A Thesis prepared in 1903 by HELEN G. GILL,* of Vinland, in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the University of Kansas for the degree of master of arts.
THE series of maps, constituting the principal part of this paper, has been prepared for the purpose of showing the progress of county organization in Kansas. The maps exhibit the effect upon county organization of each successive wave of immigration and the disorganization of counties that followed the recession of population. They furnish a basis in studying the political history of the state, upon which to reconstruct the various congressional, judicial, senatorial and legislative districts that have from time to time existed. The periods chosen are such as render it possible to exhibit all the changes in county boundaries that have been made. One difficulty that presented itself in the construction of the maps resulted from the fact that in some cases considerable interval elapsed between the legislative creation and the actual organization of a county. As the dates of creation are more definite than those of organization, they have been chosen as the time from which the counties are represented. The result has been in some cases to present counties a year or so before their organization, at a time when they existed only on paper.
* HELEN GERTRUDE GILL was born on a farm near Baldwin, Kansas, July 29, 1878. She is the daughter of William H. Gill and Martha Cutter, of English descent. The father came to Kansas in 1856, and was an active free state man, having been captured at Hickory Point and held as a prisoner at Lecompton for two months. He returned to Wisconsin and served through the civil war as a first lieutenant in the 42d Wisconsin infantry. At the close of the war he came to Kansas and settled in Douglas county. The mother came to Kansas in 1859 from Lowell, Mass. Miss Gill graduated from Baker University in 1899. In 1901 she entered the Kansas State University and took a graduate course in history, and received the degree of master of arts, June 1903. In August, 1903, she was elected instructor in English and History in the Ellsworth high school, where she is now engaged. She has always lived in Kansas, and her home is at Baldwin.
 Map I, 1855 includes origin of county names for those counties not existing in 1904. |
 Map II, 1857-'59 |
 Map III, 1860 |
 Map IV, 1861-1864 |
 Map V, 1865-1866 |
 Map VI, 1867 |
 Map VII, 1868 |
 Map VIII, 1869-1872 |
 Map IX, 1873 |
 Map X, 1874 |
 Map XI, 1875-1880 |
 Map XII, 1881, '82 |
 Map XIII, 1883,'84 |
 Map XIV, 1885 |
 Map XV, 1886-1892 |
 Map XVI, 1893-1904 |
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