Oklahoma Genealogy

In 1883 a side track was built on the Katy Railroad about a mile south of the present site of the town and named “Wagoner Switch,” in honor of the chief dispatcher of the railroad. The laying of track was continued six miles farther south and Gibson Station was established during the summer of 1871, and until the spring of 1872, during which time the Arkansas River bridge was in process of construction this station was the terminus of the Railroad. Captain George Shannon, now a resident of Wagoner, conducted the principal store at Gibson Station for forty years following…

Joseph Casaver, who is still an active business man in Wagoner, is one of its pioneer citizens. He arrived there soon after the junction of the two railroads was completed and served both companies as telegraph manager. A few years later he established a drug store which he continued to manage for several years, at the same time being interested in the ice business. He was elected mayor of the city a few years after it was incorporated. He was also interested in the livery business in those days antedating the arrival of the automobile, when the pony teams were…

Wagoner County adjoins Muskogee County on the north, the Arkansas River being the boundary line between them. Perhaps no county in the state affords better agricultural advantages than Wagoner. The very fertile valley of the Arkansas River extends across the entire southern portion of the county, the Verdigris River crosses the central portion from the northwest to the southeast and the Grand River flows southward along the east side. The valleys of these rivers afford many acres of exceedingly fertile soil, adapted to almost every kind of crops. The uplands are mostly prairie, containing the rich black prairie soil. This…

Almost every grade of land can be found in this county, varying in character and quality from the rough, rocky spurs of the Ozark hills which project across the state line from Arkansas, into the northeastern section of this county, to the very fertile valley of the Arkansas River, which forms its whole southern boundary. It naturally follows that the diversity of soil makes it possible to produce many kinds of crops. Cotton, corn and potatoes are the staple crops produced, while oats, peanuts, kaffir and vegetables grow abundantly. Until recent years not much attention was paid to raising wheat,…

Sallisaw, the county seat of Sequoyah County is now a city of 2,600 inhabitants, centrally located at the Junction of the Arkansas Valley Railroad (now known as the Missouri Pacific), with the Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad (now the Kansas City Southern). The first mentioned road was built in 1887, while the other was not completed until 1895. Soon after the arrival of the Valley Road, Argyle Quesenbury and W. W. Wheeler, two white settlers, platted a portion of their land into town lots and brought the Town of Sallisaw into existence. Mr. Quesenbury settled in that neighborhood in 1875, being…

Sequoyah County was named after the noted inventor of the Cherokee alphabet. It is located midway between the north and south boundaries of Oklahoma, adjoining the State of Arkansas on the west.. Prior to the allotment of Indian lands its development was rather slow, as the real estate was still the common property of the citizens of the Cherokee Nation and none of it could be sold. After the restrictions were removed upon portions of the land so that valid titles could be made, enterprising farmers began to improve and develop farms, the various towns became active and an era…