Editing Wister, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
A post office was established at Wister, Indian Territory, on June 30, 1890.  The community was named for an official of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, one of the two railroads that intersected in the town.<ref>Shirk, George H. ''Oklahoma Place Names'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1965), p. 224.</ref>

At the time of its founding, Wister was located in [[Sugar Loaf County, Choctaw Nation|Sugar Loaf County]], a part of the [[Moshulatubbee District]] of the [[Choctaw Nation]].<ref>Morris, John W. ''Historical Atlas of Oklahoma'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1986), plate 38.</ref>

Until it became known as Wister, the settlement had been known as Wister Junction, due to its location at the crossing of two railroad routes.  The [[Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad]] was an east-west route linking Wister Junction with [[McAlester, Oklahoma|McAlester]] and passing through lucrative coal mining towns along the way.<ref>"Map of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories."  Rand-McNally Company.  1892.  https://lccn.loc.gov/98687110</ref>  Its eastern terminus was at the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad]], a north-south route connecting [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]] with [[Paris, Texas]].  After receiving its post office, the town could no longer be known as Wister Junction, as federal post office regulations forbade new post offices from carrying descriptive names such as "Junction," "Mountain," or "Corner."<ref>Information about this regulation may be found in the original applications filed by communities seeking post offices.  These are found within Record Group 28, Records of the U.S. Post Office, in the National Archives.  The records are most commonly available as Microfilm 1126.</ref>