Marshall County was created on August 25, 1855 as an Original County. The County Seat is Marysville. The County was named for Frank [or Francis] J. Marshall, member of the first territorial legislature, who operated a ferry on the Big Blue River at the Oregon Trail crossing.
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All Departments below can be contacted by clicking the link, by contacting the Phone number below for each department or contacting the County Courthouse at 1201 Broadway, Marysville, KS 66508-1844; Phone: (785) 562-5361.NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.
Marshall County Clerks Officehas Birth Records from 1885-1911, Marriage Records from 1856 and Death Records from 1885-1911.
The Register of Deeds shall have custody of and safely keep and preserve all the books, records, deeds, maps, papers and microphotographs deposited or kept in the office of the Register of Deeds. The Register of Deeds shall also record or cause to be recorded all deeds, mortgages, maps, instruments and writings authorized by law to be recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds and shall perform all other duties as are required by law.
Marshall County Register of Deeds Officehas Land Records from 1855.
The Register of Deeds shall have custody of and safely keep and preserve all the books, records, deeds, maps, papers and microphotographs deposited or kept in the office of the Register of Deeds. The Register of Deeds shall also record or cause to be recorded all deeds, mortgages, maps, instruments and writings authorized by law to be recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds and shall perform all other duties as are required by law.
Marshall County Clerk of District Court has Probate Records from 1855 and Court Records from 1858. The Clerk of Court is part of the Judicial Branch of local government and as such is required to maintain a record of all documents filed with the courts, keep a record of all court proceedings, and collect various fines and forfeitures ordered by the court and specified by statute.
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Kansas Election List, 1854: Listing of voters from Kansas in 1854 taken from Congressional report in 1856
For the most part, tax records remain at the local level. Assessment and tax rolls are kept, permanently, by the County Treasurer's office.
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Marshall County Treasurers Office
The County Treasurer's Office by Kansas State law is responsible for the tax billing, collection and distribution of tax money for the State, County, Cities and all other taxing entities that levy Ad Valorem and/or special assessment taxes.
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Office of Vital Statistics, 1000 S W Jackson, Suite 110, Topeka, KS 66612; (785) 296-1400 Info; (785) 296-3253.
All Fees below cover a five-year record search – one certified copy is issued if the record is found and if not found, the fee is retained. You will receive either the certified copy or a letter explaining the search conducted and that no record was located. All Request Filled requests take 2-4 weeks when ordered by mail (Application for Birth, Marriage, Divorce or Death) or 2-5 Days when you order ONLINE.
They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: In Kansas, Birth certificates began being filed with the Office July 1, 1911. The Kansas Historical Society and/or the County Clerk holds birth records before July 1, 1911.
Cost: $12.00 fee for a certified birth certificate copy is $7 for each additional copy of same record ordered at same time.
Delayed Certificates of Birth: are on file with dates of birth dating back to the 1860's. In 1940, statutory authority was received by the Office which allowed individuals still alive in 1940 and later with no prior birth record filed to submit certain documentation to file a Delayed Certificate of Birth. A request for a Delayed Certificate of Birth is made in the same manner as one for a regular birth certificate – just specify the date of birth. If the date specified is between the late 1860's and July 1, 1911, a Delayed Certificate of Birth search will be conducted.
Death Certificates: In Kansas, Death certificates began being filed with the Office July 1, 1911. The Kansas Historical Society and/or the County Clerk holds death records before July 1, 1911.
Cost: $13.00 fee for a certified birth certificate copy is $8 for each additional copy of same record ordered at same time.
Marriage Certificates: In Kansas, Death certificates began being filed with the Office May 1, 1913. The Kansas Historical Society and/or the County Clerk holds marriage records before May 1, 1913.
Cost: $12.00 fee for a certified birth certificate copy is $7 for each additional copy of same record ordered at same time.
Divorces: Divorce Certificates began being filed with this office July 1, 1951. The divorce decree is not filed with this office. The decree is the court document detailing the settlement of the divorce. The divorce certificate is completed by the plaintiff's attorney and contains only basic information – names of husband and wife, date of marriage, date of divorce, etc. Certified copies of divorce decrees are obtained from the Clerk of the District Court in the county where the divorce was filed.
Cost: $12.00 is the cost for the search, which includes one copy of the divorce certificate, if found. Additional copies of the same record, requested at the same time as the first, are $7.00 each.
