Volume 12 , Issue 26

Wewoka, Seminole County, Oklahoma

Homer sent us this link to Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture concerning information on Wewoka, Oklahoma. Did you know that Wewoka was a Seminole word meaning "barking water?"

Wewoka was located in east-central Seminole County, at the the junction of State Highway 56 and US Highway 270. It states that Wewoka was originally located in the Seminole Nation, Indian Territory (I.T.) and was the location of the sEminole national capital.

have you ever heard stories of a "whipping tree" (pecan tree) located near the council house where Seminole and African Americans who broke the law were suspended from the tree while being whipped?

A Timeline of Events around Wewoka, Oklahoma:
* 1849 - Gopher John (a.k.a. John Horse) and other Seminole slaves were located near present Wewoka.

* 1866 - Elijah J. Brown, a white trader, was selected by the government tolead SEminole refugees from Kansas to I.T. and they settled near Wewoka where Brown established a trading post (Wewoka Trading Company, 1891) and was postmaster when the post office was established May 13, 1867.

* 1866 - Rev. James Ross Ramsey, Presbyterian missionary, founded Ramsey Mission (first school in present Seminole county.)

1867 - Federal government established a remount station nearby for soldiers traveling between Fort Gibson and Fort Sill.

* 1877 Seminole Gvoernor John F. Brown unified tribal factions and had a log house erected at Wewoka as the Seminole capitol.

* 1895 - Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway after 1902) ran its line from McAlester to Oklahoma City passing through Wewoka.

* 1897 - Seminole National Council decreed that the town lots were reserved for American Indians only.

* 1902 - Settlement of the town was opened to white settlers.

1907 - After Statehood the population was at 794.

* 1908 - Wewoka was elected as county seat in special election.

* 1910 - Population at 1,022.

* 1920 - Another election was held, because Seminole and Konawa towns people contested Wewoka as county seat. * 1923 - March 1923 Roland H. Smith drilled Wewoka's first commercial oil well (Betsy Foster Number One).

* 1927 - Seminole county courthouse was completed.

* 1928 - May 1928 an amusement park had been added for recreation near Lake Wewoka.

* 1929 - Junior college courses were offered at the high school.

* 1930 - Wewoka's population peaked at 10,401 with the oil and gas industry. Post WWII -- Wewoka lost residents.

* 1950 & 1960 - Census reported 6,747 and 5,954.
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