|
Welcome to Garvin
County, Oklahoma Genealogy
Trails
Cities and
Townships
Current Towns on US Postoffices by
County
| Name of city |
Date Established |
Date of Discontinuation |
| ELMORE CITY |
03/18/1891 |
|
| FOSTER |
|
|
| FRANCIS |
ABT 1900 |
|
| HENNEPIN |
|
|
| KATIE |
was incorporated in 2004 with Hennepin |
|
| LINDSAY |
03/28/1902 |
|
| MAYSVILLE |
06/17/1878 |
|
| PAOLI |
06/27/1888 |
|
| PAULS VALLEY |
08/21/1871 |
|
| PERNELL |
|
12/27/2003 |
| STRATFORD |
10/23/1906 |
|
| WYNNEWOOD |
01/08/1886 |
|
Abandoned Towns
| White Bead Hill, a location made famous by the Caddo tribe
of Indians,
who at an early day made
their home at this place. The chief was named
White Bead, hence the origin of the
name. There is a difference of opinion
as to the sex of the chief, some contend
that the chief was a man, others
that
the chief was of the feminine gender. We failed to determine
who of
the contenders were correct and
leave this matter to your own conjecture.
In this vicinity we located two springs,
one of which is north of the
present
town of White Bead, and is said to be the location of the
first
store and post office of that
community. the post office was established
in 1877, James Rennie, post master.
Prior to establishment of the post
office there had been a store. or
trading post. operated by Aaron Harlan.
Here was also a stage stand, established
at an early day, traces of the
old road
were much in evidence. and pictures of same were taken. We
found
an old lady, Mrs. Harmon. who has
lived in that community for half a
century. |
| White Bead was an important stage stop on the government
freight road
from Caddo, a railroad
station on the Katy, to Fort Sill. The
village site was in the Washita River
valley at the base of a hill.
The
valley provided a lowland route westward and was used
extensively
until railroads built across
the western part of Oklahoma Territory.
White Bead's post office was opened on
April 26, 2895 and closted on June
15,
1912. In 1902 after the Santa Fe had completed its
tracks
through Pauls Valley, a branch
line was extended westward from Pauls
Valley to Lindsay via White Bead.
About 1900 White Bead had a
population
of about three hundred people. It became an important
education center in the Chickasaw Nation
when the Methodists built Pierce
Institute in the village. The
school had five teachers.
Subjects
taught ranged from the elementary classes to Hebrew,
trigonometry, and public speaking on the
junior college level. The
school
was at its peak from 1885 to 1888 when enrollment reached two
hundred students. It quickly
decreased and became just a local
school
in 1890. In 1904 the large building was damaged during a
windstorm. Nothing of the original
White Bead remains except for a
cemetery. |
Cherokee Town. crossing the Washita River near where the
first bridge
across that stream was
built This bridge went down early in the seventies,
just as Mrs. Aaron Harlan, who was a
very familiar character, rode off the
west end with two of her children. The
bridge was never rebuilt. We
located the
site of Cherokee Town, and placed a marker giving the facts
concerning the locality. It was an old
stage stand and very prominent in
an
early day. Near the beginning of the Civil War, General Pike
called the
Plains Indians to meet him at
Cherokee Town for consultation, the purpose
was to get them to enlist. or espouse
the cause of the Confederacy. the
meeting was not as successful as had
been hoped. Mr. Noah Leal was a very
prominent character of this locality,
and we had hoped to see him for
information, but he was buried the
afternoon of July 8th, the day before
we
had expected to see him. Mr. Leal drove the stage through that
section
of the country for several
years, and later operated a blacksmith shop at
Cherokee Town. At the time of his death
it was said of him that he was the
wealthiest man in Garvin
County.
