I have decided that, with three young ones in the back seat of the car, my parents would have foregone the "scenic" route of going by the Wichita Mountains and, instead, would have headed directly south from Rocky on US 183. If so, they must have passed through the town of Hobart, named for President McKinley's Vice-President Garret Hobart. Since he was from the state of New Jersey, I'm wondering why the folks that settled here in Oklahoma decided to name this town after him. Perhaps it was because he died while in office, and there was no replacement until President McKinley made Theodore Roosevelt his new Vice-President at the next election. (During this second term, President McKinley also died while in office).
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William McKinley and Garret Hobart
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Hobart is a great example of a "land run" town. The townsite started the day the Kiowa-Commanche-Apache Land Run opened on August 6, 1901, when the population went from zero to more than 2,500 people in a single day. It had the nickname "Ragtown" for a while since all of these people lived in tents until they could build more permanent housing.
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| Courtesy: E Taylor @rebelcherokee.labdiva.com |
There is an interesting short movie posted by M. Pfenning here:
movie which shows the beautiful view of the nearby Wichita Mountains and the farmland around Hobart, Oklahoma.
2 comments:
I remember those days traveling as one of the three in the backseat. No air conditioning. All the windows rolled down. My brother, at about 4-5 would lay in the back window so he could see better. Crazy now that I think about it, with the seatbelt rules.
I tried to find out why they called it Hobart but Google didn't provide an answer. But at least this town is mentioned at my US wall map.
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