|
Beginning
March 30, 1889 in a one-room sod house, a Post Office, Laverne, served the
pioneer settlers of the lush green valley just south of the Beaver River
and 6 miles east of the 100th meridian. A new building was soon built
on the Nesbiti place and the Post Office moved with George Frisbee as
postmaster. This location is part of the old Park Carlisle where
Lloyd Carlisle now lives.
It is
said that the Post Office was named Laverne by a daughter of Jesse
Sinclair, a homesteader. A more romantic version is that a dying
cowboy requested it be named Laverne for his girl friend.
An
enterprising settler pitched a tent, stocked it with groceries and supplies
and thus began the town. Frank Kell bought land from John Mollman in
1911, plotted the ground and sold lots for the present town site.
When the Wichita Falls and Northwester Railroad (branch of the M-K&T)
was laid through the site in the spring of 1912, the growth of the town was
assured. By June 1912 there were 44 businesses, including the Laverne
Leader, Christian and Presbyterian churches, and the Laverne State and
Speermore Banks. The population of 450 in 1913 increased approximately
1,000 by 1930.
Located
in the heart of Northwester Oklahoma’s agricultural and cattle industry,
the oil boom of the 1950’s gave Laverne the title of “Oil Capital of
Northwest Oklahoma” with some of the strongest wells in the state
included in the Laverne-Mocane discovery. During this era the
population grew to almost the hoped goal of 2,000. The first
hotel, built in 1912, The Fox, now houses the Community Museum where Indian artifacts found in Harper County
are displayed, as well as, furnished rooms depicting the life of early
homesteaders. One room is dedicated to honoring Laverne’s own - Jane
Jayroe, Miss America of 1967.
|
