Editing Durant, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
[[File:Durant June 2018 02 (Bryan County Courthouse).jpg|thumb|Bryan County Courthouse and Confederate monument]]
[[File:Durant city hall.JPG|thumb|Durant City Hall]]
[[File:Oklahoma - Durant - NARA - 68147128 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Durant in 1936]]
The Durant area was once claimed by both Spain and France before officially becoming part of the United States after the [[Louisiana Purchase]] and [[Adams–Onís Treaty]]. During the 1820s and 1830s the area was designated as part of the Choctaw Nation in the southern Indian Territory. During the [[Indian removal]]s the Choctaws followed the [[Choctaw Trail of Tears]] from their ancestral homeland in [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]] into this area. The Choctaw Nation originally extended from the [[Mexico|Mexican]] border in the west (now part of the [[Texas panhandle]]) to the [[Arkansas Territory]] in the east, from the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] in the south to the [[South Canadian River]] in the north. In 1855, the Choctaw and Chickasaws formally divided their land into two separate nations, with Durant remaining in Choctaw territory on the east. Chickasaw land extended west to the boundary that would divide Indian Territory from Oklahoma Territory after passage of the Oklahoma Organic Act in 1890.<ref name="milligan"/>

Pierre Durant and his four sons, all of French-Choctaw origin, made the journey up the Trail of Tears on the way to the southeastern part of the [[Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma|Choctaw Nation]] in 1832. The brothers, grown, with families of their own, established homesteads from the Arkansas line to Durant. One son, Fisher, married to a full-blood [[Choctaw]], found a beautiful location for a home between Durant's present Eighth and Ninth avenues. At the time of Durant's founding it was located in [[Blue County, Choctaw Nation|Blue County]], a part of the [[Pushmataha District]] of the Choctaw Nation.<ref>Morris, John W.  ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1986), plate 38.</ref>

Fisher Durant's son Dixon Durant is recognized as the founder of Durant and is honored as its namesake. A minister, businessman and civic leader, Dixon Durant is credited with pastorates in local [[Presbyterian]], [[Congregational]] and [[Methodist]] churches. He established the first store selling general merchandise in 1873,<ref name="milligan">Milligan, Keith L. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=DU010 "Durant,"] ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. Accessed April 15, 2015.</ref> around the time of the 1872 creation of the [[Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad]] (Katy Railroad) siding at Durant, which was the initial impetus for establishing the community.<ref name="milligan"/>

The Missouri-Kansas and Texas Railway (also known as the MKT or "Katy") had already laid a line through the area that would become Durant by November 1882. A wheelless boxcar was parked on the siding there and named "Durant Station". Dixon Durant erected the first building, adjacent to the boxcar, where he opened a general store in 1873. The first post office, also named as Durant Station, Indian Territory, opened February 20, 1879, but closed on July 11, 1881.{{sfn|Shirk|1987|p=74}} A.E. Fulsom was postmaster.<ref>Foreman, p. 6</ref> The [[U.S. Postal Service]] re-established the post office at the site as Durant on March 8, 1882, dropping the word "station" from the name.{{sfn|Shirk|1987|p=74}} Beginning in 1882, the area was simply called Durant.<ref name="milligan"/>

W.H. Hilton was elected the first mayor of Durant.

A memorable event in Durant's rail history occurred on April 5, 1905. A special southbound Katy train stopped in the city with President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] aboard.<ref name="roosevelt">{{Cite news| title = Roosevelt Says He's a Typical President| newspaper=The New York Times| location = New York, New York| date = April 6, 1905| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/04/06/101323417.pdf| access-date = May 8, 2010}}</ref>

In 1895, a fire destroyed the original business district, which had spread along the Katy tracks.

