Kiowa County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the U.S. state of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

and largest city is Greensburg. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,460. The county is named after the Kiowa tribe.

History

19th century

In 1854, the

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

was organized, then in 1861

became the 34th U.S. state. In 1867, Kiowa County was established and named after the

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

tribe. In 1875. The county's land was given to nearby county, but in 1886, Kiowa County was reestablished and organized. The Santa Fe Railroad was built into the county around the time it was organized. The Greensburg Well, one of the largest hand-dug wells in the world, was built in 1887-1888. It has been a popular tourist attraction since 1939. The well is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The first oil well in Kiowa County was drilled in 1917. Mabel Chase ran for county sheriff after her husband's time in the office was term-limited and became the state's first female sheriff. Her husband provided her the family's armored 1926 Hudson Super Six, and she was the first sheriff in Kansas to be supplied with a Thompson submachine gun. Chase conducted raids on local stills.

21st century

On the evening of May 4, 2007, Greensburg was devastated by the 2007 Greensburg tornado. It killed 11 people, injured 63 others, and destroyed 95% of the community. The Kiowa County Courthouse was renovated with new windows and roof after the 2007 tornado damaged it. Originally, construction of the building started in 1920.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.03%) is water. Kiowa County has a large number of iron-rich

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

s in its soil due to the Brenham meteor fall over 10 thousand years ago.

Adjacent counties

* Edwards County (north) * Pratt County (east) * Barber County (southeast) * Comanche County (south) * Clark County (southwest) * Ford County (west)

Major highways

* US 54 *US 183 *US 400 Kiowa County has only U.S. highways, no state highways.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 3,278 people, 1,365 households, and 924 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,643 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.19%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.21%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.61% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.98% from other races, and 0.73% from two or more races. 2.04% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 1,365 households, out of which 27.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.60% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 5.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.30% were non-families. 30.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.89. In the county, the population was spread out, with 24.00% under the age of 18, 8.20% from 18 to 24, 21.80% from 25 to 44, 24.60% from 45 to 64, and 21.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 96.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $31,576, and the median income for a family was $40,950. Males had a median income of $29,063 versus $20,764 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $17,207. About 7.40% of families and 10.80% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 13.50% of those under age 18 and 8.70% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Presidential elections

Like all of the High Plains, Kiowa County is Republican. The only Democrat to ever win a majority in the county has been

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in 1936, who ironically achieved the feat against incumbent Kansas governor

Alf Landon Alfred Mossman Landon (September 9, 1887October 12, 1987) was an American oilman and politician who served as the 26th governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1936 presidential ...

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

won a plurality in 1916, but since 1944 only three Democrats have reached thirty percent of the county's vote, and

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...

in 1988 during a major drought and consequent farm crisis is the last Democrat to receive so much as twenty percent.

Education

Colleges

* Barclay College, Haviland

Unified school districts

* Kiowa County USD 422
Haviland USD 474

Communities

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

Incorporated cities

* Greensburg (county seat) * Haviland * Mullinville

Unincorporated communities

* Belvidere * Brenham * Joy * Wellsford

Townships

Kiowa County has only one

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

, and none of the cities within the county are considered ''governmentally independent''; all figures for the township include those of the cities.

References

;Notes

External links

;County *
Kiowa County - Directory of Public Officials
;Historical
Kiowa County
from American History and Genealogy Project (AHGP) ;Maps * Kiowa County Maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT * Kansas Highway Maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT * Kansas Railroad Maps
Current19961915
KDOT and Kansas Historical Society {{coord, 37.56, N, 99.29, W, type:adm2nd_region:US-KS, display=title Kansas counties Kansas placenames of Native American origin 1867 establishments in Kansas Populated places established in 1867