Order On-Line: To obtain a certified copy of a vital record by on-line purchase with a credit card, please link to VitalChek.
Order In Person: Go to Curtis State Office Bldg., 1000 SW Jackson, Ste. 120, Topeka, KS 66612. Open 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. weekdays.Payment made by cash, check, money order, or credit card.
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Kansas Census, 1850-90: This database contains indexes to the Kansas (U.S.A.) portions of the 1850-18700 U.S. Federal Censuses as well as to the 1855-1859 state and territorial census, and the 1890 Veterans Schedules. Information contained in these indexes can include name, state, county, township, year of record, and name of record set.
Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1915: This database contains state censuses for Kansas from 1855-1915. Information available in this database includes: name, age, gender, race, relationship to head of household, birthplace, marital status, and place of enumeration. Additional information about an individual may be listed on the original record.
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You can view rotating animated maps for Kansas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps. The Kansas Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches, cemeteries, roads, ect... free for viewing or download here
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The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. A list of Wars fought on American.
Below is a list of online resources for Marshall County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Marshall County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Kansas Civil War Soldiers: Listing of over 20,000 men who served in the Union Army from Kansas, 1861-1865
Leavenworth, Kansas Veterans, 1915-16: One of the oldest and most important communities in Kansas, Leavenworth has been home to thousands of military veterans. This database is a listing of residents of the Western Branch of the Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers between 1915 and 1916.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Kansas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.
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Marshall County Historical Society,
1207 Broadway,
Marysville 66508
Kansas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
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The earliest churches were established among the native tribes settled in Kansas long before it was organized as a territory. The Methodist, Baptist, Society of Friends, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches all had early missions which grew as the white settlers immigrated.
There is no central registry of cemetery locations in Kansas. The Woman's Kansas Day Club has identified and located many Kansas cemeteries. The project's results are at the Kansas State Historical Society which has additional collections of published cemetery inscriptions, though not comprehensive, listed in their card catalog.
The Register of Deeds in each county is often able to assist in locating cemeteries. Certain maps distributed by the Kansas Department of Transportation show the location of known cemeteries in relation to county roads.
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Kansas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Transcribed from Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912.
Marshall County, one of the original 33 counties created by the first territorial legislature, is located in the northern tier of counties. The act defining the boundaries is as follows: "Beginning at the northwest corner of Nemaha county, thence west on the boundary line 30 miles, thence south 30 miles, thence east 30 miles, thence north 30 miles to the place of beginning." By the act of Feb. 16, 1860, the county seat was permanently located at Marysville.
The history of Marshall county goes back to the expedition of Stephen H. Long, who passed through this territory in 1819 and 1820 on his way from Pittsburgh to the Rocky mountains. Gen. Fremont led a similar expedition through what is now Marshall county in the early '40s, and in 1847 John Smith, the Mormon apostle, with his band of followers from Illinois opened a permanent trail crossing the Big Blue river 6 miles below the present city of Marysville, at a place afterward called "Mormon," for the reason that it became a camping place for these people, who during the next two years crossed the plains by the thousands. In 1849 this trail was used by California gold hunters and the place was called "California crossing." Later it was known as Independence crossing. The first permanent settlement was made at this place by A. G. Woodward in 1848.
The most prominent man in the settlement and early development of the county was Francis J. Marshall, after whom it was named. He came from Missouri in 1849 and established a ferry at California crossing, but for several seasons he returned to his old home every winter. In the spring of 1851 he moved his ferry 6 miles up the river and established a trading post where Marysville now stands. In 1854 James McCloskey, who had been out to the Rocky mountains and had there married an Indian woman, came with half a dozen other traders and their families. McCloskey settled near Marshall's ferry and the others settled on the Vermillion on invitation of a Pottawatomie half-breed by the name of Louis Tremble.
Early in the spring of 1855 settlements were made in the southeastern part of the county along the Vermillion. Some of the first to come were John D. Wells and his family from Kentucky, A. G. Barrett, the Brockmeyer brothers, Joseph Langdon, Thomas Warren, H. Ashdown and the Farley brothers. A number of new families located in and around Marysville. In 1857 Smith Martin took up a claim in Center township and built a cabin. William Reedy and M. T. Bennett settled on Coon creek; George Guittard and his sons located in the northwestern part of the county, about 3 miles north of the present town of Beattie; Blue Rapids City township was settled by James Walter, M. L. Duncan and others; Blue Rapids township was settled by four brothers—Ambrose, East, Martin and James Shipp—who located near the present town of Irving. In 1858 Samuel Smith settled near the east line of Noble township and the next year Isaac Walker had taken a claim on the west fork of the Vermillion.