Calvin Institute was opened in 1894, representing the first institute of higher education in the immediate area, which was an outgrowth of Presbyterian mission work among the [[Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma|Choctaw Indian nation]]. Its success led it being reopened as a larger school, Durant Presbyterian College in 1901, later renamed as [[Oklahoma Presbyterian College]].<ref name="Lost Colleges">{{cite web | url=https://www.lostcolleges.com/oklahoma-presbyterian-college#! | title=(259) Oklahoma Presbyterian College: Oklahoma Presbyterian College, Durant, Oklahoma (1894-1966) | publisher=America's Lost Colleges | access-date=May 21, 2019 | author=Batesel, Paul }}</ref> After statehood became effective on November 16, 1907, the state legislature created the Southeastern State Normal School at Durant, which opened March 6, 1909. This school was renamed Southeastern State Teachers College in 1921, and renamed again in 1974 as the present Southeastern Oklahoma State University.<ref name="milligan"/>

Further growth of the town was inhibited by its proximity to the larger town of Caddo (also on the Katy line) and the fact that Dixon Durant did not want to sell more of the land he had inherited to non-Indians. In the 1902-1903 timeframe, the [[St. Louis, San Francisco and New Orleans Railroad]], an affiliate of the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railway]] (also known as "SL&SF" or "Frisco") had intended to build an east–west line through Caddo, where it would intersect the Katy. A rapid land price increase near Caddo instead caused the Frisco to bypass it in favor of Durant.<ref name=nrhpdoc>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=07000517}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Durant Downtown Historic District |publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author= Kelli E. Gaston |date=February 14, 2007 |access-date=June 2, 2017}} With {{NRHP url|id=07000517|photos=y|title=33 photos}}.</ref><ref name=Museum>{{cite web|url= http://www.condrenrails.com/Frisco/Frisco-Museum-All-Aboards/AA1994.1-2.v9.1.pdf |title=Hope, AR|publisher=All Aboard, January–February, 1994, p.17-18, The Frisco Rail Museum, (accessed on CondrenRails.com)|accessdate=October 11, 2022}}</ref>

In 1904, Durant was named in a grand jury instruction as a [[sundown town]] where a notice had been posted warning African Americans not to stay after dark.<ref>{{cite news|title=Considers Conspiracy Law|work=The Wagoner Echo|location=Wagoner, Indian Territory|date=November 19, 1904|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29387086/|via=Newspapers.com|quote=Now in Durant and other towns in the Central District, and for that matter, in [[Holdenville, Oklahoma|Holdenville]], [[Ada, Oklahoma|Ada]] and other towns in the territory notices had been posted for the Negroes not to let the sun go down on them in said towns.}}</ref>

The Oklahoma Constitutional Convention selected Durant as the county seat for Bryan County, Oklahoma, which would supersede Blue County at statehood. In 1908, a special election ratified this choice over three other candidates for the honor: [[Bokchito, Oklahoma|Bokchito]], [[Blue, Oklahoma|Blue]], and Sterrett (later renamed [[Calera, Oklahoma|Calera]]).<ref name=nrhpdoc/>

Bryan County was created from Choctaw lands in 1907, the same time as statehood, and was named after [[William Jennings Bryan]]. Bryan was nominated three times for President of the United States and at the age of 36 lost to [[William McKinley]]. He lost to McKinley again in 1900, and to [[William H. Taft]] in 1908. [[Woodrow Wilson]] appointed the county's namesake as [[United States Secretary of State]] in 1913.

Eleven people were killed in Durant by a [[tornado]] in [[Tornado outbreak of April 1919|April 1919]].<ref name="NYT1919">{{Cite news| title = Tornado Kills 100 in Texas and Oklahoma; Hundreds Buried in Debris of Ruined Towns| newspaper=The New York Times| location = New York, New York| date = April 10, 1919| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/04/10/96290223.pdf| access-date = May 8, 2010}}</ref>

The town's population grew from 2,969 in 1900 to 5,330 in 1910, 12,823 in 1990, and to 13,549 in 2000.<ref name="milligan"/>

The [[Durant Downtown Historic District]] is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].