Asher, Oklahoma

Asher, Oklahoma
Town
Nickname:  Baseball City
Asher, Oklahoma Location in the state of Oklahoma
Coordinates: 34°59′19″N96°55′31″W / 34.98861°N 96.92528°W / 34.98861; -96.92528
Country	United States
State	Oklahoma
County	Pottawatomie
Area [1]
• Total	0.77 sq mi (1.99 km2)
• Land	0.77 sq mi (1.99 km2)
• Water	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)  0%
Elevation [2]	997 ft (304 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	370
• Density	481.77/sq mi (186.02/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	74826
Area code(s)	405/572
FIPS code	40-03000 [3]
GNIS feature ID	2411648 [2]
Website	www.asherok.info

Asher is a town in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. The population was 393 at the 2010 census, a decline of 6.2 percent from the figure of 419 in 2000. ^[4]

Geography

Asher is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 39 in Pottawatomie County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²), all land.

Nearby areas

Asher is approximately 30 miles (48 km) south of I-40 and 34 miles (55 km) east of I-35. Nearby cities (with a 15,000+ population) include Ada (21 miles south) and Shawnee (27 miles north). Asher is located two miles (3 km) west of Chisholm Spring, once the site of a trading post operated by Jesse Chisholm, for whom the famous cattle trail was named. ^[5] A Chisholm family home and cemetery are also located in Asher. ^[6] The Sacred Heart Mission Site is nine miles east of Asher.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1910	381		—
1920	370		−2.9%
1930	653		76.5%
1940	507		−22.4%
1950	420		−17.2%
1960	343		−18.3%
1970	437		27.4%
1980	659		50.8%
1990	449		−31.9%
2000	419		−6.7%
2010	393		−6.2%
2020	370		−5.9%
U.S. Decennial Census [7]

As of the 2010 United States Census, ^[3] there were 393 people, 161 households, and 106 families residing in the town. The population density was 491.25 inhabitants per square mile (189.67/km²). There were 184 housing units at an average density of 230 per square mile (89/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 75.8% white and 13% Native American, with the remainder of another race or mixed race. The population included 10 Hispanic or Latino individuals.

There were 161 households, out of which 32.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, half (49.7%) were married couples living together, 16.1% had a single householder with no spouse present, and 34.2% were non-families. Individuals living alone accounted for 29.2% of households. Individuals living alone who were 65 years of age or older accounted for 14.3% of households. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 27.7% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 24.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $35,962, and the median income for a family was $44,444. The per capita income for the town was $17,340. An estimated 9.2% of families and 12.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.9% of those under age 18 and 20.8% of those age 65 or over.

History

Beginnings

Asher dates back to 1892 when George "Matt" Asher, from Clay County, Kentucky, purchased land in Oklahoma Territory from a Shawnee estate salesperson to set up his farm home. The post office was established November 26, 1901, when the postmaster of nearby Avoca, Oklahoma, George A. McCurry, moved the Avoca post office and his store to the new community that would become Asher. This was done without permission from the government and left Avoca without a post office. According to the tale, McCurry was given a home and store building as payment for moving the post office to the new settlement. The town was named for Mr. Asher, who supplied the land with the consideration the community would carry his namesake, though he never lived there. ^[8] There was a sale of public lots in 1902.

Avoca Township

Main article: Avoca Township, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma

Asher is the last remaining post office in the original Avoca Township, which also included the towns of Sacred Heart Mission, Osmit, Avoca, Meanko, Boyer and Violet.

Growth

Rock Island Train Depot, Asher OK - 1902. The station was located at the west end of Main ST, west of what is now US 177. The Stationmaster, Bill Bailey, is pictured.

On October 12, 1900, the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf (CO&G) bought the Shawnee to Tecumseh Railway branch from the Tecumseh Railway Co. and promptly extended the branch to Asher. For the next 40 years, Asher would serve as the termination point for the branch and its engine, "Old Beck". Rapid construction of railroads opened up 400 square miles (1,000 km²) of a fertile section of the South Canadian River valley to shipping facilities. Asher was the trade center and market of the area. Further development came when, on January 15, 1903, The Jennings Company closed on 1,000 business and residence lots. The Jennings Company advertised investment in the growing town and new factories and industries of various kinds soon located in Asher.

Asher and the new settlers had hopes of creating a large city. However, the settlers were disappointed when the towns of Seminole and Konawa were built and took away much of Asher's trade. The people of Asher would not give up, and pulled together town resources and constructed a bridge across the Canadian River. The state then used the bridge in its construction of State Highway 18, drawing a small amount of trade to the area from nearby cities, such as Ada. Before the construction of the bridge, those south of Asher could only cross the river when it was shallow enough.

