Historic Shawnee: The History of Shawnee & Pottawatomie County

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HISTORIC SHAWNEE 

The History of 

Shawnee & Pottawatomie County 

by Bob Burke and Eric Dabney 

HPNbooks 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS 

3 Shawnee 

33 Neighboring Communities 

38 Bibliography and Suggested Reading 

39 Sharing the Heritage 

50 About the Authors 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2014 HPNbooks 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to HPNbooks, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254, (800) 749-9790, www.hpnbooks.com. 

ISBN: 978-1-939300-60-7 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2014936806 

Historic Shawnee: The History of Shawnee & Pottawatomie County 

authors: Bob Burke 

Eric Dabney 

contributing writers for sharing the heritage: Claire Dabney, Eric Dabney 

HPNbooks 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Lou Ann Murphy 

administration: Donna M. Mata 

Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart 

Evelyn Hart 

Glenda Tarazon Krouse 

Tony Quinn 

2 ✦ H I S T O R I C S H A W N E E : T h e H i s t o r y o f S h a w n e e & P o t t a w a t o m i e C o u n t y

SHAWNEE 

The bold and exciting history of Shawnee began thousands of years ago in prehistoric times. 

Scientists have interpreted nearly seventy archaeological sites in Pottawatomie County to prove 

the existence of visits by roving bands of prehistoric hunters as long ago as in the Paleo period, 

prior to 6,000 B.C. Many sites reveal the lifestyle of visiting Plains Indians in more recent history 

from 1,000 to 1,500 A.D. 

✧ 

Above and below: History is captured 

in downtown Shawnee, 2013. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 3

✧ 

Top: A winter wigwam is nestled in an 

outcrop near McLoud. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ANNA WOX 

LEWIS COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Above: Shawnee Chief Kish-Kal-Wa 

was memorialized in this painting by 

Charles Bird King in Washington, D.C. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MCKENNEY- 

HALL COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Opposite, top: Dancers gather at the 

twenty-second annual Potawatomi 

Pow Wow in Shawnee in June 1995. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHESTER 

COWEN COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Opposite, bottom: Delegates of the 

Absentee Shawnee Tribe attend events 

in Washington, D.C., in 1904. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHILOCCO 

FARMER AND STOCK GROWER COLLECTION, 

OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

The first visitors to the area who recorded 

their experiences were American explorers. 

Major Stephen H. Long, a U.S. Army 

topographical engineer, traveled through the 

county after he was appointed in 1920 to 

head an expedition to look for sources of 

the Arkansas, Canadian, and Red Rivers. 

Major Long’s description of the area is 

contained in his journals. 

The first and most graphic description of 

the area came from Washington Irving when he 

visited the county in 1832. Best known for 

writing short stories such as The Legend of 

Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, Irving 

explored the American West and wrote the 

world’s first travel book, A Tour on the Prairies. 

In the autumn of 1832, Irving and his party 

had a difficult time moving through the thick 

oak trees near Shawnee. He wrote: 

The Cross Timber is about forty miles in 

breadth, and stretches over a rough country of 

rolling hills, covered with scattered tracts of 

post-oak and black-jack; with some intervening 

valleys, which, at proper seasons, would afford 

good pasturage. It is very much cut up by deep 

ravines, which, in the rainy seasons, are the 

beds of temporary streams, tributary to the 

main rivers, and these are called “branches.”… 

Unfortunately, we entered it too late in the 

season. The herbage was parched; the foliage 

of the scrubby forests was withered; the whole 

woodland prospect, as far as the eye could 

reach, had a brown and arid hue. The fires made 

on the prairies by the Indian hunters, had 

frequently penetrated these forests, sweeping 

in light transient flames along the dry grass, 

scorching and calcining the lower twigs and 

branches of the trees, and leaving them black 

and hard, so as to tear the flesh of man 

and horse that had to scramble through them. 

I shall not easily forget the mortal toil, and the 

vexations of flesh and spirit, that we underwent 

occasionally, in our wanderings through the 

Cross Timber. It was like struggling through 

forests of cast iron. 

The area continued to be used as a popular 

American Indian hunting ground for the next 

few decades until white settlers began applying 

political pressure to open more American 

Indian lands to settlement and move the 

native residents westward. In the 1830s, the 

Five Tribes, the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, 

Seminole, and Cherokee were forced to give up 

ancestral lands and move to Indian Territory. 

After the Civil War, the Sac and Fox were 

deeded land in the Shawnee area and were 

soon followed by the Kickapoo, Shawnee, and 

Pottawatomi tribes. 

The Citizen Potawatomi are Algonquianspeaking 

people who originally occupied the 

Great Lakes region of the United States. 

Originally, the Potawatomi were part of 

the Three Fires Council made up of the 

Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa, collectively 

known as Anishnabek peoples. By the end of 

the eighteenth century, tribal villages were 

being displaced by white settlements, ultimately 

ushering in the American treaty era. 


Through a series of treaties, beginning in 

1789, their tribal estate equating to more 

than eighty-nine million acres was gradually 

reduced in size. The federal government 

continued to reduce Potawatomi land 

holding by removing them to smaller reserves 

in Iowa, Missouri, and finally Kansas in 

1846. In 1861, the Potawatomi in Kansas 

was officially divided by way of treaty. 

The treaty required its signers to surrender 

their tribal membership and adopt U.S. 

citizenship, in-turn creating the foundation 

for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. It was a 

decision that forever shaped the culture and 

lives of the nation’s people and subsequently 

led to their eventual migration to Indian 

Territory. Today, the Citizen Potawatomi 

Nation is 1 of 39 federally recognized Native 

American tribes with headquarters in the state 

of Oklahoma. 

The Shawnee people who came to the 

Shawnee area are an Algonquian-speaking 

people from the eastern United States. During 

the Revolutionary War, many Shawnee moved 

from Ohio to Missouri and eventually to 

Kansas. They were removed to Indian Territory 

in 1867. In 1936 the Absentee Shawnee Tribe 

of Oklahoma, headquartered in Shawnee, 

gained federal recognition. 

In 1871, a Quaker mission was established 

on the present site of the Mission Hill Memorial 

Hospital. A school was opened by the first 

missionary, Joseph Newsom, the following 

year. Historian Hobert Ragland wrote: 

Lumber was transported from the Sac and 

Fox agency and a two-room frame structure 

was erected. The building was 14 feet by 

28 feet and divided into two rooms, one of 

which was used as a living quarters for 

the missionary and his family, the other 

as a class room. In August, Newsom made 

his report to the agent. Fifteen pupils had 

been enrolled for a period of fifty three 

days, with an average attendance of twelve. 

Three of the pupils were of Cherokee parents 

and could speak some of the English 

language. These had been in school before. 

The rest of the pupils were of Shawnee parents 

and could speak no English and had never 

been in school. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 5

“Shawnee” is an Algonquian word shawon, meaning “southerner.” 

✧ 

Right: This three-page letter was 

written from General J. W. Denver 

to Hiram Price, U.S. Commissioner of 

Indian Affairs, regarding the condition 

of affairs in part of Indian Territory 

occupied by Potawatomie and 

Absentee Shawnee Tribes, 1883. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ISRAEL G. VORE 

COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Below: This photograph of the 

chief of the Shawnee Tribe, “Uncle 

Joe” Ellis, was taken in 1884 shortly 

before his death at the age of ninety. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE THOMAS- 

FOREMAN HOME COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Opposite, top: Shawnee Town, 

Indian Territory, 1878. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 

THE MRS. JOHN R. WILLIAMS COLLECTION, 


Opposite, bottom: Restored in 1999, 

the cabin of Henry G. and Etta Ray 

Beard was the first home built in 

Shawnee following the land run of 

September 21, 1891. It was originally 

located near Kickapoo and Highland 

Streets and was later moved to 

Woodland Park. It was moved to its 

permanent location beside the historic 

Santa Fe Depot Museum at the turn 

of the twentieth century. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ERIC DABNEY. 

By 1876 a post office and trading post were 

established a short distance west of the mission 

at what became known as Shawnee Town. The 

post office, named for the Shawnee tribe who 

shared a reservation with the Pottawatomie, 

operated until 1892. 

About the time the American Indian tribes 

were settling into their new land, cattle drovers 

from Texas pushed their herds through Texas 

to markets in Kansas. The West Shawnee Trail 

crossed near present day Kickapoo and Main 

Streets. Railroads followed the cattle drives. As 

tracks were laid, more political pressure was 

applied to allow permanent white settlement 

in a region that the federal government had 

promised to the tribes. 

President Benjamin Harrison succumbed to 

the pressure and opened much of central 

Oklahoma to white settlement through a series 

of land runs. The land runs were possible when 

the government seized the tribal lands and then 

allotted individual tracts to tribal members. 

Shawnee and 900,000 acres in surrounding 

counties were opened on September 22, 1891. 

It was the first of the land runs in which white 

settlers were allowed to take ownership of land 

previously occupied by American Indians. 

