Pre-History of Jackson County, Oklahoma (3)

By 1891, a few short years after its founding, the town of Frazer was home to several businesses. These included a hotel, drug store, a general merchandise store, and even a jewelry store. A medical doctor, J. E. Fowler, and his family lived in the drug store. The proprietor of the general store was C. C. Hightower, for whom the Altus High School football stadium is named: Hightower Memorial Stadium. In 1887, J. R. McMahan came to Frazer and became the first school teacher in Greer County, Texas. Eventually, he would replace Mrs. P. H. Holt as postmaster.[1]

Residents of Frazer likely knew their town was in a vulnerable spot. Although it was nice to have the Frazer River (known today as the Salt Fork of the Red River) and Bitter Creek nearby, Frazer stood where the creek and the river met. The dangerous potential turned into reality in 1891. On the night of June 4, torrential rains fell just north of Frazer, in the area that feeds Bitter Creek and the Salt Fork. The two currents overflowed and formed one very wide and swift river running at least three feet deep. Decades later, Dr. Fowler's daughter, only four years old in 1891, recalled: "I remember Mama walking from bed to bed on chairs because there was so much water on the floor." Townspeople got up in the middle of the night, gathered what they could, and moved to safety on higher ground. For many years after the flood, old-timers would say, "The average rainfall here is twenty inches a year and I remember the day it fell."[2]

When residents of Frazer fled their homes, they knew of a higher settlement just two and a half miles to the east-northeast. A post office had been established there the year before, in 1890. At some point, W. R. Baucum, who had formerly lived in Altus, Arkansas, and who knew the Latin word Altus meant "high," suggested that name for the new town.[3]

This traditional telling of the story about how and why Altus got its name leaves a question: if a post office was established there the year before the flood at Frazer, then what was the name of Altus prior to that event? The story assumes that Altus was given that name only after the people of Frazer moved to "higher ground." However, every U.S. post office has a registered name. So, again, what was the name of Altus in 1890, the year before the flood? If the original name of the settlement was Altus, then the story about the town being given that name after the flood doesn't add up.

Notes

[1] Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 139, 179; Barbara Kay Shelton, "Altus on the Hill Above Frazer in Old Greer County," Chronicles of Oklahoma 40, no, 4 (Winter 1962-63): 390-92.

[2] Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 139-40; Shelton, "Altus on the Hill Above Frazer," 392.

[3] George H. Shirk, Oklahoma Place Names, 2nd ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974), 8; Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 141.

Pre-History of Jackson County, Oklahoma (2)

Among the most important pioneers in what is now Jackson County, Oklahoma, were the family of John and Susan McClearen. In 1885, the McClearens, along with their two daughters and two sons-in-law--the J. B. Walkers and P. H. Holts--moved from Grayson County to Greer County, Texas (present-day southwest Oklahoma). At first, they lived in tents, a half dug-out, and a log cabin about three miles south and east of present-day Altus. Soon, they were joined by the family of Tom Eaton.[1]

Frazer, the fledgling town they began, took its name from the nearby Frazer River, known today as the Salt Fork of the Red River. In February 1886, John McClearen established a post office at Frazer. That spring, he began farming. Cowboys driving cattle along the Western Trail would sometimes venture over to Frazer to pick up mail and drink some of the McClearen's fresh buttermilk, kept cold in a well. The cowboys called the place "Buttermilk Station."[2]

Notes

[1] Cecil R. Chesser, Across the Lonely Years: The Story of Jackson County (Altus, OK: Altus Printing Company, 1971), 137-38.

[2] Ibid., 138; George H. Shirk, Oklahoma Place Names, 2nd ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974), 95.

Pre-History of Jackson County, Oklahoma (1)

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to pass through what is now southwest Oklahoma. But they never stayed in the region. Later, in the nineteenth century, members of the U.S. Army also came to this place. One of them was George Armstrong Custer, who traveled through what is now Jackson County in 1869. It was not until the 1870s that people began to take interest in permanently settling in what was then Greer County, Texas.[1] Around that time, the Western Trail began to replace the Chisholm Trail as the best, most direct route for cattle drives going from Texas to railheads in Kansas and Nebraska. The Western Trail was blazed by John T. Lytle in 1874 and crossed the Red River ten miles north of Vernon, Texas. Cowboys who came through on cattle drives following the Western Trail noticed the potential of present-day Jackson County, Oklahoma.[2]

Cattle ranchers came to southwest Oklahoma more than a quarter century before Jackson County was established. As early as 1881, L. Z. Eddleman started the Cross S Ranch around present-day Olustee. About that same time, Cornelius T. Herring began the Herring Ranch near what is now Navajoe. Another operation, the H Cross N Ranch, was established south of present-day Altus.[3] In 1885, the Day Land and Cattle Company leased 203,000 acres in Greer County, Texas (which eventually formed Jackson, Greer, Harmon, and parts of Tillman and Beckham Counties in today's Oklahoma). Livestock was becoming one of America's largest industries, and Greer County, Texas, was home to some 60,000 cattle.[4]

Notes

[1] Cecil R. Chesser, Across the Lonely Years: The Story of Jackson County (Altus, OK: Altus Printing Company, 1971), 137-38; Webb L. Moore, "Greer County,," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 5, 2025. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/greer-county.