Asher, originally a cotton farming community, suffered in its early years from crop losses caused by boll weevils. Farmers were then dealt a further blow when the town's first two cotton gins were destroyed by fire. These setbacks compounded the loss of trade and left the town in dire straits.

Graham Hotel on Asher's Main Street, 1918.

In 1927, oil was discovered in and around the town. Asher sprang up almost overnight to serve the needs of the oil workers. It was also around this time that executives moved into Asher and purchased enormous amounts of supplies and merchandise at inflated prices. There were many businesses in town including feed and grocery stores, jewelry stores and drug stores as well as banks, barber shops, hotels and a small theater. Many leading families of Oklahoma, such as the McAlisters, the O'Dells, the Patterson's, the Campbells and the Byruns, lived in the town. There were also many doctors with offices in Asher. For a while, Asher became prosperous.

County Seat potential

Tecumseh, Oklahoma, was originally the county seat of Pottawatomie County. In late 1930, a long-standing war between Shawnee and Tecumseh escalated when voters approved measures to move the seat to Shawnee. A spin-off of this feud was the move for the creation of a new county, to be named Petroleum County. The new county would be composed of prime oil-producing land, including the southern half of Pottawatomie County and portions of Seminole, Pontotoc and McClain Counties. The move was started by Tecumseh supporters who wanted to make Shawnee's county seat victory as hollow as possible by removing the most valuable section of the county. Asher was slated to be the county seat and it was planned that the greater part of Tecumseh would move down to form an impressive community. There was a paper--The Petroleum County Times—produced, meetings held and petitions circulated. However, the measure never progressed further as times were not favorable for the creation of a new county. ^[9]

End of the oil boom

The oil boom ended when only four wells proved to be profitable. Once again, Asher was in danger of dying out. Fortunately, another oil well was found just west of the town. This time the people connected to the well were local citizens and were cautious and conservative in their estimates and spending. This led to a small but steady production of oil in the community. ^{[10] [11] [12]} Asher was dealt another setback in 1967 when SH-18 was taken out of commission and traffic was diverted west of town on the new US Highway 177. Businesses migrated to the new highway and many storefronts in the original town were closed. The final business, Green's Market, which was located on Division Street (old SH-18) closed in 1985, after serving the community for 40 years. ^[13] Several businesses on US-177 remain, mostly serving those traveling through the area.

Centennial

In 2001, Asher celebrated its 100th anniversary. The town, along with others in the county that had passed the centennial mark, was honored on a centennial monument dedicated September 21, 2007. This date was chosen to coincide with the Oklahoma Centennial. Other Asher honorees were the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1902 and Asher School, which was established in 1903. The monument is located in Centennial Park, on the grounds of the Santa Fe Museum, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. ^[14]

Timeline of major events

Below is a time table of major events that occurred in Asher as well as surrounding communities whose events affected Asher's history.

Date	Event
1847	Jessie Chishom establishes trading post 2 mi (3.2 km). E of Asher [12]
1849	Avoca area (Wewaukee Springs) a regular stop for adventures on way to the gold rush in CA [12]
1862	Chishom post abandoned [12]
1892	First members of Asher family move to OK to est. home [12]
	First school in Avoca (near what is now Avoca Cemetery) [9]
1893	First general store in Avoca [9]
October 30, 1901	Asher townsite opened up [9]
November 26, 1901	Post Office established [11]
	Public sale of lots ($750) [15]
1902	George Stone (Dep. Sheriff) moves to Asher [11]
	Asher townsite platted, G.M. Asher supplies land [12]
April 26, 1902	Shawnee-Tecumseh railroad expands to Asher / Old Beck began service [11]
Early 1900s	Asher Altruist begins [9]
	Asher FBC then First Methodist est. [9]
	Town became center of baseball interest [9]
1904	District Judge J. Knox Byrum born in Asher [9]
1906	Asher Mercantile Co. established [11]
December 13, 1906	Asher State Bank robbed [16]
Up to 1920s	2 hardware stores, 2 banks, jewelry store, lumber yard, dry goods store, general store, and (until 1907) 6 saloons—per Annie Roe [17]
May 1921	Canadian River Bridge opens [18]
1922	Fire destroys 2 blocks of businesses [9]
January 1925	Fire destroys blk of business, incl. Canadian Valley Bank [19]
1927	Pearson oil discovered [15]
September 2, 1927	Canadian Valley Bank robbed [20]
1928	Water well drilled to supply water to oil fields [15]
c. 1928	Oil workers/executives moved in; Asher prosperous [15]
1929	Oil discovered in Asher [9]
	Asher School current building built [21]
1931	Petroleum County/Asher county seat talks [9]
1940s	Asher School gym built [21]
February 10, 1942	Shawnee-Asher railroad branch ends [22]
1967	Asher segment of SH-18 is replaced with US-177, diverting traffic from town.
1985	Green's Market closes after 40 years [13]
2001	Centennial
2006	Asher School main building renovated [21]