Among the first residents were Etta B. Ray, 

Henry Beard, John Beard, J. T. Farrall, and 

Elijah Ally. At a loosely-called meeting of the 

new landowners, there was much debate about 

what to call the new town. A compromise was 

reached and “Shawnee” became the name of the 

town that literally was birthed in a few hours 

after the land run opened the area for settlement. 

Etta Ray and Henry Beard were married 

and built Shawnee’s first house, a log cabin. 

Within a few months, John Beard and other 

settlers began trying to lure a railroad to lay 

tracks through the area. He thought any key 

to the growth of Shawnee was a railroad. After 

all, Tecumseh had already been named as 

the county seat of “B” County in Oklahoma 

Territory. The Shawnee post office opened for 

business on April 2, 1892, the same year that 

citizens of the county overwhelmingly voted to 

rename the county, Pottawatomie, in honor of 

the Potawatomi tribe. 

By the fall of 1894, the Choctaw, Oklahoma 

and Gulf Railroad Company decided to pass 

through Shawnee. The route from McAlester 


to Oklahoma City was completed on July 4, 

1895. The track crossed Henry Beard’s farm. 

Shawnee’s future became brighter when the 

railroad moved its main repair shops from 

McAlester to Shawnee and the local work force 

grew quickly. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 7

L I F E I S C A P T U R E D B Y A P H O T O G R A P H E R 

I N D O W N T O W N S H A W N E E , O K L A H O M A T E R R I T O R Y , I N 1 8 9 4 . 

✧ 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA 



✧ 



S h a w n e e ✦ 9

✧ 

Right: Sawyer’s Map of Oklahoma 

and Indian Territory was printed 

in 1894. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA 


Below: Cotton picking near 

Shawnee, 1916. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE 

CHESTER COWEN COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Opposite, top: Bales of cotton are 

loaded onto boxcars in Shawnee, 

c. 1900. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DELMAS L. FORD 


Opposite, bottom: An early view of 

the cotton gin and yards of the Gulf 

Compress Plant at Shawnee, 1906. 



The population of Shawnee grew ten-fold 

to 2,500 from 1892 to 1896. The early years of 

the twentieth century brought an economic 

boom to Shawnee that easily kept pace with 

Oklahoma City. Shawnee was in the middle of 

rich agricultural lands that produced cotton, 

potatoes, and peaches. By 1902, Shawnee had 

seven cotton gins, two cotton compresses, and 

the largest cotton-seed oil mill in the Southwest. 

Old records reveal that between March 1901 

and March 1902, 375 railroad cards of cotton 

product and 150,000 bales of cotton were 

shipped from Shawnee. Wagon yards, feed 

stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, and 

even an overall factory were built to serve the 

farmers as they brought their crops to market. 

1 0 ✦ H I S T O R I C S H A W N E E : T h e H i s t o r y o f S h a w n e e & P o t t a w a t o m i e C o u n t y

S h a w n e e ✦ 1 1

In 1902, the Choctaw Railroad was absorbed 

by the Rock Island Railroad. A station was built 

at the foot of Union Street just before the Santa 

Fe built one of the most architecturally striking 

railroad stations in the county. The Katy 

Railroad also built a Shawnee station. The 

Chamber of Commerce estimated in 1907 that 

42 passenger trains and 65 freight trains 

arrived in Shawnee EACH DAY. 


✧ 

Opposite, top: Horse-drawn carts and 

wagons are loaded alongside the 

Rock Island Rail Line. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ALVIN RUCKER 


Opposite, center: The C.R.I. & P. 

Yards at Shawnee in 1907. 



Main Street, surrounded on three sides 

by railroad tracks, became the center of 

commercial activity in Shawnee. There was 

no formal town square so retail businesses, 

garment factories, cotton gins, opera houses, 

banks, and hotels vied for the best spots 

on Main Streets and other thoroughfares 

that led to the central business district. 

In 1903, a private developer built a streetcar 

system. Tracks ran down the middle of 

Broadway and turned left on Georgia for 

a stop near present Oklahoma Baptist 

University. Other lines ran to separate parts of 

the town. 

Early residents enjoyed baseball games, 

horse racing at the racetrack west of the city, 

and concerts that ranged from opera to 

bluegrass music. 

Opposite, bottom: Crew members of 

the C.R.I. & P. line at Shawnee in 

January, 1910. 


FREDERICK S. BARDE COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Above: Early day Shawnee. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ALBERTYPE 


Below: Downtown Shawnee 

before 1912. 


ORA A. CHRISNEY COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


S h a w n e e ✦ 1 3

✧ 

Right: Indian School students gathered 

for this photograph, c. 1902. 



Center: Buildings from around the 

Indian School. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PAUL J. RIDDLE 


Bottom, left: Shawnee Hospital, 1911. 



Bottom, right: The Indian School 

campus in Shawnee, 1911. 




H O M E O N T H E R A N G E 

Buried in Fairview Cemetery is Dr. Brewster 

Higley who died in Shawnee in 1911, years 

before his song, Home on the Range, became 

an American frontier ballad. He first submitted 

the words to the song to a newspaper in 1873. 

Higley never saw a printed copy of the song or 

received a penny in royalty. 

✧ 

Above: This Oklahoma Historical Society marker at Shawnee’s Fairview Cemetery commemorates the 

life of Dr. Brewster Higley, the composer of Home on the Range. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SHELLEY DABNEY. 

Left: The gravesite of the Dr. Brewster Higley family includes a smaller granite marker celebrating his ballad, 

Home on the Range. 


The Carnegie Library was built at Woodland 

Park, two blocks north of Main Street, in 

1905. The park was home to many public 

speeches given by such noted orators as 

William Jennings Bryan. The early residents’ 

recreational needs were met at Benson Park, 

midway between Shawnee and Tecumseh. 

The park was accessible by the streetcars 

that ran between the two towns. Opened 

at statehood, Benson Park had a skating 

rink, roller coaster, picnic areas, and a 

swimming pool. 

✧ 

Shawnee’s stately Carnegie Library. 



S h a w n e e ✦ 1 5

T W O M E M O R A B L E S T A T E H I S T O R I C A L M A R K E R S 

Jim Thorpe Birthplace No. 2, located on Pottawatomie County road northeast of the 

community of Johnson. James Francis Thorpe, a Sac and Fox, was born as Wa-tho-huck 

“bright path.” He dominated the 1912 Olympics, winning both the decathlon and pentathlon. 

He played major league baseball and professional football and was the first president of 

the National Football League. The Associated Press voted him the world’s greatest athlete of the 

first half of the twentieth century. 

✧ 

Left: An early study of the 

famous Charles Banks Wilson 

painting that remains among 

the historic artwork in the 

rotunda of the Oklahoma 

State Capitol. 


CHARLES BANKS WILSON COLLECTION, 


Right: Jim Thorpe with 

young people. 



Shawnee Milling Company, on U.S.-177 in Shawnee. Founded in 1891, 

the mill moved to its present site in 1895. L. Lloyd Ford purchased in the mill 

in 1906 and was a leader in flour milling in the state for a half century. The mill 

burned in 1934 but was rebuilt the following year. 

✧ 

Above: Shawnee Milling Company’s “Shawnee Best” flour, 1957. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Right: Shawnee Milling Company, c. 1949. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 


A meeting in Shawnee in August 1906 

played a pivotal role in the future state of 

Oklahoma. Labor leaders met in the city 

and passed a series of resolutions called the 

“Shawnee Demands.” The Demands read like 

a Bill of Rights and played a major role in 

the election of an overwhelming majority of 

Democratic candidates to the Constitutional 

Convention that adopted nearly 100 percent of 

the Demands as part of the state constitution. 

Among the Demands were right of initiative and 

referendum, liberal access to the courts to provide 

a remedy for injury or death, shorter work 

hours, a three-member corporation commission 

to regulate railroads and telephone companies, 

compulsory education and free textbooks, 

a mine inspector, a commissioner of labor, a 

homestead exemption law, and a three-member 

state tax commission. The Demands also called 

for the prohibition of child labor and political 

control of workers, both provisions that ended 

up in the state constitution. 

✧ 

Above: The passenger station of the 

M.K. & T. Rail Line in Shawnee, 

c. 1907-08. 


STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION, OKLAHOMA 


Below: Shawnee’s City Hall and 

Fire Department. 



S h a w n e e ✦ 1 7


Local leaders offered Shawnee as the site 

for the capital city to replace the traditional 

territorial capital of Guthrie. But Shawnee 

finished third, behind Oklahoma City and 

Guthrie, in a 1910 statewide election to replace 

Guthrie as the state capital. 

Another longtime battle was between 

Shawnee and Tecumseh for the title of county 

seat of Pottawatomie County. At statehood, the 

state constitution designated Tecumseh as the 

county seat. In 1909 county voters approved 

the move of the county seat to Shawnee. 

However a law suit was filed and the Oklahoma 

Supreme Court ruled that bribery had been 

involved in the election and vacated the 

removal to Shawnee. 

