Editing Okay, Oklahoma (section)

==Etymology and history==
Okay's history as a community began ''circa'' 1806, when a French trader named Joseph Bogy established a trading post in the [[Three Forks (Oklahoma)|Three Forks]] area of what would eventually become the state of [[Oklahoma]]. {{efn|The Osage who lived nearby, and claimed to control the area, regularly visited the post to barter for ammunition. Their enemies, the Choctaws, also visited to rob the post and punish Bogy for trading with the Osage.<ref name="EOHC-Okay">[https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK002 Crocker, Jack. "Okay." ''The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Accessed December 6, 2018.</ref>}} The firm of Brand and Barbour took over the post later. When Barbour died in 1822, [[A. P. Chouteau]], who had already established a trading post at [[Salina,Oklahoma|Salina]] bought the Three Forks post. At the time, the post included twelve houses and a ferry.<ref name="GLN">[http://grandlakenewsonline.com/three-forks-oklahomas-first-walmart-p732-126.htm "Three Forks, America's First Walmart." ''Grand Lake News''. September 25, 2017.] Accessed September 25, 2017.</ref> Chouteau expanded his business by bringing in Creole carpenters to construct [[keelboats]] that local traders needed to transport the goods they obtained from the local Indians to New Orleans and St. Louis. For a while, the Osage tribe claimed ownership of the land, which they ceded to the Western Cherokees before the [[Trail of Tears]]. Then the Western Creeks were allowed to settle on part of the land. In 1828, the Federal Government bought Chouteau's land for construction of a Creek Agency.<ref name="Capace">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-EbRP8o6LGMC&dq=Three+Forks+%28Oklahoma%29&pg=PA206 Capace, Nancy. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma''. p. 206. Somerset Publishers, Inc. St. Clair Shores, MI. 1999.]. {{ISBN|0-403-09837-8}} Accessed September 24, 2017.</ref>

The settlement had various names before 1919.<ref name="okhistoryOK002">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK002|title=Okay|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|access-date=September 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="eis1975"/> The [[St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway]] called a nearby [[railroad switch|switch]] '''Coretta''', and the [[US Post Office]] adopted the name in 1891.<ref name="okhistoryOK002"/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=OK&county=Wagoner | title=Wagoner County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=April 1, 2015}}</ref> The [[Cook Gang]] [[train robbery|robbed the train]] at Coretta on 1894.<ref name="Nash1989">{{cite book|last=Nash|first=Jay Robert|title=Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen & Outlaws|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNIdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84|access-date=September 14, 2017|date=January 3, 1989|publisher=M. Evans|isbn=9781590775301|pages=84–85|chapter=Cook, William Tuttle}}</ref> The name '''Falls City''' was also current, from nearby rapids on the [[Verdigris River]].<ref name="okhistoryOK002"/> The post office name changed to '''Rex''' in 1900 and '''North Muskogee''' in 1911.<ref name="okhistoryOK002"/> The name '''Okay''' was adopted on October 18, 1919, after the "O. K. Trucks" brand of oil tankers made at a factory built there in 1915 by the Oklahoma Auto Manufacturing Company,<ref name="eis1975">{{cite book|title=Fort Gibson and Tenkiller Ferry Lakes: Environmental Impact Statement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rg80AQAAMAAJ&pg=SA2-PA13|year=1975|pages=2–13}}</ref><ref name="okhistoryOK002"/><ref name="okhistoryAU002">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AU002|title=Automotive Manufacturing|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|access-date=September 14, 2017}}</ref> which later renamed itself the "O. K. Truck Manufacturing Company".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Automotive Industries |publisher=Chilton Company |volume=43 |page=47 |title=Hutchinson O. K. Truck Official |date=July 5, 1923}}</ref> Okay has been noted for its [[place names considered unusual|unusual place name]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ScpRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5595%2C1991739 | title=Rodney, Oscar, Cecil, Esther Surround Us | work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | date=July 14, 1969 | access-date=May 20, 2015 | author=Baker, Lawrence B. | pages=23}}; {{cite book|title=LIFE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57|date=January 31, 1944|page=57|issn=0024-3019}}</ref>

A fire destroyed most of the business district in 1936, including two general stores, a church, the post office, and two vacant buildings. Only two businesses, a filling station and a blacksmith shop, survived the disaster.<ref name="EOHC-Okay"/>