Cheyenne County, Kansas: History
=== 19th century ===
In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state.
Cheyenne County was established by an act of the state legislature on 1873-03-06, which defined the original borders of the county as: Commencing where the east line of range 37 west, intersects the fortieth degree of north latitude; thence south with said range line to the first standard parallel; thence west with said parallel to the west line of the State of Kansas; thence north with the state line to the fortieth degree of north latitude; thence east with said parallel to the place of beginning.
The county was surveyed the following year, and its first settlers arrived in 1879.
Early settlement was in and around Wano, the "T" ranch (the county's first cattle ranch) being established 9 miles (14 km) from there in 1876, and Jacob Buck and the families of A. M. Brenaman, L. R. Heaton, a man named Bateman all settling around the area.
Brenaman was the first postmaster at Wano post office, established on 1880-08-23.
The first storekeepers opened their store the following month, with the first school being Kepferle, and the first school district established on 1881-12-03.
A dedicated school building, for 10 pupils, was donated by F. J. Graham and opened on 1882-01-10.
By 1886 there were 5 school districts.
The name Wano was an Anglicization by the settlers of the Spanish word "bueno" meaning "good".
It was not only the name of the post office but of its first newspaper, the Wano News, also run by Brenaman.
Like the county's second newspaper, the Echo, the News was short lived and only had 5 issues.
Later newspapers were the Cheyenne County Rustler, established on 1885-07-03 and originally published in Wano and later St Francis; the Frontiersman, the Cheyenne County Democrat, and the Bird City News, all published in Bird City; and the Plaindealer published in St Francis.
Independent county government was finally established in April 1886, by proclamation of Governor John A. Martin in response to a petition from the previous month.
The appointed county commissioners were J. M. Ketcham, W. W. McKay and J. F. Murray; with B. W. Knott as the county clerk.
Martin originally proclaimed Bird City as the county seat, as an initial temporary arrangement.
An election for the county seat and for elected county and township officers was held in May 1886, and Wano was chosen as county seat. However, that first election was tainted by voter fraud and later voided by a judge. The current county seat of St. Francis was eventually chosen by an election in February 1889 and later approved by act of the state legislature on in February 1891.