✧ 

Opposite page and above: 

Benson Park. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE KENT RUTH 


Below: Main Street looking west 

across downtown Shawnee, 1896. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FRED HUSTON 


S h a w n e e ✦ 1 9

✧ 

Above: The Cotton Day celebration in 

downtown Shawnee, 1906. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE W. A. JOSLYN 


Below: Dr. John Raley. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BARNEY 

HILLERMAN COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


In 1911 county voters went to the polls and 

reaffirmed Tecumseh as their choice. Tecumseh 

remained county seat until 1930 when 

Governor William J. Holloway was presented 

with a petition with 6,700 signatures calling 

for another election. This time, a record 

number of voters gave Shawnee the necessary 

two-thirds majority by a slim margin of 

90 votes. Tecumseh objected and a recount 

reduced the margin to 11 votes. The Supreme 

Court sided with Shawnee in a new round of 

litigation and county officers worked out of 

downtown office buildings until the county 

courthouse was built with New Deal funds in 

Woodland Park in 1934. It was dedicated by 

Governor E. W. Marland the following year. 

Even though Shawnee lost out as the county 

seat and state capital in early years, the city’s 

reputation and citizens’ quality of life was 

buoyed by the establishment of two institutions 

of higher learning. 

In 1910 the Oklahoma Baptist General 

Convention accepted the city of Shawnee’s offer 

of sixty acres of land and $100,000 for the 

first building of a statewide Baptist University. 

Classes began on September 11, 1911, at the 

First Baptist Church and city-owned buildings. 

Operations were suspended due to lack of 

space and financial problems from 1912 to 

1915, when OBU came back strong. Under 

the twenty-eight-year leadership of its 

president, Dr. John W. Raley, OBU became a 

four-year coeducational institution, with the 

establishment of the state’s first baccalaureate 

nursing program. OBU’s preeminence as an 

excellent institution of higher education has 

been recognized far and wide. 

In 1913, Shawnee became the new home of 

what began in 1875 as Sacred Heart Mission 

near the present southern Pottawatomie 

County border. Benedictine monks and the 

Sisters of Mercy taught boys and girls in 

advanced studies in philosophy and theology 

give what is now known as St. Gregory’s 

University claim as the oldest institution of 

higher learning in Oklahoma. 


✧ 

Top: This postcard was sent on 

August 24, 1904 and is inscribed, 

“Does this look like the old place? 

Somewhat different from 1895—Eh? 

Watch us in 1905—25,000!” 



Center: An early postcard published 

by Tichnor depicts the Pottawatomie 

County Courthouse in Shawnee. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DON HAGAR 


Bottom, left: Benedictine Hall at 

St. Gregory’s, 2013. In November 

2011, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake 

resulted in the loss of the building’s 

four trademark turrets. The school 

“turned the natural disaster into 

a rallying point. More than 3,400 

alumni, students, friends and donors 

offered support so the grand old 

building could be restored to its 

original glory. Reparations on 

Benedictine Hall began in March 

2013. The university hopes to have 

all the restoration work finished in 

time for Benedictine Hall’s 

100th birthday in 2015.” 


Bottom, right: The entrance to 

St. Gregory’s in Shawnee, 2013. 


S h a w n e e ✦ 2 1

When the high school closed in 1965, 

St. Gregory’s transitioned into a coeducation 

junior college, added the Mabee-Gerrer 

Museum of Art, the Sarkeys Performing Arts 

Center, and other programs that vaulted 

the institution back to its founders vision of a 

four-year university with accreditation to grant 

bachelor’s degrees. 

✧ 

Top: Sacred Heart Mission’s 

baseball team. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ALICE B. DAVIS 


Above: Sacred Heart Mission’s 

school band. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ALICE B. DAVIS 


Right: A postcard memorializes the 

Catholic University of Oklahoma. It 

was postmarked December 21, 1919. 



Sacred Heart’s move to Shawnee was 

prompted after a devastating fire destroyed 

almost every building on the Sacred Heart 

original campus. The monks built temporary 

buildings and began looking for a new location. 

Because of its potential growth and forwardthinking 

civic leaders, Shawnee was chosen for 

the college and construction on a five-story, 

Tudor Gothic-style main structure began in 

1913. The school’s original corporate name 

was Catholic University of Oklahoma, but 

the school became commonly known as 

St. Gregory’s after its dedication under the 

patronage of St. Gregory the Great. For many 

years, both high school and college courses 

were offered. 


Even though oil was not discovered directly 

in Shawnee, the town benefited commercially 

from oil fields that were developed near 

Earlsboro, St. Louis, and Asher in the 1920s. 

During the oil boom, Shawnee’s population skyrocketed 

as residential construction, oil-related 

businesses, and the entertainment industry 

were stimulated. Shawnee was close enough to 

the oil fields to attract consumer spending. In 

the height of the boom, when the county was 

producing 120,000 barrels of oil a day, the 

Shawnee Chamber of Commerce advertised itself 

as “The Hub of the World’s Largest Oil Fields.” 

✧ 

Above: This photograph, 

printed by Willis Brook’s Studio in 

Shawnee in 1928, simply noted the 

plentiful “gardens and orchards of 

Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.” 

—Edd Roberts. 

Left: Tecumseh native James D. Seay 

stands at his cornfield, 1910. 


FREDERICK S. BARDE COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Below: An oil well near Shawnee 

spouts “black gold” into the 

Oklahoma sky. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHESTER R. 

COWEN COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


In addition to large railroad shops, Shawnee’s 

economy for decades rested on agriculture and 

oil. In the heyday of cotton, gins did a thriving 

business processing area farmers’ crops. A 

common site on Main Street was stacks of cotton 

bales, mule sellers, peanut vendors, and peach 

growers. The first electric-powered cotton gin 

was built. Potatoes, orchards, and truck gardens 

grew produce and fruit. The elevators of the 

Shawnee Milling Company dominated the 

skyline of downtown. By the 1930s alfalfa and 

pecans also were important crops in the area. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 2 3

the oil boom. Main Street entertainment venues 

attracted large audiences. A convention hall 

featured singing and vaudeville stars of the era 

and an opera house on Market and Main was 

the venue for many memorable events. 

✧ 

Clockwise, starting from the top, left: 

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum 

of Art, 2013. 


Shawnee’s commercial district was ready for 

the influx of people. Often people from cities 

near and far would take the train to Shawnee, 

stay in the Norwood hotel, built in 1903, and 

shop in the stores on Main Street. A second 

hotel, the Aldridge, was built in 1928 because of 

Sarkeys Performing Arts Center, 2013. 


The Bison at night, in the late 1930s. 



The Ritz was remodeled in the 

mid-twentieth century and is shown 

here in 1975. 



Another view of the Bison, late 1930s. 




✧ 

Early in the twentieth century, 

Shawnee was the home of a number 

of theaters. Clockwise, starting from 

the top, left: 

The Criterion in 1939. 



The Avon in 1935. 



The original Hornbeck Theater in 

downtown Shawnee in July, 1947. 



Oklahoma native and actor 

Dale Robertson stopped outside the 

Hornbeck for autographs in 1965. 



S h a w n e e ✦ 2 5

P R O F E S S I O N A L B A S E B A L L I N S H A W N E E 

One of the great legacies of Shawnee is its connection to 

America’s pastime. The town became one of the first major 

league and minor league baseball spring training grounds in 

the late 1920s for the St. Louis Cardinals. The great Dizzy Dean 

reported to Shawnee in the spring of 1930. 

From 1904 to 1957, Shawnee had a professional baseball 

team, serving as a farm league team of major league clubs for 

fifteen seasons. The longest stretch was with the Shawnee Hawks 

of the Sooner State League from 1950 to 1957. In 1954, as the 

Class D farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Shawnee won the 

Sooner State League regular season pennant. Future major leaguer, 

Don Demeter of Oklahoma City, played for the 1953 Hawks. 

Shawnee’s first manager in the Sooner State League was 

Shawnee High School graduate Kelly Wingo who played for 

several leading Oklahoma semi-pro teams and served for 

decades as a baseball umpire in the Shawnee area. 

✧ 

Right: President Franklin Roosevelt, 

July 9, 1938, in Oklahoma City. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE J. W. TATOM 


Bottom, left: A local grocery store in 

Shawnee was washed into a creek 

after the tornado in April of 1928. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GEROLDINE 

KIRKLAND COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Bottom, right: A house near Shawnee 

is transported onto railroad tracks by 

a tornado that passed through the 

area in April of 1928. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GEROLDINE 

KIRKLAND COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Even before the Great Depression of the 1930s, 

Shawnee’s economy was negatively impacted by 

a prolonged strike of railroad workers in 1922 

that hampered growth of any railroad-related 

jobs in the city. Also, the boll weevil and dry 

weather drastically cut the cotton crop as 

agricultural production declined as a whole. 