Post Office

Asher's post office was established on November 26, 1901, when it was moved from nearby Avoca.

Postmasters

Below is a list of Asher Postmasters. ^{[23] [24]}

Date Started	Postmaster
29 Nov 1901	George A. McCurry
8 June 1904	Charles Snook
11 June 1906	Kate R. Snyder (or Snider)
14 Sept 1914	John S. Wood
8 Dec 1917	Winnie D. Rawlings
20 Feb 1920	Winnie R. Farmer
25 Aug 1922	Fred M. Perkins
12 Mar 1923	Lillian Gilpin (acting)
11 June 1923	Francis T. Laster
7 Mar 1927	John R. Hibbard (acting)
15 Dec 1927	John R. Hibbard (appointed)
1 July 1935	Orval L. Harris (acting)
24 Jan 1935	Orval L. Harris (appointed)
14 June 1940	John A. King
19 May 1949	Pearl A. Hopkins (acting)
1 Sept 1950	Perry H. Townsend, Jr.
14 Dec 1979	Linda L. Sturgill (ofc. in charge)
8 Mar 1980	Rosemary McKinley
30 Sept 1992	Janna Jones (ofc. in charge)
28 Oct 1992	Teresa Sexton (ofc. in charge)
9 Jan 1993	Donald Slarve
28 Jan 1993	Teresa Sexton (ofc. in charge)
14 May 1993	Vicky Stover (ofc. in charge)
13 Nov 1993	Deborah L. Cooley
29 Mar 1995	Lois L. Rennewanz (ofc. in charge)
22 July 1995	Lois L. Rennewanz
11 Apr 1998	Cynthia Schaffer (ofc. in charge)
5 June 1998	Debbie Turner (ofc. in charge)
12 Sept 1998	Deborah D. Turner
21 Feb 2001	Deborah Zimmerman (ofc. in charge)
7 July 2001	Carol Kelly (ofc. in charge)
25 Mar 2002	Bill Beard (ofc. in charge)
N/A	L. M. Conley (ofc. in charge)
13 May 2003	Lindsay A. Williams-Likens (ofc. in charge)
23 July 2003	Michael L. Hockersmith (ofc. in charge)
19 May 2004	Wayne A. Cooksey (ofc. in charge)
13 Nov 2004	Michael L. Hockersmith

Asher School

Asher School following renovation.

Brief history

Asher Public Schools is an independent school district. It has an elementary school (grades Pre-K to 8) and a high school (grades 9 to 12).^{[ citation needed ]} The school was established in 1903. In 1913, there were four other school districts within three miles (5 km) of Asher—Clover Dale, Gravel Hill, Avoca, and Pleasant Hill. The schools were small, consisting of only a room or two. Basic facilities were at a minimum. Talk began of consolidating all of the schools into the Asher district. ^[25] This was later accomplished, presumably around the time Asher's new school building was built in 1929.

Original building

Asher Schools' main and original building (after consolidation) was constructed in 1929. The building would later receive two additions, to either end. The center of the facility originally served as the schools' gym, before being converted to an auditorium when a new gym was built in the 1940s. An extensive renovation was completed in late 2006 on the original building. The work was made possible by a $1.295 million bond issue that was approved by residents in February 2005. ^[21]

Bowen Field Sign

Extracurricular activities

Asher School, the Indians, participates in baseball, softball and men and women's basketball. For forty years, from 1959 to 1999, Asher had the winningest high school baseball team in the nation, led by head coach Murl Bowen. In those forty years, Asher won 2,115 games, lost only 349, hauled home forty-five state championship trophies and fourteen state runners-up, and sent dozens of players to college and minor-league baseball. No high school in history, public or private, has won as many games as the Asher Indians. A book was written about a man who once played baseball for the Asher Indians, called The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town , although the book was not written about him playing ball for the Indians. The baseball field in Asher was named after Murl Bowen for all the winnings he led Asher to in his coaching years that he was there, and his ever-lasting impression that he left on all Asher citizens. Up to this date, even after slipping into retirement, you can still see Mr. Murl Bowen at the school's basketball games and boys' baseball games. ^[26]

