Oklahoma Genealogy - Oklahoma Genealogy

Muskogee City Government

From the date of its incorporation in 1898 down to the year 1910, Muskogee’s municipal affairs were carried on under the old aldermanic style, with two councilmen chosen from each ward and a mayor elected at large. Party politics controlled the elections and politicians controlled or dictated the selection of city employees, party allegiance rather than efficiency, being, too often the test of eligibility. As the years advanced, the rapid growth of the city called for extensive public improvements and the expenditure of rapidly increasing amounts of public funds, which created a sentiment among the taxpayers in favor of taking … Read more

Muskogee County Court

The Muskogee County Court is one of the largest, if not the largest court of its class, in the United States. Some time ago the Muskogee Daily Phoenix published the following account of the scope of its work: “Measured by the volume of business transacted, Muskogee County Court is the biggest court in the world. Administering upon the estates of approximately twenty-five thousand wards, it takes second place to the New York Probate Court in purely probate business. “The scope of authority of the county courts in Oklahoma is wider than in any other state. Because of this, the Muskogee … Read more

Muskogee, Oklahoma

No city in the Southwest excels Muskogee in natural advantages, healthful. surroundings, transportation facilities, educational advantages, civic righteousness, religious sentiment and its splendid citizenship. It is located on a gently rolling plain, with natural drainage toward the Arkansas River, three miles eastward; it has an abundance of oil, natural gas, coal, wood, gravel, sand and building stone within easy reach; it has four lines of railroads extending out in eight different directions; it has a system of public schools not excelled by any city in the Southwest; it has numerous civic organizations, all vying with one another and working harmoniously … Read more

Muskogee County Towns

Boynton The Town of Boynton, now a thriving little city of 1400 inhabitants, is located in the western part of Muskogee County on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, half way between Muskogee and Okmulgee. Twenty years ago it was but a part of a broad prairie pasture, but as soon as the proposed railroad was surveyed, in 1902, the town site promoters quickly selected its site as a suitable location for a promising town. Actual building began in the spring of 1903. Messrs. H. L. Wineland, W. S. Whaley, Junia Williams, W. E. Claire and Dr. J. A. … Read more

Checotah, McIntosh County, Oklahoma

Checotah, a flourishing city of 3,000 people, is located on the M. K. & T. Railroad, in the northern part of McIntosh County. It is the first town of importance south of Muskogee and was founded in 1872, soon after the new railroad reached that vicinity. It was named in honor of Samuel Checote, who was serving as chief of the Creek Nation at that time. The name was suggested by the railroad authorities who located the station there, because of the prominence which Chief Checote had just gained in suppressing an insurrection of dissatisfied full-bloods under the leadership of … Read more

Eufaula, McIntosh County, Oklahoma

Eufaula, the county seat of McIntosh County, is located in the southern part of the county, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, not far from the Canadian River. The name “Eufaula” has been a favorite one among the Creek or Muskogee Tribe of Indians. As early as the year 1800 they had a town of that name, on Eufaula Creek, near the present site of Talladega, Ala. It was one of their early upper creek towns. Pickett’s History of Alabama mentions an Indian town, belonging to the Creeks, which he calls Eufaulahatche. Little Eufauly is mentioned by one of … Read more

McIntosh County, Oklahoma

McIntosh County, named in honor of one of the most prominent families of the Creek Tribe of Indians, adjoins Muskogee County on the south, and is one of the best agricultural sections of eastern Oklahoma. Its prairie soil is of better quality than that of many other counties, while the valleys of the Deep Fork, North Canadian and South Canadian rivers, with their many small tributaries, furnish some of the richest grades of land, together with an abundant supply of living water. McIntosh County, Oklahoma History Checotah, McIntosh County, Oklahoma Eufaula, McIntosh County, Oklahoma

McIntosh County, Oklahoma History

In Indian Territory days this section of the country was an important part of the Creek Nation. Some of the most influential Creek citizens resided here, some of whom still have their homes in this part of the state, and some of the most important Indian conferences of the years gone by were here held. Indian historians claim that in 1541, when De Soto crossed the Mississippi River near Memphis and continued his journey westward, he passed through the southern part of this county. As evidence of the truthfulness of this claim, they point to the huge rock in the … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma History

