Former Residents

William Jay Fletcher

If you have information on Readout, or if your ancestor lived at Readout, please send an email to Michelle.

You can find an interactive modern-day Harper Co. OK Township Map to aid you in your research, or you can go to Maps of Oklahoma and choose the Oklahoma, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory Maps link.

There is a reason I haven't tackled Readout before now: it's not an easy townsite to research, but since someone contacted me regarding this townsite, my days of procrastination, at least for this page, are over.

I received an email from a gentleman who said he had a record from the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) showing a proved out cash entry dated 1909 on a homestead located in Sec 18, Twp 26N, Rng 24W (which is 4 miles East and 1 North of modern-day Laverne. He wondered why the Post Office was given as Readout, rather than Laverne, since Laverne is much closer to the homestead.

Here's the edited answer to his inquiry.

Readout only existed for a few years. The Post Office was in operation from 1902 - 1913; Jesse P. RATHBUN was the first Postmaster.

Some of the info on Readout's location conflicts with other information. One source shows that the townsite was in Sec. 15, Twp. 27N, Rng. 25W, another shows that Readout was located Sec. 14, Twp. 27N, Rng. 25W, and as a kid, I'd heard it was in Sec. 22, Twp. 27N, Rng. 25W which makes me wonder if the townsite of Readout may have been moved from its original location.  Several towns in Harper County did move; some changed their names when they moved while others retained the town's name.

I believe that one of the reasons for the discrepancies in Readout's location can be credited to the location of modern-day town of Laverne. The Laverne of today isn't located at the same place it was in early days. Years ago, the original townsite sat near the Beaver River, roughly 3 miles North of the current town of Laverne. When the Beaver River rose, it flooded the Laverne townsite; the railroad (Missouri, Kansas & Texas called the MKT or Katie) was going through during this time frame, and the residents decided that the new location for Laverne should be near the railroad.

Here's the simplest, and probably the most accurate answer to why the Post Office was listed as Readout in 1909 rather than being listed as Laverne..

Although the Readout Post Office was in operation from 1902 - 1913, several events can account for the homestead being listed as Readout even though Readout was about 8 miles away, while the modern-day town of Laverne is about 4 miles away from the homestead.

The Laverne post office was opened in 1898, but from about 1908 - 1912 the Laverne Post Office was inactive, so Laverne's mail was handled by the Speermoore Post Office Sec. 34, Twp. 25N, Rng 26W, so it was nearly twice as far to get to the 'Laverne' Post Office which at that time was located at Speermoore in Sec 18, Twp 26N, Rng 24W than it was from the townsite of Readout. When I was a teenager, I remember going out to the original Laverne townsite and wandering around with a friend whose relative owned the property where the original Laverne townsite was.

As you're probably aware, the term Post Office came about because our pioneer ancestors traveled to the nearest military post to receive the mail.  One of the early military posts was named Redoubt, named after Redoubt Creek, a tributary of the Cimarron River.  Redoubt was established to help assure that settlers were protected from irate Native American tribes.  I've heard that Redoubt was just over the border in KS & I've hard that it was in just over the OK Harper Co. OK, so I'm not sure which state it was in.

Additional Information on Readout, Harper, OK

Readoubt Creek starts about 8 miles almost straight north of Laverne and runs northeast and enters the Cimarron River in Harper Co., Oklahoma. It may be spelled Readout now, but was originally Redoubt. There was a country school 7 miles north and 1 mile east of Laverne, called Readout. The creek started not too far north of the school.
    Submitted by: Leo G. McAtee