OKGenWeb Project

Populated Places Past & Present

Present

Harper County presently has 4 populated towns:

Defunct Towns

There were many past communities that became ghost towns and eventually faded away and disappeared.

• Avis (NE 1/4 S5 T26N R25E)
• Ballaire / Bellair (S10 T27N R24W)
• Benton Flats
• Bishop
• Bluegrass (S7 T2N R28E)
• Brule (S12 T27N R23W) The Post Office was established 15 June, 1899. It was located 3/4 mile from Buffalo and is now part of Buffalo.
• Buffalo Flats
• Burford (S32 T25N R23W) Established December 1903.
• Burgor (S27 T26N R23W)
• Carroll (S27 T26N R23W)
• Charleston (S10 T27N R21W) Founded 1901, named for Charles J. EILERTS. The Post Office was located in a general merchandise store which EILERTS owned. EILERTS was appointed postmaster of Charleston, Harper Co., OK on 18 May 1901. As of 1909, Charles J. EILERTS was still running the store. The town ceased to exist in 1920.
• Cross (S29 T26N R23W)
• Cupid (S31 T26N R24W) Established 15 April 1912.
• Daisy/Daisey (S11 T27N R22W)
• Ditch Valley
• Doby Springs (S10 T21N R24W) Homesteaded by Christopher Columbus Doby (1893). Current info: Doby Springs, Harper Co., OK is a state park.
• Dunlap (S34 T25N R23W) The Post Office was established in 1913. Dunlap ceased to exist in May 1935. Beaver Valley School was located here.
• Fair Store
• Fern/Mt Olive (S19 T26N R20W)
• Flat (S9 T28N R22W)
• Girard
• Gyp Valley
• High Point
• Hopewell
• Howard (S36 T27N R20W)
• Iris (S29 T29N R25W)
• Junod (S3 T26N R20W)
• Kibby 1900 - 1941 was a small community about 12 miles SE of Buffalo, Harper, OK and 12 miles North of Ft. Supply, Woodward, Oklahoma. Kibby was established about 1900. The Kibby Post Office dates are as follows: October 31,1901 - April 15, 1901. The post office was five miles east and seven miles south of Buffalo. The first postmaster was John L. MERIAN. As far as I know, there is no written documentation of how the town acquired its name, but Leonard. D. KIBBY homesteaded and developed land from circa 1893 - 1899 near the Kibby townsite. L.D. KIBBY sold out and moved away about 1903. So I'd bet the town was named after him. J.W. PHILLIPS donated a plot of land for the Kibby Cemetery; it was 1/4 mile west of the Kibby store. PHILLIPS also donated land for the school building. Eventually there was a barber shop, church with a permanent minister, a blacksmith and telephones. The advent of the automobile, the railroad and mechanical farm implements rather than horse-drawn, brought great change to Kibby. By 1912, rails were common in Harper County. The automobile made travel to nearby towns was easy and quick. By 1916, a person could drive from Kibby to Buffalo on a maintained road. Once there, train fare on the Buffalo Northwestern was 1 or 2 cents per mile. With the new farm implements, people could farm more land than their 160-acre original claim, so they bought the adjoining lands of neighbors. Eventually, those who had been newcomers became the old-timers. There were fewer children. In 1942, there was one teacher. By 1947, the school closed because of state law. The children that remained went to the Supply, Selman and Buffalo school district. The last business closed in 1941. In the 1970's little remained of Kibby but the memories of those who lived there.
• Kimball (S15 T28N R25W)
• Kingsley (S27 T26N R26W)
• Lucy (S22 T26N R23W)
• McKim (s20 T28N R24W)
• Moscow Flats
• Mt. Olive / Fern (S19 T26N R20W)
• Mt. Pleasant (S8 T26N R24W)
• Murray (S13 T27N R25W) Established 11 November 1902
• New Charleston (S20 T27N R21W) Established 1920 from Selman
• Palace (S20 T27N R21W)
• Parkman
• Paruna (S25 T29N R22W)
• Pleasant Ridge
• Pleasant Valley
• Prairie Dell
• Prevo (S25-26 T25N R22W)
• Readout (S14 T27N R25W) Existed for a few years. The Post Office was in operation from 1902 - 1913; Jesse P. RATHBUN was the first Postmaster.
• Rhoades
• Rock
• Salt Springs (S36 T27N R20W) Established ca 1920
• Sand Creek
• Saratoga
• Selman (S20 T27N R21W) Established 1920. Became New Charleston. On 30 April, 1925, The Harper County Journal published a special six page section dedicated to the Fifth Anniversary of Selman.
• Solon
• Speermoore (S23-24 T25N R26W) Established ca. 1901. IThe name of the town came from its earliest settlers W. H. SPEER and Willie MOORE. Among the businesses over the years, Speermoore boasted the following: blacksmith shop, grocery/mercantile and newspaper office (Speermoore Advocate), hardware store, livery stable, hotel, feed store, produce house, gas and oil business, barber shop, bank drugstore, creamery, two churches (Baptist and Nazarene), a telephone exchange, and the Union Center District number 63 school. The post Office was a Star Route out of Gage (Ellis Co. OK). Dick BOREN, and his son Alen, of Beaver Co. also operated a business there. Among the burials at Speermoore Cemetery are: L. D. BREON b. 1913 d. 3 August 1914 age 11 months, son of Frank BREON.
• Spring Valley
• Stockholm (T26N R24W) Existed from 6 June 1901 through 15 April 1915.
• Tannar (S27 T26N R23W)
• Willard (S30 T29N R23W)
• Willow Creek
• Wyanet (S21 T25N R25W)
• Wyatt (S20 T28N R24W)
• Yelton (S22 T29N R24W)