Source: Oklahoma Historical
Society--Chronicles of Oklahoma |
|
Elmore City, a village located in southwestern Garvin
County at the
juncture of State Highways
74 and 29, was founded to supply the needs of
an agrarian population. With the 1920s
development of area oil fields,
Elmore
City became a central supplier for the petroleum industry. In
recent years the mechanization of
agriculture and the decline in petroleum
exploration have negatively impacted the
city's population. Although
several
ranches began in the area in the early 1880s, no one is sure
when
civilization supplanted the
rustlers infesting Rock Creek, the community's
original name. The first record of a
residence at present Elmore City was
during Fr. Hilary Cassal's 1885 Catholic
missionary tour when a family was
found
at the Rock Creek bridge, twelve miles southwest of White Bead
Hill
on the road to the Robberson
community. Shortly afterward, Jasper N. Black
opened a general store at a crossroads
northeast of the present town, and
his
enterprise formed the nucleus of a community called Banner. As
folks
moved in, settlement spread
southwest, where on June 11, 1890, a post
office, named for merchant J. O. Elmore,
was established. In 1898 Elmore
incorporated and first appeared on
Geological Survey maps. In 1908, though
lacking a railroad, the town was strong
enough politically to vie for the
county
seat but lost the election because flood waters prevented
voters
from reaching the polls. Postal
address confusion with Elmer, a Jackson
County town, caused Elmore to be renamed
in 1910 as Banner. However,
residents
preferred the original name, and a community in Canadian
County
wanted the Banner designation, so
Elmore City came into being in 1911. The
town's population increased from 192 in
1910 to 337 in 1930. After
reaching 982
in 1960, the number of residents declined to 756 in
2000. Source: Oklahoma Historical
Society--Chronicles of
Oklahoma |
|
Lindsay, Oklahoma, is located in Garvin County twenty-four
miles west
of Pauls Valley on State
Highway 19. Lindsay began when the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe and Chicago, Rock
Island and Pacific railroad
companies
decided to link their lines halfway between Chickasha and
Pauls
Valley. Lewis Lindsay, an area
farmer, donated 440 acres for the townsite
in January 1902, and the town was named
in his honor. Lindsay's primary
economic
base has always been agriculture, with cotton the first major
commodity. Broomcorn was introduced in
1906, and by the 1950s, with its
huge
production of that crop, Lindsay was dubbed the "Broomcorn
Capital of
the World." However, the high
cost of production and the increasing use of
synthetic brooms led to the end of the
broomcorn era by 1982. The
community's
subsequent major crops have been alfalfa, soybeans, wheat,
corn, and milo. Since the drilling of
the first oil well in the Lindsay
area
in 1944, petroleum production has also played a major role in
the
town's economy. Lindsay's 1907
population of 1,102 residents grew to 1,713
by 1930. Due to oil-field activity, the
number rose to 3,021 in 1950 and
reached
4,258 in 1960. By 1990 the town's population had decreased to
2,947, and it declined to 2,889 in 2000.
The Lindsay News has
informed the
residents since the early 1900s. Nearby in the Erin Springs
community, two miles south on State
Highway 76 and one-half mile west of
Lindsay, is the Murray-Lindsay Mansion.
A museum since the 1970s, the
mansion is
listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR
70000534). Built in 1882, this was the
home of Frank and Alzira McCaughey
Murray, founders of Erin Springs Source:
Oklahoma Historical
Society--Chronicles
of Oklahoma |
HISTORY OF MCGEE INDIAN TERRITORY IS TOLD
(The Stratford Star, Thur. Dec.30, 1976 pg 9)
By Brawner Shi
GHOST TOWN: McGEE INDIAN TERRITORY
Published in the Chronicles of Oklahoma
By Charles W. Mooney
Diary of Cleason D.
Jones
(submitted by Linda
Craig, granddaughter)
Out of the mist and shadows of the almost forgotten
past, most of
the characters have been
resurrected that once made up the little town of
"McGee, I.T." The town was located north
of Stratford, Oklahoma. Although
the
total population was less than one hundred within a mile
radius of
McGee in 1900, it was a proud
town and made a gallant attempt to survive
in the land of the Chicksaw Nation. It
might have been alive today with
its
roots deep in the rich black soil of present Garvin Co. if
some
railroad agents had not demanded
the payment of $3,000. from the
storekeepers of McGee for the railroad
line to come through town. Today
McGee
is a ghost town, surviving only in memory without a single
reminder
to give evidence of its
existence, except the mute witness of theold McGee
Cemetery at the southeast edge of the
place where the town once
thrived.