With the stock market crash of 1929, and 

the following economic downtown, Shawnee 

suffered mightily along with the rest of 

Oklahoma and the nation. The survival of the 

city’s economy was greatly helped by President 

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New 

Deal programs that resulted 

in the construction of a new 

county courthouse, a municipal 

auditorium, a city swimming 

pool, the high school football 

stadium, the Deer Creek reservoir, 

and several elementary 

schools. The addition of the 

federally-subsidized jobs helped 

compensate for the loss of the 

Rock Island repair shops. 

World War II, and especially 

the construction of Tinker Air 

Force Base in nearby Midwest 

City, benefited Shawnee. At certain points in the 

second half of the twentieth century, as many as 

3,000 Shawnee residents were employed at 

Tinker. Other major manufacturing concerns 

provided valuable jobs in the 1950s and 

beyond. Jonco built aviation products and had 

as many as 1,000 workers in 1958. The Sylvania 

Corporation employed another 1,000 workers 

producing tubes and electrical parts. The 

Shawnee Milling Company rebuilt its plant after 

a fire in the 1930s and increased its workforce 

to 300 by 1960. 


I M P A C T I N G 

O K L A H O M A 

Shawnee has produced two citizens who greatly 

impacted the history of Oklahoma. Louise Funk Fluke 

designed Oklahoma’s official state flag. Brad Henry 

was elected Oklahoma’s twenty-fifth governor and 

served until 2011. 

✧ 

Top, left and right: A granite marker 

commemorates the life and work of 

Louise Funk Fluke near downtown 

Shawnee. 


Left: Oklahoma Governor 

Brad Henry. 



Below: The Fairview Cemetery 

in Shawnee is the final resting place 

of many of the county’s luminaries, 

including Louise Funk Fluke and 

Dr. Brewster Higley. 


S h a w n e e ✦ 2 7

✧ 

Below, left and right: Early 

photographs of Shawnee’s historic 

Santa Fe Passenger Depot. 



Bottom, left and right: Shown here 

in 2013, the depot now serves as a 

museum commemorating the life and 

times of the historic area. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ERIC DABNEY. 

Opposite, top: An aerial view of the 

Shawnee Municipal Airport. 


GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION, 


Opposite, bottom: Citizen Potawatomi 

Nation Cultural Heritage Center 

in 2013. 


Since the 1960s, Shawnee’s economic base 

changed from agricultural to a commercial, 

industrial, and service economy. The city still 

serves as a significant bedroom community for 

employers in Oklahoma, but Shawnee stands on 

its own as a major economic force in the region. 

In addition to promoting economic development, 

Shawnee leaders are enormously interested 

in preserving the city’s heritage. The city’s 

unique limestone depot with a sixty-foot turret 

takes on the slight appearance of a castle, contrasting 

sharply with surrounding structures. It 

was built in 1902 and placed on the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1979 the 

Pottawatomie County Historical Society began 

restoration of the depot after it had been vacant 

for two decades. The building was renovated 

into a railroad and countywide museum which 

opened in May 1982. The museum contains 

many historical artifacts from Shawnee’s past. 

Not only is local history on display in 

Shawnee. The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art on 

the campus of St. Gregory’s University is home 

to the only Egyptian mummy on display in 

Oklahoma. The Heart of Oklahoma Exposition 

Center opened in 1981 and contains a large area 

of exhibit space, an indoor arena that seats 1,000, 

and an outdoor arena seating 7,500. Since 1993, 

the center has hosted the International Finals 

Youth Rodeo, the richest youth rodeo in the 

world. Each year, more than 1,100 young riders 

from around the world register for the event. 

The Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the ninth 

largest American Indian tribe in the nation is 

headquartered between Shawnee and Tecumseh. 

Their Firelake Casino is nearby and employs 

more than 2,000 people. 

The headquarters of the Absentee-Shawnee 

is also based in Shawnee. The tribe operates 

its own housing authority, smoke shops, and 

a casino, the Thunderbird Casino, located east 

of Norman. 

Other major casinos in the area are available 

to the 30,481 people who lived in Shawnee 

in 2013 and to thousands of visitors from 

Oklahoma and other states. Offering small 

town charm with big city amenities, Shawnee 

presents national brand restaurants as well as 


longtime family-owned dining spots. A Chamber 

of Commerce website proclaims, “Shawnee is 

rich in textures of Norman Rockwellian, frecklefaced 

times, with downtown streets still paved 

with brick and memories.” 

The Shawnee Regional Airport, originally 

built as a U.S. Navy Air Base in 1942, features 

a 6,000-foot asphalt lighted runway. In 2011 

the City of Shawnee opened a new airport 

terminal building, a modern, two-story facility. 

At the dedication, Governor Mary Fallin, from 

nearby Tecumseh, praised Shawnee officials for 

their determination to move forward to update 

the airport to attract more jobs to the area. 

At the southwest edge of the airport is a 

Japanese International Peace Garden honoring 

the cooperation between Shawnee and its sister 

city, Nikaho, Japan. The sister city relationship 

was established in 1987 when a Japanese 

manufacturing company, TDK, opened a factory 

in Shawnee. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 2 9

F A M O U S S H A W N E E N A T I V E S 

Brad Pitt—actor 

Brad Henry—former governor of Oklahoma 

Robert Henry—former federal judge and current president of Oklahoma 

City University 

Leroy Gordon Cooper—chosen as one of America’s first seven astronauts 

Dan Boren—former Oklahoma congressman 

James Bridges—screenwriter and director 

Patrick Cobbs—running back for the Miami Dolphins 

Melodie Crittenden—singer 

Wade Hayes—country singer 

Darrien Gordon—football star for Stanford University and four NFL teams 

✧ 

Above: Leroy Gordon Cooper stands with Senator Robert Kerr (left) 

and Kerr’s administrative assistant, Carter Bradley. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CARTER BRADLEY COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 


Right: This massive mural honoring the life and work of astronaut 

and hometown hero Leroy Gordon Cooper stands at the corner of 

Main and Beard Streets in downtown Shawnee, 2013. 


✧ 

Opposite, top and bottom: Shawnee’s 

flourishing and vibrant downtown 

include a number of its original 

historic movie theaters operating in 

the twenty-first century—The Ritz 

and The Hornbeck. 


Shawnee hosts more than 200 special events 

each year. There are unique destinations such 

as the Shawnee Maze & Pumpkin Patch Festival 

each fall at the Mikles Family Farm. The annual 

Pilots & Pancakes Fly-In and Air Show is held 

at the Shawnee Regional Airport. The Shawnee 

Convention & Visitor’s Bureau was created in 

1994 as a dedicated tourism marketing agency. 

A lodging tax was passed to permanently fund 

the effort that is a joint venture between the 

City of Shawnee and the Shawnee Chamber 

of Commerce. The award-winning agency 

promotes the tourism industry which adds 

nearly $70 million annually to the economy, 

including over $1 million in local tax receipts 

and $8 million in payroll. Tourism supports 

more than 500 jobs in the area. 

Shawnee is home to numerous cultural 

attractions. The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art is 

one of the oldest museums in the state and 

houses Egyptian, Roman, and Greek artifacts, 

art from the Middle Ages and Renaissance 

though the early twentieth century and Native 

American, African, Oceanic, and Eastern 

cultural artifacts. The Santa Fe Depot Museum 

offers a glimpse into the county’s past. The 

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Center 

features archives, a museum collection, 

language classes, and other attractions focused 

on the Potawatomi Nation. In addition, 

Shawnee is home to many art classes, art and 

music festivals, and other cultural events each 

year. Live dramatic performances can been seen 

at the award-winning Shawnee Little Theatre or 

the oldest, live theatre operating in Oklahoma, 

the Ritz Theatre. 

For recreation, Shawnee offers parks, trails, 

golf courses, and lakes. The City of Shawnee 

maintains Shawnee Twin Lakes west of the 

city. The Woodland Veteran’s Memorial Park 


was first built in 1905 and originally featured 

fountains and sunken gardens. The park 

features a swimming pool area, a veteran’s 

memorial, tennis courts, playground areas, and 

a miniature version of The Statue of Liberty. 

Shawnee is home to four wellness facilities— 

the Troy and Dollie Smith Family YMCA; 

the Mabee Aerobic Center, on the campus of 

St. Gregory’s University; the Recreation and 

Wellness Center, on the campus of Oklahoma 

Baptist University; and Firelake Fitness Center, 

operated by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 

Throughout its history, Shawnee has offered 

a well-rounded program of education. An 

excellent public school system and two private 

schools provide secondary education. In recent 

years, Shawnee voters have approved more 

than $10 million in bond issues for improvements 

in school facilities, including a new 

state-of-the art middle school. Shawnee High 

School provides more than $1 million each 

year in scholarship money to graduating seniors. 

The public school system has produced 

more than a dozen National Merit or 

Commended Scholars in the last few years. 

The Gordon Cooper Technology Center is 

one of the state’s premier vocational/technical/ 

technology training centers that train local residents 

in skills required by employers needing 

their services. 

