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    Woodward County
    Woodward County
    Woodward County
    Ebook169 pages50 minutes

    Woodward County

    By Ian D. Swart

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    About this ebook

    The first settlement in what would become Woodward County was Camp Supply, a military post that had been established in 1868 during the Indian Wars on the American frontier. In 1887, a provisioning point for the post on the Southern Kansas Railway was created and named Woodward. It was not until six years later that the area known as the Cherokee Outlet would be opened to nonnative settlement. At high noon on September 16, 1893, thousands of hopeful settlers rushed into the territory to stake their claims in this new land. On a sunny day in 1907, William Jennings Bryan spoke to a crowd of 20,000 people in the county seat, urging the ratification of the new Oklahoma Constitution. During the late 20th century, Woodward County's extensive deposits of oil led to a booming economy. In Woodward County, the lives of cowboys, lawyers, gunfighters, brothel madams, and everyday farmers intersect as a civilization rises from the open prairie.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439636718
    Woodward County
    Author

    Ian D. Swart

    Ian D. Swart is curator of Woodward�s Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum. Using photographs from the museum�s permanent collection, he traces the unique history of Woodward County and how its citizenry overcame insurmountable odds and flourished in this land of storms, sand, and sage.

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      Book preview

      Woodward County - Ian D. Swart

      noted.

      INTRODUCTION

      Woodward County, originally known as N County, was 60 miles square. It was composed of present-day Woodward County and portions of Harper, Ellis, and Woods Counties. The county was the westernmost county of the Cherokee Outlet. It bordered Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle on the west and Kansas to the north. Political pressure applied by William H. Murray during the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention resulted in the reduction of the size of Woodward County to its present boundaries.

      Before its designation as a county of Oklahoma Territory, the U.S. Cavalry had established Camp Supply in 1868 during the Indian Wars at the confluence of the Wolf Creek and Beaver River, about 13 miles northwest of present-day Woodward. It played a large part in the settlement of natives on reservations in western Oklahoma. George Armstrong Custer was stationed for a short time in what would become Woodward County. The post closed in 1894 after the area was settled by nonnatives.

      The lush grasslands of the Cherokee Outlet provided ample fodder for Texas cattle en route to railheads in Kansas during the 1870s and 1880s. The Cherokee Strip Livestock Association was created in 1883 in an effort to lease the prairie lands in the possession of the Cherokee Nation. They were successful until the federal government decided to open the Native American land for settlement.

      It was on September 16, 1893, that thousands of hopeful pioneers rushed into the territory to claim prime locations for the chance of a new beginning. Not only did settlers rush in on horses, mules, wagons, and bicycles, but they also rode trains into the territory and ran on foot to claim prime town lots.

      These hardy pioneers built northwest Oklahoma from the ground up. As no trees were readily available, they dug into the virgin soil to build homes and crude shelters until lumber could be shipped in by rail for frame houses. The railroad served as the lifeblood of the area. A town’s success depended on its proximity to the rail. Those fortunate enough to lie close to the railroad were given a chance to survive with a steady supply of visitors and traders passing through. Rail lines were so important that towns might even pick up and literally move to a track that bypassed them. It was the railroad that brought life to the open prairie and created the town of Woodward in 1887.

      Soon after the opening of the outlet, business centers along wide main streets sprang up across the prairie landscape. With the creation of new towns came general merchandise stores, banks, post offices, and lawyers’ offices.

      Before statehood, Woodward city was home to 15 brothels and 23 saloons. They provided a never-ending source of excitement, especially when disagreements led to gunplay, such as the 1895 shoot-out of John E. (Jack) Love and Temple Houston against brothers Ed and John Jennings.

      The disagreement began in the courtroom the morning of October 8. On trial were several men accused of stealing a keg of beer from a railroad car near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) depot. Houston, the famous son of Texas revolutionary Sam Houston, appeared with county attorney Smith for the prosecution. The Jennings brothers appeared for the defense. During examination of evidence, an argument over minor points occurred, and Houston suggested Ed Jennings of being grossly ignorant of the law. Slamming his fist on the table, Ed declared Houston to be a damned liar and attempted to slap his face. Guns were drawn, but those present in the courtroom intervened. Court was adjourned until the next morning so the men would have an opportunity to cool off. But this was not to be. While Houston and exsheriff Love were having a friendly drink in one of Woodward’s saloons, the brothers Jennings walked in.

      A Woodward dispatch to the territorial press on October 9 gave this account of Woodward’s most famous gunfight:

      Last night about 10 o’clock, this town was aroused by a fusillade of shots in one of the principal saloons here, known as the Cabinet, and owned by Jack Garvey. Hastening there the spectators beheld lawyer Ed Jennings weltering in blood, his brain oozing from a bullet hole in the left side of his head, his hand still clinging to a smoking revolver, half concealed by his prostrate form.

      Lawyer John Jennings was fleeing up the street with one arm limp and dangling by his side from which the blood poured in streams.

      Lawyer Temple Houston and ex-Sheriff Jack Love were on their way to the sheriff’s office to surrender their persons to his custody.

      Neither Love nor Houston were wounded, although several bullets passed through their clothes and hats.

      Love and Houston later stood trial on the second floor of Peter Martinson’s building (known as the Opera House) for the murder of Ed Jennings. They were acquitted as it was found they acted in self-defense.

      By the dawn of the 20th century, women in Woodward County had put up with enough of the rowdy cow towns they found themselves living in. In order to make Woodward more civilized, they established literary societies and other social organizations in

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