This is second in a series on the history of my home town, Idabel, Oklahoma. Again, I invite you to hop up here on my cloud with me so we can see the past and present time for Idabel, Oklahoma 74745.
This is my magic cloud that lets us look back in time. Today we're going to look back at the time that McCurtain County was established and Idabel was established as the county seat for McCurtain County.
Idabel, Oklahoma is the county seat of McCurtain County. Not all counties in our nation have a county level of government.
Oklahoma counties do, so being the county seat means that Idabel is home to the county sheriff's office, the county courthouse and jail, and various other institutions that want to be in the same town as the county level of government.
There have been stories circulated in the past that Garvin, Oklahoma was originally the county seat of McCurtain County and that the County seal was stolen and transported to Idabel in the dark of night thereby effectively stealing the county seat. Kenny Sivard, a very knowledgeable local historian tells me though that those stories are not true.
Idabel was chosen as the county seat of McCurtain County in 1907 when Oklahoma was made a state instead of being 2 separate territories, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory. The name McCurtain was chosen for the county to honor a Choctaw Native American family. Three of the McCurtain family had served as Choctaw Tribal Chiefs.
McCurtain County was once a part of Miller County, Arkansas in the early 1800's. Then it was traded to the Choctaw Indian Nation for their land in Mississippi and the tribe was moved from Mississippi to Indian Territory, starting in 1834.
That means I could have been a resident of Arkansas instead of Oklahoma if the Federal Government had not moved the Arkansas boundary so that the Choctaw Indians could have this area.
My great grandmother, Jepthy Prairlee Jordan was a Choctaw, born in Mississippi and moved to Arkansas in 1850. She married a white man from Oklahoma, James Abney Barnes and they moved to Oklahoma. I have one photo of her, a rather large white haired dark-skinned woman. I've always been told that she like to entertain by telling Indian ghost stories...
McCurtain County area belonged to the Choctaws until 1906. The Dawes Act gave Native American individuals allotments instead of all of the land being owned by the tribe as a group with no individual ownership. This happened in 1906 and then in 1907 Indian Territory (eastern Oklahoma) and the Territory of Oklahoma (western Oklahoma) were merged and admitted into the Union of the United States as the state of Oklahoma. On November 16, 1907 when President Roosevelt proclaimed our great state the 46th state to be admitted to the union, it took an act of Congress to combine the two territories and then we had 5 land runs, a land lottery and a land auction.. things haven't changed a lot in that it takes a lot of effort to find the next property owner sometimes... then and now.
Next time we'll talk about the land runs and what was going on in Idabel during the early years of Oklahoma's statehood. Growth was slow at first but it wasn't long until the population exploded... but then I'm getting ahead of myself.Please join me next time for the third post in this series of posts about the history of great and wonderful town, Idabel, Oklaoma 74745
Natchez Trace Photo courtesy of Flickr User Ken Lund
This blog post was originally posted at Integrity Real Estate Services Blog.
Looking for a home for sale in Idabel, Oklahoma? Let me Google that for you.
Judi Barrett, B.S. Edu.,
Broker, Integrity Real Estate Services, Office Address: RR 5 BOX 126, IDABEL, OK 74745 580-212-5946
Our Name Says It All.
Real Estate Services You Can Trust.
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Howdy and evening to you Judi
Judi, McCurtain County and Idabel, sure do sound like a mighty part of Oklahoma to live. And I'm sure enjoying learning about your area of the fine State of Oklahoma. You are doing such a fine job of holding your reads interest in learning even more.
Have a good one
Dale in New Hampshire
Dale,
You are so nice to stop by and read my feeble attempts at history. I do love my area though and it is rich in history. Thank you!
I love this kind of post. Thanks, Judi. It make your area ALIVE with the history. I have started a series of posts about each state. Started with Maryland. May I incorporate parts of this when I get to your state?
Judi -- this is so great... I grew up in Tulsa and never had the opportunity to visit Idabel... I remember some of the history of the land runs... but I am looking forward to the next installment.
Judi,
This is a great post on your local history. Should do well as a Localism post. :)
Steve
Judi
Thanks for sharing the history on your home town and your family both are very interesting.
Good luck and success.
Lou Ludwig
Suzanne,
I do so enjoy learning and writing about the Southeast corner of Oklahoma. History is much more fun when it's home history!
How interesting that you are going to write about all the states. I would love to visit with you about Oklahoma.
Joan,
You had Oklahoma history in high school then. Standard curriculum for all Okies, at least when I went to school. Thank you so much for reading..
Steve,
Localism, it is!
This is going to be a fun localism series and it will get more neighborhood specific as we move farther along with dates.
Lou,
Thank you for coming by and for reading.
Hope you have a tremendously great week.
Judi, Even though I live in Texas I love the history of Oklahoma and the history lessons as you have posted. I look forward to the next issue post.