The county was organized in 1855 and the county seat established at Marysville. The first election was held on March 30 of that year. It was an interesting event. The Kansas-Nebraska act, which provided for the organization of the territory, conferred the right to vote upon every "inhabitant" of the territory, otherwise qualified, who should be an actual settler. Nothing was said about any required period of residence. A most liberal construction was put upon this provision by the Missourians who came into the territory by the thousands and voted. The party which came to Marysville numbered several hundred men who came in wagons with camping equipment, stayed long enough to vote, and then left. The polling place was in the "loft" of F. J. Marshall's store. The voter would go up a stairway far enough for the clerks and judges to see his head, call out a name, deposit his ballot, go back down, absorb some bad whiskey, think up another name and repeat the process. It is said that Jonathan Lang of Vermillion (nicknamed "Shanghai"), after voting all day long between drinks, sprang upon a whiskey barrel and offered to bet $100 that he had outvoted anybody in the crowd. The challenge was accepted and the money put up. The investigating committee found that "Shanghai" had lost the bet, the winning party having deposited nearly 100 votes. It is said that this man had in his possession a St. Louis city directory and had voted half way through the "A" list. As a result Marysville, which consisted of only three or four log cabins (although it was the only town in northern Kansas of any importance at that time), rolled up 1,000 votes. Francis J. Marshall was elected a member of the territorial legislature.
The first probate judge of Marshall county was James Doniphan, who held the first term of court on Oct. 10, 1855. Alexander Clark, the first sheriff, received his commission in October of that year and was killed the next June while attempting to arrest two horse thieves. M. L. Duncan was appointed to serve out Clark's term. James McCloskey was the first county clerk. W. N. Glenn, John D. Wells and M. L. Duncan were the first commissioners.
In 1856 a colony of 85 South Carolina men organized at Atchison what they called the Palmetto Town company. The site of the old ferry at Independence crossing was bought from Francis J. Marshall for $500 and a town laid out, which was called Palmetto. Among those who came and settled were J. S. Magill, J. P. Miller, O. D. Prentis, Albert Morrall, W. B. Jenkins, J. R. Allston, John Vanderhorst, A. S. Vaught and Robert Y. Shibley. About the same time Marshall laid out a town around his trading post and ferry which he called Marysville, after his wife. The two communities were at variance for the next two years, and in some cases their quarrels were settled with pistols. At last Marshall induced the South Carolinians to move their town up the river to Marysville.
The first newspaper established in the county was the Palmetto Kansan, owned by the Palmetto Town company and edited by J. E. Clardy, in 1857.
The first marriage was in Aug., 1856, between Timothy Clark and Judy North on the Vermillion. They were married by Squire Ault at the home of James Smith. The first birth was that of Emma Shipp in 1857, and the first death was that of Ellis Myers, who froze to death in a terrible storm in the winter of 1856-57. The first postoffices were Marysville, 1854, Francis Marshall, postmaster; Barrett, 1857, E. Pugh, postmaster; Irving, 1860, M. D. Abbott, postmaster; Waterville, 1860; Lanesburg, 1863, E. Lewis, postmaster; Nottingham, 1867, D. C. Ault, postmaster.
