Liberty Community and Finney Switch

The switch came with a railroad the county paid for. In 1907 Hale County residents raised $75,000 to persuade the Santa Fe to build a branch through the county, and one pioneer called its arrival a day of rejoicing never to be forgotten. By 1910 the county had 731 farms covering almost 379,700 acres, with sorghum on 14,400 acres, corn on 5,800 and wheat on 2,800. Finney itself grew around the switch after 1907 but stayed small: two homes, an elevator, a store and a gas station in 1945, and fifteen people from 1980 to 2000.

What the plaque says

Liberty Community and Finney Switch In 1887 Joseph B. Leach and his brothers, John and Dee, immigrated to this area from Liberty, Kentucky. Joseph filed on a 160-acre homestead and built a half-dugout and sod house and a windmill. The Leach brothers often hauled freight for Plainview merchants. More families arrived in this five-mile square area. By 1892 there were enough children for a schoolhouse to be erected. Methodist and Baptist services and community activities were held in the building. The settlement was called "Liberty" for Joseph Leach's Kentucky home. William R. Finney and his family settled nearby in the early 1900s. When the Santa Fe Railroad from Amarillo to Plainview located a switch in 1906 on Finney's land, the site became "Finney Switch". Soon irrigation wells improved agriculture and dairy farming began. Liberty Schoolhouse was moved in 1912 and in 1920 a four-room brick building was erected south of Finney. About 1925 the first business, a store, opened. The Baptist and Methodist congregations built sanctuaries by 1940. With the consolidation of the Liberty and Plainview Schools in 1948 and changes in farming, the population decreased. 1979

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Finney Field — 0.7 mi
• Site of Lake Plainview — 4.8 mi
• The Santa Fe Railroad in Plainview — 4.8 mi
• Plainview Daily Herald — 5.1 mi