[1] The county was named after William Cloud, an officer in the American Civil War.

For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans.

In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France, while retaining title to approximately 7,500 square miles.

In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre.

[6] In 1887, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway built a branch line from Neva (3 miles west of Strong City) to Superior, Nebraska.

This branch line connected Strong City, Neva, Rockland, Diamond Springs, Burdick, Lost Springs, Jacobs, Hope, Navarre, Enterprise, Abilene, Talmage, Manchester, Longford, Oak Hill, Miltonvale, Aurora, Huscher, Concordia, Kackley, Courtland, Webber, Superior.

Following amendment to the Kansas Constitution in 1986, Cloud County remained a prohibition, or "dry", county until 1998, when voters approved the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with a 30 percent food sales requirement.

† means a community is designated a Census-Designated Place (CDP) by the United States Census Bureau.

The city of Concordia is considered governmentally independent and is excluded from the census figures for the townships.

[16][17] Napoleon Bonaparte Brown was a soldier, businessman, politician, and resident of Kansas and Missouri in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[18] He is most known as the namesake and builder of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas, a majestic opera house completed in 1907 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[19] Larry Hartshorn was a former NFL Offensive Guard who played for the Chicago Cardinals in 1955 and 1957.

Quigley was raised in Concordia, Kansas where he was a prominent member of the high school football team in the 1890s.

[21] Cloud County has also been listed as one of the locations for Smallville in the Superman story line.