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Miller County | |||||||||||
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County of Arkansas | |||||||||||
1820–1838 | |||||||||||
Capital | Gilliland Settlement (1820-1821) Miller Court House (1821-1832) Jonesborough (1832-1838) | ||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||
• 1820 | 999 | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Established | April 1 1820 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1838 | ||||||||||
Contained within | |||||||||||
• Country | United States | ||||||||||
• Territory | Arkansas Territory (1820-1836) | ||||||||||
• State | Arkansas (1836-1838) | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Today part of | United States |
Miller County was a county that existed from April 1, 1820 to 1838, first as part of Arkansas Territory and later the State of Arkansas. It included much of what is southeastern Oklahoma and the northeastern counties in Texas (Bowie, Red River, Lamar, Fannin, Cass, Morris, Titus, Franklin, Hopkins, Delta and Hunt). It was named for James Miller, the first governor of the Arkansas Territory.
According to historian Rex W. Strickland, there were three different political entities that have borne the name "Miller County, Arkansas". All have been in the southwestern corner of the state of Arkansas, but covered different areas at different times. The first was created in 1820, before Arkansas became a state. The second existed after Arkansas was required to cede the land that was inside the boundary of Indian Territory. The third was created after Arkansas was required to relinquish its claim to land that was to become part of the Republic of Texas. [1]
Effective April 1, 1820, Miller County was established by the Arkansas Territorial Assembly through a partitioning of Hempstead County. The Act, signed by Territorial Governor James Miller, delineated its borders as follows:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Territory of Arkansas, That all that portion of the County of Hempstead and bounded as follows, to-wit: Beginning on the north bank of the great Red River, at a point due south of the Cossetat Bayou, a branch of Little River, thence due north to the mouth of the Cossetat Bayou aforesaid, then up said bayou to the head of its main branch, then north to the boundary line of Clark, then due west with said line to the Canadian river, or the Indian boundary line, then with the said line to the great Red river aforesaid, then southeasterly with the Indian or Spanish boundary line to a point due south of the point of beginning, then due north to the beginning, to be laid off and erected into a separate county, to be called and known by the name of the county of Miller. [2]
In modern terms, old Miller County included parts of three states: Arkansas (Little River, Sevier and Polk counties), Oklahoma (LeFlore and Latimer counties, Choctaw, McCurtain and Pushmataha counties) and Texas. [2]
The 1820 territorial census listed 999 residents in Miller County, 82 of them slaves. [2] Initially, the county seat was the Gilliland Settlement. [3] [lower-alpha 1] In August 1821, the county commissioners selected Miller Court House as the county seat. [4] The Miller Court House community was established at a community previously called Shawneetown, 7 miles (11 km) west of the present town of Idabel, Oklahoma. [5] [lower-alpha 2] The post office was established September 7, 1824.
Although settlers continued to move into the area, the Treaty of Doak's Stand (October 18, 1820) was about to change Miller County. After Doak's Stand, Choctaws had already been moving into the area of Arkansas Territory, but a treaty signed January 20, 1825, ceded the land west of a line "one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence, due south, to Red river" to them in exchange for their land in the East. The residents of Miller County signed petitions, the territorial government pressured Washington, but all to no avail. Finally, on October 17, 1828, the territorial legislature abolished Miller County north of the Red River and added the remnant of that county east of the new boundary line to Sevier County. The residents who remained in the county burned Miller Court House and all the county records on November 5, 1828. [6]
The commissioners moved the county seat to Jonesborough plantation south of the Red River on October 23, 1832, and the Miller Court House post office relocated there. However, Miller County south of the Red River was in dispute with the Mexican government. After Texas seceded, they attempted to enforce their claims to the area. In 1838, Texas formed Fannin County, and Washington finally discontinued the Miller Court House post office on December 28, 1838. When Texas joined the Union in 1845 the borders became permanent.
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign independent state. In general, the tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in 1803. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the US federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the US government was one of assimilation.
McCurtain County is in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,151. Its county seat is Idabel. It was formed at statehood from part of the earlier Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. The name honors an influential Choctaw family that lived in the area. Green McCurtain was the last chief when Oklahoma became a state in 1907.
Le Flore County is a county located along the eastern border of the U.S state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 50,384. Its county seat is Poteau. The county name honors a Choctaw family named LeFlore, which is part of the Fort Smith metropolitan area. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma is the federal district court with jurisdiction in Le Flore County.
The Chickasaw are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Their language is classified as a member of the Muskogean language family. In the present day, they are organized as the federally recognized Chickasaw Nation.
