Finney County started out as several counties that were never
organized. Later, after it was established, a new county with
the name of Garfield was created using some of its townships;
Garfield County was declared unconstitutional six years later.
Finney County was named in honor or Lieutenant Governor Finney
who was from Woodson County.
The first settler of the county, John O'Loughlin, made his home
in what is now Lakin in Kearny County in 1873.
Sequoyah County was created in 1873 by the Kansas Legislature
and was attached to Ford County as a township for judicial purposes.
Arapahoe County was directly south of Sequoyah County and the
Cimarron River ran through the county's southeast corner. (There
was another Arapahoe County which was a little bit further north,
and its territory covered some of what is now eastern Colorado
to the Rocky Mountains in the Kansas Territory.) Buffalo County
was also created in 1873. Between 1873 and 1887, the surrounding
counties of Hodgeman, Finney, Gray and Lane received sections
of Buffalo County.
In 1883, the Kansas Legislature created Finney County from the
unorganized counties of Sequoyah and Arapahoe and parts of the
unorganized counties of Kearny, Grant, Lane, Gray and Meade. In
1885, the southeast part of the county was returned to Meade County.
In 1887, six townships from the northeast corner of Finney County
and six from the northwest corner of Hodgeman County were used
to create Garfield County. Shortly afterwards, a county seat war
began between the towns of Ravanna and Eminence. Eventually Garfield
County became Garfield Township of Finney County on March 7, 1893,
due in large part to the county seat war. It was declared unconstitutional
and its organization was voided.
There was a Jewish colony located in Garfield County east of
Ravanna called Beersheba. (See Hodgeman
County for information). It was one of several Jewish agricultural
colonies in America and one of seven in Kansas. By 1890, however,
most of them had left the county. It was founded in 1882 by Rabbi
Issac M. Wise of Cincinnati. Another Jewish colony, Leeser, was
founded in 1886 by Russian Jews.
Click this link to see
pictures of Holcomb Consolidated Schools
Sources
Finney County Historical Society.
History of Finney County. Garden City, KS: 1950.
Lindner, F. Claudine. History
of Garfield County, Kansas. Masters Thesis, University of Wyoming,
1949.
