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.

[citation needed] Council Grove, established by European Americans in 1825, was an important supply station on the Santa Fe Trail.

The community was also the site of an encampment by John C. Fremont in 1845 and in 1849 the Overland Mail established a supply headquarters there.

[citation needed] From 1846 to 1873, a Kaw Indian Reservation was centered around Council Grove, Kansas on 20 square miles of land.

[citation needed] Between 1877 and 1879, Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, a former slave who escaped to freedom in 1846, staked out a settlement in Morris County for freedmen known as "Exodusters".

[citation needed] In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Topeka to Herington.

[5] This main line connected Topeka, Valencia, Willard, Maple Hill, Vera, Paxico, McFarland, Alma, Volland, Alta Vista, Dwight, White City, Latimer, Herington.

In 1887, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway built a branch line from Neva (three 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.

The National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and was routed through Herington, Delavan, and Council Grove.

Only two Democratic presidential candidates have ever carried the county – Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, who ironically was opposing Kansan governor Alf Landon.

The cities of Council Grove and Herington are considered governmentally independent and are excluded from the census figures for the townships.