Also the school building is still standing just west of the
cemetery. William Wallace "Wally"
McGee was the towns founder and
namesake, not "Walter McGee"
which has been eroneously quoted. He
first came here as a lad of 18 back in
1885 when he trapped for a living
in
Indian Territory. In 1891 he opened the first business in the
then
embryo town, his blacksmith shop
adjoining his log cabin home. He had
learned his trade before coming to the
wind swept prairies of Oklahoma.
Wally
McGee was a tall, thin, clean shaven white man, and was
married and
had two children. Soon after
he opened his blacksmith shop in 1891,
W.J. Long built the first store
in town, about 150 yards south of
the
McGee house and blacksmith shop. The new store had a big sign
on the
front: "W.J.Long-Dry Goods
Groceries, Provisions". Long sold the
"Springfield" make of wagons, and had
one pound cans of Black Beauty brand
axle grease for sale. Early in 1892
Wally McGee expanded his business
interests by opening a sawmill, and soon
afterward, he built the first
cotton gin
in McGee. He operated both from a nearby pond formed from
rains
during the year. After several
seasons, Mr. W.W. McGee moved to Avoca in
Pottawatomie Co., two miles north of
present Asher where his brother
Tom
McGee operated a cotton gin. The third business in the
town of
McGee was a post office, which
had opened on Apr. 15, 1891. It was located
in the rear of W.J. Long's store,
with Joe Moad (not William
G.
Mood) as postmaster. Joe's left hand was amputated at the
wrist. He
would "bunch" the letters in
the crook of his left elbow, then thumb
through, sort, and alphebetized them
with his good right hand. Joe
Moad was killed in 1897, by unknown
outlaws who shot at him through
the back
door of the store while attempting to burglarize the
place.
Dr. Jesse
Mooney(born 1866 died 1915) came to McGee in March 1892,
in a covered wagon from Washington Co.,
Arkansas, with his wife and three
small
children. He put his sign on a stake beside his covered wagon
- his
temporary home - "Dr. J.
Mooney". He soon constructed a dugout for
his family in the southwest part of the
new town, as the confines of the
covered
wagon were too crowded for comfort. He also built the first
drug
store in town, about 50 feet west
of Long's store, out of rough oak lumber
from the McGee sawmill. The drugstore
was the fourth business in McGee.
The
Mooneys likewise, made the fourth family here. The first baby
born in
town was Nina Olivia (Ollye)
Mooney, born May 22, 1892, the
daughter of Dr. Jesse Mooney and
Ella Mooney. This daughter
married a man by the name of
"Trout" and now lives in Shawnee,
Oklahoma.
On September 9, 1892 Dr.
Mooney drove 45 miles in his buggy and
took four pupils to the first
enrollment
at the University of Oklahoma, then returned the 45 miles to
McGee the same day - 90 miles in a buggy
in one day! He drove his
familiar,
stalwart team of white horses, which were well known in his
community.
Five years later, in
February of 1897, Dr. Mooney was sent
for by a military escort from Fort Sill
to go there and attend to the
seriously
ill Geronimo, the old Apache war chief, and his three
children, all deathly ill with double
peumonia. The old chief had refused
the
services of the military doctors at the fort. In August
1896,
Dr. Mooney had made medical
history in Oklahoma by performing the first
known operation of Ceasarian Section in
this region, using a kitchen table
as
his operating table in a dugout nine miles west of McGee. His
only
assistant was the frantic, though
brave little husband of the pioneer
family. Both the baby and mother
survived. On February 3, 1894 J.A.
Harris(born 1865 in Tennessee) came
to McGee and soon opened a general
outfitting store (5th business) across
the street north of the drugstore.
A few
months later he built a two story hotel, called the Harris
Hotel.
This was built next to the store
and was the sixth business in town. His
father, Lafayette Harris was a
Confederate Civil War veteran. J.A.
