Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Wabaunsee, KS

Wabaunsee is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Wabaunsee County in northeastern Kansas, not an incorporated city, and the 2020 census counted 104 people there.

Wabaunsee was named for Potawatomi Chief Wabaunsee, whose name means 'Dawn of Day.'

Wabaunsee was founded in 1855 by nearly 100 emigrants from New Haven, Connecticut, known as the Connecticut Kansas Colony, inspired by a sermon from abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, who donated money for rifles that were smuggled in crates marked as Bibles and remembered as 'Beecher's Bibles.'

Wabaunsee was among the earliest towns in Kansas Territory, settled in the same early wave as Leavenworth and Lawrence, and for years it was the only town west of Topeka.

Wabaunsee's first post office opened on December 29, 1855, the first in the county, and the staunchly anti-slavery community joined the Underground Railroad in late 1856 and aided Lawrence after Quantrill's Raid in 1863.

Wabaunsee served as the Wabaunsee County seat from 1859 to 1866 before losing the seat to Alma.

The Beecher Bible and Rifle Church, completed in 1862, still stands in Wabaunsee with an active congregation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wabaunsee faded after the railroad it hoped for was built north of the Kansas River instead; today it sits about a half mile south of the river along K-18 in the Topeka metropolitan area and is served by Wamego USD 320.

Nearby Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park preserves the area's Underground Railroad history.