Sevier County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 17,058. The county seat is De Queen. Sevier County is Arkansas's 16th county, formed on October 17, 1828, and named for Ambrose Sevier, U.S. Senator from Arkansas. On November 3, 2020, voters in Sevier County, AR approved alcohol sales by a vote of 3,499 to 1,699.
Hugo is a city in and the county seat of Choctaw County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located in southeastern Oklahoma, approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of the Texas state line. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,310.
The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the Southern United States. It was named for its reddish water color from passing through red-bed country in its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name. Although once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. This confluence is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure.
The Arkansas Territory was a territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arkansas. Arkansas Post was the first territorial capital (1819–1821) and Little Rock was the second (1821–1836).
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma.
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about 906 miles (1,458 km) long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about 47,700 square miles (124,000 km2).
The Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek (Muskogee) and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled. By 1883 it was bounded by the Cherokee Outlet on the north, several relocated Indian reservations on the east, the Chickasaw lands on the south, and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reserve on the west. The area amounted to 1,887,796.47 acres.
Lighthorse was the name given by the Five Civilized Tribes of the United States to their mounted police force. The Lighthorse were generally organized into companies and assigned to different districts. Perhaps the most famous were the Cherokee Lighthorsemen which had their origins in Georgia. Although the mounted police were disbanded when the Five Civilized Tribes lost their tribal lands in the late 19th century, some tribes still use the Lighthorse name for elements of their police forces.
Eagletown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 528 at the 2010 census. Located on Mountain Fork River, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from the Oklahoma-Arkansas border, it was the first permanent Choctaw settlement in the Indian Territory, who called it osi yamaha ("Eagle"). Eagletown was an important town from 1834 to 1906, and after 1850, served as county seat for the Choctaw Nation's Eagle County. The town name was officially changed to "Eagle Town" in 1850, then changed to the present Eagletown in 1892. When Indian Territory was preparing to unite with Oklahoma Territory to form the new state of Oklahoma in 1906, Eagletown lost its county seat status and became just another unincorporated community in the new McCurtain County.
Boggy Depot is a ghost town and Oklahoma State Park that was formerly a significant city in the Indian Territory. It grew as a vibrant and thriving town in present-day Atoka County, Oklahoma, United States, and became a major trading center on the Texas Road and the Butterfield Overland Mail route between Missouri and San Francisco. After the Civil War, when the MKT Railroad came through the area, it bypassed Boggy Depot and the town began a steady decline. It was soon replaced by Atoka as the chief city in the area. By the early 20th century, all that remained of the community was a sort of ghost town.
Choctaw Country is the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation's official tourism designation for Southeastern Oklahoma. The name was previously Kiamichi Country until changed in honor of the Choctaw Nation headquartered there. The current definition of Choctaw Country includes ten counties, being Coal, Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, McCurtain, Pushmataha, Le Flore, Latimer, Haskell, and Pittsburg counties. The department created the term as one of six designated travel regions within the state. However, other definitions of Southeastern Oklahoma may include additional counties.
Miller Court House was the first post office located in what is now Oklahoma, United States. It was located in what was then Miller County, Arkansas Territory. The post office opened September 5, 1824, and was closed December 28, 1839. Miller Court House was the county seat of old Miller County. On January 20, 1825, the land was ceded by treaty to the Choctaw Nation, and non-Native Americans were forced to leave. Before leaving in November 1828, they burned the courthouse and records in protest. The exact site is unknown, but it was in what is now McCurtain County, Oklahoma.
Island Bayou is a 46.0-mile-long (74.0 km) tributary of the Red River in Oklahoma.
The Treaty of Doak's Stand was signed on October 18, 1820 between the United States and the Choctaw Indian tribe. Based on the terms of the accord, the Choctaw agreed to give up approximately one-half of their remaining Choctaw homeland. In October 1820, Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hinds were sent as commissioners who represented the United States to negotiate a treaty to surrender a large portion of Choctaw country in Mississippi. They met with tribal representatives at Doak's Stand on the Natchez Trace. They met with the chiefs Pushmataha, Mushulatubbee, and Apuckshunubbee, who represented the three major regional divisions of the Choctaw. Chiefs of the towns and other prominent men accompanied them, such as Colonel Silas Dinsmoor.
Martin Luther Thompson was a Texas Choctaw leader and rancher who along with his relatives, William Clyde Thompson (1839–1912), Robert E. Lee Thompson (1872–1959) and John Thurston Thompson (1864–1907), led several families of Choctaws from the Mount Tabor Indian Community in Rusk County, Texas to Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, I.T.
Towson County was a political subdivision of the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory, prior to Oklahoma being admitted as a state. The county formed part of the Nation's Apukshunnubbee a District, or Second District, one of three administrative super-regions.