In the 1800s, the area which is now Kechi was a camping place for a band of Indians known as the Kichai (Kechi) tribe. Their name, which can be translated as "walking in wet sand," or as the Pawnees said, "Water Turtle" remained. The Kechi site was also a stopover point for cowboys on the Chisolm Trail bound for Abilene, particularly during the period of 1866-1868.
The first land grants for what is now Kechi were given in 1874. A patent was given to various families by President Ulysses S. Grant. The following group of people were on the original plat, dated May 22, 1888: John L & Rovella Guest, John & Anna Lemmon plus Gottiebin Winch. It is not known when they vacated the plat but Kechi remained a community until 1957 when it became a Third Class City.
Around 1900, Kechi had many stores such as a feed mill, lumber yard, creamery, post office, hotel, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, church, harness and shoe shop, train depot, grain elevator, stockyards, ice house and a carpet loom.
Sometime between 1903-05, Kechi got its first telephone and in 1906 its first doctor.