S h a w n e e ✦ 3 1

A S H A W N E E F I R S T 

Troy Smith opened the first Sonic Drive-In prototype as the Top Hat Drive-In 

in 1953. He changed the name to Sonic, and the rest is history. In 2005, 

Shawnee became home to the 3,000th Sonic Drive-In, now a staple in the fast 

food business nationwide. 

The city is blessed with three colleges 

and universities. St. Gregory’s University is a 

four-year accredited Catholic university with 

an outstanding record of preparing students to 

further their education. Family of Faith College 

is a four year, non-profit, non-denominational 

college that offers programs in ministry, 

management, and education. 

Oklahoma Baptist University is a four-year 

accredited university offering more than eighty 

areas of study. In 2013, for the twentieth 

consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report 

named OBU as Oklahoma’s highest-ranked 

college in “Best Regional Colleges.” OBU 

President David W. Whitlock said, “These 

rankings represent the ongoing faithfulness 

of OBU’s faculty, staff and students to the 

university’s mission, which reflects our 

commitment to academic excellence.” 

The excellence of Shawnee has been 

applauded by awards from private and government 

foundations and agencies. Also, Claudia 

and Ricky Crow, owners of Crows Main Fruit 

Market, were highlighted in First Lady Michelle 

Obama’s new book in 2013. The Crows were 

featured because of their participation in the 

Farm to School Program with Shawnee Public 

Schools. The program improves the diet of 

school children by providing locally-grown, 

fresh fruits and vegetables for school lunches. 

✧ 

Top: An early day glimpse of historic 

downtown Shawnee. 



Above: The Gordon Cooper 

Technology Center sits near 

Oklahoma Baptist University in 

Shawnee, 2013. 


Right: An aerial photograph looking 

west across Shawnee in 1965. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE RAY JACOBY 



NEIGHBORING COMMUNITIES 

Asher—After newspaper stories painted a glowing picture of the proposed town site near the 

South Canadian River, an eager group of pioneers from other states founded the town in October 

1901. George Asher, for whom the town is named, never lived in the county but donated the land 

for the town site. In its early days Asher had several banks, a saw mill, a weekly newspaper, and two 

cotton gins. After the oil boom days of the 1920s and 1930s, and the resulting prosperity, Asher settled 

in as a small town whose school produced several basketball and baseball championship teams. 

Bethel Acres—The area was opened to non-American Indian settlers in the Sac and Fox land 

opening on September 22, 1891. The Bethel school was immediately established with classes in a 

brush arbor until a frame school could be built. Bethel Acres was incorporated as a town in 1962 

when 26 of the 33 eligible voters approved the idea. Residents wanted to retain their rural life style 

and incorporated because of the fear that Shawnee, Tecumseh, or even Oklahoma City might annex 

them. Nearly all working residents of the town commute to jobs in nearby cities. 

Brooksville—Brooksville is one of the more than 50 All-Black towns founded in Oklahoma, and 

one of only 13 that remained at the state’s centennial. The town was founded in 1903 originally 

named Sewell, after a white doctor who owned much of the surrounding land. When only African 

Americans inhabited the town in 1912, Sewell was renamed Brooksville after A. R. Brooks, a cotton 

buyer and farmer and the first African American in the area. The St. John’s Baptist Church was 

established in 1906 and still exists. In its early days, Brooksville had a Santa Fe railroad depot, two 

doctors, two mills, and three hotels. 

Earlsboro—Named for James Earls, a local African American barber who had been an aide to 

a Confederate Army general, Earlsboro’s post office opened on June 12, 1895. Barely in Oklahoma 

Territory, whiskey was the reason Earlsboro boomed in the early years when strong drink was not 

available in Indian Territory. The town’s first three businesses were saloons. The local economy 

declined at statehood when prohibition was included in the state constitution. 

✧ 

Top: Asher Public School in 2013. 

Above: Bethel Acres is proud of its 

contribution to great Country music 

by way of its hometown son Wade 

Hayes, 2013. 


Bottom, left and right: A detailed 

marker commemorates the early 

history of Brooksville, 2013. 


N e i g h b o r i n g C o m m u n i t i e s ✦ 3 3

✧ 

Above: Downtown Earlsboro, 

c. 1926-27. 



Below: The Moloney Cotton Gin 

Company in Earlsboro. 



In 1926, oil was discovered nearby and the 

town’s population grew from less than 400 to 

10,000. City lots sold for as much as $10,000. 

Forty one gasoline stations, a 1,000-seat grand 

theatre, 23 lumber yards, and 24 grocery stores 

served the boom town at its height. There was so 

much money in town, Pretty Boy Floyd robbed 

the town’s bank. After the oil boom, families left, 

businesses closed, and Earlsboro returned to 

being a town of less than 1,000 people. 

Two of the most famous people to be born in 

Earlsboro were National Baseball Hall of Fame 

member Willie Stargell and Ernest McFarland, 

who served as governor and as U.S. Senator 

from Arizona. 

Macomb—The post office opened in 1903 in 

Macomb, a stop on the Santa Fe Railroad. The 

town was originally misspelled as McComb, 

but the name was changed in 1915 to correctly 

reflect the name of its namesake, a Santa Fe 

engineer whose last name was Macomb. In 

1904, Macomb had five general stores, several 

grocery and hardware stores, two cotton gins 

and grist mills, two saloons, a bank, a blacksmith 

shop, and a coffin store. Drought during the 

Great Depression ended the large cotton crops 

once grown in the area. 

Maud—Country singer Wanda Jackson, 

the Queen of Rockabilly, was born in Maud. 

The western half of the town is in Pottawatomie 

County and the other half is in Seminole 

County. The middle of town was also the 

dividing line between Indian and Oklahoma 

territories. In 1890 the Army built a barbed 

wire fence along the main street to 

prevent American Indians from coming into 

Oklahoma Territory. 

The town’s post office opened in 1896 

and the town was named for Maud Sterns, a 

sister-in-law of the two owners of the first 

general store. One of the store owners was the 

grand-father of Leroy Gordon Cooper, one of 

the first seven astronauts chosen in the U.S. 

space program. In 1903, four daily passenger 

and eight freight trains stopped at the depot on 

the Katy Line. As with other nearby towns, the 

oil boom skyrocketed Maud’s population from 

500 to 10,000 in the 1920s. When the oil was 

taken, most of the town moved on. 

McLoud—On the eastern edge of Oklahoma 

Territory, the early economy in McLoud was 

fueled by sales of whiskey to whites and 

American Indians in Indian Territory where 

liquor was forbidden. The town is named for 

railroad lawyer John William McLoud. The 

original site was destroyed by a flood and 

businesses moved a mile south to higher 

ground. The post office opened in 1895 and 

local businesses provided support for the rich 

agricultural lands surrounding the town. Large 

quantities of produce and fruit were shipped to 


outside markets by train. In 

1949, the Chamber of 

Commerce sent President 

Harry S. Truman a crate of 

locally-grown blackberries 

and proclaimed itself the 

“Blackberry Capital of the 

World.” That heritage is 

celebrated in an annual 

Blackberry Festival each July. 

✧ 

Top: Macomb Public School in 2013. 

Left: The Arcadia Theater in Maud, 

c. 1936. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GRIFFITH 

AMUSEMENT COMPANY COLLECTION, 

Bottom, left: Children of the Kickapoo 

Tribe play together, c.1896-1900, 

near McLoud. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DR. C. W. KIRK 

COLLECTION, 

Bottom, right: Mendonca Dairy 

included sites in McLoud 

and Shawnee. 




✧ 

This page: Sacred Heart Church, 

Mission, and historic cemetery and 

landmark in 2013. 


Opposite, left: Oklahoma Governor 

Mary Fallin. 



Opposite, right: Downtown Tecumseh 

in 2013. 

Pink—Little is known about the origin 

of the town’s name, although legend has it 

that local residents named it to mimic the 

town of Brown in the same township and 

range. The post office in Pink operated from 

1894, on and off, to 1906, just before 

Oklahoma statehood. In its early days, Pink 

had several stores to serve area farmers. 

After Lake Thunderbird was built, outdoor 

enthusiasts began frequenting the area and the 

population grew. 

St. Louis—The town began in 1906 and was 

called St. Louis when a local school teacher 

jokingly said to a passerby on his way to town 

that he was going to St. Louis. Nearby was 

Sacred Heart, the Roman Catholic mission and 

school. Tony Hillerman who became one of 

America’s best known novelists of the twentieth 

century, was born at Sacred Heart. 

A post office was established in St. Louis 

in 1928 and the town was incorporated during 

the oil boom of the 1920s. Several nearby 

schools were consolidated with the St. Louis 

School District. The town’s economy was based 

on raising corn and cattle and serving nearby 

farmers and ranchers. 


Tecumseh—Named for the famous Shawnee 

chief, the town site was laid out by an Army 

major from Fort Reno in the summer of 1891. 

On September 24 of that year, Tecumseh 

was opened for settlement the day after the 

official land run into the Sac and Fox, Iowa, 

Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Potawatomi reservations. 

