Editing Madill, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
Madill was founded in 1900 by William N. Taliaferro, who had settled in 1886, in what was then known as [[Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation]], in the [[Indian Territory]].<ref>Charles Goins, ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), p. 105.</ref>  Taliaferro owned a {{convert|600|acre|ha}} farm and operated some ranches in the nearby town of [[Oakland, Oklahoma|Oakland]], {{convert|2|miles|km}} northwest of Madill.  Oakland had been the area's largest town, but the [[St. Louis, San Francisco and New Orleans Railroad]] building through the town caused Madill to grow and Oakland, two miles northwest, to decline.<ref name="EOHC-Madill"/><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>  A post office was established at Madill on April 29, 1901, The city was chartered on September 12, 1902. The first public school opened in a four-room frame structure built on the south side of the town in 1903.<ref name="EOHC-Madill"/>

Farming and ranching became the town's principal industries early in its history because the surrounding area was highly fertile and the railroad provided good transportation to markets. There were also mineral springs nearby, and an oil seep north of town. The Arbuckle oilfield was discovered in 1904, and experienced another boom in 1924. Pure Oil Company brought in a well east of town in 1939 and built a company town called Pure Camp to house the oilfield workers. Pure Camp was destroyed by a tornado and killed two people on [[Tornado outbreak sequence of April 2–5, 1957|April 2, 1957]]. The camp closed permanently in July, 1959.<ref name="EOHC-Madill"/> Madill was struck by another EF-2 tornado during the [[Tornado outbreak of April 22–23, 2020]].