Grant Foreman House | |
Location | 1419 West Okmulgee Ave., Muskogee, Oklahoma |
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Coordinates | 35°45′12.15″N95°23′11.51″W / 35.7533750°N 95.3865306°W |
NRHP reference No. | 73001565 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 19, 1973 |
The Thomas-Foreman Historic Home, also known as the Grant Foreman House, is a house in Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States, built by Judge John R. Thomas on a tract of prairie land. It was later named after Thomas' son-in-law, Grant Foreman, by the Muskogee Historical Society and the National Register of Historic Places.
Grant Foreman and his wife, Carolyn Thomas Foreman, each became notable historians who wrote a number of books and articles about Oklahoma history. On display are many of their possessions, including books and memorabilia, photos, documents and Native American works of art.
When Judge Thomas moved to Muskogee after being appointed to a newly created judgeship in 1897, he had difficulty finding a suitable property for the home he wished to build. He and his daughter, Carolyn, moved into the Adams House hotel until Thomas could get a house ready. He talked to Pleasant Porter, then the Principal Chief of the Creek Nation, who agreed to sell him a 300 foot (91 m) by another large vacant tract 300 foot (91 m) piece of the Porter Pasture, just outside the city. The Thomases moved in during 1898. [2]
Reportedly, there was only one small log cabin in the vicinity and no vegetation except grass. [lower-alpha 1] The judge planted 350 trees which provided fruit and shade. A large red oak tree in the northwest corner of the property is the only one of these original trees still standing. Carolyn and Grant collected a number of acorns while honeymooning in California in 1905. These apparently survived until the present. [2]
The Grant-Foreman House is operated by the Three Rivers Museum. [3] The Three Rivers Museum was established in Muskogee in 1989 as the dream of local historian Dorothy Ball, chairman at that time of the Muskogee Historic Preservation Commission. [4] The main building of the museum, the formerly-abandoned Midland Valley Railroad Depot, was obtained in 1998 with federal grant funds. [4] Due to budget issues regarding maintenance and public access with respect to the Grant Foreman House owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society, the Museum voted in 2002 to contract with OHS to take over the operation of that site and make needed renovations. [3]
The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to the Presbyterian School for Indian Girls, which was established in 1882 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, then a town in Indian Territory, and which evolved into an institution of higher education named Henry Kendall College by 1894. The college moved to Tulsa, another town in the Creek Nation in 1904, before the state of Oklahoma was created. In 1920, Kendall College was renamed the University of Tulsa.
Muskogee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 66,339. The county seat is Muskogee. The county and city were named for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The official spelling of the name was changed to Muskogee by the post office in 1900.
Muskogee is the 13th-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately 48 miles (77 km) southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0% decrease from 39,223 in 2010.
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Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now American Baptist Churches USA. Renamed as Bacone College in the early 20th century, it is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma. The liberal arts college has had strong historic ties to several tribal nations, including the Muscogee and Cherokee. The Bacone College Historic District has been on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Muskogee County, Oklahoma since 2014.
John Robert Thomas, Sr., also known as J. R. Thomas, was a U.S. representative from Illinois. He was later appointed a U.S. district judge in the Indian Territory, which then encompassed most of the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma, serving from 1898 to 1901. After statehood, he served on the Oklahoma State Code Commission which was tasked with reviewing and editing the new state laws that had been hastily put together during the rush to statehood. After returning to his private law practice, he went to the Oklahoma state prison at McAlester to interview an inmate on January 19, 1914, when he was killed by three other inmates who shot him to death while escaping prison.
Jesse Bushyhead was a Cherokee religious and political leader, and a Baptist minister. He was born near the present-day town of Cleveland, Tennessee. As a young man, he was ordained a Baptist minister.
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Lee Wilder Thomas, known as Rev. L.W. Thomas, was a prominent African-American business and oil man. L.W. Thomas was among the lucky land owners in the Mexia, Texas, oil field. In the early 1930s, he partnered with Jake Simmons, Jr., another wealthy African-American oil broker. Together, these two men built Simmons Royalty Co., one of the leading African-American oil and mineral right royalty companies in the state of Oklahoma.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, Oklahoma.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Payne County, Oklahoma.
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Wealaka was a community established in 1880 in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory. It is notable as the site of Wealaka Mission, which operated a school from 1882-1907. This school was primarily for Muscogee Creek children, but European Americans could attend for a fee. After statehood in 1907, the site was sold to private owners.
Ranch Acres is a residential area in Midtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was designated in 2007 as Ranch Acres National Historic District (RAHD) because it is an excellent example of a ranch house type of subdivision built after World War II. The area is bounded by 31st Street on the north, Harvard Avenue on the east, 41st Street on the south and both Delaware Avenue and Florence Avenue on the west.
Three Forks Oklahoma is an imprecisely defined area of what is now eastern Oklahoma, around the confluence of the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand Rivers.
Carolyn T. Foreman, was a noted Oklahoma historian. Born in Illinois, she moved to the city of Muskogee with her widowed father, John R. Thomas, a former congressman for Illinois in the 1880s, and politician, and who served as a federal judge after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. After marrying Grant Foreman in 1905, a lawyer and partner of her father, she became fascinated with the history of Oklahoma. After her father's murder in 1914, she and Grant closed the legal partnership and spent full time on historical research and writing. Grant died in 1953, but despite her own declining health, Foreman continued her historical work until her own death in 1967.