Organized in 1855, Bourbon County, with a county seat of Ft. Scott, received its name from Bourbon County, Ky., the latter having been one of the nine counties organized in 1785 by the Virginia legislature, before Kentucky became an independent state. It was so called as a compliment to the Bourbon dynasty of France, a prince of that family (then on the throne) having rendered the American colonies important aid in men and money in their great struggle for independence. Colonel Samuel A. Williams, a native of Bourbon county, Ky., was a member of the House from Fort Scott in 1855, and it was at his request that the county was so named. He was mustered in as Captain of Company I, Second Kansas Cavalry, November 22, 1861, and resigned March 28, 1862. He died at his old home, Fort Scott, in August, 1873.