Brief Poteau Timeline from 1820 to 1910
1820 - Treaty at Doaks Stand (First Choctaw Resettlement into the Area)
1820 - Treaty at Dancing Rabbit Creek (Second Choctaw Resettlement into the Area; Start of Trail of Tears)
1861-1865 - American Civil War
1875 - First White Settlement in Poteau
1881 - Buck Davis Arrives (Prominent Poteau Citizen)
1882 - Benjamin Harper Arrives (Prominent Poteau Citizen)
1885 - "Bud" Tate Arrives (Prominent Poteau Citizen)
1886 - Work begins on the St. Louis and San Fransisco Railroad (Frisco)
1888 - George A. Witte Arrives and begins laying out of Witteville
1893 - The Panic of 1893
1895 - Kansas City, Pittsburg, and Gulf Railroad established (Kansas City Southern)
1896 - Robert S. Bridgman Arrives
1898 - Poteau Incorporated
1899 - Great Fire
1900 - Buck Davis Murdered
1900 - Federal Court Moved to Poteau
1904 - Telephone Company was Granted a Franchise
1906 - Electric and Public Water Works
1907 - Oklahoma Becomes a State
1910 - One of the first Natural Gas Wells Discovered
In The Birth of Poteau, we have fully researched these events, along with many others that vividly details the early days of Poteau. We have spent countless hours of dedicated research in order to provide the most accurate description of the town that we can.
