Editing Seward County, Kansas (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Kansas}}
For [[millennia]], the [[Great Plains]] of [[North America]] were inhabited by [[nomadic]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]].

In 1854, the [[Kansas Territory]] was organized, then in 1861 [[Kansas]] became the 34th [[U.S. state]].

In 1873, '''Seward County''' was established, although it was administered from one of several neighboring counties until the county commissioners of [[Finney County, Kansas|Finney County]] organized Seward County as a municipal township of Finney County on June 10, 1885, with the temporary seat of government at Sunset City. The township was divided into two voting precincts - one headquartered at Sunset City and the other at Fargo Springs. The county was organized on June 17, 1886, with Governor John A. Martin designating Springfield the county seat and appointing men from Fargo Springs as county officers as not to favor one town over the other.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brush |first=William L. |url=https://soar.wichita.edu/bitstream/handle/10057/25004/t1954_Brush.pdf |title=The Early History of Seward County |year=1954 |location=Wichita, KS |pages=8–12 |type=Master's Thesis}}</ref> Rivalry between Fargo Springs and Springfield became so intense both towns sent armed bodies of men to the other to prevent their voters from reaching the polls, causing a disputed election in 1885.<ref name=":0" />

The county seat dispute was finally settled when the railroads bypassed both Fargo Springs and Springfield in favor of an alignment through southern Seward County, spurring the rapid growth of Liberal, which won the final election for county seat in on December 8, 1892, by 125 votes.<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.