Kill Creek Township is a township in Osborne County

Osborne County, Kansas

Osborne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 3,858. The largest city and county seat is Osborne.-19th century:...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 35 at the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

. Kill Creek was named after the creek that it sits on, which was named after an Indian massacre that occurred there in the 1860's. This might be confused with the Kill Creek located in Johnson County

Johnson County, Kansas

Johnson County is a county located in northeast Kansas, in the central United States. The county is largely suburban, being part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and containing many of its affluent southwestern suburbs. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 544,179. Its county...

 between De Soto and Olathe.

Geography

Kill Creek is located at 39°21′9"N 98°52′51"W (39.352483, -98.881010).

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the township has a total area of 36.0 square miles (93.3 km²).

History

Kill Creek Township was founded in 1872 when it was partitioned from Liberty Township. In 1880, the western half of Kill Creek Township became Mount Ayr Township. The rural farming community of Kill Creek, situated in the northern part of the township, was for a time a busy stop on the Bull City-Russell Freight Trail. An analysis of census records has shown that it suffered a steady decline in population over the years. Today, it has largely disappeared aside from a small number of residents who live in farmhouses spread throughout the township. The general store and post office are remembered only by a memorial marker where they once stood. The Kill Creek Presbyterian Church, built in 1885, was long the symbol of the community. It closed in 1985 and was torn down in 2006.

Kill Creek is internationally famous as the setting for the classic American book "Sod-House Days: Letters of a Kansas Homesteader 1877-1878," which was first published in 1937 posthumously by Howard Ruede (1852-1925), who lived in the community from 1877 to 1901. Based on letters that Howard wrote from his Kill Creek homestead back to his family in Pennsylvania, the book is sold in some 24 countries around the world and is used as a textbook by over 40 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. The book celebrates its 70th year in publication in 2007. A 14.5 mile, 20-stop self-guided auto & bicycle tour of the sites made famous in the book is now open to the public.

Population of Kill Creek Township, Osborne Co., KS

Year	Population	Households
1878	431 *
1880	379	89
1900	307	56
1910	276	58
1920	233	53
1930	245	53
1990	54
2000	35	20

* Includes area which would become Mount Ayr Township in 1880 (before the 1880 census).