Editing Crawford County, Kansas (section)

===19th century===
In 1802, Spain returned most of the former New France land west of the Mississippi to France, but kept title to about 7,500 square miles. In 1803, the United States acquired much of the West and most of the land for [[History of Kansas|modern-day Kansas]] as part of the 828,000-square mile [[Louisiana Purchase]], at a cost of 2.83 [[Penny (United States coin)|cents]] per [[acre]].

In 1854, the [[Kansas Territory]] was organized, and in 1861 [[Kansas]] was admitted as the 34th [[U.S. state]]. The preceding years had been filled with violence as settlers arrived on both sides of the slavery question; the residents voting for Kansas to enter as a free state were the majority. In 1867, '''Crawford County''' was established (formed from [[Bourbon County, Kansas|Bourbon]] and [[Cherokee County, Kansas|Cherokee]] counties) on the Cherokee Neutral Lands, which were originally established as a buffer zone between the Osage tribe and the State of Missouri.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |title=Soldier vs. Settler - Fort Scott National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/historyculture/postofsek.htm |access-date=July 24, 2023 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> It is named for [[Samuel J. Crawford]], who was the governor in office at the time.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C | title=Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. | publisher=Standard Publishing Company | author=Blackmar, Frank Wilson | year=1912 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C/page/n467 471]}}</ref>