Johnson County, Kansas - A Pictorial History 1825

A history of Johnson County will be published for the first time in nearly a century. The 240-page, hard-cover book, Johnson County, Kansas: A Pictorial History, 1825-2005, chronicles 180 years of county history through compelling narratives and over 450 illustrations and photographs. Self-published by the Johnson County Museum, the publication will available the third week of December 2006. Initially, available through the Johnson County Museum Store, the book will eventually be sold at other museums across the county and some local book stores.

Johnson County, Kansas-A Pictorial History, 1825-2005, recounts the successes and the struggles of the people who have called this county home for the last 180 years. In the first compiled history of the county since Ed Blair wrote, History of Johnson County, Kansas, in 1915, this publication unravels the very local narratives which shed light on any community's unique qualities, while at the same time linking them to America's larger, collective history. The narrative explores the area's transformation from a sparsely-populated Shawnee Indian reservation in the 1820s to a thriving, suburban metropolis of over 506,000 people in 2005-remarkably even surpassing the population of Kansas City, Missouri, the urban "center city" the county's suburbs grew up around. The account reveals-through the major themes of land, people, and economics-how this striking transformation occurred.

The story begins with the relocation of the Shawnee Indians in the early 1800s, and recounts the internal struggles within the tribe about how to live in their new homeland, the influence of Christian missionaries, what it meant to "own" land, and how these questions evolved as overland travelers crisscrossed the area in their migration West. Johnson County's role in the Kansas Territory, the conflict over slavery, and the impact of the Civil War on the area is uncovered; and after peace was restored, the effect of railroad development on the economic landscape and the plight of the county's farmers; and how the railroad further changed the view of how land should best be utilized and valued.

From these early beginnings, the story evolves through times of agricultural dominance of Johnson County, economic depression, and world wars, and the suburbanization of Johnson County, undoubtedly one of the most dramatic changes in American life over the past one hundred years. By the turn of the twenty-first century, over 50 percent of Americans chose to live in suburban areas, compared to only 15 percent in 1920. In Johnson County, suburban developers like J.C. Nichols and William Strang paved the way for the post World War II boom, when the county's population doubled and doubled again-and more farmland gave way to suburban housing developments. Eventually, Johnson County transformed into a self-sufficient suburb, or an "edge city" by the 1990s-a place where residents could spend most of their time close to home, whether working, shopping, or pursuing leisure activities. And, how the same desires that first drew settlers to Johnson County-good schools and safe, family-friendly neighborhoods-proved to be lasting reasons for new settlers to choose Johnson County in the final quarter of the twentieth century.

Mindi Love, director of the Johnson County Museum, wrote Johnson County, Kansas: A Pictorial History, 1825-2005, to commemorate the county's sesquicentennial in 2005. The book was made possible with support from the Friends of the Johnson County Museum, the Johnson County Heritage Trust Fund, the R.R. Osborne Trust, the Barton P. and Mary Davidson Cohen Charitable Fund, the William T. Kemper Foundation, Metcalf Bank, the Estate of Corinthian Clay Nutter, the Victor and Helen Regnier Charitable Foundation, and many individual donors. The book will be available the third week of December 2006 at the Johnson County Museum Store; the retail cost is $35. [Review Contributed by Johnson County Museums]

Johnson County Museums [Web Site]
6305 Lackman Road, Shawnee, KS 66217 913-715-2550