From the time that Columbus discovered America, in 1492, up to the year 1541-2 or about fifty years after the discovery of America, the Territory comprising Mayes County had very little if any mention historically, probably the first white people to lay foot on Mayes County soil was in 1541 when De Soto the Spanish explorer and his expedition passed through what was then the Province of Mayes County to be. Other Spanish explorers and French explorers, explored this part of the country the following century and a half, the Spanish explorers seeking gold and the French a fur trade. … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma Recreation

Numerous streams will be crossed in a drive over the county, because the county is well watered. Grand River, a Government stream (called the Neosho River in Kansas), is the principal stream, enters at the northeast corner of the county and winds its tortuous route to the southwest, passing out near the middle of the south line. Several creeks traverse the county, generally in a southeasterly direction, and flow into Grand River. Chief of them is Pryor Creek, which enters near the northwest corner and flows south and east, entering Grand River a few miles north of the county line. … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma Towns

Choteau Choteau is a town of 700 inhabitants located in the southern part of Mayes County, ten miles south of Pryor. It is located in a prairie section and is surrounded by a good farming community. While all the ordinary crops of corn, cotton, wheat, oats, etc., are produced in abundance, this section of the state is specially noted for its superior quality of prairie hay, great quantities of which are shipped to northern markets. Many owners of horses prefer this hay to the timothy of the country further north. Choteau has the usual number of stores and shops … Read more

Mayes County Oklahoma Industry

Railroads And Surface Survey The country to the east of Grand River comprises about one-third of the county. Much of it is rough. The rather narrow valleys are very fertile and will grow all kinds of crops. The hills are covered with timber. There are several small fertile prairies. This region is adapted to dairying, livestock and fruit. The K. O. & G. R. R., traverses it, following the east side of Grand River. The country to the extreme northwest and west, where many small creeks have their source, is also hilly. All the central part of the county, comprising … Read more

Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma

Pryor (officially Pryor Creek), Mayes County, Okla., is beautifully situated on the undulating prairie which dips gradually toward the west to the limpid stream from which the town derives. its name. A prettier town site could not have been found in all this broad and expansive land. The streets are almost level, just sloping enough to afford natural drainage. Pryor is the county seat of Mayes County, and has a population of more than two thousand. It is on the main line of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, 209 miles north of Denison, Texas, seventy-seven miles south of Parsons, … Read more

Cherokee Orphan Asylum

In 1873, after the Cherokee orphans had been cared for at Tahlequah for several years, the Cherokee Nation purchased the home and farm of Louis Ross, a Cherokee citizen located in the eastern part of Mayes County, adjoining the present town of Salina, and converted it into a home for Cherokee orphans. In 1875, the large Ross mansion was enlarged and the school was prepared to care for one hundred or more orphans. This home was admirably adapted for the purpose to which it was dedicated. The farm consisted of about three hundred acres of land, approximately one-half of which … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County, Oklahoma, located in the northeastern part of the state, was named in honor of Ex-chief Samuel Houston Mayes, who is now living in Pryor. All of the land comprising Mayes County was formerly a part of the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, with the exception of one township on the south, being a part of the Creek Nation. Mayes County enjoys a citizenship second to none in the state, for the reason that the Cherokee Nation played such an important part in the history making of Oklahoma, and that part of the Cherokee Nation that is now Mayes County … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma Agriculture

A ride over the county will reveal to the observer the same reliable crops of corn, wheat, oats, hay, cotton, alfalfa and potatoes thriving here much the same as in older grain and livestock states. The visitor will see the- rolling prairies, the rich creek and river bottoms and the timbered uplands. If it be the late summer or autumn, he will see wheat or oats stacked or straw piles in every direction. He will pass loaded wagons hauling the grain from steam thresher to elevator. Other teams are hauling baled hay, of which thousands of tons are shipped each … Read more

Mayes County, Oklahoma People and Land Titles

The people of Mayes County are going ahead and each year finds the county as a whole more determined to build homes and farms. According to the United States Government census of 1920 the total illiterate population of Mayes County is but 3.6 per cent out of the total population of 16,894. There are not many Negroes in Mayes County and very few in any of the towns in the county. Titles to the land in Mayes County are not at all difficult to understand. The land was patented to the Cherokee as a nation by treaty in 1838. The … Read more

