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[edit] County of JohnsonJohnson is a county situated in the easternmost tier of counties in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas, United States of America. The county seat is Olathe. Johnson is bounded by the counties of Leavenworth and Wyandotte (and the city of Kansas City) on the north, Miami on the south, Franklin on the southwest, and Douglas on the west. The Kansas river forms the west two-thirds of the northern border. The county is bounded on the east by the state of Missouri, including the counties of Jackson and Cass and the city of Kansas City. [edit] HistoryJohnson was one of the first 33 counties erected, on 25 August 1855, by the first legislative Assembly of the territory of Kansas. It was named after Rev. Thomas Johnson, a Methodist missionary to the Shawnee Indians and then president of the legislative Council. The commissioners held their first meeting on 7 September 1857, but little business was taken up at this meeting. An election was ordered for the purpose of electing county officers, but owing to some informality connected with it, was declared void. On 28 October another meeting was held at which time the townships of Aubry, Lexington, Monticello, McCamish, Olathe, Santa Fe (later Oxford), Spring Hill and Shawnee, were organized, and special commissioners appointed to prescribe their boundaries. Gardner, then a part of Spring Hill township, was soon separately organized. At the third meeting of the commissioners, on 7 December, constables were appointed for each township. Initially the county seat was located at Gum Springs (now a part of the city of Shawnee). It was relocated to Olathe after being approved by an election in 1858. In 1859, the jail was built by J.E. Hayes at a cost of $6000, and Fred W. Case erected the building on the corner used as part of the courthouse. The courthouse was expanded in 1865. In March 1858, the first county election was held. The county at this time was overwhelmingly Democratic and the free-state men made no attempt to elect officers. The county officers elected in the fall of 1861 were all Republicans, though some of them had, but recently, joined the party. [edit] BoundariesWhen the county was erected, the Kansas river constituted its entire northern boundary, but the present boundary was established by 1868. The boundary is defined: Commencing at the point where the north line of township 12 south intersects the west boundary line of the state of Missouri; thence west on said township line, to its intersection with the main channel of the Kansas river in range 24 east; thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to an intersection with the line between the second and third tiers of sections in range 21 east; thence south on section lines, to the corner of sections 14, 15, 22 and 23, in township 15 south, of range 21 east; thence east on section lines, to the western boundary line of the state of Missouri; thence north on said boundary line, to the place of beginning. (G.S. 1868, ch. 24, § 36; Oct. 31; R.S. 1923, 18-146.) [edit] PopulationJohnson is the most populous county in the state of Kansas. The county is largely urban or suburban with more than a third of it lying outside of the incorporated cities.
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[edit] CemeteriesCemeteries of Johnson County, Kansas, United States [edit] Research Tips
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Johnson County is a county in the U.S. state of Kansas, on the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 609,863, making it the most populous county in Kansas. Its county seat is Olathe. Largely suburban, the county contains a number of suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, including Overland Park, the second most populous city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The county is home to the headquarters of Garmin and AMC Theatres. [edit] History
This was part of the large territory of the Osage people, who occupied lands up to present-day Saint Louis, Missouri. After Indian Removal, the United States government reserved much of this area as Indian territory for a reservation for the Shawnee people, who were relocated from east of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest. The Santa Fe Trail and Oregon–California Trail, which pass through nearby Independence, Missouri, also passed through the county. Johnson County was established in 1855 as one of the first counties in the newly organized Kansas Territory; it was named for American missionary Thomas Johnson. The renowned gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok settled for a time in the county, becoming constable of Monticello Township in 1858. Johnson County was the site of many battles between abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates during the period of Bleeding Kansas, prior to the residents voting on whether slavery would be allowed in the territory. In 1862 during the American Civil War, Confederate guerrillas from nearby Missouri, led by William Quantrill, raided the Johnson County communities of Olathe and Spring Hill. They killed half a dozen men and destroyed numerous homes and businesses. The county was largely rural until the early 20th century, when housing subdivisions were developed in the northeastern portion of the county adjacent to Kansas City, Missouri. Developer J. C. Nichols spurred the boom in 1914 when he built the Mission Hills Country Club to lure upscale residents who previously had been reluctant to move from Missouri to Kansas. Suburban development continued at a steady pace until the close of World War II. Following the war, the pace of development exploded, triggered by the return of veterans in need of housing, construction of highways that facilitated commuting from suburbs, and the pent-up demand for new housing. The US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Integration of public schools in Kansas City, Missouri, resulted in many white families leaving the inner city, resulting in increased migration to the county for new housing and what were considered higher quality public schools, generally an indicator of higher economic status. From the mid-1980s the pace of growth increased significantly, with the county adding 100,000 residents each decade between the 1990 census and 2010 census. The 1952 Johnson County Courthouse was closed in 2020, then demolished in 2021. It was replaced by a seven-story courthouse in 2021 after over two years of construction. This new courthouse is the county's fourth building.
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