 Cleveland County, Oklahoma
Townships
Lat: 34.97139 Lon: -97.14972
Lat: 34.31972 Lon: -97.41444
Lat: 34.97333 Lon: -97.22917 Located 17 miles south, 12 miles east of Norman; 3 miles south, 6 miles east of Lexington Corbett was an agricultural village, and it began in 1893, when J. P. Corbett bought 80 acres of farmland and platted one corner for the village he planned. After deciding the exact location for his home and orchard, the chose specific sites for a store, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, sawmill, pond, gristmill, a rent house for the farmer, church, and the pastor's home. The sites were either leased or given to an individual for the development of what was designated for that site. They were to revert back to Mr. Corbett if used otherwise. Specifically there was to be no saloon in the village, nor was there to be any liquor sold in the village. A post office, first known as Higbee, was in one corner of the store. In 1902, the post office name was changed to Corbett. There was a one room school, called Valley Grove, one mile east of the village. A few years later, two other stores and a sorghum mill were added. Corbett was located two miles north of the Canadian River, so most of the trade territory was confined largely to the area east and west of the village. Corn, cotton, and fruit, especially apples and pears, were the chief farm products. During the seasons in which the weather had been good, wagon loads of fruit would be hauled to Purcell, where boxcars filled with various fruits were shipped to market. Corbett's largest size was in the last part of the 1920's, when the population in the immediate vicinity was estimated to be about 125 people. The village declined rapidly after 1930. The cotton gin burned down, the soil "wore out", the dry years killed many of the orchards, and the depression caused financial problems. First the young folks, then the older ones, left the community and did not return. The stores and mills have been torn down or moved, but the church is still used by those who live in the area. The first home that was built in Corbett is still standing, but falling to ruin fast.
Lat: 35.2325 Lon: -97.28194
Lat: 35.12694 Lon: -97.16861 Etowah lies on Etowah Road eleven miles east of Noble. In the nineteenth century the area where the town developed stood in the Unassigned Lands. This region opened to general settlement with the 1889 Land Run. The rural community of Etowah soon emerged on the road connecting Purcell to Tecumseh. In 1894 the U.S. Post Office Department designated an Etowah post office. In 1898 the town had one business, a general merchandise store operated by William R. Roselius, who also served as postmaster. In 1899 the local school had forty students taught by Arthur Keenan. In 1907 the community lost its post office, when the area received free rural delivery from the Noble office. In 1911 Etowah's estimated population stood at seventy-five residents, and it had two general stores, a blacksmith, and a cotton oil mill. For most of the twentieth century it remained a small, dispersed rural community. In the 1930s the village initiated a homecoming or town reunion, which continued into the twenty-first century. In 1967 residents petitioned the Cleveland County commissioners to incorporate. The commissioners approved and ordered an election, which never occurred. Community leaders formed a municipal government and operated as a town, but the incorporation was not officially finalized. In 1983 the town trustees enacted zoning ordinances that led to a number of residents questioning the legal status of Etowah. That year a district judge ruled the town incorporated, citing that it operated as a municipality for almost twenty years without being questioned. In 1980 the population was twenty-eight, and it added five residents in 1990. The 2000 population stood at 122, with most workers commuting to larger cities. At the end of the twentieth century area children attended school at Noble.
Lat: 35.27639 Lon: -97.33528
Lat: 35.23694 Lon: -97.33528 Hall Park existed as a Cleveland County incorporated town for more than forty years. Founded off of U.S. Highway 77, at the old site of the Norman Country Club, the exclusive community was named for its developer, Ike Hall. The town incorporated in 1960, the same year that construction began on its first homes. It was advertised as Oklahoma's first "all electric city," with all the housing utilities powered by electricity. In March 1962 the village held its grand opening, with Ronald Reagan, then the promotion chief for General Electric, in attendance as the honorary mayor. By this time, thirty homes had been completed. Hall Park provided its own utilities, including a sewer and water system. A board of trustees governed the town, and it had an ordinance dictating the minimum size of the custom-built homes. By 1970 the population stood at 163 and, as development continued, climbed to 577 in 1980. In 1972 Hall sold the undeveloped portion of the community and the utilities to Sooner Federal Savings and Loan. In that decade natural gas service was added. In 1981 residents voted to fund a police department. In 1986 Pres. Ronald Reagan returned to the town, when he visited Norman for a political rally. In 1990 the population was 1,090, and in 2000 the 1.059-square-mile town had a population of 1,088. In 2003 residents voted to dissolve the town and annex it to Norman.
