[1] The county was named for Samuel Kingman, a chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court during the 1860s and 1870s.

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, but keeping title to about 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.

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

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