The population in 1860 was 2,280, well distributed over the county. Churches had been built and school districts had begun to be organized. The first school was taught by Miss Jennie Robb in 1859 in Marysville. Other early teachers were Miss Kate Webber, R. S. Newell and P. O. Robbins. In the spring of 1861 the war broke out and the growth of the county was retarded for four years. The war department made Marysville the recruiting station for Washington and Marshall counties. Three full companies were recruited here. Company K, Ninth Kansas cavalry, which consisted of 80 men under Capt. Thomas M. Bowen, J. D. Wells as first lieutenant; Company G, Thirteenth Kansas infantry, recruited in Marysville in Aug., 1862, Vermillion township, furnished the most of the men, W. S. Blackborn captain and Thomas Hensel first lieutenant Company E, Thirteenth Kansas infantry, was recruited in Marysville in the fall of 1862, with Capt. Perry Hutchinson in command. Company H, Second Kansas cavalry, was made up entirely of Washington and Marshall county men, and Marshall county men joined other Kansas regiments and regiments raised in other states. Out of 450 voters Marshall county furnished in all 431 men for the Union army. At that time Marshall county was on the border and was at times the seat of panics arising from Indian depredations. Emigrants, ranchmen and settlers who had ventured farther west were often driven in. There was some fear that the older settlements would be attacked while depleted of able-bodied fighters. In 1862 a raid was made into Washington county. A detachment of troops being recruited at Marysville was sent out, but no Indians were seen. In 1864 a raid was made on the Little Blue river. On Aug. 10, 1864, the refugees began arriving at Marysville in wagons, each party telling of terrible outrages and tortures of those captured. The next day two companies, one under Capt. Frank Schmidt and one in charge of Lieut. McCloskey, had been raised and were on their way to the scene of trouble. A company from Vermillion, under Capt. James Kelley, and one from Irving, under Capt. T. B. Vaile, joined them. The Marshall county troops were commanded by Col. E. C. Manning. A brigade expedition of Nemaha, Riley and Washington county men also went out under the command of Gen. Perry of Seneca. Both expeditions returned without finding the Indians.
During this time considerable domestic trouble was caused by what was known as the "Oketo cutoff." In 1863 the overland stake[sic] route came by Guittard's station through Marysville. The proprietor of the stage line for some reason did not like Marysville and proposed to change the route to go through Oketo. Accordingly he built the "cutoff" at great expense, and in Oct., 1862, the stage began traveling that route, leaving Marysville several miles to the south. This was bad for the town, for it not only diverted travel but delayed the mail so that it was sometimes a month behind the regular time in reaching the town. Instead of daily mail they would get it twice a week or once in every two weeks with exasperating irregularity. This precipitated a sort of neighborhood struggle in which no one was killed, but many tricks played by both sides, some of which were destructive to property. At one time the United States troops were called out from Fort Leavenworth to protect the stage line. After losing some $50,000 by the cut-off the proprietor of the stage line changed the route back to Marysville in March, 1863.
As was the case with nearly every county, Marshall had a county seat contest. The territorial legislature placed it at Marysville in 1855, but in 1859 T. S. Vaile, who was a member of the free-state legislature, had the county seat changed to Sylvan, a place located on Section 25, township 3, range 8. By a vote of the people it was taken back to Marysville. In 1871 the matter again came before the people, with Waterville, Blue Rapids, Frankfort and Marysville contesting. The election resulted in favor of Marysville. The number of votes cast would indicate that there were between 13,000 and 14,000 people in the county at this time.
The first train came into Marshall county over the St. Joseph & Western R. R., which was begun in 1860 and reached the eastern limits of Marshall county in 1870. The next year it was extended to Marysville. Marshall county is now well provided with railroads. The Union Pacific crosses the county from north to south a little west of the center; the St. Joseph & Grand Island crosses the northern part of the county; the Missouri Pacific crosses the southern part, and a branch of the same system crosses the northeast corner. These lines afford ample transportation and shipping facilities to all parts of the county.
The surface of Marshall county is prairie, broken by hills and bluffs along the Blue river and its branches. The geological formations include gypsum, limestone and coal. Building stone is quarried out of the bluffs. The Big Blue river runs through the county from north to south, furnishing a water power unequaled elsewhere in the state. The Little Blue, one of its branches, enters near the central part of the west line of the county and empties into the Big Blue 2 miles above Blue Rapids. The Black Vermillion flows through the southeastern part of the county and empties into the Big Blue a few miles below Irving. Numerous smaller streams complete the water system of the county.
Marshall is divided into 23 civil townships; Balderson, Blue Rapids, Blue Rapids City, Center, Clear Fork, Cleveland, Cottage Hill, Elm Creek, Franklin, Guittard, Herkimer, Logan, Marysville, Murray, Noble, Oketo, Richland, Rock, St. Bridget, Vermillion, Walnut, Waterville and Wells.
The leading farm crops are corn and wheat. The value of the corn crop in 1910 was $2,416,480, and of the wheat $115,200. The minor crops are grains, grasses and potatoes. Considerable live stock is raised and shipped. The total value of farm products in 1910 was $5,383,389.52. The population in 1910 was 23,880.
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