Graham County was organized on April 1, 1880, by H. McCarty; F. C. Makee; A. E. Jones; W. E. Ridgely; Dr. A. D.
 Wilkerson; John McGeary; Burris Harper; Robert Morrison; Frank Nickel; T. D. Deshon; P. H. Collins; Z. T. Fletcher;
 Theodore Rudeman; A. H. Brinkmeyer; Alvin Law; S. Garland; Clark Samuels; William Kirtley; and Frank Olmstead.
 Containing the cities of Moreland, Hill City, and Bogue, the county was named for Captain John L. Graham, a Civil War
 soldier with Company D, 8th Kansas Volunteers, who was killed at the Battle of Chickamaugua.

 The first county seat designated by Governor John P. St. John was Millbrook. The seat was contested by Hill City. When a
 tornado nearly destroyed Millbrook in 1887, the county seat was moved to Hill City. Later the coming of the Union Pacific
 Railroad in 1888 caused the demise of several small settlements, established others, and generally assisted in increasing the
 settlement of the area. Finally the drought, dust, and depression of the 1930s caused most of the population to leave the
 county.