Sumner County takes its name from Honorable Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, whose services to his country are so recent as to yet be fresh in all minds. The county lies in the southern tier, on what was Indian land for many years after much of Kansas was thickly settled. Cutting three miles from the southern part of the present county ran the Cherokee strip, the pathway of the tribe to their western hunting grounds. From this to the north line of the county ran the Diminished Osage Reserve, known as the 'thirty-mile strip,' and extending to the western line of the State. The boundaries of the county were defined by the Legislature of 1867, and on May 27, 1868, a treaty was made with the Indians, and 8,000,000 acres of land sold to the L., L. & G Railway. This included some of Sumner's best lands, and is known as the 'Sturgis treaty.'
County Seat: Wellington, Kansas
Date organized:1871
County History:
- Sumner County History
- Sumner County on Wikipedia
- Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Sumner County
Historic Landmarks, State, National:
County Historical Society:
- Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society | Facebook
- The Chisholm Trail Museum in Wellington, Kansas | Facebook
- Panhandle Railroad Museum in Wellington, Kansas | Facebook
Websites about the county:
- Sumner County Government
- City of Wellington, Kansas | Facebook
- City of Belle Plaine, Kansas
- City of Caldwell, Kansas
- City of Oxford, Kansas
- City of South Haven, Kansas
- City of Mulvane, Kansas | Facebook