Tecumseh’s settlement had to wait 

because surveyors had not completed their 

work. Soldiers signaled the beginning of the 

run by firing shots into the air at the edge of 

town. Fifteen thousand homesteaders raced for 

the 5,000 homesteads available. 

A post office was established in Tecumseh 

on September 18, 1891. The first merchants 

operated from tents, but frame buildings, 

and then brick buildings, replaced them. 

Many of the original buildings still stand. With 

the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1903, 

the town was a business center for area 

farmers and ranchers. Tecumseh was the 

Pottawatomie County seat from statehood in 

1907 to 1930 when Shawnee won the nod from 

county voters. 

Tecumseh is the hometown of Oklahoma’s 

current governor, Mary Fallin. 


✧ 

Right: “Outlaw Queen” Belle Starr. 



Below: A monument in downtown 

Shawnee commemorates the first 

residents and centennial municipalities 

of Pottawatomie County. 

Tribbey—The town’s namesake, Alpheus 

Tribbey, staked a claim when the town was 

opened for settlement on September 22, 1891. 

Tribbey gave land to the railroad and twentytwo 

acres for a town site in 1903. The following 

year, the town was platted and a post office 

opened in 1905. The town soon was thriving 

with a bank, several stores, two cotton gins, 

two blacksmith shops, and a livery. Cotton was 

the main crop in the area until the lack of rain 

and the coming of the boll weevil came in 

the 1920s. 

Wanette—The first settlers arrived in the 

future town in 1868. In 1876 the Potawatomi 

donated reservation lands to the Benedictine 

Order that established the nearby Sacred Heart 

Mission. After several name changes to the 

village, the Wanette post office opened on 

March 19, 1894. Before statehood, outlaws 

Belle Starr and Cole Younger were often seen in 

the area. 

In 1903, the town moved one mile north 

with the crossing of the Santa Fe Railroad. At 

statehood, Wanette had two banks, a harness 

shop, three cotton gins, several wagon yards, 

and a brick factory. The town’s population 

peaked in 1920 at 783 when 10,000 bales of 

cotton were shipped to markets from the local 

Santa Fe depot. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SUGGESTED READING 

Cannon, Phil and Glenn Dale Carter. Tecumseh, Oklahoma: An Illustrated History of Its First Century. Inola, Oklahoma, Evans Publications, 1991. 

Carter, Kathryn S. Tecumseh, County “B.” Tecumseh, privately printed, 1999. 

Fortson, John. Pott Country and What Has Come of It. Shawnee, Pottawatomie County Historical Society, 1936. 

Mitchell, Made. The Story of Tribbey. Norman, Oklahoma, privately printed, 1988. 

Mooney, Charles W. Localized History of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. Midwest City, Oklahoma, Thunderbird Industries, 1971. 

Morris, John W. Ghost Towns of Oklahoma. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. 

Murphy, Joseph F. and Patricia Sulcer Barrett. The Benedictine Foundations of Sacred Heart Mission and St. Gregory’s Abbey and College. 

Shawnee, Citizen Band Pottawatomie Tribe, 1987. 

Pottawatomie County History Book Committee. Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma History. Claremore, Oklahoma, Country Lane Press, 1987. 

www.shawneechamber.com 

www.shawneeok.org/ShawneeHistory 

www.visitshawnee.com 


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

H i s t o r i c p r o f i l e s o f b u s i n e s s e s , o r g a n i z a t i o n s , 

a n d f a m i l i e s t h a t h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d t o 

✧ 

A photographer captures the county’s 

streetcar line as it moves under the 

Santa Fe and Rock Island tracks, 

on the road to Tecumseh. 



t h e d e v e l o p m e n t a n d e c o n o m i c b a s e o f 

S h a w n e e a n d P o t t a w a t o m i e C o u n t y 

Van’s Pig Stand .............................................................................4 0 

The William Austin Family..............................................................4 2 

Mills Machine Company ..................................................................4 4 

Demco Printing, Inc. ......................................................................4 6 

ROUND HOUSE WORKWEAR ..........................................................4 7 

Oklahoma Baptist University ...........................................................4 8 

Henson & Marshall, PLLC ...............................................................4 9 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Austin Athletic 

Manufacturing Company 

S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 3 9

VAN’S PIG STANDS 

✧ 

Right: The very first Van’s Pig Stand 

was located in Wewoka, Oklahoma. 

Below: Opened on June 5, 1930, 

Van’s original location was on 

Highland Street in Shawnee, across 

from its present location. 

Opposite, top: Van’s moved into 

their current building in 1935. 

This photograph was taken in 1939, 

before many additions. 

Opposite, center: Smoke and flames 

engulfed the restaurant in Shawnee 

around 1976. It reopened in 1977. 

Opposite, bottom: Front row, 

left to right, Billy, Jerry and Leroy 

Vandegrift, Jr. Back row, Thelma and 

Leroy Vandegrift, Sr., c. 1942. 

Oklahoma’s oldest barbeque restaurant continuously 

owned and operated by the same family 

is Van’s Pig Stands. First finding fame in the 

heart of historic Shawnee, nearly a century later 

its history is palpable. From the mouthwatering 

food to the friendly service and comfortable 

atmosphere, Van’s is a place of nostalgia and 

great eating. 

The roots of this venerable establishment 

were originally planted by Tennessee native 

Leroy “Van” Vandegrift, who moved with family 

to Oklahoma City, where he graduated from 

Central High. He served in the Army before 

working as a tool dresser in the oil fields of 

North Texas and began cooking for fellow 

roughnecks on rig sites. 

Around 1928, Van opened his first pig stand 

in a hotel in Wewoka, Oklahoma. It was a 

small little store serving barbecue such as the 

Pig Sandwich ® and Ribs. The menu also included 

other types of sandwiches such as Liverwurst, 

Pimento, Chicken Salad, and Cream Cheese. 

In 1929 a second Pig Stand opened in Seminole 

and was then sold in 1935. Pig Stands were 

later opened in Wichita Falls, Texas, and 

Wichita, Kansas. 

On June 5, 1930, Van opened his third 

Pig Stand Location at 714 Highland in Shawnee. 

In the same year, Van married Thelma Maree 

Glenn. In 1935 the Shawnee store moved across 

the street to its present location. 

The stories of these earliest days in the life 

of Van’s flourishing Pig Stands are legendary 

among the family. During the Great Depression 

that swept across America throughout the 

1930s, Van’s sandwiches—which originally cost 

10 cents and had risen to 30 cents for hungry 

customers—returned to the 10 cent price, with 

a malt and pig sandwich costing a whopping 

20 cents. The restaurant was also home to the 

area’s first ice cream machine. 

Specialized menu items and secret sauces 

quickly became a trademark event at the Pig 

Stand. Its loyal customers enjoyed hot BBQ 

sauces with jalapeño and cayenne pepper mixed 

so perfectly on-site that they were eventually 

sold in six ounce bottles from the back seat of 

Van’s son’s car. Van’s wife, Thelma, came up with 

the twice-baked potato that was packed full of 

bacon, onions, salt and pepper, and served with 

garlic butter. Later, she was in charge of dinner 

banquets that included large private parties 

where she served her famous chicken pilaf. 


Van’s son, Jerry, remembers the time well. 

“When I was working the sandwich corner, 

my mother was making chopped pork ‘pig’ 

sandwiches and putting the buns on the grill 

with butter. We later took the BBQ sauce and 

thinned it down to paint the buns before we 

dropped them in a bun toaster. We included a 

relish, too. On those older menus, we didn’t 

have BBQ though. We sold pimento cheese, 

bratwurst, even a cow’s tongue sandwich for 

real cheap. Our specials included chicken 

fried chicken or chicken and dumplings, beans, 

Rueben sandwiches. I felt like we had too 

much on the menu in those early days, but dad 

wanted it that way.” 

Within its first twenty years, the stand in 

Shawnee was a bustling place and even included 

the famous Charcoal Room by the early 1950s. 

It was originally created with a dance hall 

and shuffleboard and included an impressive 

Wurlitzer jukebox. 

Without a doubt, Van’s remains another 

great reason to spend some time in Shawnee 

and get to know its many assets. The restaurant 

continues to welcome guests from around 

the country. They have also been catering for 

more than twenty years and continue to build 

on its past successes with numerous resources 

to handle parties attended by thousands. 

Today, Oklahoma’s historic Van’s Pig Stands 

is located at 717 East Highland Street and 

3815 North Harrison Street in Shawnee and at 

320 North Porter Street in Norman, and its 

newest location opened at 1999 Tower Drive 

in Moore in early 2014. For nearest location, 

menu and specials visit www.pigstands.com. 


THE WILLIAM 

AUSTIN FAMILY 

The Austin family traces its nearly centurylong 

Oklahoma heritage to William Austin, Sr., 

a Mississippi native who was only thirteen 

years old when his father went to work for the 

flourishing railroad lines that were continuously 

expanding in the Shawnee, Oklahoma, hub 

in 1917. The family established themselves in 

the bustling city and their legacy of devotion 

and history was born. William later met and 

married Judith Davis, who was just a baby 

when her family first came to Shawnee and built 

their home where Oklahoma Baptist University 

now resides. 