Harris had formerly been in business at
Simpson, TX for five years. He had
also
been a traveling salesman in California, in New York, and in
Santa
Point, Idaho. Several years later
he had branch stores in Frances, I.T.
and at Sacred Heart, Oklahoma Territory.
He was appointed postmaster at
McGee on
March 3, 1901. He was a member of the Woodsmen of the World
Lodge
and Crescent Lodge No. 15 Knights
of Pathias. His wife was burried in the
McGee Cemetery. The first tombstone
there stood at her grave, and was a
monument nine feet tall, marked
"Martha Donna Harris". Harris later
married Ruth Richards, one of
Sam Richards daughters. In the
summer of 1893, Andy Thomas
opened the 7th business in town - a
second blacksmith shop. Thomas died two
years later in 1895, and had a
graveside
Masonic burial. In 1895, the Lee and Goodwin Store was opened
as
the 8th business with W.U.
Goodwin and his brother in law, Sam
Lee, as partners, specializing in
groceries and hardware. They handled
the
"Bain" make of wagons. They both married sisters, daughters of
Sam
Richards who came to McGee in
1893 and bought half interest in Dr.
Mooney's drug store. Oswald
Williams opened the second cotton gin
in McGee in 1896 (the 9th business) and
had a grist mill. He had the
latest type
50hp steam engines, each stand having 70 saws that could gain
the incredible total of 20 bails of
cotton a day! He died in 1899.
Henry
J. Watts (born 1847, died 1929) then bought the business.
Watts had farmed for three years north
of McGee, coming from near Burnett,
Pottawatomie Co., Oklahoma Territory,
where in 1893 he had opened the
first
cotton gin in teh history of that county. His son, Arthur
Watts, later owned a gin for many
years ni Stratford where he now
lives.
The first school in McGee was a subscription school held for
the
three months in the summer in a
brush arbor, with logs used for seats.
John A Walker(born 1866) was the
first teacher. Amoung the pupils
using
the new "Baldwin" readers, were Dave Hybarger and
A.T.
Reeves. The teacher later
was Dr. J.A. Walker of Burnette and
Shawnee, Oklahoma. Walker studied the
medical books of Dr. Mooney, his
preceptor, before going to medical
school. In 1896, the first frame
schoolhouse was built, the tenth
business in town. Mrs. Nathe Pence
was the second teacher in 1893, and
Ella C. Mooney, the third
teacher
in 1894(wife of Dr. J. Mooney). Mrs. Mcfell was the
teacher
in 1896. Later a Mr. Key
was the teacher. Willie Wilcoxson
was there in school in 1897. He married
Dave Hyden's daughter, and many
years
later was a teacher himself at "Old Sandy" country school.
Years
later he was a Baptist preacher.
His children were Ray, S.W.
(Buddy), and Vivian
Wilcoxson. The missionary Baptist
Church was built in 1896, eleventh
business in town. Soon thereafter the
Methodists built their church with
Preacher Sherwood as pastor.
This
church (twelfth business) was a two story frame building with
the
Woodsmen of the World Lodge
occupying the upstairs portion. Dr. J.N.
Norris (born 1867) came to McGee in
the fall of 1897, three months
after Dr.
Mooney had moved to Moral, O.T.. Dr A.H. (Gus) Shi had
moved to town the year before as a
partner for Dr. Mooney. A year later
Dr.
Norris bought the Mooney-Richards Drugstore. He married
Miss Maggie
J. Byers of
Johnstonville, I.T. in 1898. He later manufactured and
sold his "Chickasaw Chill Cure", an old
prescription from Dr. Mooney on
file at
the drug store. This medicine was formerly called "Hell Up The
Creek" because it was so bitter with
quinine and other compounds. McGee
Masonic Lodge #94 was installed in 1896
(thirteenth business) in the hall
built
as a second story over the W.J. Long Store. Sam
Richards was
the first worshipful
master and W. J. Long was the Secretary.
