Brief History from
Kansas State Historical Society:
Sherman County was
organized on September 20, 1886, by J. H.
Tate; L. J. Gandy; O. D. Dickey; R. R.
Edwards; John Bray;
Barney McCluskey; J. F. Collier; A.
P. Melstrom; W. T. Clayton; James Forbes;
Wilson Turner; and W. W. Scott. It
includes
the cities of Goodland and Kanorado,
and was named for General William T.
Sherman.
On July 1, 1867,
Lieutenant Lyman Kidder of the 7th United
States Cavalry was on route from Fort
Sedgwick, Colorado, to
deliver messages to General George
A. Custer who was on campaign. Near Beaver
Creek Kidder and ten men were killed.
Custer found their remains on about
July 11. A county seat war between
Goodland and Eustis resulted in an armed
mob
marching into Goodland from Eustis
on January 13, 1888, and seizing the
county records. Goodland supporters
retaliated,
capturing the records and returning
them to Goodland. Goodland subsequently
became the county seat.
The Chicago, Kansas
and Nebraska Railroad, later part of the
Rock Island, arrived in the county on July
3, 1888. The Bethel
Church was organized in 1886 with
services being held in a sod structure.
The first fair, which was not officially a
county
affair, was held in September 1886.
The first county fair was held north of
Goodland in 1888. The first school
district was
formed in Gandy in 1885.
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