Creek and Seminoles in Indian Territory

As far back as the Creeks know themselves, they were living in Alabama and there came trouble among them, and one part of them went to Florida. These were called Seminoles. They made a treaty for the country in which they now live about the same time the Cherokees moved west. Possibly as late as 1836 they, by agreement, divided their territory among themselves, the Seminoles taking the west part. They made a treaty in 1866, and sold their surplus land in Oklahoma, as the’ Cherokees had done, at 47½ cents per acre, to be used to settle friendly Indians upon, … Read more

Early Cherokee History

The first treaty that ever was made between the United States and the Cherokee Indians was concluded at Hopewell, on the Kiowee, November 22, 1785. There came a division among the Cherokees, and a chief by the name of Dutcher became dissatisfied and decided to go towards the sunset about the year 1808. A number of French traders came up the Tennessee River from New Orleans. They had a large stock of goods and undertook to establish a trading post. They had a quantity of whisky among their stores, and the Indians all got drunk. It is said by the … Read more

History of the Wichita Mountain

A visit to Oklahoma would not be complete without a trip to the Wichita Mountains. These mountains have long been known by miners as rich in minerals, and they have long looked forward to the time when they might develop them. According to Spanish records Father Gilbert, with one hundred men, led an expedition into the Wichita Mountains as early as 1657, and sunk a shaft to the depth of one hundred feet about nine miles northwest of Mount Scott. About the year 1738 another expedition was lead to the mountains, and work was begun towards developing a mine in … Read more

Homeseekers Guide

It is cheaper to lease land than to own land. It will be remembered that of these lands those in Kiowa, Comanche, Caddo, Washita, Roger Mills, Custer, Blaine, Dewey and Day counties all belonged to the different tribes of Indians, and the best lands were allotted to them, 160 acres for each individual. Along the rivers and creeks, and wherever there was timber, these allotments were taken. They have never failed to make good crops of corn. The upland makes good cotton, wheat and oats. There is but a small per cent of this land in cultivation, but it can … Read more

History of Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Homeseeker’s Guide

Mr. Puckett spend most of his life working around the Oklahoma Territory. With his wife in ill health they traveled together over the Indian Territory and Oklahoma in hopes that she might regain her health. Believing that his knowledge will be worth something to people seeking homes in the new country, he decided to put his memories into a book. When he speaks of any part of this country it is not hearsay, it is what he actually knew from his own experiences. Mr. Puckett at the writing of this book, 1906, still owned a good farm twelve miles southwest … Read more

James L. Puckett’s Story

The author of this book was born in Clay County, Indiana, on the 18th day of March, 1863, and was raised in Indiana and Illinois. I came west in the fall of 1881, and entered the Indian Territory at Cherokee City. Cherokee City was a small health resort on the Arkansas line in the Cherokee Country, eight miles north of Siloam Springs. I began work for a cattleman by the name of Sam McFail. This was my first introduction to the Indians and to the United States marshals. I hadn’t been at work for this man but two days when … Read more

Thomas Segar, Big Man among Indians

The subject of this sketch was born and raised in Ohio. After he had married he came west as others have done before him and since, to find wider fields of action. As I have been reliably informed, he was a young man of considerable wealth. About the year 1876 he stopped at Fort Reno, and accepted a position as principal of a government school at Darlington. Darlington was located on the north side of the North Canadian opposite Fort Reno, and was the agency for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. He adapted himself quickly to the ways of the Indians, … Read more

Quanah Parker, Chief of the Comanche

This chapter on the the of Quanah Parker will be begun with the following poem taken in substance from Indianology by Herman Lehmann. The old chieftain, Parker, was a great lover of music, and the following poem fairly illustrates the figure of a dance of which the noted chief was especially fond: Get yo’ little sage hens ready, Trot ’em out upon the floor; Line up there, you cusses, steady; Lively now, one couple more. Shorty, shed that ol’ sombrero; Broncho, douse that cigarette; Stop your cussin’, Casimero; For the ladies now, all set. S’lute your ladies, all together; Ladies … Read more