(On a personal note my grandfather,
Cleason D. Jones was
a
member of this organization) I have in my possession a
diary kept
by my grandfather,
Cleason D. Jones where he mentions
alot of residents that were around the
McGee area. He died in 1916
and is
buried in McGee Cemetery.
|
|
This
is a picture of McGee, Indian
Territory. This picture was
submitted Richard Jones, grandson to
William T. Hayes and Mary B. Wright,
Hayes. |
| Buttram, G.R. Sanford, and
Thorne,formerly farmers
near
McGee, ran a store in town from 1898 to 1904 (fourteenth
business).
A.Y. "Yoke" Griffin,
his brother Fred, and their father
opened a store in 1899 (fifteeth
business) Some years later
"Yoke" Griffin was shot and
killed by Dr. J.N. Norris who
was
never prosecuted for the fatal shooting. Reportedly, he was
"defending
the honor of his home and
fireside."Dr. H.C. Laird came to McGee in
1898 from Skullyville over in the
Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. He had
his office in the Harris Hotel. A Dr.
Cullum also came to McGee in
1898.
Dr. Laird later moved on to Pauls Valley. A number of
businesses
opened up in quick succession
before the town broke up and the buildings
were moved away in 1907. A barber shop
opened up in 1899 (sixteenth
business),
by a man named McCombs. A general merchandise store
(seventeenth business) was opened in the
same year by A.C. Cromer
who sold
the "Studebaker" make of wagons. The First Bank of McGee was
opened in 1903 (eighteenth business),
with Jess T. Eldredge as
president and a Mr Smith as
cashier. A.C. Cromer's brother in law,
named King opened a store
(nineteenth business) next to Cromer's in
1903. A pool hall opened about this same
time (twentieth business). The
last
business opened in town was Houston Byford store in 1905. Ironically,
of all the
stores, there never was a
brick or stone building erected in McGee.
There was a number of prominant men and
their families who lived in the
vicinity
of McGee during its lifetime. Adolphus M. Jackson, a
well
known rancher and farmer, came to
the Indian Territory from Texas in 1881.
His home was on a 1,500 acre farm about
a half mile east of McGee. His
pastures
included an additional 4,000 acres. Jackson had married
Sally
Hyden, daughter of
Samuel Hyden in 1870. Hyden
Brothers and Hart had bought out the
W.J. Long Store in 1899.
long
moved to Pauls Valley and opened a bank there. Whit
Hyden
(born 1845) was a Confederate
veteran from the Civil War, during which he
was one of William Quantrill's guerilla
band for a time. Whit Hyden had
fromerly
had a store in Jimtown, another in Ardmore and Davis at
different
times. He owned 1,800 acres of
land near McGee. His brother, Dave M.
Hyden(born 1856) had come to the
Indian Territory in 1895 from Texas.
In
later years, Whit Hyden served as a government surveyor, and
laid out
the town of Lawton in 1901. He
was still later a deputy U.S. Marshall. The
two brothers were the sons of Samuel
Hyden, a native of
Massachusetts.[SEE NOTE BELOW] He was
part Choctaw Indian by blood, and
their
mother was a white woman, Nancy Lockhart of
Virginia.24 Whit Hyden recieved an
allotment of land at the
time of
allotment of the Choctaw lands. but his brother Dave, received
none. The two brothers applied for their
Choctaw land rights at different
allotment offices. This was a
disadvantage to Dave who could not prove up
his rights satisfactorily. Both the
Hyden Brothers became members of McGee
Masonic Lodge #94. C.L."Loss"
Hart the third member of the
Hyden
Brothers & Hart firm had been a well known, fearless
Deputy U.S.
Marshall for eleven years,
and had killed the notorious outlaw Bill
Dalton in 1894. Hart wore a long
droopy, handlebar mustache. He had
miraculously recovered from a bad case
of smallpox in 1897. He had arrived
in
Indian Territory in 1879, and had a blacksmith shop at
Burneyville,
Indian Territory, near Red
River. Samuel Richards (born 1842
in Missouri) came to McGee in 1893, and
bought half interest in Dr. J.
