Cloud County was organized on September 6, 1866, by John Seymour; James N. Hagaman; John B. Rupe; and Moses Heller.
 The Territorial Legislature originally named the county Shirley, supposedly for a Leavenworth prostitute named Jane Shirley.
 In 1867 the legislature changed the name in honor of Colonel William F. Cloud, a Civil War hero. Cloud County contains the
 cities of Aurora, Clyde, Concordia, Glasco, Jamestown, Miltonvale and Simpson (part). Minersville was a community that
 formed in 1869 after the discovery of coal deposits. It no longer exists.

 Indian raids during 1864 forced many of the settlers to leave the county. Sarah White, the 17-year-old daughter of Benjamin
 White, was captured by Indians on August 13, 1868. The family lived on White (Granny) Creek. The father was killed in the
 attack, and Sarah was held captive until she was rescued on March 19, 1869, in the Texas Panhandle by George Armstrong
 Custer.

 The first church was the Methodist church founded in Clyde in November 1866, with Reverend R. P. West as pastor. The first
 fair was held in Concordia, October 15-16, 1873, but was not technically a "county" fair. The current fair is held in Glasco.
 The first school was formed in June 1866, a mile west of the village of Ames. It later became School District No. 1.

 Cloud County had a German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp was from June 1943 until the end of World War II. Camp
 Concordia, which offered housing, mess facilities, recreation, and hospitalization, was among the largest of eight main POW
 facilities in Kansas.