Editing Grady County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Grady County was part of the land given to the [[Choctaw]] by the [[Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek]], in exchange for property in the southeastern United States. In 1837, the [[Chickasaw]] joined the Choctaws, and in 1855 a treaty separated the two tribes, and the Chickasaw acquired an area that included much of Grady County. Most of the present Grady County became a part of [[Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation|Pickens County]]<ref>Charles Goins, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), plate 105.</ref> in the Chickasaw Nation.<ref name="EOHC-GradyCo"/>

Before the Civil War, [[Randolph B. Marcy]] blazed the California Road through this area, reporting a Waco and a Wichita village. In 1858, while the Comanches were holding a meeting with the Wichita, Choctaw, and Chickasaw, Federal troops attacked a party of Comanches. Although the commander of [[Fort Arbuckle (Oklahoma)|Fort Arbuckle]] had been informed about the meeting, the troops' commander, Major [[Earl Van Dorn]], had not consulted him before the attack. As a result, the troops killed 60 Comanches and four Wichitas. Fearing a Comanche reprisal, the other tribes fled to safety at [[Fort Arbuckle (Oklahoma)|Fort Arbuckle]]. At the end of the Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes and the Caddo, Delaware, Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Osage signed a peace agreement and pledged to stand united against any unjust demands that the federal government made at the war's end. The agreement was known as the [[Camp Napoleon Council|Camp Napoleon Compact]].<ref name="EOHC-GradyCo"/>

The first railroad in this area was built to the town of Minco in 1890 by the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway. The company was acquired by the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad]] (Rock Island) during the following year. In 1892, the Rock Island built a track connecting Chickasha, Ninnekah, and Rush Springs to the Texas border. The same railroad built a line from Chickasha to Mangum in 1900. The Oklahoma City and Western Railroad (sold to the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railway]] in 1907) constructed tracks from Oklahoma City to Chickasha, which it extended to the Texas border in the following year. Between 1906 and 1910, the Oklahoma Central Railway (sold to the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] in 1914) built from Lehigh to Chickasha.<ref name="EOHC-GradyCo"/>

The 1898 [[Curtis Act]] stripped the Chickasaw Nation of its authority, and communal land was forced into allotment, paving the way for statehood. When Oklahoma acquired statehood in 1907, the Chickasaw Nation ceased to exist, Grady County was organized and [[Chickasha]] was named the county seat. In 1911, Grady County annexed Washington, Prairie Valley, and the northern section of Dutton townships formerly in [[Caddo County, Oklahoma]].<ref name="EOHC-GradyCo"/>