Editing Lincoln County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
The United States purchased the large tract of land known as the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. [[Washington Irving]], [[Charles J. Latrobe]], and Count [[Albert de Pourtalès]] accompanied Henry L. Ellsworth and others on an expedition in [[Indian Territory]] that may have passed through the far northwestern corner of the future Lincoln County.<ref name="mullins"/>

The [[Osage Nation|Osage]] hunted on land that includes present-day Lincoln County until they ceded the area in an 1825 treaty to the federal government. The government then assigned the land to the [[Creek Nation|Creek]] and the [[Seminole Nation|Seminoles]] after they were removed from the southeastern United States. Following [[Quapaw]] removal in 1834, several small groups of Quapaw dispersed throughout Indian Territory. There were absentee groups of Quapaw living along the Red River and in Creek, Choctaw and Cherokee territory. There is a "Quapaw Creek" in the southern half of Lincoln County which was a village site for one of these absentee groups of Quapaw.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baird|first=David|title=The Quapaw People|year=1975|publisher=Indian Tribal Series}}</ref>  After the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] in 1866, the [[Creek Nation|Creek]] and [[Seminole Nation|Seminoles]] were forced to give up lands that included present-day Lincoln County in Reconstruction Treaties for siding with the Confederacy.<ref name="mullins"/>

The federal government then used the area to resettle the [[Sac and Fox]], [[Potawatomi]], [[Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma|Kickapoo]] and [[Ioway]] tribes. Established in 1870, the Sac and Fox agency, established on the eastern edge of the present-day county, was the first settlement in the area.<ref name="mullins"/>

In 1890, the Jerome Commission negotiated with the tribes of the area such that they agreed to allotment of their reservation lands, except for the Kickapoo. Indian lands were allotted to individual tribal members and the excess were opened to white settlement in the [[Land Run of 1891]]. A separate land run was held later that year for the townsite of the predesignated county seat, Chandler. Lincoln County was organized and designated as County A. In 1895, the Kickapoo agreed to allotment and the land was claimed by settlers during the [[Land Run of 1895]].<ref name="mullins"/>

The voters chose the name Lincoln County for County A in honor of President [[Abraham Lincoln]], selecting it over the names Sac, Fox, and Springer.<ref name="mullins"/>