Sabetha is a city in Brown and Nemaha counties in the U.S. state of Kansas.

[3] The town's settlement began circa 1854, with a name reportedly derived from the word "Sabbath", the day the first settler arrived.

[5] On the evening of June 13, 1998, an F2 tornado damaged much of the downtown, but no casualties were reported.

[6] The tornado, which touched down half a mile west of the Sabetha City Hall, caused serious damage to two blocks of the town, with 18 buildings in the downtown area being damaged, five (including the city hall building) to near "the point of loss".

The tornado lifted about half a mile east of City Hall.

Damage to the city hall building amounted to $2 million, and additional damage to homes and vehicles away from downtown occurred due to tornado-toppled trees and branches away from the tornado's center along with strong straight-line winds.

Sabetha has more jobs than residents, due in part to the large Wenger Manufacturing plant that produces extruders and related equipment.

Many of the small neighboring cities are bedroom communities for the many people who commute to work in Sabetha.