Oklahoma Genealogy

In 1903, as the work of grading the new Midland Valley Railroad had reached a point about half way between Tulsa and Muskogee, it was observed that on the prairie, just ahead of the , construction camp, was a beautiful site for a town. All of the land belonged to the Creek Indians and something had to be done in order that legal title to town lots might be guaranteed to purchasers. Mr. T. J. Way, one of the pioneers of that section of the country selected an eighty-acre tract belonging to Amos Rolland, a full-blood Creek, and petitioned the…

Prior to 1898, Muskogee had no municipal government of any kind. The town had just been incorporated and it now became necessary to elect some officials to transact the town’s business. Here is an exact copy of the First Muskogee Election Notice to the Voters of the Incorporated Town of Muskogee Take Notice: That the undersigned agents of the incorporated town of Muskogee, I. T. have appointed theFirst Day of June, 1898, for the election of officers, said election to take place in the building recently occupied by Misses Hannan & Cobb as a millinery store and now moved on…

For the past forty years Muskogee has been the acknowledged financial center of Eastern Oklahoma. Before any banks were established the pioneer stores, the Patterson Mercantile Co., J. E. Turner, Turner Hardware Co., S. B. Severs, Spaulding Mercantile Co. and the Maddin Hardware Co. served the community as quasi banking institutions, extending financial accommodations to the farmers throughout Eastern Oklahoma. The First National Bank was organized August 1, 1890, it being the first bank in Indian Territory to organize under the National Bank Act of Congress. Robert L. Owen, now United States Senator, was its first president, and C. H.…

During the year 1871 the M., K. & T. Railroad, then called the Missouri Pacific, was built from Parsons, Kansas, to the Arkansas River, three miles north of the present site of Muskogee. Three months’ time was consumed by the construction company in building the bridges over the river, and in the meantime quite a colony was formed on the north side of the river—and such a colony ! The bridge builders, and other employees of the railroad company, excursionists, homeseekers, freighters with their teams of oxen, hucksters, boarding-house keepers, gamblers, liquor peddlers, and an array of loafers and outlaws—all…

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…

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…