William and Judith’s family quickly grew to 

include three children, William, Jr., Patsy and 

Garland and enjoyed life in their home on East 

Edwards. The children attended Horace Mann 

Elementary School and Shawnee High School. 

William, Jr., enjoyed a number of after 

school and summertime jobs around town and 

first held a paper route before working as a 

service station attendant and later at Scrivner 

Stevens Wholesale Grocery Store. After William’s 

graduation from high school in 1947, he prepared 

to enter the United States Air Force with his 

cousin. When the cousin suddenly changed his 

mind, a family friend invited William to join 

him in the United States Navy. William attended 

basic training in San Antonio, Texas, before 

being stationed in San Diego, California, for 

seven years. 

Upon receiving his discharge, William 

returned home to Shawnee and his job at 

Scrivner Stevens. When a position in the tool 

crib at Jonco Aircraft became available, William 

took the job. He later became a brick layer 

and served in an apprenticeship before working 

for a variety of contractors in the area. As his 

business grew, he established himself in the 

field of masonry contracting and soon became a 

commercial general contractor for commercial 

building projects and utility contracting, where 

he remained until 1980. 

At the same time, William’s venture into the 

oil business was born with his purchase of a 

small tract of land that included the site’s 

mineral rights. William soon established a field 

in Bethel Acres and became close friends with a 

geologist from Tulsa. When the friend suggested 

that William buy several leases in and around 

✧ 

Right: The restored Henry G. and Etta 

Ray Beard cabin. 


Opposite: The mural dedicated 

to Leroy Gordon Cooper in 

downtown Shawnee. 



Shawnee’s local airport, he hesitated but decided 

to take the risk and purchased the entire lot for 

$335,000. 

“I didn’t even know what I was doing,” 

William says as he recalls the event more than 

thirty years later. “I had no idea what to do next, 

so I just jumped in there and drilled my first 

well, didn’t do too well in hiring that first set 

of folks—but I learned after that first one. 

We drilled nineteen wells without a single dry 

hole all around Shawnee. And they were good 

producing wells at that. 

“Once, we drilled three wells near Shawnee 

High School’s football stadium. Several people 

told me I would never be allowed to do it, but I 

knew folks and they knew me and, well, it all 

worked out just fine.” 

The period was not without its difficult 

experiences and, at fifty-eight, after William 

went through open-heart surgery, his doctor 

told him to quit and “just go live on a beach 

somewhere and enjoy yourself.” 

Though he eventually agreed to at least 

consider the possibility of retirement and sold 

his leases in 1988, it was a mere two weeks 

before William was back in the business and 

doing what he loves. 

And he has been at it ever since. He remains 

an accomplished adventurer and has done 

everything from gold-mining in Columbia to 

owning successful helicopter companies in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Ventura, 

California. He has owned banks in Dallas, 

Texas, and bred mares on his horse farm near 

Tecumseh, Oklahoma. 

William and his second wife Virginia 

Romberg, a native of Meeker who moved with 

her family to Shawnee when she was just a girl, 

continue to live in their beloved Shawnee and 

now celebrate the lives of their growing family. 

William and his first wife, Nina Buman, 

were married for 33 years and have 4 children 

including 1 son, William David, and 3 daughters, 

Judy, Serita, and Marcia. Virginia and her husband, 

have two daughters, Jeannie Taylor and 

Lyn Cox. 

Today, the couple celebrates their life with 

nineteen grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren…and 

a rich and wonderful legacy that 

remains alive and well in Shawnee, Oklahoma. 


MILLS MACHINE 

COMPANY 

✧ 

Right: Chuck Mills. 

Bottom, left: An early photograph 

includes the company’s founder, 

William Homer Mills, at center. 

Bottom, right: This photograph was 

taken just as William Homer Mills, 

standing in the middle, began adding 

machine equipment in the shop. 

Mills Machine was founded in 1908 and 

has been built on a line of strong people and a 

history of custom design and innovation. 

William Homer Mills opened Mills Bicycle 

and General Repair on Main Street in downtown 

Shawnee. The bustling town had established 

itself as a major repair hub for the railroad 

industry and Homer was quick to offer his 

services. Being mechanically minded, Homer 

quickly gained a reputation for being able to 

repair guns, bicycles, and just about any type 

of mechanical device that had been developed 

by the dawn of the twentieth century. His 

brother, Frank, joined the business shortly 

after it opened and later sold his share to 

Les Thompson and the name was changed to 

Mills Thompson Repair Shop. 

The shop ran on ingenuity and hard work. 

Electric motor driven central shafts powered the 

lathes, presses and drills, while a smithy with a 

hand driven blower helped create the special 

shapes needed for repair of the motorcycles, 

guns, and custom machine parts for the railroad 

depot and grain milling operations. 

In 1924, Homer bought out Les and changed 

the name of the company to Mills Machine 

Company. It was also during this period that 

the oil boom hit Oklahoma with one of the 

world’s largest oil fields in nearby Earlsboro. 

Mills Machine Company was sought out for 

their technical skills to repair the drilling rigs 

and bits. As their experience grew, the company 

began to manufacture bits and tooling for 

seismic crews in Oklahoma and beyond. 

David Mills, who had served in the Army 

Corps of Engineers in the Pacific Theater during 

World War II, returned to become a partner 

with Homer and his brother Oscar. 

After the local oil boom declined in the early 

1950s, the company started moving into the 

water and irrigation markets. Beginning on the 

ground floor of the rotary water well business 

allowed Mills Machine to become and remain a 


leader and innovator of custom manufactured 

down hole drilling tools and bits. 

Later, the company expanded into other 

markets like utilities, mining, construction, and 

environmental industries. David added large 

contracts with drill rig manufacturers to expand 

business, and bought five lots surrounding the 

business for future growth opportunities. 

In 1979, Charles D. (Chuck) Mills joined the 

company after graduating from Central State 

University with a BBA in management. Chuck had 

originally started working at Mills Machine when 

he was only eleven years old. He learned to weld, 

operate the machines in the shop, and worked 

in shipping and receiving and, finally, sales. 

In 1981, David retired and Chuck bought the 

stock in the company and became president and 

CEO of Mills Machine Company. Due to his own 

ambition and vision, Chuck was able to expand 

the business into a multimillion dollar concern 

and lead the company into the international arena. 

Mills Machine Company has exported to over 

seventy countries and global trade now constitutes 

approximately twenty percent of overall 

sales. In the late 1980s he led the company in 

the design and development of a full line of hollow 

stem augers for the environmental market. 

Then, in the mid-1990s, the surrounding land 

was acquired and several additional buildings 

have been constructed including a fully stocked 

warehouse that insures a rapid response from 

their extensive inventory. Mills Machine has 

become known for custom rotary claw bits, 

which resulted in the company being awarded 

a patent for the “Milclaw” bit, an innovative and 

versatile earth drilling bit. 

While the primary focus has been on the 

water well, irrigation and the environmental soil 

sampling markets, expansion and diversification 

has led the company into developing products 

for other related earth drilling industries like 

geothermal, construction, blast hole mining and 

shallow oil and gas drilling. 

Today, the company has developed into a 

full line manufacturer of specialty earth drilling 

bits, tools and related accessories for water, 

geothermal, mining, construction, utility, environmental 

and shallow oil and gas drilling 

industries. Products include hollow stem and 

solid construction augers, stabilizers, underreamers, 

casing cut off tools, pipe handling tools, 

drilling adapters, soil sampling equipment, 

claw bits, drag bits, core bits, hole openers, 

reamers and miscellaneous drilling accessories. 

✧ 

Left: Chuck and David Mills in the 

factory. 

Right: Chuck stands near one of the 

company’s large augers. 


DEMCO 

PRINTING, 

INC. 

✧ 

Below: Inside The County Democrat 

in the mid-1930s. 

Oklahoma and Demco Printing share more 

than a century of history that first began when 

the wild territory welcomed a young Tennessee 

native, M. M. “Mose” Henderson, in 1901. 

Though he first settled in Lawton and joined 

a business partner in opening a tent with a 

restaurant and cots, it was a train wreck near 

Choctaw that left Henderson recovering in a 

hospital in Shawnee. When the business partner 

decided to sell the tent, it provided Henderson 

enough money to purchase a weekly paper in 

Tecumseh from H. V. Foster for $4,000. 

After settling in Tecumseh, Henderson established 

the Tecumseh Standard before purchasing 

Demco Printing’s forerunner, The County Democrat, 

in 1906. 

Serving as the editor of The County Democrat, 

Henderson also took a personal interest in 

the early politics of the state and served on 

its Highway Commission and Banking Board 

under Oklahoma Governor Charles Haskell. 

He was later appointed as the U.S. Postmaster 

at Tecumseh and served as a member of the 

House of Representatives. 

