Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Le Flore County, Oklahoma.
The Choctaw Nation signed the Treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820, ceding part of their ancestral home in the Southeastern U. S. and receiving a large tract in Indian Territory. They signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, which ceded the remainder of their original homeland. Most of the remainder of the Choctaw were removed to Indian Territory, escorted by federal military troops, in several waves.
In 1832, the Federal Government constructed the Choctaw Agency in Indian Territory about 15 miles west of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The town of Skullyville developed around the agency. It was designated as county seat of Skullyville County, the capital of the Moshulatubbee District of which Skullyville County was a part, and the national capital of the Choctaw Nation.
The US Indian agents lived in the town. In the late 1850s, it was designated as a stage stop (Walker's Station) for the Butterfield Overland Mail route.
In 1834, the U. S. Army built Fort Coffee a few miles north of Skullyville, but reassigned the garrison after four years. The Methodist Church took over the facility, converting it for use as the Fort Coffee Academy for Boys, a missionary school. That church also established the New Hope Seminary for Girls in 1845, just east of town. In 1847, the Choctaw Agency burned and its functions were transferred to Fort Washita.
During the Civil War, the Choctaw allied with the Confederacy and many of their men served in its army. The Battle of Devil's Backbone was fought near the present town of Pocola on September 1, 1863. Union Major General James G. Blunt defeated Confederate Brigadier General William Cabell. Union troops burned the Fort Coffee Academy in 1863, because it was being used to house Confederate troops.
In 1866, the Choctaw government reopened New Hope Seminary, but never rebuilt a boys academy. New Hope Seminary operated until it burned in 1896. The first school for Choctaw freedmen opened at Boggy Depot. In 1892, the Tushkalusa (black warriors) Freedmen Boarding school opened three miles southeast of Talihina.
Prior to statehood, the area that became LeFlore County was part of Moshulatubbee and the Apukshunnubbee districts. Its present-day territory fell primarily within Nashoba, Skullyville, Sugar Loaf, and Wade counties, with small portions falling within Cedar and San Bois counties, in the Choctaw Nation.
Adjacent Counties
- Latimer County
- Haskell County
- Sequoyah County
- Pushmataha County
- Scott County, Arkansas
- McCurtain County
- Sebastian County, Arkansas
- Polk County, Arkansas
Cities, Towns & Communities
Arkoma | Big Cedar | Bokoshe | Cameron | Cowlington | Fanshawe (part) | Fort Coffee | Heavener | Hodgen | Howe | Le Flore | Milton | Monroe | Muse | Page | Panama | Pocola | Poteau (County Seat) | Rock Island | Shady Point | Skullyville | Spiro | Talihina | Whitesboro | Wister
Cemeteries
Links
Ouachita National Forest (part)
National Register of Historic Places
Le Flore County Historical Society
