Records from Stafford County

Abstract: The majority of the paper records from Stafford County at the State Archives are civil and criminal dockets from St. John and Stafford Townships' Justices of the Peace, as well as various records from the district court. These include dockets, lists, and other records concerning attorneys, trials, appointments of notaries public, and other related matters. The Archives also holds records from the probate court concerning claims made against a decedent's estate. These records are all in volumes.

On microfilm the State Archives holds probate court journals from 1935-1973, commissioner's journals for 1879-1982, a city of Hudson ordinance record for 1908-1991, and some county clerk records concerned with vital statistics and registering medical professionals in the county.

Administrative History: Stafford County in south-central Kansas was named after Captain Lewis Stafford of Co. E, First Kansas Infantry. He was accidentally killed at Young's Point, Louisiana, on 31 January 1863. The county was established in 1867, and the boundary lines of the county were defined by the Legislature of 1870, but for several years the county remained unorganized. The Legislature of 1875, with the intention of obliterating the county from the map, partitioned the territory embraced in Stafford County and added portions of it to Pawnee and Barton Counties. This left a strip six miles wide and twelve miles long as Stafford County. On April 25, 1879 the Supreme Court declared the act of the Legislature unconstitutional, and the county was restored to its original boundaries.

On July 14, 1879, temporary officers took oath of office for Stafford County. Meeting in a room of a St. John Hotel they elected a chairman and ordered a special election to be held on August 18, 1879 to elect county officers and to select a permanent county seat.

The Stafford County seat became St. John, beating out Stafford. Townships include Albano, Byron, Clear Creek, Cleveland, Douglas, East Cooper, Fairview, Farmington, Hayes, Lincoln, North Seward, Ohio, Putnam, Richland, Rose Valley, South Seward, St. John, Stafford, Union, West Cooper, and York Township. Cooper and Seward were two townships that are now defunct.

[Kansas State Historical Society. "Kansas Counties -- Stafford County, Kansas." http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/places/counties.php?county=SF (accessed 11 June 2009).]

[Stafford County. "The History of Our County." http://www.staffordcounty.org/geninfo.html (accessed 11 June 2009).]