153 Years Ago in Harvey County, Kansas
It’s time to remember when the county was… grassland.
And then in 1871, people started to arrive.
Some were here to build a town, to build a county for their families.
Some were here to cash in on the coming Railroad.
Some were here for the novelty of staying in a real-life cow town.
March 1871
Early in 1870, Harvey County, Kansas did not exist. Indian tribes roamed through the area and at least 2 very small Indian settlements existed. Although a few hearty souls had begun to carve out small, basic home camps in this part of the prairie, the...
April 1871
The First Known Murder In Harvey County The first known murder in what was to become Harvey County was related to the cattle trail connecting Texas with Abilene, Kansas. This shootout took place early in April of 1871. John Wesley Hardin, the well-known Old West...
May 1871
NEWTON WILL BE A LIVELY LITTLE PLACE NEWTON - A gentleman who returned from the Southwest a day or two ago, gives the following description of the new town of Newton, which is to be a point on the A.T. & S.F. railroad: He says there are two...
July 1871
Summary Of Newton But for the A.T. & S.F.R.R., running to and stopping for a short time on Sec. 17, township 23, range 1, east, seventy four miles west of Emporia, no set of extravagant speculators would ever have thought of laying out a town where Newton now...
