Education was one of the first considerations of the early settlers. The first school district laid out was near Scipio in Putnam township, and the first superintendent of public instruction was John R. Slentz, who was appointed by the governor near the close of 1858.
The outbreak of the Civil war caused great excitement in Anderson county. At the call for volunteers an entire company enlisted in one day, and Anderson county was represented in nearly every Kansas regiment, about three-fourths of the able-bodied men entering the Union army. In 1861 the population of the county was little over 1,000.
A considerable number of the early settlers of Anderson county were Catholics, and the St. Boniface Catholic church in Putnam township was the first church building erected. It was built in 1858, and in 1871, while under the charge of Father Albert Heinemann, the parish erected a college building about 6 miles north of Garnett and called it Mount Carmel. The first Protestant church was built by the United Brethren in Garnett in 1859. The first county building erected in Garnett was the jail, which was built in 1864. Four years later the court-house was erected on Oak street. In 1891 the legislature passed an act providing for the erection of a court-house on the county square, the cost not to exceed $40,000.
A county fair was held in Anderson county as early as 1863, but the county fair association was not organized until Nov. 15, 1873. It was capitalized for $5,000. The first newspaper in the county was the Garnett Pathfinder, established by I. E. Olney in Jan., 1865. It was the only publication until 1868, when W. H. Johnson started the Garnett Courant.
The general surface of Anderson county is undulating, divided into bottom land, timber and rolling upland. The creek bottoms average about 2 miles in width, and belts of timber along the streams average three-fourths of a mile. The main water course of the county is the Pottawatomie river, which rises in the central part of the county and flows northeastward, its north and south branches uniting near the northeast corner of the county. The Little Osage river, Indian and Deer creeks flow through the southern portion. Lime and sandstone are plentiful, while red ocher is found in Reeder township. Coal has been found in several places and there are natural gas wells near Greeley. The trees native to this section are walnut, cottonwood, oak, hickory, hackberry, elm, sycamore, and hard and soft maples. Corn, wheat, oats and Kafir corn are the leading agricultural products. Live stock raising is a productive industry, and there are more than 100,000 bearing fruit trees in the county. There are 130.25 miles of main track railroad within the limits of the county. The Missouri Pacific has three lines—one crossing the county diagonally from the northwest to southeast passing through Garnett; a second enters the county in the northeast and crosses the west border near the center, and the third line crosses the southern part almost directly east and west. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe runs north and south near the center, and a branch diverging
