Murray County in 1925

Recently while browsing in the reference section of the library I came across a volume with the title “History of Oklahoma South of the Canadian” by Gilday and Salt dated in 1925.

The book was a short history of each county in Oklahoma and I began scanning their section on Murray County.  I thought you might be interested in what the 1925 facts were of this county.

Murray County in the northeast consists of rolling prairies that proceed to the Arbuckle Mountains in the southwest portion of the county.  The Arbuckles are rich in asphalt, lead and zinc in paying quantities.  Many of the hills are composed of a material called “chirt” that is the best road building material in the region.

The United States Government has constructed Platt National Park near Sulphur that has been called the “Nation’s Playground” that has a total of 848 acres of hills and valleys with many natural springs of sulfur, bromide, medicine and pure waters.

The waters come fresh from the rocks and hills and travel to Travertine, Arbuckle and Rock Creeks. (Anyone know where Arbuckle Creek was?)

Fifteen miles of scenic driveways and many miles of hiking trails are available for the adventurous throughout the park.  Many pools are formed along these paths where swimming is a favorite among the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come to the park each summer.

Murray County is the second smallest county in Oklahoma consisting of 269,000 acres with an average value of $13.80 per acre and a population in 1920 of 13,113.

Besides Sulphur, the major communities in the county are Davis, Dougherty, Hickory and Crusher with the population of Davis being 1,000 and the other communities being between 300 and 500 each.  In 1920, the census of Sulphur was 3,667.

Schools in the county number 25 rural schools and three independent schools in Sulphur, Davis and Hickory.  The scholastic population for 1923-24 was 4,583 with the rural schools having an enrollment of 3,986.

The Oklahoma School for the Deaf has an enrollment of 154 boys and 173 girls with a staff of teachers numbering 31 who live at the school.

As of 1924, the banks in Davis were the City National Bank and Oklahoma State Bank.  The bank in Hickory was the Peoples Bank.  Sulphur had the farmers National Bank and the Park National Bank.  In 1922 the Bank of Commerce failed costing the city of Sulphur $97,000 in lost funds.

The weekly newspapers were the Davis News, Sulphur Times and the Sulphur Democrat.

In 1898, Sulphur consisted of three or four shacks and a post office.  When the national park was established in 1902 several substantial hotels were constructed.  The city was incorporated in 1908 with a mayor and alderman form of government.

In 1921, $35,000 in 6% bonds were issued to build the Convention Hall.

The Santa Fe and Frisco railroads are the only railroads in the county with a depot in Davis, Dougherty and Sulphur on the Santa Fe and depots at Scullin and Sulphur on the Frisco railroad.

South of Platt National Park is the soldier’s home for the treatment of TB built by the state at a cost of $400,000.

There were 72,000 acres under cultivation in 1920.  The principle crops grown in the county in 1920 are cotton, 10,717 bales; corn, 473,000 bushels; oats, 376,000 bushels; grain sorghum, 117,000 bushels; hay, 858 tons, barley, 7,200 bushels with a total value of $1,133,852.

Livestock on farms consisted of 2,523 horses, 2,201 mules, 3,536 milk cows, 4,446 cattle, 6,220 swine and 54 sheep.

I hope you have enjoyed this quick scan of the way life was in the early 1920’s in Murray County.  One can easily see that the county was almost totally an agrarian society by the number of animals and the quantity of crops produced.  But, the depression and the automobile spelled the end of this culture.

Contributed by Dennis Muncrief - June, 2003