County Timeline of Events 

What was happening during your ancestor's lifetime?

 
Legend

  World/National Events in Blue

   Oklahoma Events in Green

   Okfuskee County Events in Red

1803

• U.S. purchases the Oklahoma region (except the Panhandle) as a part of the Louisiana purchase.

1819

• Oklahoma region (except Panhandle) becomes a part of the Territory of Arkansas.

1825

• William McIntosh, a Creek chief, signs treaty providing an exchange of Creek lands in Georgia for a trial domain between the Arkansas and Canadian rivers in the West.

1830

• Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act and the Five Civilized Tribes begin their move (the Trail of Tears) to Indian Territory.

• John Deere invents the steel plow.

1860

• Arkansas Territorial Census taken (did not include Native Americans).

1861

• Telegraph links both coasts.

• Civil War begins.

1863

• Emancipation Proclamation.

1865

• 13th Amendment Abolishes Slavery.

1867

• Creek Nation government established. Includes what would later become Creek, McIntosh, Okmulgee, Okfuskee, Tulsa, and other counties.

1869

• Completion of the first coast-to-coast railroad.

1870

• Missouri Kansas Texas (MKT) railroad built across Oklahoma.

1872

• Tuskegee post office opens but closes three months later, reopens again in 1896.

1874

• Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.

1876

• Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.

1877

• Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

1878

• Yellow fever epidemic in the South kills 14,000.

1879

• Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

1880

• Thlopthlocco Methodist Church builds first building.

1883

• Arbeka post office opens (Sept 10).

1889

• U.S. begins opening part of Oklahoma to white settlement (Oklahoma Land Run - April 22) - the first of several runs and lotteries for land.

1890

• Congress establishes the Territory of Oklahoma (and adds the Panhandle region to it) effectively closing the frontier.

1893

• Congress establishes the Dawes Commission to manage the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes.

1884

• Springfield (renamed McDermott in 1894) post office opens.

1896

• Alaskan Gold Rush.

• Bearden, Creek (renamed Welty in 1905), and Okfuskee post offices open.

1897

• Fentress and Morse post offices open.

1898

• Welty school opens.

• Handy and Watsonville (renamed Spokogee in 1902 then Dustin in 1904) post offices open.

• Okemah town site selected and surveyed by Perry Rodkey and H. B. Dexter.

1900

• Amabala post office opens.

1902

• First town site lots sold in Okemah (April 22).

• Okemah's First State Bank begins operations in a tent.

• Weleetka town site opens (February 10).

• The First Bank of Weleetka opens in a tent (February 11).

• Clearview, Okemah, and Weleetka post offices open.

1903

• Wright brothers invent the airplane and make first flight.

• First train of the Fort Smith and Western railroad reaches Okemah (May 12).

• First Baptist and First Methodist Churches of Okemah open.

• Welty cotton gin opens.

• Boley, Castle, Edna, Irene, Paden, and Price post offices open.

• Goode and McDermott post offices close.

1904

• Boley platted and formal opening held (September 22).

• Micawber post office opens.

• Handy post office closes.

1905

• Okemah's first school built and opened on the Old Wilson school site.

• Welty town name changed from Creek, town platted and lot sales begin.

• Shumpker (renamed Trenton four months later) and Welty post offices open.

1906

• San Francisco Earthquake.

• Hampton post office opens.

1907

• Construction begins on the Panama canal.

• Oklahoma becomes the 46th state (November 16).

• Noble school completed and named after Miss Mae Noble.

• Amabala, Arbeka, and Irene post offices close.

• Okfuskee County Population  15,595.

1908

• Ford Motor Company introduces the Model T.

• The Dexter House, an Okemah boarding house, is bombed (April 23).

• Fentress and Hampton post offices close.

1909

• Robert Peary reaches the North Pole.

• New building completed for Boley grade school.

1910

• Okfuskee County Population  19,995.

1911

• Welty Odd Fellows Lodge organized.

1912

• Titanic sinks.

• Woody Guthrie born in Okemah (July 14).

1914

• World War I begins in Europe (1914-1918).

1915

• First transcontinental telephone call.

1920

• 18th Amendment begins prohibition.

• 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote.

• Okfuskee County Population  25,051.

1922

• Two movies, "The Bull Dogger" and "Crimson Skull", starring Bill Pickett, black rodeo star, are filmed in Boley.

• Thlopthlocco Methodist Church builds new building.

1924

• First flights around the world.

1926

• First Baptist Church of Okemah moves to new building at Fifth and Ash.

1927

• Okfuskee County courthouse building completed.

1928

• First television broadcast in New York.

1929

• Black Friday on Wall Street (October 28).

• Great Depression begins (1929-1942).

1930

• Fort Smith and Western fails leaving area without rail service.

• Okfuskee County Population  29,016.

1932

• Three gunmen attempt robbery of The Farmer's and Merchant's Bank of Boley - the three gunmen and the Bank President are killed.

1933

• Roosevelt's New Deal enacted.

• 21st Amendment repeals prohibition.

1934

• Gunmen rob the Okemah National Bank and the First National Bank of Okemah (December 22).

1935

• Oklahoma's Dust Bowl Days (1935-1938).

1936

• Okemah's new post office building is dedicated.

1939

• World War II begins (1939-1945).

• Okemah native, Leon C. (Red) Phillips is elected Governor (1939-1943).

1940

• Okfuskee County Population  26,279.

1941

• Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (December 7).

1943

• WWII rationing begins in U.S.

1944

• Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6).

1950

• Korean War begins (1950-1953).

• Okfuskee County Population  16,948.

1954

• Segregation in public schools deemed illegal.

1959

• Vietnam War begins (1959-1975).

1960

• Okfuskee County Population  11,706.

1961

• First Baptist Church of Okemah purchases the old Church of Christ building at Sixth and Ash.

1962

• Cuban Missile Crisis.

• Fire heavily damages the First Baptist Church of Okemah (Sixth and Ash).

1963

• President Kennedy assassinated.

1967

• Woody Guthrie, Okemah native, dies in New York of Huntington's Disease.

1969

• Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon.

• Okemah adds third water tower - a tribute to singer Woody Guthrie.

1970

• Okfuskee County Population  10,683.

1974

• Richard Nixon resigns his Presidency.

1979

• Jane Mayo, Okemah native, named All-Around Cowgirl.

1980

• Fire destroys Okemah's Box Hardware, Power's TV, and some apartments. Six other businesses receive heavy smoke damage. Damage estimated at $300,000. (October 5)

• Okfuskee County Population  11,125.

1981

• A tornado sweeps across rural Okfuskee County northeast of Okemah destroying the New Life Holiness Church, a residence, a vacant house, a mobile home, damages the roofs of several homes, and kills livestock. (May 18)

1986

• Space shuttle Challenger explodes.

1989

• Cold War ends and the Berlin wall opened.

1990

• Okfuskee County Population  11,551

2000

• Okfuskee County Population  11,814

This page was last updated on 10/14/11

 

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