Editing Eufaula, Oklahoma (section)

== History ==
[[File:Image of Cornelius Emmet Foley of Eufaula, OK.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|C. E. Foley]]
[[File:Aposey.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|Alexander Posey]]
[[File:Harmon Davis.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|Harmon Davis playing steel guitar]]
In the Southeast, the [[Muscogee|Musogee people]] (then known as Creek by European Americans) occupied a large territory including much of present-day Georgia and Alabama. By 1800, the Creek had a village named Eufala, located on Eufaula Creek, near what later developed as the present site of [[Talladega, Alabama]]. This was one of a group called their Upper Creek towns. Pickett's ''History of Alabama'' mentions an Indian town, belonging to the Creek, which he calls ''Eufaulahatche.'' Little Eufauly is mentioned by an historian of this period as early as 1792. Another Upper Creek town called Eufaula was located on the [[Tallapoosa River]]; the present town of [[Dadeville, Alabama]] developed near there.

The Lower Creek had two villages of similar names: Eufaula on the [[Chattahoochee River]], in what later became [[Henry County, Alabama]]; and Eufala, located on the east bank of the [[Chattahoochee River]], within the limits of present [[Quitman County, Georgia]].

In 1832 the U. S. Government had forced the Creek to move to [[Indian Territory]] and cede their lands in the Southeastern United States, as part of a series of cessions they had made. They established Eufaula as a center of Creek in their new territory. It was a frequent meeting place of the people, who held [[pow-wow]]s or Indian conferences in that vicinity during the early days of Creek settlement.<ref name="EOHC-Eufaula"/>

In the 1870s G. W. Grayson, then Chief of the Creek, his brother Samuel, George Stidham and other Creek leaders, persuaded the [[Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad|Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway]] (known as the KATY) to locate one of its stations at this site. The older Creek village was moved here to take advantage of the railroad.<ref name="EOHC-Eufaula"/>

Eufaula, [[Indian Territory]] (present-day Oklahoma), began to attract European Americans soon after the KATY railroad established a station here in 1872. The town was named after George W. Ingall, US Indian agent for the Five Civilized Tribes, suggested the name Eufaula, after the earlier Muscogee tribal town in Alabama. Eufaula incorporated as a town in Indian Territory by 1898.<ref name="EOHC-Eufaula"/>

D. B. Whitlow and Joseph Coody established the first store on the west side of the railroad. The Graysons and G. E. Seales started a store on the east side about the same time. Dr. W. H. Bailey was the first physician and druggist to locate in the new town. Rev. R. C. McGee, a [[Presbyterian]] [[missionary]], established one of the first churches in Eufaula. He served there as minister for many years. For years before the [[American Civil War]], the Asbury Mission School, located two miles northeast of Eufaula, was the leading educational institution of that vicinity. It was burned in an accidental fire.