Wabaunsee County, Kansas

Wabaunsee County
	Wabaunsee County, Kansas
	Map
	; Location in the state of Kansas
	; Kansas's location in the U.S.
	Statistics
Founded	1859
Seat	Alma
Largest City	Alma
Area; - Total; - Land; - Water	; 800 sq mi (2,072 km²); 794 sq mi (2,056 km²); 5.3 sq mi (14 km²), 0.7%
PopulationEst.; - (2016); - Density	; 6,891 ; 8.7/sq mi (3/km²)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
	Named for: Chief Waubonsie

Wabaunsee County (standard abbreviation: WB) is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas. In 2010, 7,053 people lived there.^[1] Its county seat is Alma.^[2] The county was created by the territorial legislature of Kansas Territory on March 25, 1859.^[3] It was named after a chief of the Potawatomi Indians.^[3]

History

19th century

The first white people in the area were said to have been a group of criminals. This group was known as the McDaniel Gang.^[3]

Wabaunsee County was created by the territorial legislature on March 25, 1859.^[3] The name used since 1859 is from the Potawatomi "Wah-bon-seh". This means "dawn of day." It was the name of the chief of the Potawatomi Indians.^[3] Originally, the county was named Richardson. This was named after William Alexander Richardson, a congressman from Illinois, who introduced the first Kansas and Nebraska Bill in the United States House of Representatives. This made certain Indian lands territories in 1854.^[4]

The county's first church, Wabaunsee Church of Christ, was created in June 1857.^[3]

The first railroad to be built through Wabaunsee County was the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe in 1880.^[5] In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a railroad from Topeka to Herington.^[6] This railroad connected Topeka, Valencia, Willard, Maple Hill, Vera, Paxico, McFarland, Alma, Volland, Alta Vista, Dwight, White City, Latimer, Herington.

Geography

The U.S. Census Bureau says that the county has a total area of 800 square miles (2,100 km²). Of that, 794 square miles (2,060 km²) is land and 5.3 square miles (14 km²) (0.7%) is water.^[7]

People

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1860	1,023		—
1870	3,362		228.6%
1880	8,756		160.4%
1890	11,720		33.9%
1900	12,813		9.3%
1910	12,721		−0.7%
1920	11,424		−10.2%
1930	10,830		−5.2%
1940	9,219		−14.9%
1950	7,212		−21.8%
1960	6,648		−7.8%
1970	6,397		−3.8%
1980	6,867		7.3%
1990	6,603		−3.8%
2000	6,885		4.3%
2010	7,053		2.4%
Est. 2016	6,891	^[8]	0.1%
U.S. Decennial Census^[9] 1790-1960^[10] 1900-1990^[11] 1990-2000^[12] 2010-2016^[1]

Age pyramid

Wabaunsee County is part of the Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Government

Presidential elections

Presidential Elections Results

**Presidential Elections Results**^[13]
Year	Republican	Democratic	Third Parties
2016	70.2% 2,372	23.0% 776	6.9% 232
2012	69.1% 2,256	28.1% 918	2.9% 93
2008	68.0% 2,395	29.4% 1,036	2.6% 90
2004	70.2% 2,531	27.8% 1,001	2.0% 72
2000	63.8% 2,182	30.0% 1,025	6.2% 213
1996	55.7% 1,884	28.6% 966	15.8% 534
style="text-align:center;" style="background:Template:United States political party color"\|1992	37.2% 1,254	25.2% 851	37.6% 1,269
1988	58.5% 1,737	39.3% 1,166	2.2% 64
1984	72.7% 2,276	25.7% 805	1.6% 49
1980	68.0% 2,255	25.7% 853	6.3% 209
1976	57.6% 1,921	40.6% 1,354	1.8% 61
1972	76.8% 2,461	20.7% 662	2.5% 80
1968	64.2% 1,979	22.5% 695	13.3% 410
1964	58.3% 1,839	40.8% 1,287	0.8% 26
1960	70.6% 2,351	29.1% 969	0.3% 11
1956	76.6% 2,650	23.2% 802	0.2% 6
1952	81.0% 3,182	18.7% 736	0.2% 9
1948	66.8% 2,437	31.9% 1,162	1.3% 49
1944	76.0% 2,839	23.4% 873	0.7% 26
1940	73.6% 3,481	25.6% 1,212	0.7% 34
1936	55.5% 2,809	44.2% 2,235	0.3% 15
1932	47.4% 2,304	50.7% 2,465	1.9% 93
1928	71.9% 3,099	27.6% 1,189	0.5% 23
1924	65.9% 2,742	15.2% 633	18.9% 786
1920	77.6% 2,859	21.2% 782	1.1% 42
1916	59.0% 2,640	38.1% 1,706	3.0% 132
1912	26.8% 783	38.6% 1,128	34.6% 1,009
1908	60.3% 1,849	37.9% 1,163	1.9% 57
1904	71.4% 2,016	24.4% 688	4.2% 118
1900	58.1% 1,793	40.9% 1,263	1.0% 32
1896	51.8% 1,586	47.1% 1,442	1.1% 34
1892	46.8% 1,356		53.2% 1,540
1888	62.5% 1,708	35.1% 960	2.3% 64

Wabaunsee County is very Republican. No Democratic Presidential candidate has won Wabaunsee County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

Education

Unified school districts

Communities

2005 KDOT Map of Wabaunsee County from KDOT (map legend)

Cities