Records from Osborne County

Abstract: The records from Osborne County that the State Archives hold all come from the County Superintendent of Public Instruction's office. They include teacher's attendance registers, school district clerk's records, school board meeting minutes, records from the county's teacher association, and information on school district reorganization and selling school property during the 1940s-1960s when much of this reorganization and restructuring occurred throughout the state of Kansas. The majority of the records come from the first half of the twentieth century, and many of them are in volumes.

Administrative History: Osborne County in upper-central Kansas was established in 1867. It was at first attached to Mitchell County for legal purposes, as the county was not formally organized until 1871. The county was named for Private Vincent B. Osborn[e], of Co. A, 2nd Kansas Cavalry, who lost his right leg to wounds received 17 January 1865 on the steamer Anna Jacobs on the Arkansas River just south of Roseville, Arkansas. The steamboat, carrying 200 refugees and 50 soldiers, came under fire from a Confederate artillery piece and made for shore; Osborne carried the cable ashore and was attempting to secure it when he was shot, shattering the bone just above the knee.

Despite some attempts to move it, the county seat has remained in the city of Osborne. Townships in the county include Bethany, Bloom, Corinth, Covert, Delhi, Grant, Hancock, Hawkeye, Independence, Jackson, Kill Creek, Lawrence, Liberty, Mount Ayr, Natoma, Penn, Ross, Round Mound, Sumner, Tilden, Valley, Victor, and Winfield.

[Kansas State Historical Society. "Kansas Counties -- Osborne County, Kansas." http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/places/counties.php?county=OB (accessed 6 July 2009).]

[Osborne County. "The Creation and Organization of Osborne County, Kansas." http://www.osbornecounty.org/index.asp?DocumentID=183 (accessed 6 July 2009).]