Cemeteries in Kansas (State)

United States
Kansas was organized as a territory on May 30, 1854, after being part of the Missouri Territory from 1812 to 1821 and existing as unorganized territory until 1854. The area was admitted as a free state on January 29, 1861, shortly after Southern legislators who opposed its admission left Congress due to secession tensions.

Kansas's early settlers were principally antislavery New Englanders of British ancestry, but the state experienced its most significant population growth after the Civil War. In 1854 the newly created territory of Kansas was opened for white settlement. It was not until after the Civil War, however, that Kansas experienced a significant increase in population. The Homestead Act and railroad construction attracted diverse European immigrant groups, including substantial populations of Germans, Russians, Bohemians, and Scandinavians who established agricultural communities across the prairie.

The 1870s brought a particularly notable wave of Russian-German immigrants, including thousands of Mennonites fleeing religious persecution. Of the 18,000 who left Russia for North America between 1873 and 1883, 10,000 went to the United States, settling largely in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory. These groups brought distinctive agricultural techniques, including hard winter wheat cultivation that transformed Kansas farming.

Small communities populated by citizens of predominantly Russian, Bohemian, German, or Scandinavian ancestry still dot the state, maintaining cultural traditions through churches and community organizations.

Primary cemeteries serving Kansas residents from territorial times to the present include numerous township, municipal, and religious community burial grounds established by the diverse ethnic and religious groups throughout the state.

Counties in Kansas

Cemeteries & Memorials in Kansas and Sub-Regions