When the county courthouse was moved to 

Shawnee in the mid-1930s, Henderson moved 

his newspaper there, as well. The company has 

remained in Shawnee since that time, though it 

was hit by a tornado in 1970 and completely 

destroyed by fire in 1982 before being rebuilt at 

the same location. 

At Henderson’s passing in 1952, columnist 

Clarence Robison wrote, “Associates will 

remember him as a fellow worker who spent 

long hard hours at his chosen profession and 

business. His political friends and foes will 

remember him as a hard fighter for the cause 

he believed in…measured by the ordinary 

standards of usefulness, he was an outstanding 

citizen. His friends loved him. His foes respected 

him. He was a man among men.” 

The business has remained in the family 

throughout its existence. Henderson’s son, 

L. P., and later Buddy Henderson directed the 

company. Today, Henderson’s great-grandson, 

Ron Henderson, and Ron’s daughter, Renee 

Henderson Wortham, manage the business. 

Ron joined the family company in 1961 and 

Renee accepted a position with the group after 

graduating from the University of Oklahoma 

in 1990. Ron was named Small Business Person 

of the Year in 2005 and served as chairman of 

the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce in 2009. 

Today, Demco Printing has evolved into a 

commercial printing business and continues 

to produce The County Democrat, a weekly 

legal publication. 


The year was 1903. Oklahoma was still 

Indian Territory, but Shawnee was already 

crisscrossed with railroad tracks. Over 100 

trains roared through town each day and 

hundreds of men were needed to keep the 

engines repaired and ready. ROUND HOUSE 

WORKWEAR was born. 

Named for the “round house” railroad repair 

stations, ROUND HOUSE brand overalls quickly 

became a favorite among rail workers. 

Founded in 1903 by Alvin S. Nuckolls, 

ROUND HOUSE, formerly known as 

SHAWNEE GARMENT MANUFACTURING 

CO., was later sold to J. J. Truscott in 1939. 

In 1964, Edward Antosh became owner. Ed’s 

son, Jim Antosh, is the current owner and 

grandson David Antosh, joined forces in 2009. 

ROUND HOUSE expanded in 2008 with a 

second factory location in Wewoka, Oklahoma. 

With overalls and jeans always being their 

mainstay, ROUND HOUSE has moved with 

the times over the century, making shirts and 

jackets in the early days and khaki uniforms for 

soldiers in WWII. In the 1970s, cotton denim 

exploded in popularity and ROUND HOUSE 

dabbled into fashion, coming out with hugely 

popular bell bottomed jeans and overalls. In the 

1980s they even made women’s polka dot and 

pastel overalls. 

ROUND HOUSE overalls and other products 

have been spotted in movies and seen on 

celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Donald 

Trump, Christopher Walken, Miranda Lambert, 

and many others. The factory was also featured 

on the Travel Channel’s John Ratzenberger’s 

Made in America. 

The year 2013 marks the 110th anniversary 

of ROUND HOUSE. With over 2,000 retailers 

coast to coast and around the world, ROUND 

HOUSE WORKWEAR is the oldest and largest 

maker of made in USA jeans and overalls. Their 

products are now sold in Europe, China, Japan, 

and around the world. The eighty ROUND 

HOUSE employees make about 240,000 pairs 

of overalls and jeans per year. They are 

available in numerous styles, including classic 

blue, stone washed, vintage stripe, painter, 

carpenter, duck, and camouflage. 

Thanks to the hundreds of workers who 

have called ROUND HOUSE COMPANY their 

home throughout the years, the ROUND 

ROUND HOUSE WORKWEAR 

HOUSE trademark remains an authentic and 

enduring symbol of superior workmanship and 

American spirit. 

Please visit ROUND HOUSE online at 

www.round-house.com. 

✧ 

Above: The ROUND HOUSE Factory 

in downtown Shawnee, 1920s. 

Far left: Jim with some 

of the employees of ROUND 

HOUSE WORKWEAR. 

Left: Jim Antosh, with The Guinness 

Book of World Records World’s 

Largest Overalls, made by ROUND 

HOUSE for their hundredth 

anniversary celebration in 2003. 


OKLAHOMA 

BAPTIST 

UNIVERSITY 

Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) was 

founded on February 9, 1910, by the Baptist 

General Convention of Oklahoma. In the fall 

of 1911, the University held the first classes 

in the First Baptist Church, Shawnee High 

School and the Convention Hall of Shawnee. 

The City of Shawnee generously contributed 

the original sixty acres for the construction 

of the new campus and built Shawnee Hall, 

which opened in 1914 and is the University’s 

oldest structure. 

Today the campus encompasses 200 acres 

and thirty-four major buildings. The University 

provides 10 bachelor’s degrees in 85 areas of 

study, and 3 master’s degrees offered at the 

OBU School of Graduate and Professional 

Studies in Oklahoma City. Current enrollment 

is 2,079 students from 34 states and 30 foreign 

countries, and a faculty of 117 members. 

✧ 

Left: Raley Chapel continues to serve 

as a beacon to students at OBU. 

Right: The inspiring oval to Shawnee 

Hall on the campus of OBU. 

Founded on Christian principles and 

teachings, OBU’s primary purpose is to conduct 

educational programs in the traditional arts 

and sciences and in other disciplines with the 

intent to prepare students for effective leadership 

and service in the various vocations. 

As a Christian liberal arts university, OBU 

transforms lives by equipping students to 

pursue academic excellence, integrate faith 

with all areas of knowledge, engage a diverse 

world, and live worthy of the high calling of 

God in Christ. 

In 2010, OBU celebrated its centennial 

anniversary with the theme, “Proudly Stand 

On Bison Hill: The First 100 Years.” The OBU 

community marked a century of steadfast 

achievement with centennial activities. 

For the ninth consecutive year, OBU has 

been named one of the best colleges and 

universities in the western United States by 

The Princeton Review. OBU was one of 121 

institutions recommended in the “Best of the 

West” section on the educational research 

firm’s website. The University was listed as 

Oklahoma’s highest-ranked college in “Best 

Regional Colleges” by U.S. News and World Report 

for the twentieth consecutive year. In addition, 

OBU is consistently ranked in the Forbes.com 

listing of “America’s Best Colleges.” 


HENSON & 

MARSHALL, 

PLLC 

✧ 

Left: Henson & Marshall, PLLC 

Building at 101 West Ninth Street. 

Below: Almon E. Henson. 

Bottom: James R. Marshall and 

Karen Henson. 

Henson & Marshall, PLLC, traces its roots 

to 1948 when World War II veteran and 

University of Oklahoma (OU) Law School 

graduate, Almon E. Henson, and his wife, Helen, 

established their home and his law practice 

in Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. 

Almon served as County Attorney for 

Pottawatomie County from 1950 to 1952, and 

then chose to return to private practice. Helen, 

with her accounting degree from OU, provided 

the accounting services for the firm for approximately 

fifteen years during the 1970s and 

1980s. The firm continued to grow and their 

daughter, Karen, joined the firm in 1979. Their 

son-in-law, Jim Marshall, joined the firm in 1983 

after leaving active duty as an Air Force JAG. 

Their son, Roger Henson, and Kermit Milburn 

also practiced at the firm for a number of years. 

Almon retired in December 2004. The firm continues 

today under the name Henson & Marshall, 

PLLC. Since 1986 the firm has been located at 

101 West Ninth Street, Shawnee, Oklahoma. 

Currently Henson & Marshall, PLLC, practices 

primarily in the areas of estate planning, 

guardianships, trusts and wills, as well as real 

property, contracts, banking, and commercial 

law. The client base ranges from individuals 

and multi-generational families to small proprietorships, 

large corporations, financial and 

educational institutions. 

The attorneys are each invested in the community, 

living and working among the people 

they represent, serving on nonprofit Boards, and 

providing continuity of dependable legal service 

anchored in integrity and practical solutions. 


ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

B O B 

B U R K E 

Bob Burke has written more historical non-fiction books than anyone else in history. His 112 books are all about Oklahoma’s 

incredible heritage. Born in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, he was the director of a large state agency in Governor David Boren’s 

administration and managed Boren’s first campaign for the United States Senate. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and 

Oklahoma City University School of Law. He is the father of Robert, Amy, and Cody, stepfather of Natalie, Lauren, and Calli, and 

grandfather of Nathan, Jon, Ridge, Fallon, Greyson, Mia, and Emerson. He and his wife Chimene live in Oklahoma City where he 

practices law and writes books. 

E R I C 

D A B N E Y 

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Eric Dabney received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Central 

Oklahoma in Edmond where he now serves as an adjunct professor in the College of Education. He is the co-author of Historic South 

Carolina, Willie of the Valley: The Life of Bill Paul, Historic Rogers County, Carter County Oklahoma: Then and Now, and the children’s 

biography, Fearless Flight: The Amazing Adventures of Wiley Post. Eric and his wife Shelley have three daughters, Emily, Claire and Julia, 

and live near Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Historic Shawnee: The History of Shawnee & Pottawatomie County

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