Editing Cherokee, Oklahoma (section)

===Settlement and founding===
After the land opening of 1893, developers wanted to attract railroads to build through the former [[Cherokee Outlet]] to transport the large wheat crops to markets. The Kansas and Oklahoma Construction Company, through its subsidiary the Cherokee Investment Company, bought {{convert|100|acre|ha}} along its route, platted the town which it named Cherokee, and held a sale of lots on February 9, 1901. Cherokee officially incorporated in July 1901. Two years later, the [[Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad]] (later owned by the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]]) constructed a line through Cherokee. To gain access to the railroad, residents of the nearby community of Erwin, which already had a post office by that name, relocated to Cherokee. Erwin then ceased to exist and Cherokee took its place. This post office was renamed "Cherokee" in March, 1903.<ref name= EOHC-Cherokee>{{cite web|last1=Everett|first1=Dianna|title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Cherokee|url= http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH015 
|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma History Center|access-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref>

By 1905, a second railroad, the [[Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad|Denver, Enid, and Gulf]], built a line through the community. The community was soon transformed into a dominant regional center for agricultural services, banking, wholesale-retail trade, and transportation, providing markets and services to the surrounding smaller communities, such as [[Ingersoll, Oklahoma|Ingersoll]], [[Burlington, Oklahoma|Burlington]], [[Driftwood, Oklahoma|Driftwood]], [[Byron, Oklahoma|Byron]], and [[Amorita, Oklahoma|Amorita]]. The town grew around its twin railroad depots, and by 1909 Cherokee had three banks, three newspapers, three mills (flour, alfalfa, and planning), a concrete block plant, and a school desk factory. There were also Baptist, Catholic, Christian, Friends, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches.<ref name=EOHC-Cherokee/>

[[Alfalfa County, Oklahoma|Alfalfa County]] itself - named after Governor [[William H. Murray|'Alfalfa Bill' Murray]]<ref>[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v002/v002p075.html "Origin of County Names in Oklahoma." ''Chronicles of Oklahoma''. Volume 2, Number 1 (March 1924).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814135738/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v002/v002p075.html |date=2017-08-14 }} Retrieved November 22, 2016.</ref> - was created at the time of statehood in 1907, when the state reorganized several counties out of part of what was once the much larger [[Woods County, Oklahoma|Woods County]]. Cherokee's status as the official county seat of Alfalfa County was confirmed in January 1909. The city's incorporation was reconfirmed in March of that same year.<ref name=EOHC-Cherokee/>