Records from Brown County

Abstract: This collection contains both paper and microfilmed records of Brown County. The paper records include ledgers, annual reports, teacher's contracts, and school census information for the Stoney Point School District, poll books from Hiawatha, trial transcripts for cases 13792 and 13827, a civil docket from the Justice of the Peace in Padonia, and a record of stray livestock also from Padonia. The paper records date between 1873-1972.

Microfilmed records contain a variety of legal and vital statistics records from the Brown County District Court, Probate Court, Register of Deeds, and County Clerk. The District Court records pertain to major civil and criminal cases, naturalization, divorces, monetary claims within a particular boundary (usually one or more counties), and similar matters. These records include: civil case files, 1860-1950; general indexes, 1859-1932; appearance dockets, 1859-1919; district court journals, 1859-1919; and naturalization records, 1873-1954. The Probate Court had jurisdiction over marriages, town incorporation, estates, wills, adoptions, insanities, delinquent and dependent children, and similar matters. These records include: will records, 1861-1920, and general probate records, 1869-1928. The Register of Deeds records all instruments pertaining to land ownership. Records include: indexes (grantor/grantee), 1858-1905; numerical indexes, 1858-1913; mortgage records, 1858-1913; school registers and records, 1869-1921; and cemetery records, 1882-1911. County Clerk records include vital statistics such as birth and death records for 1880-1911.

Administrative History: Brown County was established on August 25, 1855. In the 1870s, the secretary of the state Board of Agriculture attempted to determine for whom the county was named. Several of the legislators in the 1855 session declared the county was named for Albert Gallatin Brown (1813-1880), United States senator from Mississippi at the time of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Other legislators, however, stated it was named for O. H. Browne, a member of that legislature. The county name was spelled Browne in the original statute, but the county seal omitted the 'e', as have all subsequent statutes. Hiawatha is the county seat and largest city. Other cities include Horton and Sabetha. Townships include Hamlin, Hiawatha, Irving, Mission, Morrill, Padonia, Powhattan, Robinson, Walnut, and Washington.

[Kansas State Historical Society. "Kansas Counties - Brown County, Kansas." http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/places/counties.php?county=BR (accessed June 9, 2009.)]