[2] Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 137; Carl N. Tyson, “Western Trail,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=WE025.

[3] Linda D. Wilson, "Jackson County," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=JA001; Cecil R. Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 137.

[4] Anonymous, “Day Land and Cattle Company,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 15, 2025, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/day-land-and-cattle-company; John D. Heisch, “Old Greer County,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=OL002; Moore, “Greer County."

Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple

The most recent issue of the Stone-Campbell Journal includes an article by Kelly Tyrrell titled "Strange Bedfellows: Jim Jones and the Disciples of Christ."

Tyrrell tells the story of the Peoples Temple. It was a popular church in 1960s and 70s California with thousands of members. But when Jim Jones, the church's charismatic pastor, was placed under investigation, he convinced hundreds of church members to move with him to Guyana, South America. There in the jungle they established an enclave called Jonestown.

When concerned U.S. officials visited Jonestown, several in their entourage were shot and killed. Shortly after that, 918 residents of Jonestown died in a mass suicide orchestrated by Jones himself. The pastor convinced church members to drink a beverage laced with cyanide. More than 300 of the dead were children.

While the news media often identified Jones as the leader of a cult, they overlooked the fact that Peoples Temple was affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination. That's the point this article emphasizes. Tyrrell notes that the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement has historically been characterized by independent, autonomous congregations. Only in the twentieth century did the most liberal branch of the movement, the Disciples of Christ, establish something of a denominational structure. However, even after doing that, the network of congregations was loose.

This was something Jim Jones had noticed. And he took advantage. On the one hand, connections to a recognized denomination would lend Peoples Temple status and credibility. How could someone be pegged as a cult leader when his church was in good standing with a major denomination? On the other hand, the Disciples of Christ was the denomination least likely to keep tabs on its member churches and their pastors. So affiliation with the Disciples was perfect for Jones: credibility without oversight.

Anyway, a few of the sources in this article could have been stronger. But aside from that, it's a fine piece that makes an overlooked point about Jones and his church.

J. W. McGarvey on the Elders in Acts 14:23

Acts chapters 13 and 14 narrate what is often called Paul's First Missionary Journey. In this story, the Apostle is accompanied another great New Testament character, Barnabas. For a time, a relative of Barnabas, John, was with them (13:5 and 13).

The missionaries traveled from their home church in Syrian Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey) to the island of Cyprus. From there, they sailed to south-central Anatolia where they taught many people about what God had recently done through Jesus of Nazareth.

Once they started back home, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps and visited many of the newly-formed congregations of those who believed in Jesus. As they did so, they "appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust" (14:23). But, someone might ask, if according to 1 Timothy 3:6, an elder "must not be a recent convert," how does that square with the appointment of new Christians to this role in Acts 14:23?

Back in the nineteenth century, this question had occurred to J. W. McGarvey (pictured here) one of the best biblical scholars the Disciples movement ever produced. In commenting on Acts 14:23, McGarvey wrote:

If anyone is surprised that men were found in these newly founded congregations possessed of the high qualifications for the office laid down by Paul in his epistles to Titus and Timothy, he should remember that although these disciples had been but a comparatively short time in the church, may of them were, in character and knowledge of the Scriptures, the ripest fruits of the Jewish synagogue; and they needed only additional knowledge which the gospel brought, in order to be models of wisdom and piety for the churches. They were not "novices" (I Tim. III. 6) in the sense of being newly turned away from wickedness. [1]

Here we see deep understanding, an appreciation for ancient Judaism as the primary matrix from which earliest Christian grew. McGarvey's knowledge and good judgment shine through in this and so many other sections of his classic commentary.

Note

[1] J. W. McGarvey, New Commentary on Acts of Apostles (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1892), vol. 2: pages 50-51.

Below is a link to an online copy of volume 2 of McGarvey's commentary, the one quoted in this post:

https://archive.org/details/newcommentaryona02mcga/page/50/mode/2up