County of courthouse: Republic County
Location of courthouse: M St., between 18th St. & 19th St., Belleville
Architect: Mann & Co
Contractor: Peterson Construction Co
Style: Art Deco
REPUBLIC County is the fifth from the east State line in the northern tier of counties; is bounded on the north by the State of Nebraska; on the east by Washington; south by Cloud, and west by Jewell County. It is thirty miles in width from east to west, twenty-four wide, and contains an acreage of 460,800. It is an excellent county for agriculture or stock-raising. About ten per cent of the land is valley or bottom land, and ninety per cent upland. When first settled, about five per cent was forest, but the timber has been cleared away until scarcely three remains. The principal part of the bottom land is along the Republican River, from which stream the county receives its name. On the east side of the river the bluffs, from fifty to seventy-five feet in height, sharply define the division of bottom and upland, but on the west side the change is very gradual in most places, so that there is no waste land; indeed, there is but very little in the county. East of the river to Washington County, the land is a beautiful plateau, broken only in a few places by creeks and draws. The undulations are seldom precipitous, and the general slope is toward the south. The soil of the upland is a friable, dark mold, fertile and porous, so that it is well adapted to wet or dry seasons; that of the bottom land is exceedingly rich, containing a little more fine sand, together with the usual deposits of bottoms. The county is quite well watered, living streams abounding in nearly every township. The Republican is the main stream of the county. Entering at the northeast corner, it soon makes a sharp turn to the south, from its easterly course, and continues nearly south through the county. Like the Platte of Nebraska, it is a mountain-fed stream, and never falls below a certain point in the driest seasons. As a mill stream, it is not so valuable as many smaller ones, owing to its broad channel, with a bottom of shifting sand. White Rock Creek, the second stream in size, flows northeast into the Republican, in the north western part of the county. Dry, School, West Riley, Salt and Elk creeks are east of the Republican, and flow south into that stream. Rose and Mill creeks water the eastern and northeastern part of the county, the former flowing northeast into Nebraska. The timber from the banks of the Republican has nearly all been cut away. The smaller streams are still quite well timbered, White Rock Creek being the best. The soil of the uplands is fertile, very friable and well adapted to all kinds of crops and for pasturage. The valley of the Republican contains some of the most desirable land in all Kansas. It is from three to six miles wide in this and Cloud counties, but that of the upper Republican, in places, reaches a width of one hundred miles. In all parts of the county are quarries of excellent limestone. The stone is at first soft enough to be sawed with a hand-saw, but by exposure becomes very hard. In many places it occurs in layers of even thickness, five to eight inches, with a streak of red or iron-rust color through the center, which shows to good advantage when used for building purposes. There is also a fair quality of brick-clay in most parts of the county.