Volume 11 , Issue 19

Charleston, OK 1901

On the way back to Colorado this week, we passed through Harper County, in Northwest Oklahoma, just before you get to the panhandle (or No Mans Lands). What we found in Section 10, along highway 64, was this historical marker that read:

"The East-West section line one mile South of this marker was formerly Locust Street in Charleston, Okla. The first post office was established June 18, 1901, approximately one and one-half mile south and one-half mile west of here near the center of Section 10.

It was named after Charles J. Eilerts on whose homestead it was located and who was the first postmaster and merchant in the area. The Charleston school district was organized March 27, 1902 and the first school was taught in a tent approximately two miles west of here by Edna B. Coffey.

"Travel from this area to the nearest railroad took all day with a team and wagon loaded with wheat or livestock for the market. Community roads were little more than traces in the grass, and visiting between neighbors accordingly was limited.

"A trip to town on Saturday was a social event as well as a shopping chore. However, the wagons that brought homesteaders into the territory carried musical instruments and books as well as plows, so that social progress was rapid. Before statehood in 1907 the community came to enjoy civic opportunities afforded by a lodge room, a race track, and a brass band. continued on back."

That was all on the front side of the marker. I did not get a photo of the backside of the stone marker. I will need to do that next time I'm back that way in northwest Oklahoma. OR ... If someone is out in Harper County, on Hwy 64, in Northwest Oklahoma, stop beside the highway if you see this marker and take a digital photo and send us the rest of the story.

All I could find online at Wikipedia was, "Charleston is a ghost town in Harper County, Oklahoma, United States. Some of its buildings were moved to the nearby communities of Buffalo and Selman; others remain."
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