Lat: 35.01472 Lon: -97.33528 Lexington lies two and one-half miles across the Canadian River from Purcell on State Highway 39. In 1835, north of the present town, Maj. Richard B. Mason established Camp Holmes, where many of the Plains Indian tribes and members of the Five Civilized Tribes, along with the Osage, signed the Treaty of Camp Holmes on August 25, 1835. Subsequently, Auguste P. Chouteau operated a trading post at the site, which he called Camp Mason. Later, Jesse Chisholm maintained a store there. The area stood within the Unassigned Lands prior to its opening with the Land Run of 1889. Several entrepreneurs planned Lexington prior to the run, filing the necessary legal papers on the eventful day. The town name emanates from Lexington, Kentucky. The Post Office Department designated a Lexington post office on February 21, 1890, with Henry Stuart as postmaster. The community could not support its municipal government and assessed a high tax on liquor sales, which caused infighting and a loss of incorporation. After a compromise, the town reincorporated in 1892. Saloons dominated the town's business landscape from its founding until 1907 statehood, when intoxicating liquor was prohibited. The village stood as a "whiskey town" on the border of Indian Territory, across the river from Purcell, a thriving city with railroad service. In order to sell alcohol as close to Purcell as possible, a community known as Sandtown emerged on the floodplain of the Canadian River between the two towns. This collection of bars was in Lexington's legal jurisdiction. In 1900 the Weitzenhoffer and Turk Distillery, the largest in Oklahoma Territory, began near the town, and operated until statehood. In 1890 Lexington's population stood at 223, and it increased to 861 in 1900. In 1898 five saloons, seven general stores, eight doctors, a veterinarian, a broom factory, three blacksmiths, a harness and saddlemaker, a hotel, the Cleveland County Leader-Democrat newspaper, and other retail outlets served the town. Surrounding fruit orchards benefitted the local economy, with W. T. Harness, James Little, and F. P. Mosely the leading growers. The Glenwood Fruit Farm, owned by Dr. Robert Thacker, soon became the eminent producer. Cotton and corn were also early agricultural mainstays. By 1908 the community supported two banks. Other newspapers that have reported to the town included the Lexington News and Notes, the semi-weekly Headlight, the Lexington Southern Democrat, the You Alls Doins, the Cleveland County Rural News, the Lexington Leader, and the Lexington Sun. The population was 950 in 1920 and 836 in 1930. During World War II the U.S. Navy constructed a gunnery school east of Lexington. After the war the state acquired the campus and located an annex to the Central State Mental Hospital (later Griffin Memorial Hospital) there. In 1971 the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health closed the facility and gave the land to the Department of Corrections. A minimum-security prison, named the Regional Treatment Center, opened soon after. In 1976 the state began construction on the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center (LARC). The center processes all prisoners sentenced to Oklahoma's prison system. It also houses medium and minimum-security facilities. In 1978 the Regional Treatment Center, which was separate from the LARC, became the Joseph Harp Correctional Center, a medium security prison. In 1950 Lexington had 1,176 residents. That number climbed from 1,516 in 1970 to 1,731 in 1980. The town annually celebrates the 1889 Land Run. The U.S. Highway 77 Bridge across the Canadian River to Purcell is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 03000882). In 2000 the town had 2,086 residents and the school system reported a prekindergarten-through-twelfth-grade enrollment of 1,038.
