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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: November 17, 1937
Name:  Henry Corlett
Post Office:  Kingfisher, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth:  February 14, 1850
Place of Birth:
Father:
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother:
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker:  Louise S. Barnes
Volume 20 Pages 484-487
Interview #  9280

Henry Corlett, born February 14, 1850 came to Oklahoma on the next day after the opening of the Territory from northern Kansas, Washington County. There were five in this party driving through in covered wagons. It was certainly a sight no one will ever be able to describe; when we arrived in Kingfisher, the day after the opening, no one had gotten settled and every one was very excited.

I had intended to start a small feed and grocery store the day we arrived and had ordered a load of flour but it was later a few hours when the first load was brought to Kingfisher. I started to build a small one room store as soon as I could after our arrival. Feed was in great demand for the horses that had taken part in the run. Corn sold at $1.00 a bushel then. We started our store in a small one room shack, combining everything but did a very good business.

The first School was started in a very unusual way.

The first thing I noticed after getting my business started was that no one was paying any attention to the small children who would have been in school if they had been in another state. This worried me, even though I had no children of my own then but I knew these little children needed an education and some place to spend part of their time. The families, where there were children to go to school, had very little time to devote to trying to start a school because these families had their livings to make. I took it upon myself to see if I could not get a small private school started in a one room shack next to my store. I worked out a petition, then went around and collected signers and money to pay a teacher with until we could get another school started. We hired as the first teacher a girl name Maggie LACY, paying her about an average of $30.00 a month. This is the way the school was started and we had little trouble from then on having school because everyone took an interest from that time.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Sherri Brownell  <just_us@terraworld.net> October, 2000.