Organized in 1873, it was named after Thomas Barber, a free-state man killed during Bleeding Kansas.

These lands were ceded to the United States Government by the treaty of July 15, 1870, and were then offered for pre-emption, but not for homesteading or timber claim entry.

[5] The first settler in the county, a man named Griffin, settled in the winter of 1871-72 near Sun City.

Indians opposed to white settlement soon brought conflict, including an 1872 raid resulting in the death of trader E. H. Mosely.

[5] In the summer of 1874, an Indian raid resulted in the murder of several settlers along the Medicine Lodge River.

[5] To protect citizens, stockades were built, and militia groups were organized in Medicine Lodge and Sun City.

The discovery of gypsum deposits along the Medicine Lodge River led to the establishment of a plaster company in Sun City in 1891.

[4] The Medicine Lodge Bank was robbed in 1884 by a gang led by Henry Newton Brown, the marshal of Caldwell in nearby Sumner County.

That night, a mob overpowered the Medicine Lodge sheriff, shot and killed Brown, and hanged the other men from a tree.