Moore lies in Cleveland County on State Highway 37, with Interstate 35 and U.S. Highway 77 running through its city limits. In 1886-87 the Southern Kansas Railway (a working subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which bought it outright in 1899) laid track through the area, positioned in the Unassigned Lands prior to the Land Run of 1889. At the present townsite the railway located a watering stop, which they named Verbeck. Reportedly, railroad employee Al Moore lived in a boxcar there, accounting for the later name. The community received a postal designation in May 1889, with Albert Petite as postmaster. When it incorporated in 1893, the town had a hotel, a livery, three general merchandise stores, a saloon, a restaurant, a lumber company, a carriage, plow, and wagon works, and a grocer. Two doctors served the village. In 1894 the Cleveland County Courier began operation. Other community newspapers have included the Moore Journal, the Moore Enterprise, the Moore Messenger, the Moore Monitor, the Moore Star, the Cleveland County Times, and the Moore American. In 1900 the population stood at 129, climbing to 225 in 1910. That year the Oklahoma Railway Company constructed an interurban line from Oklahoma City to Moore. By 1911 a bank, a blacksmith, a milling and grain company, a cotton oil company, a livery, a hardware store, a drugstore, two doctors, a creamery, and four general stores served the community. Moore remained rural, benefitting area ranchers and farmers through the mid-twentieth century. In 1930 the population was 538, declining to 499 in 1940, before reaching 942 in 1950. In 1946 the community maintained a bank, a cotton gin, a grain elevator, a lumber company, and several retail outlets. Between 1960, when the population was 1,783, and 1970, with a population of 18,761, the town was one of Oklahoma's fastest growing cities. This growth led to expansion of city services and an inflow of retail and manufacturing businesses. In 1963 a second bank received its charter. In 1971 the Moore Municipal Hospital opened. The town called itself the "minute city" because of its proximity to Midwest City's Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City's General Motors Assembly Plant and Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, and Norman's York International Plant and University of Oklahoma. These employment hubs attracted a large number of residents. By 1980 the population mushroomed to 35,063, and it continued to grow, standing at 40,318 in 1990. At the beginning of the twenty-first century the public school system (with over two thousand employees), Convergys Corporation, Wal-Mart, Cendant Corporation, and Vaughn Foods were the leading employers. Small wooden buildings served as the first schools until a two-story structure was built in 1899. The school offered through the tenth grade until 1920. That year, five school districts consolidated with Moore, establishing a high school. In 1928, after a fire destroyed the previous building, the town built a new high school, which in 1984 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 84000379). In 1967 high school students relocated to a new campus at Main Street and Eastern Avenue, and the old school served as a junior high. In 1988 the high school split to two campuses, Moore and Westmoore. In 2000 the Moore School District enrolled 18,101 students. In 1977 Moore annexed the land that held Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College, which completed its first building at this site in 1966. Moore lies in an area that has been referred to as "tornado alley," and the town has had numerous encounters with these storms. The largest and most devastating occurred on May 3, 1999. The tornado, rated as an F-5 on the Fujita scale, cut a large path through the town, damaging more than three thousand homes and killing five people. From the tornado's beginnings in Grady County until it dissipated in eastern Midwest City, Oklahoma County, it killed a total of thirty-eight and resulted in approximately $1 billion in damage. On May 9, 2003, another tornado took a similar path through the town, causing significant damage. In 2000 the population stood at 41,138. The town's residents and visitors could enjoy several amenities, including a library, eight city parks, a community center, a community pool, several golf courses, and four hotels. In 2005 the Moore Medical Center, a forty-five-bed hospital opened. It replaced the old hospital, which closed in 1993.
Noble is situated on U.S. Highway 77 near the east bank of the Canadian River approximately six miles south of Norman. Prior to the Land Run of 1889, the area stood in the Unassigned Lands. Ranching, conducted by Montford Johnson and Charles Campbell, among others, predominated the region's economy before its general settlement. Albert Rennie planned the town, claiming the 160-acre townsite during the run and convincing the Southern Kansas Railway (sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1899), to locate a station there. The railway had built tracks through the area in 1886-87. Rennie named the town Noble to honor U.S. Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble. The community had hoped to gain the county seat, but the Norman townsite attracted more businesses. In July 1889 the Post Office Department designated a Noble post office, with Rennie serving as postmaster. In January 1891 the townsite was surveyed and platted. By August 1890 the town had a lumber company, a butcher, a livery, a grocer, two blacksmiths, a druggist, a hardware store, a hotel, two general stores, three doctors, and a newspaper, the Noble Democrat. Soon after the village was established, a cotton gin served the area farmers. In 1898 the Oklahoma College Experiment Station built and installed a cattle-dipping vat at the town to bathe cattle entering Oklahoma Territory. This helped prevent the spread of Texas fever. Charles E. Garee and others formed the Canadian River Bridge Company, which in 1898 built a suspension bridge over the South Canadian River. The flooding river destroyed the bridge in 1903 or 1904. Garee, an award-winning horticulturist, operated the Noble Nursery from the late 1890s, with his father, F. A. Garee, into the 1960s. In 1900 the population stood at 349, climbing to 403 in 1910. In 1902 the bank received its charter, and by 1911 a jeweler and a feed mill also served the town. The Noble Courier, the Noble Picayune, the Star of Hope, the Noble Weekly Journal, the Record, the Cleveland County Leader, and the Noble News were early newspapers. In 1920 the population was 497, which declined to 463 in 1930, but rebounded to 536 in 1940. By 1946 the bank had successfully survived the Great Depression, and several retail outlets, a feed mill, the nursery, and the Smith Brothers Road Contractors, established in 1918, operated in the town. The population began a steady ascent, reaching 724 in 1950 and 995 in 1960. As the 1970s approached the population boomed. The town, with 2,241 residents in 1970, became a "bedroom" community for Norman and Oklahoma City. More businesses emerged. In 1979 Award Design Medals, Inc., opened and was the largest employer for several years. The company manufactured specialty belt buckles (often for the rodeo circuits), medallions, and figurines before closing in 2001. In 1970 the Brockhaus Nursery purchased Garee's Noble Nursery. In the 1980s Noble continued to prosper, adding seven businesses in 1982. The 1980 population stood at 3,497 and climbed to 4,710 in 1990. In 1992 the Thunder Valley Raceway Park opened, providing drag racing entertainment. Noble's education system dates to 1890, when a subscription school operated for a few months. In 1891 the Noble Academy opened and boarded students from throughout the territories and as far away as Texas. The institution closed in 1895. In 1897 the town constructed a public school, which operated sporadically due to finances. In 1911 the community built a high school. The school district received an influx of students in the 1940s as rural schools consolidated. In 1970 a new high school building met the needs of an expanding student body. In 2000 the kindergarten-through-twelfth grade enrollment was 2,678. In 1984 Gov. George Nigh designated Noble the "Rose Rock Capital." Rose rock (barite rosette) is a rare rock that can be found in central Oklahoma, Kansas, California, and Egypt. Annually in May Noble hosts the Rose Rock Festival, and in 1986 a rose rock museum was established. In 2000 the community's population stood at 5,260.
The Cleveland County seat, Norman is located approximately nineteen miles south of Oklahoma City. State Highway 9, U.S. Highway 77, and Interstate 35 run through the community. In the 1990s Norman overtook Lawton to become Oklahoma's third largest city, behind Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The town name honors Abner E. Norman, who led a team appointed to survey the Unassigned Lands between 1870 and 1873. His group camped where the town is now situated, and the words "Norman's Camp" were burned into a tree. In 1886-87 the Southern Kansas Railway (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) laid tracks through the area and established station grounds at the present townsite. As the 1889 Land Run approached, entrepreneurs formed the Norman Townsite Company to organize the town. The group had developed a plat before the event, but used the survey prepared by the railroad company. By 1890 the population stood at 787, and the burgeoning town held doctors, lawyers, hotels, and all the amenities and retail outlets of a community that size, including a cotton gin. In July 1889 Ed Ingle established the Norman Transcript, which continued to report the news at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Other early newspapers included the Baptist Bulletin, the Democrat-Topic, the Lance, the Norman Advance, the Norman Democrat, the People's Voice, the Sooner, the Territorial Topic, and the Reform Herald. In 1890 High Gate College opened, offering grammar, high school, and college classes. In December 1890 the Territorial Legislature passed an act to locate the University of Oklahoma (OU) at Norman. In 1892 OU held its first classes in rented downtown buildings. In 1893 workers completed the first university building, which fire later destroyed. In 1894 High Gate closed, and its college students transferred to OU. A private sanitarium company purchased the college building, and it evolved into the Oklahoma State Asylum in 1915 (later Griffin Memorial Hospital). By 1900 Norman's population had climbed to 2,225, and the business community boomed. By 1902 the downtown district contained two banks, two hotels, and a flour mill, among other businesses. In 1913 the Oklahoma Railway Company