Garvin County, Oklahoma
History Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1906 formed
Garvin County from a part of the former Recording District 17 in the Chickasaw
Nation, Indian Territory. Located in south-central Oklahoma, the
813.66-square-mile county is bordered by McClain County to the north, Pontotoc
County to the east, Murray and Carter counties to the south, and Stephens and
Grady counties to the west. Incorporated towns are Pauls Valley, the county
seat, Elmore City, Lindsay, Maysville, Paoli, Stratford, and Wynnewood.
Garvin County lies within the Red Bed Plains and Sandstone Hills physiographic
regions. The Washita River, Rush Creek, and Wildhorse Creek flow southeast
across rolling hills toward the Arbuckle Mountains in the south. Interstate 35
and State Highways 74, 76, and 18 run north and south through the county, while
State Highways 7, 19, and 29 remain the principal east-west thoroughfares. At
1907 statehood the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected Paoli, Pauls
Valley, and Wynnewood along the eastern edge of the county, while an east-west
line linked Pauls Valley with Lindsay. The Lindsay line was abandoned after
1978, but the north-south route remained in operation through 1990. Starting in
1999 the Heartland Flyer, an Amtrak passenger line from Oklahoma City to Fort
Worth, Texas, stopped twice daily at Pauls Valley's restored Santa Fe
depot. The Wichita tribe lived in the region from A.D. 1250 to 1450.
Artifacts recovered in the area reveal a culture that settled from a nomadic
life to a village existence of farming and trading. A total of sixty-four such
Plains Village (A.D. 1000 to 1500) sites have been identified in the county,
along with nine Paleo-Indian (prior to 6000 B.C.), fifty-nine Archaic (6000 B.C.
to A.D. 1), and seventeen Woodland (A.D. 1 to 1000) sites. While some American
Indians abandoned the villages to move west in search of bison, others continued
to live in the vicinity until the area became a part of the Choctaw and
Chickasaw nations in 1832 and 1856, respectively. A natural ford on the
Washita River located two miles east of present Pauls Valley served as a
crossing on the Washita River for a stage line that ran from Caddo to Fort Sill.
Cherokee Town was established at the ford as a supply station and rest stop for
the stage line and wagon trains. Confederate Gen. Albert Pike met with the
Plains Indians at Cherokee Town in 1861 to enlist their support for the South
during the Civil War. When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway came
through in 1906, Cherokee Town merchants moved to Wynnewood and Pauls Valley,
which were located on the rail line. Garvin County took its name from Samuel J.
Garvin, who moved to the Chickasaw Nation near Whitebead in 1870 and became a
prominent cattleman, merchant, and banker. Citizens selected Pauls Valley as the
county seat over Wynnewood and Elmore City on June 20, 1908. Named after Smith
Paul, an early settler in the region, Pauls Valley served as the trade center
for the fertile Washita River Valley, "a section," according to Paul, "where the
bottom land was rich and the blue stem grass grew so high that a man on
horseback was almost hidden in its foliage." Other prominent settlers in the
county included Lee McCrummen, a rancher and banker from Paoli, Lewis Lindsay,
who donated the land for the town site of Lindsay, and his father-in-law, Frank
Murray, who owned eight thousand acres of farmland stretching over five miles
along the Washita River near Erin Springs. Maysville claimed Wiley Post as a
resident before 1918 when he left to work in the oil fields. Earl and Charles
Burford invented a "twist tie" machine to close bread wrappers in 1961 and built
a corporation in Maysville that manufactured packaging and production machines
for bakeries. The population of the county remained stable throughout its
history. Garvin County covers an area that is 813.66 square miles. In 1907
while still a part of Oklahoma Territory, the number of people living in the
region was 22,787. Population Table is immediately following:
This picture is of the first county election in 1908. If
anyone has names of the people in this picture please let me know so their
names can be included here. This picture is on file at the Oklahoma
Historical Soceity.
1910-26,545
1930-31,401
1950-29,500
1970-24,874
1990-26,605
1920-32,445
1940-31,150
1960-28,290
1980-27,856
2000-27,210
In 1907 crops of alfalfa, broomcorn, cotton, onions,
potatoes, and hay produced $2.5 million for the county. Paper shelled pecans, an
important export, grew on one thousand acres dedicated to pecan groves in the
1930s. By 1961 the Lindsay area harvested more broomcorn than any other region
in the world, and "We sweep the world" became the county
slogan. Oil-field services from discovery to production to delivery
constituted the petroleum industry in Garvin County. Production developed from
the 1920s when oil was discovered in the Robberson Field in the southwestern
part of the county, as newer discoveries across the county created drilling,
production, and refining jobs. The Golden Trend pool extended from Lindsay in
the northwestern part of the county to Elmore City in the southern section, and
geologists discovered gas reserves throughout the county. In 1991 Garvin County
wells produced 5,602,413 barrels of oil and 56,715,111 million cubic feet of
natural gas. Garvin County boasts several interesting historic sites. These
include the Murray-Lindsay Mansion in Erin Springs (listed in the National
Register of Historic Places, NR 70000534), the Washita Valley and Santa Fe Depot
museums in Pauls Valley, Elmore City's restored Main Street, the Eskridge Hotel
(NR 79001994) in Wynnewood, and a restored bank and museum in Stratford. The
Initial Point (NR 70000533), from which all of Oklahoma except the Panhandle was
surveyed), is situated on the boundary of Garvin and Murray counties.
Recreational activities include golf courses at Lindsay and Pauls Valley and
area lakes provide fishing and boating opportunities.
Sources used:
Esther Cornelia Bellows, "History of Garvin County" (M.A. thesis, University of
Oklahoma, 1932). Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 17 August 1935. "Garvin
County," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma
City.
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