[1] The county was named after Daniel Woodson, a five-time acting governor of the Kansas Territory.

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.

Fort Belmont was used during the Civil War and had received refugees from the Trail of Blood on Ice.

The only Democrat to win a majority in the county was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, although Woodrow Wilson won a plurality in 1912.

In contrast, Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 & George H. W. Bush in 1992 are the only Republican winners of the county who only managed to win a plurality of its votes.

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

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