Editing Washington County, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
The Osage ceded their land claims in 1825, and the Federal Government allowed the Western Cherokee to settle in this area in 1828. The 1835 [[Treaty of New Echota]] confirmed Cherokee ownership of the land. The area now covered by Washington County was part of the Cherokee Saline District between 1840 and 1856 and the Cooweescoowee District from 1856 to 1906.<ref name="EOHC-WashCo"/>

The first post office was established in 1859 at the confluence of Butler Creek and the Caney River by James L. Butler. Known as Little Verdigris, the settlement also had a trading post and a school. The Civil War caused most of the inhabitants to move away and the post office closed in 1866. In 1867, the Cherokees sold 157,600 acres to the [[Eastern Delaware]].<ref name="EOHC-WashCo"/>

In 1870, Nelson Carr built a grist mill along the Caney River, which he used to grind seed corn. In 1875, he sold the mill to Jacob Bartles (for whom the town of [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma|Bartlesville]] would be named), who modified the mill to produce wheat flour. Other important agricultural crops included potatoes, sorghum and oats, as well as prairie hay and pecans. Cotton production was attempted in the early 1900s, but the soil proved unsuitable and this crop was soon discontinued.<ref name="EOHC-WashCo"/>

The first commercial oil well in Oklahoma, designated as Nellie Johnstone Number One, was drilled near Bartlesville in 1897. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', the industry developed slowly because of communal land ownership by the Cherokees, the lack of crude oil markets, and lack of reliable transportation. Bartlesville became an oil boom town only after 1900, when the nearby Osage County oil fields were developed and railroads were built into the area. In 1900, Phoenix Oil Company built a pipeline from Osage County to Bartlesville's Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway depot, where there was an oil loading facility. Oil was shipped from there to a refinery in [[Neodesha, Kansas]] in the same year. Washington County fields were developed soon afterward. The Bartlesville Field reached peak development during 1904 to 1906; the Bartlesville-Dewey Field in 1905 and the Copan, Canary, Hogshooter, and Wann fields were located in 1907. Several oil companies set up headquarters in the county, most notably [[Phillips Petroleum]] in Bartlesville.<ref name="EOHC-WashCo"/>

Railroads came to this area at the turn of the 20th century. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway opened a line from [[Owen, Oklahoma|Owen]] to [[Owasso, Oklahoma]] in 1899. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad opened a line from [[Stevens, Kansas]] to [[Dewey, Oklahoma]] in 1901-2 and another line from [[Hominy, Oklahoma]] to Bartlesville in 1903–04.<ref name="EOHC-WashCo"/>