extended their interurban that ran from Oklahoma City to Moore, south to Norman. In 1910 there were 3,724 residents, and the number climbed to 5,004 in 1920. By the 1920s the OU campus spread over 267 acres and had added several new structures, including Memorial Stadium. The population continued to rise, reaching 9,603 in 1930 and 11,429 in 1940. The sanitarium and university helped the community weather the Great Depression. In 1939 the Tankersley Company built the Cleveland County courthouse that was a mixture of Neo-Classical and Art Deco elements and replaced a 1906 Solomon Layton-designed government building. World War II brought more changes to the city. In 1941 OU, with help from Norman officials, established Max Westheimer Field, a university airstrip, and the next year offered to lease it to the U.S. Navy as a training facility. During the war the airfield became the Naval Flight Training Center, known as north base, and the navy established the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), known as south base, south of the OU campus. A naval hospital was also established. The north base trained nearly nine thousand men, with the south base training thousands more. In 1946 the navy donated the bases to the university, but in 1952, with the advent of the Korean War, the military utilized the bases in a smaller capacity until 1959. The addition of the government buildings and land helped OU handle the large enrollment increase of the post-World War II era. This also allowed the city to develop, and the 1950 population stood at 27,006. Norman's proximity and easy access to Oklahoma City contributed to it being a "bedroom" community for employees who worked outside Norman proper. The population increased from 33,412 in 1960 to 52,117 in 1970. In the 1960s the city, through annexations, expanded to 174 square miles, incorporating a large land area in the Lake Thunderbird vicinity. In 1984 the community supported sixty-three manufacturing establishments, which employed 2,562. The population stood at 68,020 in 1980 and climbed to 80,071 in 1990. At the beginning of the twenty-first century Norman had 4,270 business establishments, engaging 47,665 workers. OU (with more than eight thousand on staff) and Norman Regional Hospital (with more than two thousand) were the two largest employers. In 1944 Norman residents passed bonds to fund the hospital. There were several other institutions that had extensive work forces, including York International (opened in 1981, after it purchased the defunct Westinghouse air conditioner plant), a U.S. Postal Training Center (1969), Moore-Norman Technology Center (1972), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, which dedicated a new laboratory in 1972), Oklahoma Veterans Center (opened a new building in 1996), Sysco Food Services (1991), Hitachi Computer Products (1987), Saxon Publishers (1981), Yamanouchi Pharma Technologies (2001), and Shaklee Corporation (1978). By 2000 the population stood at 95,694. The Norman School District enrolled 12,596 students, and several other school districts (Little Axe, Robin Hill, and Cleveland County) fell within its borders. The city offered several attractions, including the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the Jacobson House Native Art Center, the Firehouse Art Center, and other theaters and museums. Seventeen properties were listed in the National Register of Historic Places. These included the Cleveland County Courthouse (NR 00001580), the DeBarr Historic District (NR 91001904), the Oscar Jacobson House (NR 86003466), the Norman Historic District (NR 78002226), the Norman Public Library (NR 00001581), the Santa Fe Depot (NR 90002203), the United States Post Office (NR 00001573), and the Moore-Lindsay House (NR 85002788), which also served as the Norman and Cleveland County Museum. University of Oklahoma's Bizzell Library (NHL 01000071) is a National Historic Landmark. Several festivals, including the Medieval Fair, Jazz in June, and 89er's Day Festival, are annually held in Norman.
Slaughterville lies on State Highway 77, eight miles south of Noble. The name honors Jim Slaughter, who operated an area store. The Land Run of 1889 opened the region to its first general settlement. Before then the present townsite was in the Unassigned Lands. In 1889 settlers erected the first of three buildings, which housed the Shiloh Methodist Church, one-half mile north of present Slaughterville. Through most of the twentieth century the town existed as a dispersed rural district, with a service station/dry goods store on U.S. Highway 77 serving farmers and ranchers. The curve of the highway at Slaughterville had a reputation as hazardous, and in 1937 an editorial in the Daily Oklahoman urged that the curve be straightened. In 1970 the crossroads town incorporated to stave off perceived annexation threats from Norman, Noble, and Lexington. Soon, a fire department organized. The original city limits, approximately twenty-seven square miles in the 1970s, decreased in 1985, when the town's trustees deannexed nearly 40 percent of the land. There were 1,953 residents in 1980 and 1,843 in 1990. In 2000 the population stood at 3,609, and the town area had increased to 38.108 square miles. A majority of the residents commuted to larger towns to work. The children attend school at Lexington or Noble.
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