Asher also has chapters of the Business Professionals of America (BPA), Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and the National FFA Organization (FFA). ^[27] Asher 4-H and FFA regularly captures the top sheep honors at livestock shows. ^[28]

Media

Television

Asher receives the following television stations off-air. ^[29]

• KFOR-4 NBC (Oklahoma City)
• KOCO-5 ABC (Oklahoma City)
• KWTV-9 CBS (Oklahoma City)
• KTEN-10 NBC (Sherman-Denison, TX)
• KXII-12 CBS (Sherman-Denison, TX)
• KETA-13 PBS (Oklahoma City)
• KOKH-25 FOX (Oklahoma City)
• KOCB-34 CW (Oklahoma City)
• KAUT-43 MNT (Oklahoma City)
• KSBI-52 IND (Oklahoma City)
• KOPX-TV-62 i (Oklahoma City)

Newspaper

The following newspapers are circulated in Asher.

• The Canadian Sands (Monthly Regional; Wanette, OK)
• The Ada Evening News (Daily; Ada, OK)
• The Shawnee News-Star (Daily; Shawnee, OK)
• The Oklahoman (Daily; Oklahoma City)

Notable people

• Ron Williamson - minor league baseball player, subject of John Grisham's first work of non-fiction, The Innocent Man ^[30] Williamson died December 4, 2004, due to cirrhosis of the liver.

Additional photos

• 
  An early Asher gas station
• 
  An Asher State Bank Check, from 1910s
• 
  Albert Browder's Station (Joseph Lessie Speers, pictured), 1956
• 
  Asher Water Tower 1, 2006
• 
  Asher Gymnasium, 2006
• 
  Bowen Field, 2006

References

1. "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Asher, Oklahoma
3. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved January 31, 2008.
4. CensusViewer:Population of the City of Asher, Oklahoma
5. "Asher Police Chief Vigilant...". Shawnee News-Star. September 9, 1989.
6. "Family of Jesse Chisholm to meet Friday at COJC". Shawnee News-Star. March 14, 2007.
7. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
8. Robert E. Seikel, "Asher," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
9. Fortson, John (1936). POTT COUNTRY... Shawnee, OK: Herald Printing. p. 72.
10. "People Worked for Town". Shawnee News-Star. 1990.
11. "Looking Back". Wanette Newsletter. January 1988.
12. "This is Oklahoma". Oklahoma's Orbit (Oklahoman). March 6, 1960.
13. "Sleepy Hamlet Sees 'End of an Era'". Shawnee News-Star. June 9, 1985.
14. "Monument dedication set for today". Shawnee News-Star. September 21, 2007.
15. "Asher Townspeople Struggle to Keep Hamlet Alive, Well". Shawnee News-Star. c. 1985.
16. "Crack Safe, Get $4,000". The Oklahoman. December 14, 1906.
17. "Asher Prepares for Town Celebration". Shawnee News-Star. 1977.
18. "Asher Bridge Brings Vast, Inaccessible...". The Oklahoman. May 12, 1921.
19. "Asher Bank is Doing Business". The Oklahoman. July 26, 1925. p. 44.
20. "Man Shot by Asher Bandits Improving". The Oklahoman. September 5, 1927.
21. Holt, Brad. "asherok.info :: School Renovation" . Retrieved November 3, 2006.
22. "Old Becks Last Gasp". The Oklahoman. February 1, 1942. p. 62.
23. Kennedy, Authur Ward (1995). They Came from Everywhere and Settled Here. Konawa, OK: Kennedy Library of Konawa. p. 166.
24. "USPS Display Postmasters by City". USPS. Retrieved July 20, 2008.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
25. "The Alligator". Asher High School. October 1913.
26. Grisham, John (2006). The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town . Doubleday. pp.  29–30.
27. "Asher School". Archived from the original on October 12, 2006. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
28. "Sheep Trophy Goes to Asher's Thompson Family for 10th Year". Shawnee News-Star. March 13, 1998.
29. Broadcast media in Oklahoma City
30. Grisham, John (2006). The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town . Doubleday. pp.  31–37, 347, 352.

External links

• Town Website
• Asher Photos on Flickr
• School Website
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Asher