City History

HISTORY OF KINSLEY
The city of Kinsley was established in 1873, along the Santa Fe Railroad and the old Santa Fe Trail.  It was named for E.W. Kinsley, a Boston businessman who donated money for the building of the town’s first church.  The city government was incorporated in 1878.  In 1924 the Commission/City Manager form of government was adopted.  In 1928 the Kinsley City Commission appointed V.I. Milner as the first woman City Manager in the State of Kansas.

Today Kinsley sits at the intersection of U.S. Highways 50, 56 and 183 in the middle of the fertile farmland and recreational opportunities of the Arkansas River Valley.  Kinsley is the county seat of Edwards County and home to the Edwards County Courthouse, built in 1928.  Kinsley City Hall was built in 1954 and remodeled in 1987.