Brief
History:
It was in 1855 when
the Territorial Legislature defined a
certain portion of land west of Shawnee
County and named it
Richardson County. This county was
named after William P. Richardson, a
congressman from Illinois, who introduced
the
first Kansas and Nebraska Bill in
the House of Representatives, which made
certain Indian lands territories in 1854.
The
county was attached to Shawnee
County for business and judicial purposes
and had no officers or records. In the
early days
of the county, the greatest
settlements were in present day Wilmington
and Wabaunsee Townships. In 1856, a group
of
settlers from New Haven,
Connecticut, moved into the county near
the Kaw River where a town site called
Wabaunsee
had been previously laid out, to
support making Kansas a free
state.“Wabaunsee,” meaning “Dawn of Day”
in the Indian
language, was namedafter the famous
Pottawatomie Indian Chief Wabansi. The
congregation of Henry Ward Beecher, a
well-known minister from Brooklyn,
New York, assisted these settlers. In May
of 1862, a new stone church was dedicated
at
the Wabaunsee town site and called
the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church. This
church building still stands today and
continues
to have weekly worship services.
In 1859, a petition was made to
the Territorial Legislature to change the
name of the county from Richardson to
Wabaunsee.
This request resulted because William
P. Richardson, whom the county was named
after, was pro-slavery while many in the
county were abolitionists. Since the
population had increased substantially,
county residents signed another petition
asking
that the county be organized into a
separate and distinct corporation for
revenue and judicial purposes. The request
was
granted and an election of county
officers was held on March 28, 1859. There
were two voting precincts in the county --
one at Alma, and one at the village of
Wabaunsee. The total number of votes polled
was 111. The county seat was located at
the Wabaunsee town site and four
townships created: Alma, Wabaunsee, Mission
Creek and Wilmington. A year later, three
commissioner districts were drawn up.
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