Kan. 372), and in 1893 it was annexed to Finney (Laws of 1893, p. 173). In 1893, the boundary between Marshall and Washington, in township 24, was modified, to give Washington access to the Big Blue river, in order to enable her to assist Marshall in building a bridge over the river. In case the bridge was not built within five years, the land detached was to revert to Marshall (id., p. 82). The bridge was not built within the period fixed by the statute, and in 1903 the law was reenacted (Laws of 1903, p. 326). There seems to be no prospect that the bridge will be built, so that the proposed change of boundary will probably not take effect. Since 1893, there have been practically no changes in county boundaries. An act was passed in 1897 to define more specifically the line between Lyon and Coffey counties (Laws of 1897, p. 195), and in 1899 an act was passed to define the line between Shawnee and Jefferson (Laws of 1899, p. 121). These acts were not intended to alter the boundaries already existing.
 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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