Barber County was organized on April 14, 1874, amidst "bond fraud" issues and padded census returns. The county was
 named for Thomas Barber, a freestater from Ohio who was killed on the road between Bloomington and Lawrence during
 the Wakarusa War in 1855 by proslavery men. James Lane called Barber one of the first Kansas martyrs of freedom and it
 was his suggestion the county be named for Barber. The name was misspelled as Barbour until an act of the 1883 legislature
 corrected it. It contains the cities of Hardtner, Hazelton, Isabel, Kiowa,  Medicine Lodge, Sharon, and Sun City.

 The Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty was held in October 1867 with representatives from the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche,
 Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache. It is estimated that there were between 5,000 and 15,000 participants. It is probable the first
 church was built in Medicine Lodge, but the first of record is that of the Methodist church in Lake City, founded 1881. The
 first school district was Rutlinger, formed in 1874, followed by Doles and Rock schools in 1879. The first county fair was
 held in Sun City in 1878. The county fair is currently in Hardtner.

 Carry Nation, famed "saloon buster" from Medicine Lodge. Jeremiah "Sockless Jerry" Simpson, Populist legislator and
 spokesman (1891-1899) lived in the county after 1878.