Editing Kearny County, Kansas (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Kansas}}
The original Kearney County was established on March 6, 1873, and was dissolved in 1883, with the land area being split between [[Hamilton County, Kansas|Hamilton]] and [[Finney County, Kansas|Finney]] counties. It was reestablished with its original borders in 1887, and organized on March 27, 1888. The county is named in honor of [[Philip Kearny]],<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/n171 172]}}</ref> a [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] officer in the [[Mexican–American War]] and a [[Union army]] general in the [[American Civil War]]. In 1889, the name was corrected to Kearny County.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hicks|first=Virginia Pierce|date=February 1938|title=Sketches of Early Days in Kearny County|journal=Kansas Historical Quarterly|volume=VII|issue=1|pages=54–80|url=http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1938/38_1_hicks.htm|access-date=January 4, 2007}}</ref>

Prior to settlement, Kearny County was unorganized territory that was entirely "cow country," undeveloped and with no agricultural activity except for cattlemen grazing their herds. The region was part of the vast open range found in the American West at that time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Blanchard |first=Leola Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5xhgtAEACAAJ |title=Conquest of Southwest Kansas: A History of Thrilling Stories of Frontier Life in the State of Kansas (Classic Reprint) |date=July 18, 2017 |publisher=Fb&c Limited |isbn=978-0-282-38556-9 |language=en}}</ref>

In the mid-1880s, homesteaders began pouring into the area, initiating conflicts with the existing cattle ranching industry as they claimed land and fenced off the open range.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Hicks |first1=Virginia Pierce |url=https://www.amazon.com/History-Kearny-County-Kansas-Virginia/dp/B09TY2W98N |title=History of Kearny County Kansas |last2=Eskelund |first2=Foster |last3=Smith |first3=Mary Gibson |last4=Hurst |first4=Margaret O'Loughlin |last5=Gropp |first5=Olivia Tate Ramsey; Naomi Davis Burrows; Hazel Rinehart Stullken; Helen Brown Rarden; Maybelle James |date=January 1, 1964 |publisher=Kearny County Historical Society |language=English}}</ref> Towns like Leeser, established in 1885, and Pierceville, est. 1886, were built to service the cattle industry, but disappeared as homesteading displaced the great cattle herds.<ref name=":1" />

The arrival of homesteaders was seen as both an opportunity for development but also a threat to the cattle industry's way of life, with numerous allegations of ranchers trying to drive settlers out by destroying crops and setting prairie fires appearing in local newspapers.<ref name=":0" />

In the 1930s, the prosperity of the area was severely affected by its location within the [[Dust Bowl]]. This catastrophe intensified the economic impact of the [[Great Depression]] in the region.