Mooney's
Drugstore. Richards was a Confederate veteran from Arkansas
who
had been shot in the neck during the
Civil War but the bullet was never
removed. He was also later wounded in
the left leg. After the war he was a
merchant at Phelps, Missouri for several
years, then moved to Lockwood,
and later
to McGee in 1893. he had been a justice of the peace in
Missouri, and in McGee he served as
mayor. At the turn of the century, he
ahd been a mason for 30 years. Sam
Richards, effectionately known as "Dad"
Richards, was the father of twelve
children. He was the grandfather of
Watt, Gordon, and Don Richards, present
Shawnee druggists. Dr.
Augustine
Shi (born 1834, died 1900) came to McGee from Florida
after
two of his sons, both doctors, had
settled in the town. Dr. Pat
Shi,
one of his sons, soon left McGee and settled in Blanchard,
O.T.
The other son, Dr. A.H. Shi
Jr. (born 1873 died 1967) eventually
was the champion of all the doctors in
this part of Oklahoma. He practiced
medicine the incredible total of 69
years in McGee and adjoining
Stratford.
He married Bessie Jackson daughter of W. M.
Jackson, and raised a family in the
adjoining community of Stratford.
Two
other Shi brothers, Cap and Buck, came to McGee and bought out
the W.W
McGee cotton gin. George
Lewis Wilcoxson, a rancher who raised fine
horses, lived two and a half miles west
of McGee. He also owned and
operated a
carrousel pulled by a mule in a traveling carnival during the
season. His daughter Belle,
(sister of Willie Wilcoxson)
married Dan McCary in 1893 when
she was only 15. The couple was
married
in thefamily home by H.G. Drury Baptist circuit rider
preacher. McCary clerked in the J.A
Harris Store and was later manager of
the branch store at Sacred Heart in
Pottawatomie Co. O.T. Moses
M.
Ledford, a prominant rancher and farmer was the father in
law of
Los Hart. Ledford was the
head of the McGee Lodge of the Woodsmen
of the World, and many years later was
postmaster of McGee. Clayton
and
Greenwood Mooney, brothers of Dr. J Mooney moved
to
McGee in 1895 from Baxter Co.,
Arkansas. Both were farmers and farmed east
of town. Clayton at the age of 14 had
joined the Confederate Army with his
father in 1862. D. W. Moody
farmed north of town in the sandy land
country, and was a part time Baptist
preacher. John G. Harris was a
farmer, and belonged to the McGee
Masonic Lodge. William N. Kennedy
was another farmer, and belonged to the
Woodsmen of the World Lodge.31
Jim Hybarger and Jesse Reeves were
partners in teh cattle business ten
miles west of McGee in 1893.32
Walter P. Hamilton was a druggist for Dr.
Norris. Joseph Burch came to Indian
Territory in 1877, and more than
twenty
years later lived near McGee and was a member of the Masonic
Lodge
there.
When the Frisco Railway failed to come
through McGee, a new town called
Stratford started on the railroad two
miles south of McGee. Stratford post
office was established on October 23,
1906, with Mose Ledford as
postmaster. In a period of only a few
months, the entire town of McGee moved
over to Stratford- houses, stores,
every
building, lock stock and barrel. It was the demise of a brave
little
town, and the birth of its
successor. House movers made huge wheels form
three foot sections of giant sycamore
trees near the Canadian River. Using
these wheels on a winless type of
apparatus with teams of horses going
around in circles, the buildings were
pulled slowly to new locations at
Stratford.
After only 16 years of
existence McGee died where once verdant
blue stem grass had grown shoulder
high
on the wind swept prairie in the Chickasaw Nation. Where McGee
was
located and lived is now only a
nostalgic memory out of the past that is
fast vanishing by the demise of its last
survivors. McGee today has been a
ghost
town for over sixty years. (as of 1976). |
 PICTURE OF SOME OF THE
PROMINANT
CITIZENS OF MCGEE AND EARLY
STRATFORD - Whit Hyden, Bryant Mitchell,
Clayton Blackburn, Jim Harris, Tom
Phillips, A.C. Cromer, Dave Hyden, and
Bunk Santford. Also a couple
unidentified men.(Used by permission of
Brenda Choate)
|
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