page_title: Grant County, Oklahoma
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Grant County, Oklahoma / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Pond Creek Masonic Lodge No. 125 This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 10000622 More images
context_page_description: Grant County is a county located on the northern border of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,527. Its county seat is Medford. Originally designated as part of the Cherokee Outlet, it was named County L in Oklahoma Territory at the time of its opening to non-Indian settlement. A county election renamed it for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
context_section_description: Grant County was part of the Cherokee Nation's Cherokee Outlet until it was opened to non-Indian settlers in response to public demand on September 16, 1893. Settlers named the county after President Ulysses S. Grant in a general election held November 6, 1894. Congress originally designated this area as County L in Oklahoma Territory, with the county seat at Pond Creek. Medford became the county seat through an election held on May 27, 1908.
  The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway (later the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway) built a railroad from northern Kansas through Grant County in 1889 and 1890. In 1897 the Gulf Railroad (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, AT&SF) linked Manchester, Wakita, Medford, and Deer Creek. At the start of the 20th Century the Blackwell, Enid and Southwestern Railroad (later the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway) passed through Lamont. Still later, the Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad (later the AT&SF) reached Nash (Nashville).
  The railroads gave the county access to markets in the northern and eastern U.S., helping turn the county into a major agriculture and cattle producer. At statehood, the principal crops were wheat, corn, oats, alfalfa, and forage sorghum. The county also had more than fourteen thousand each of hogs and cattle as well as almost thirteen thousand horses.
  Bethel was the site of a post office in Grant County that existed from March 12, 1895, until November 2, 1895.
  Florence was the site of a post office in Grant Co. that existed prior to 1908 but ceased
  to exist about 1920, after the post office closed, per information acquired in researching
  an ancestor, Isaac Arnold who was post-master in Florance from August 1908 to 1920.
caption: Pond Creek Masonic Lodge No. 125
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