Wabaunsee County, Kansas

Wabaunsee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat is Alma. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 6,877. The county was named for Chief Waubonsie of the Potawatomi Indians.

History

19th century

For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The first white settlers in the area were said to have been a band of outlaws known as the McDaniel Gang.Wabaunsee County, Kansas, Kansapedia. (accessed July 27, 2013)

In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized and Wabaunsee County was created by the territorial legislature on March 25, 1859. The name used since 1859 is derived from the Potawatomi "Wah-bon-seh", meaning "dawn of day" literally, and it was the name of the chief of the Potawatomi Indians. Originally, the county was named Richardson, after William Alexander 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.

Also in 1854, the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church was established by a group of free-staters, who had rifles shipped to the church to be used in the free-state effort in boxes marked Bibles. Captain William Mitchell, Jr., a seaman who joined the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony that settled in Wabaunsee, played an important role in the county settlement and with the underground railroad.

The county's first church, Wabaunsee Church of Christ, was founded in June 1857.

In 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state, entering the union as a free state.

The first railroad to be built through Wabaunsee County was the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe in 1880. In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Topeka to Herington. This main line connected Topeka, Valencia, Willard, Maple Hill, Vera, Paxico, McFarland, Alma, Volland, Alta Vista, Dwight, White City, Latimer, Herington.

20th century A massive drought beginning in 1930 resulted in a series of dust storms that lasted until 1941. The drought combined with the onset of the Great Depression, forced farmers off the land. This ecological disaster caused an exodus of many farmers to escape from the hostile environment of Kansas.Timothy Eagan, The Worst Hard Tim : the Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)Craig Miner,Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas, 1890-1940 (2007) As the world demand for wheat plummeted, rural Kansas became poverty-stricken. The state became an eager participant in such major New Deal relief programs as the Civil Works Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, which put tens of thousands of Kansans to work as unskilled labor.Peter Fearon, "Kansas History and the New Deal Era," Kansas History, Autumn 2007, Vol. 30 Issue 3, pp 192-223 Republican Governor Alf Landon also employed emergency measures, including a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and a balanced budget initiative.Donald R. McCoy, Landon of Kansas (1966) The Agricultural Adjustment Administration succeeded in raising wheat prices after 1933, thus alleviating the most serious distress.Peter Fearon, "Regulation and Response: Kansas Wheat Farmers and the New Deal," Rural History, Oct 2007, Vol. 18 Issue 2, pp 245-264

During World War II, the U.S. Army located a German prisoner of war camp at Lake Wabaunsee, near Eskridge. It was believed that the prisoners would be less of a security risk in North America, where there were fewer Nazi sympathizers, than they would be in Europe. The prisoners were paid $0.40 per hour and granted a daily noon lunch, in exchange for their help on farms and bridges throughout the region.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.7%) is water.

Adjacent counties Pottawatomie County (north) Shawnee County (east) Osage County (southeast) Lyon County (south) Morris County (southwest) Geary County (west) Riley County (northwest)

Demographics

Wabaunsee County is part of the Topeka metropolitan area.

Racial and ethnic composition +Wabaunsee County, Kansas – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980 Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)6,7146,4156,6286,6646,18597.77%97.15%96.27%94.48%89.94%Black or African American alone (NH)51412628310.74%0.62%0.38%0.40%0.45%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)11243233290.16%0.36%0.46%0.47%0.42%Asian alone (NH)671010120.09%0.11%0.15%0.14%0.17%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census104xx0.01%0.00%0.06%Other race alone (NH)25042210.36%0.00%0.06%0.03%0.31%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census56111278xx0.81%1.57%4.04%Hispanic or Latino (any race)601161282053170.87%1.76%1.86%2.91%4.61%Total6,8676,6036,8857,0536,877 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%

2020 census As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 6,877. The median age was 43.7 years. 24.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 20.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 105.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 102.0 males age 18 and over.

The racial makeup of the county was 91.7% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.8% from some other race, and 6.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 4.6% of the population.

