Records from Ford County

Abstract: Records from Ford County, Kan., created by the Board of County Commissioners, District Court, Probate Court, register of deeds, & county clerk of Ford County and the city clerk, City Council, and Police Court of Dodge City. The paper records include civil and criminal court dockets from the Dodge City justice of the peace, 1891-1903; and indexes to government land patents, 1880-1912. The majority of the records are on microfilm.

Administrative History: Ford County was established on February 26, 1867 and organized on April 05, 1873. It was named in honor of James Hobart Ford (1829-1867), colonel of the Second Colorado Cavalry, which in 1864 was posted along the Kansas-Missouri boarder to defend against guerrilla raids, including Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864. Col. Ford, brevetted as brigadier general, commanded the military District of the Upper Arkansas, in which role he selected a location between two fordable crossings of the Arkansas River for the site of what became Fort Dodge. Today, Dodge City is Ford County’s largest city and county seat. Townships include Bloom, Bucklin, Concord, Dodge, Enterprise, Fairview, Ford, Grandview, Pleasant Valley [defunct], Richland, Royal, Sodville, Spearville, Wheatland, and Wilburn.

Scope and content:

This collection contains both paper and microfilmed records from Ford County, Kan. The records are dated between 1873-1946. They were created by the Board of County Commissioners, District Court, Probate Court, register of deeds, & county clerk of Ford County and the city clerk, City Council, and Police Court of Dodge City. The paper records include civil and criminal court dockets from the Dodge City justice of the peace, 1891-1903; and indexes to government land patents, 1880-1912. The majority of the records are on microfilm.

Records of the Board of County Commissioners consist of Journals, 1873-1904 (microfilm roll MS 155).

Records from the District Court document major civil and criminal cases, naturalizations, divorces, monetary claims within a particular limit, and similar matters. Included are naturalization records, specifically petitions, certifications, and declaration of intention, 1874-1929; records of bonds for court costs, 1886-1907; court journals, 1874-1891; petitions for druggists to sell liquor, 1885-1887; civil and criminal dockets 1873-1889; land title records, 1905-1967; civil case files, 1873-1881; criminal case files, 1876-1886; tax warrants, 1959-1965; and assignment and release records, 1937-1946.

Records from the Probate Court document marriages, town incorporations, estates, wills, adoptions, insanities, delinquent & dependent children, and similar matters within the county. Included are marriage licenses & affidavits, 1874-1903; guardianship bonds, 1881-1930; estate administrator bonds, 1881-1931; real estate sale bills & records, 1886-1992; estate inventories & appraisals, 1881-1922; and a journal, 1885-1891.

Records from the register of deeds document land ownership and transactions. Included are contracts, 1879-1911; deed records, 1873-1924; final receipts & index, 1880-1945; and an index to government land patents, 181-1912. Records from the county clerk include vital statistics, 1905-1911. Records from Dodge City include cemetery records, 1888-1928; voters register, 1886-1902; a warrant register, 1884-1917; city ordinances, 1875-1900; City Council proceedings, 1886-1900; and police dockets, 1885-1906.

Finding Aid Bibliography: Kansas State Historical Society. "Kansas Counties - Ford County, Kansas." http://www.kshs.org/geog/geog_counties/view/county:FO (accessed 21 December 2010).