Oklahoma Culpepper Archives
Washington County
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History
In the Green
Country of Northeastern Oklahoma,
Washington County was formed in 1897 from Cherokee
Nation land. Its county seat,
Bartlesville, is on
US-76 about 130 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. Washington is bordered by the Oklahoma counties of
Nowata, Rogers, Tulsa and Osage; and by the Kansas county of
Montgomery.
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Any names
below in red have not been matched
with a person in the Culpepper family tree. If you can identify any of
them,
please let us know.
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Census Records
Oklahoma was
opened to white settlers with the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. The
earliest extant Federal census for Oklahoma Territory is for 1900, and Oklahoma
Territory became a state in 1907. No Culpeppers
have been found in any Washington County censuses prior to 1940.
Jeffrey J. Courouleau (e-mail),
the Local & Family History Librarian at
Bartlesville Public Library
submitted the following additional commentary about census records for
Washington County:
The land run
allowed settlement in a widespread sense, but as an example, Jacob
Bartles (for whom our town is named), had been operating his mill in the
area since around 1873. Nelson Carr, "The Pioneer Of Big Caney", widely
acknowledged as the first white person to settle in this area, came in
1868.
What became a state in 1907 was the combination of both Oklahoma
Territory and Indian Territory. Bartlesville is at the westernmost edge
of the Cooweescoowee District of the Cherokee Nation, and also abuts
slightly into the Osage Reservation. A significant part of what became
the State Of Oklahoma was formerly Indian Territory, not Oklahoma
Territory. As an example, Oklahoma City was in Oklahoma Territory, but
Tulsa, Oklahoma was in Indian Territory...
Full access to the Cherokee Nation census of both 1880 and 1890 are
available through the Oklahoma Historical Society and other state/area
institutions. Other Indian nations should also have similar census
readings available. These were not sent into the federal government, and
therefore were not destroyed when the main 1890 Federal Census was.
Whites can also be found in what is now Oklahoma much earlier, back when
the land was enumerated in the census under "Arkansas, west of the
Mississippi".
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Social
Security Death Index
All records of deaths on or before 31 Jan 2004 in which
the final benefit was paid in this county.