0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 2,659 households in the county, of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 18.4% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 3,110 housing units, of which 14.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 84.3% were owner-occupied and 15.7% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.8% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.3%.

2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 6,885 people, 2,633 households, and 1,958 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 3,033 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.24% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 0.49% Native American, 0.15% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.60% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. 1.86% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 2,633 households, out of which 33.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.30% were married couples living together, 6.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.60% were non-families. 23.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.70% under the age of 18, 6.20% from 18 to 24, 26.70% from 25 to 44, 24.80% from 45 to 64, and 15.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.30 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $41,710, and the median income for a family was $47,500. Males had a median income of $31,629 versus $23,148 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,704. About 5.80% of families and 7.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.40% of those under age 18 and 7.90% of those age 65 or over.

Government County governance is overseen by a three member Board of Commissioners, each of whom is responsible for a separate district.Wabaunsee County, County Commission, accessed September 1, 2023

Presidential elections

Wabaunsee County is overwhelmingly Republican. No Democratic presidential candidate has won Wabaunsee County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and since at least 1888 only Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, plus William Jennings Bryan in 1896, have reached 41 percent of the county's vote for the Democratic Party. The county was, however, one of three Kansas counties – Anderson and Jefferson being the other two – to give a plurality to Ross Perot in 1992.

Laws Wabaunsee County was a prohibition, or "dry", county until the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1986 and voters approved the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with a 30 percent food sales requirement.

Education

Unified school districts School districts based in the county include: - Text list Wabaunsee USD 329 (Mill Creek Valley USD 329) Mission Valley USD 330 (Wabaunsee East USD 330)

Other districts include: Kaw Valley USD 321 Manhattan USD 383 Morris County USD 417 North Lyon County USD 251 Wamego USD 320

Communities

List of townships / incorporated cities / unincorporated communities / extinct former communities within Wabaunsee County.

Cities ‡ denotes a community with portions in an adjacent county.

Alma (county seat) Alta Vista Eskridge Harveyville Maple Hill McFarland Paxico St. Marys‡ Willard‡

Unincorporated communities † denotes a community which is designated a Census-Designated Place (CDP) by the United States Census Bureau.

Keene Newbury† Volland Wabaunsee† Wilmington

Ghost towns Bradford Vera

Townships

Wabaunsee County is divided into thirteen townships. None of the cities within the county are considered governmentally independent, and all figures for the townships include those of the cities. In the following table, the population center is the largest city (or cities) included in that township's population total, if it is of a significant size.

Sources: 2000 U.S. Gazetteer from the U.S. Census Bureau. Township FIPS Populationcenter Population Populationdensity/km2 (/sq mi) Land areakm2 (sq mi) Water areakm2 (sq mi) Water % Geographic coordinates Alma 01375 Alma 1,137 11 (28) 104 (40) 0 (0) 0% Farmer 23125 119 1 (2) 172 (66) 0 (0) 0.07% Garfield 25850 Alta Visa 590 5 (13) 118 (45) 0 (0) 0.09% Kaw 36150 242 2 (6) 110 (42) 2 (1) 1.55% Maple Hill 44525 Maple Hill 930 5 (13) 190 (73) 1 (0) 0.55% Mill Creek 46725 Lake Wabaunsee 293 2 (4) 192 (74) 1 (0) 0.43% Mission Creek 47300 495 2 (6) 209 (81) 0 (0) 0.04% Newbury 50275 Paxico / McFarland 1,045 5 (13) 203 (78) 0 (0) 0.06% Plumb 56800 Harveyville 640 5 (13) 129 (50) 0 (0) 0.17% Rock Creek 60650 84 0 (1) 171 (66) 0 (0) 0.05% Wabaunsee 74250 Wabaunsee 455 3 (7) 172 (66) 2 (1) 1.05% Washington 75800 83 1 (1) 148 (57) 0 (0) 0.02% Wilmington 79525 Eskridge 772 5 (13) 150 (58) 0 (0) 0.03%

Wabaunsee County, Kansas

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