Editing Kiowa County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
In 1892, the [[Jerome Commission]] began enrolling the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches to prepare for the opening of their reservation to settlement by Whites. Dennis Flynn, the territorial representative to the U. S. Congress, proposed holding a lottery for opening the reservation. He argued successfully that the lottery would be safer and more orderly than land runs used earlier. Individuals could register at offices in [[Lawton, Oklahoma|Lawton]] or [[El Reno, Oklahoma|El Reno]]; 165,000 individuals registered for 13,000 160-acre claims. The drawing was held August 6, 1901. After the opening, the area was designated as Kiowa County in Oklahoma Territory. The town of Hobart, named for Vice President [[Garret Hobart|Garrett A. Hobart]], was designated as county seat.<ref name="EOHC-KiowaCo">Cole, Burna. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=KI019 "Kiowa County,"] ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. Accessed April 4, 2015.</ref>
[[File:Plat book of Kiowa County, Oklahoma - containing maps of villages, cities and townships of the county and of the state, United States and world - also portraits of representative citizens, old LOC 2008622014-26.jpg|thumb|Plat book of Kiowa County, Oklahoma (1913)]]
By 1908, residents of the southern part of the county were already agitating for a new county to be formed. In 1910, Governor [[Charles N. Haskell]] proclaimed that parts of Kiowa and Comanche Counties would become the new [[Swanson County, Oklahoma|Swanson County]]. The new county became defunct in 1911, after the Oklahoma Supreme Court voided the change.<ref name="EOHC-KiowaCo" /> Ownerships of land parcels from 1913 are to be found in plat books.