Editing Finney County, Kansas (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Kansas}}

Finney County was established in 1867 and named after Lt. Gov. John W. Finney.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Blanchard |first=Leola Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=orMuAAAAIAAJ |title=Conquest of Southwest Kansas: A History and Thrilling Stories of Frontier Life in the State of Kansas |date=1931 |publisher=Wichita Eagle Press |language=en}}</ref> The first white settlers arrived in 1878, settling along the [[Arkansas River]] and its tributaries.<ref name=":0" />

Finney County began ''circa'' 1880 as Buffalo County and Sequoyah County{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}, named after [[Sequoyah]], the [[Cherokee]] Indian responsible for the development of the [[Cherokee alphabet]]. The two counties were merged and renamed Finney County, in honor of then [[Lieutenant Governor]] [[David Wesley Finney]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n125 126]}}</ref> The county grew to the current shape after [[Garfield County, Kansas|Garfield County]] was annexed to it in 1893. The northeastern block, separate from the otherwise rectangular area, represents what at one time was Garfield County, which is now occupied partially by the Garfield Township.<ref>''Kansas Place-Names'', John Rydjord, [[University of Oklahoma Press]], 1972, {{ISBN|0-8061-0994-7}}</ref>

The town of Garden City was founded in 1879 by the cattle firm of Jones and Plummer, who established it as a shipping point for Texas cattle being driven along the Jones & Plummer Trail to Dodge City.<ref name=":0" /> Garden City grew rapidly as a railroad hub when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroads arrived in 1888.<ref name=":0" />

As described in Blackmar's Cyclopedia, Garden City "was a typical frontier town, with its gambling houses, dance halls and other adjuncts of border civilization" in its early years, but it quickly transformed into an agricultural center for southwestern Kansas.<ref name=":0" />

Other early settlements such as Holcomb, Kalvesta, and Pierceville sprang up in the 1880s as Finney County became a prosperous region for wheat farming and cattle ranching.<ref name=":0" /> The county population boomed from just 537 in 1880 to over 5,000 by 1890 as homesteaders poured in.<ref name=":0" />

In 1893, the former Garfield County was annexed into Finney County and organized as Garfield Township. Garfield County had originally been established in 1887 from parts of Finney County and other surrounding counties, but it struggled to maintain a viable tax base and population.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schoewe |first=Walter H. |date=1948 |title=The Geography of Kansas: Part I: Political Geography |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3625831 |journal=Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=253–288 |doi=10.2307/3625831 |jstor=3625831 |issn=0022-8443}}</ref>

By 1910, Finney County had a population exceeding 10,000 as agriculture firmly took root in the region after its pioneering days on the frontier.<ref name=":0" />

Between 2007 and 2008 Finney County became majority-minority.<ref>Callebs, Sean. "[http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/05/22/garden.city.kansas.minorities/index.html Whites become minority in Kansas county]." ''[[CNN]]''. May 22, 2009. Retrieved on May 24, 2009.</ref>