Kingman, the judicial seat of Kingman county, is located north of the central part of the county on the Ninnescah river and on two lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific railroads. It is a fine little business city with good buildings and well-kept streets. There are 3 banks with a total capitalization of $125,000, a new courthouse, one of the largest flour mills in southwest Kansas, which has a capacity of 600 barrels of flour per day and a storage capacity of 170,000 bushels of wheat, 2 elevators, 2 schools, 4 churches, an ice plant, a creamery, an ice cream factory with a daily capacity of 400 gallons, 3 hotels, 15 miles of water mains, a number of business houses, an electric light plant, a sewer system, a fire department, a carpet factory, cereal mill, and an opera house. The water supply comes from natural springs of unusual purity. A salt mine which produces the crystal rock salt is in operation 2 miles away. The principal shipments are salt, live stock, grain, flour and produce. There are 2 newspapers published weekly (the Courier and the Journal). The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices and has an international money order post office with four rural routes. The population according to the census of 1910 was 2,570.

Kingman was founded by two brothers, J. K. and F. S. Fical, who took adjoining claims in 1873. It was laid out in March, 1874, Jesse McCarty acting as the surveyor. The first building was the Kingman House put up by H. L. Ball. A small frame school house was erected and also a mercantile establishment. Two or three residences were erected. The first attorney was George E. Filley, who came in 1877. In 1878 a party of several men came from Hutchinson, formed themselves into a town company, and laid out a large addition to Kingman on the south side of the river. Several good buildings were erected, most of which were later moved to the north side. The first bank was established in 1881 by Gassard Bros. and H. S. Strohm.