Atwood, Kansas – Rawlins County Seat

Atwood, Kansas, is a small town and the county seat of Rawlins County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,290, and the city has a total area of 1.10 square miles, of which 1.04 square miles is land and 0.06 square miles is water.

In 1875, T.A. Andrews and J.M. Matheny traveled to Rawlins County and started a town site about two miles east of the current city. The town was named after Attwood Matheny, the 14-year-old son who accompanied his father on the journey.

Several years later, a town company was organized, consisting of A.M. Campbell, who took a one-third interest; J.M. Matheny, who took a one-third interest; J.C. Arbuckle, who took a one-third interest; and a firm consisting of Dan Yager, John Belford, and William Riley had a one-sixth interest.  J.M. Matheny paid out on 80 acres of his homestead, which is now known as the original town of Atwood.

Attwood was laid out in April 1879 by T.A. Andrews and J.M. Matheny. Mr. Matheny was President and Mr. Andrews Secretary of the Town Company, and was the Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction. A post office was established on June 4, 1879. In the early days, there was a mail route between Atwood and Oberlin, which J.W. Cochran ran.

The Atwood Pioneer was established on October 23, 1879, by publishers Edwin and A.L. Thorne. That year, the newspaper reported that there was one school district for the entire county, District Number 1, in Atwood.

Because the townsite proved to be school land, the town was relocated the following spring to its present site on Beaver Creek in Atwood Township, near the center of the county. In April 1880, the new town was relocated to its present location.

It was evident that a land office would be located somewhere in the west. A new land district had been cut off, and as Atwood was about the center of the district, nearly everyone thought that Atwood would be the fortunate town. However, in 1880, the land office was located at Kerwin, 125 miles away.

The county seat contest was between Atwood and Danube, now Ludell, six miles north of it.  Atwood was the victor, and the county seat was permanently located here in May 1881. The first building used as a courthouse was owned by C.S. Starback and was located just west of the corner of Third and Main Streets. Mr. Starback erected the building for a jewelry store in 1880.

Business firms of all kinds soon sprang up.

On October 11, 1881, the U.S. Post Office requested permission to drop one “t,” and the county seat became Atwood.

Judge William H. Pratt held the first term of court at Atwood on February 28, 1882.

In 1882, there were five schoolhouses in the county, with a school population of 510.

The Legislature of 1883 provided for terms of the District Court in the Seventeenth Judicial District for Rawlins County, commencing on the second Monday of May and the second Monday of November of each year, and attached Cheyenne County for judicial purposes.

Atwood was officially incorporated in 1885.

In 1887 and 1888, when the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was built up, the Lincoln Land Company made an effort to move the county seat to Blakeman, a railroad town about four miles farther up Beaver Creek.

In order to retain the county seat at Atwood during this effort, it was necessary to have a courthouse.  In the fall election of 1887, the proposition to vote on bonds to erect a courthouse was lost by 144 votes. However, the Atwood people were not discouraged by this defeat. The city of Atwood voted on bonds for $3,500 to build a city hall, which was located on two lots donated by S.F. Lloyd on the corner of State and Fifth Street. These lots were well set with trees, which were higher than the courthouse.  This city hall was later donated to the county for use as a courthouse. Two steel jail cells were also purchased for $4,000. The jail was contracted to be built for $450.

In 1902, Atwood’s population was 468. Rawlins County’s population was 5,039. At that time, Atwood had four of the best general merchandise stores in Northwest Kansas. It also had a good notion store, a boot and shoe store, three- large hardware stores, two furniture stores, two drug stores, two lumber yards, a feed and coal office, a machine shop, two blacksmith shops, a jewelry store, two millinery stores, two book stores, two livery barns, a large flouring mill, two hotels, two restaurants, two abstract and land offices, two barber shops, two grain elevators, and a good grade school with four teachers. Its three banks showed deposits of $69,790.97. The Independent telephone system connects the town with Colby, Oberlin, and various other places.

A second county Courthouse was built in Atwood in 1906 and 1907. The three-story dark red colored brick, stone, and concrete structure was designed in the Romanesque Revival Style by the Eisenfraut-Colby-Pottinger Company and built by the contractor Winters & Short. The building features a central square, a red-colored brick tower with a steep roof rising above the south entrance. The south front has steps up to a stone-trimmed entrance with glass paneling. In the interior, the County District Court courtroom is located on the north side of the third story. The building houses the County District Court of the 15th Judicial District. The building is located on spacious, landscaped grounds in the center of Atwood. It sits at 607 Main Street at the intersection of North 6th Street.

In 1910, Atwood was an incorporated city of the third class, with a population of 680, representing a gain of 194 during the preceding decade. At that time, it had two banks, three weekly newspapers, several reputable mercantile establishments, well-maintained public schools and a high school, telegraph and express offices, an international money order post office with two free rural delivery routes, a telephone connection with the surrounding towns, a hotel, and some small manufacturing enterprises.

Located on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad,  which ran from Orleans, Nebraska, to St. Francis, Kansas, it was an important shipping point. The leading religious denominations were the Baptists, Christians, Catholics, Congregationalists, Dunkards, and Methodists, all of whom had neat houses of worship. A daily stage line ran from Atwood to Colby, the county seat of Thomas County, about 30 miles to the south.

Rawlins County Hospital was constructed in 1950, staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. The Catholic parishes in the county were asked to build a home and a chapel for the sisters. That temporarily halted plans to build a school. Still, fundraising resumed in 1952, and a parochial school was completed in 1954. School Sisters of Notre Dame taught there until 1971, when the school was closed.

Atwood’s population peaked at 1,906 in 1960.

Today, the community and the county are served by the Rawlins County USD 105 public school district in Atwood, which provides the Rawlins County Junior/Senior High School and the Rawlins County Elementary School.

Area attractions include the Rawlins County Historical Museum at 308 State Street and the historic Shirley Opera House at 503 Main Street, and Lake Atwood, which is just north of Atwood, Kansas, on U.S. Highway 36. The 43-acre lake offers a variety of recreational activities, including camping, hiking, and fishing.

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated September 2025.

Also See:

Destinations of Kansas

Extinct Towns of Rawlins County

Rawlins County, Kansas

Rawlins County Photo Gallery

Sources:

American Courthouses
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Cutler, William G.; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Fort Hays State University
Kansas Travel
Sacred Heart Parish
The Topeka Daily Capitol, Topeka, Kansas, October 19, 1902
Wikipedia

 

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