In 1868 two new counties - Gove and Wallace - were created. Shawnee, Jackson and Brown took their final form, the line between Shawnee and Jackson being pushed six miles north to the north line of township 10, and the line between Brown and Jackson six miles north to the north line of township 5. (Special Laws, 1868, pp. 49, 50.)
The general statutes of 1868 restated all county boundaries, and made some minor changes. The line between Osage and Coffey was pushed three miles north to the line between townships 18 and 19 (Statutes of 1868, p. 242). The line between Woodson and Wilson was pushed two miles south, to the south line of township 26 (id. p. 248). The line between Greenwood and Howard was pushed nine miles north, to the middle of township 28 (id. p. 236). A strip one mile wide, between the north lines of townships 20 and 23, was added to Chase on the west (id. p. 231). The act provided for an addition to Cherokee county on the west, in case the legal voters in the proposed addition approved the change at the next general election, but the question was not submitted, and the boundary remained unchanged.
Two inconsistencies occur in the general act of 1868. The first is a merely verbal error in the definition of Crawford county. "Twenty-four miles west from the southeast corner of section 13, township 31, range 25 east to the eastern boundary of Neosho county," should read "to the eastern boundary of Labette." This error was corrected in 1874 (Laws of 1874, p. 104). The second occurs in the boundaries of Wabaunsee and Shawnee counties. The triangle enclosed by the Kansas river, the second standard parallel and an extension of the line between Shawnee and Wabaunsee was included in both counties. This error was corrected in 1870 by giving the tract to Shawnee (Laws of 1870, p. 89).
 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 |
 |