Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Kinsley, KS

Kinsley is a city in and the county seat of Edwards County in south-central Kansas, located along U.S. Highway 50 near the Arkansas River.

Kinsley began in 1873 as Petersburg, a colony town laid out by Dr. Samuel Rodgers of Chicago and promoted by the New England Homestead and Colonization Bureau, which drew many of its first settlers from Massachusetts.

Later in 1873 the settlement was renamed Kinsley for Boston capitalist Edward Wilkinson Kinsley, who agreed to help the town by building a church if the community took his name.

Kinsley's first post office opened under the name Peters in April 1873 and was renamed Kinsley in January 1874; the city was incorporated in 1878.

In 1928 the Kinsley City Commission appointed V. I. Milner as city manager, making her the first woman city manager in Kansas.

Kinsley has long promoted itself as the midpoint between New York City and San Francisco, and a sign marking the halfway point was posted in 1939.

As of the 2020 census, Kinsley had 1,456 residents living in 660 households.

Kinsley's population was about 1,547 back in 1910, when the town sat at the junction of two Santa Fe rail lines and supported roughly 100 business establishments, including a flour mill, a cement and brick plant, two banks and two weekly newspapers.

The town sits at the intersection of U.S. Highways 50, 56 and 183 amid the fertile farmland of the Arkansas River valley.

Local attractions include the Edwards County Historical Sod House and Museum and the Carnival Heritage Center & Museum on East 6th Street, which preserves the history of traveling carnivals.