Blaine, Kansas
human settlement in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States
Blaine is an unincorporated community in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States. It is located 29 miles northeast of Manhattan at the crossroads of K-99 and K-16.
History
Many of the first settlers or their family members had originally immigrated to America during the Great Famine of Ireland and then slowly moved westward. The immigrants established the settlement of Butler City along Bluff Creek which served as the first settlers' main water source. Butler City was officially platted at tier 6 south, ranges 9 and 10 east on October 14, 1879; the young town's namesake was Father Thomas Ambrose Butler, an Irish Priest in St. Louis, who encouraged the original settlers to "colonize" in and around modern day Blaine. The community initially was settled by 60 Irish Catholics families in 1873. The Irish emigrants came from a poor Irish neighborhood of St. Louis known as the "Kerry Patch". A post office was opened in Butler City in 1874
Since another town was already named Butler City in Kansas, residents decided to rename the town to Blaine after James G. Blaine.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Blaine, Kansas” is human settlement in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Blaine, Kansas and human, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “human settlement in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17510325. Authority coordinates are 39.497, -96.403. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1879, 1873 and 1874.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Blaine, Kansas”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Blaine, Kansas primary sources, Blaine, Kansas archive and Blaine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Blaine, Kansas”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Blaine, Kansas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.