The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

26 June 2008

Where have all the townships gone?

Doug Loudenback has turned up a 1905 map of the state, presumably out of copyright and available from the Library of Congress in seriously-high resolution.

There were no roads to speak of back then; traffic was rail traffic, and the rail lines are clearly delineated on the map. And there are towns that don't exist anymore:

Notice that quite a number of towns most of us have never heard of are present ... at least, I hadn't. In Oklahoma County, beginning in the northwest corner and going clockwise (more or less), notice: Lockridge, Servado, Hartzell, Ludlow, Wadsock, Munger, Dublin, Shawhoma, Dickson, Marion, Mishak, Lynn, and Wheatland. Figuring out what happened to those communities might be a fun future project!

Obviously I don't know all these, but I'll take a stab at a couple of them, armed with some genealogical data, some 1900 Census numbers, and a little bit of experience. (I used to live near what used to be Dickson.) The grid on the Oklahoma County map shows township lines; each township is six miles square. The north-south lines, west to east, are present-day May Avenue, Bryant Avenue, Post Road and Indian Meridian; the west-east lines, north to south, are 164th, Wilshire and Reno.

Wheatland still exists, sort of: it has a post office (boxes only: 73097) and a Main Street, which is the extension of Newcastle Road southbound right before it runs into Council Road. Most of the telephones between Mustang and Will Rogers World Airport were considered by AT&T to be in the Wheatland zone (prefix: SHadyside 5).

Dickson was formerly Chaddick, and was located along the Rock Island line east of town. All that remains of the name, I think, is the Dickson Baptist Church at 2000 N. Spencer Road, within current Midwest City limits. (1900 population: 23.)

The Munger townsite, then four years old, was renamed Spencer in 1903, perhaps after the railroad (Santa Fe) came through, but apparently both sidings were retained. (This probably also explains Wadsock, just to the southwest.) These are all in the Crutcho township. (1900 population for Munger: 18.)

Hartzell was the name of the township just north of Crutcho; there was a post office there until 1906. It was named for its postmaster, as was Mishak, 13 miles to its south. There exists a Mishak Cemetery, between Douglas and Post along SE 59th; Mishak Baptist Church is nearby. (1900 population: Hartzell, 22; Mishak, 14.)

Lynn is almost, but not quite, in the right place for present-day Valley Brook. It's not listed in the Census.

Servado (1900 population: 42) lost its post office after 1905, and the mail went to Luther instead; this area appears to be unincorporated, and Luther has extended a half-mile-wide finger of its city limits as far west as Henney Road, presumably to prevent Oklahoma City from annexing it.

All the references I've seen to Shawhoma (not many) mention a railyard, which suggests that this might have been the stretch along the Santa Fe between 23rd and 36th. It never had a post office of its own, so far as I can tell.

Lockridge was technically in Logan County; it survived as a post office until 1928.

If I come up with anything else, I'll tack it onto the bottom.

Addendum: Nearest cemetery to Lockridge appears to be St. Patrick's, on NW 234th half a mile east of the Canadian County line.

Posted at 5:21 PM to Soonerland