Doaksville

Doaksville is a former settlement, now a ghost town, located in present day Choctaw County, Oklahoma. It was founded between 1824 and 1831, by people of the Choctaw Indian tribe who were forced to leave their homes in the Southeastern United States and relocate in an area designated in for their resettlement in Indian Territory. The community was named for Joseph Doak, co-owner of the local trading post. The town flourished until the U.S. Army abandoned nearby Fort Towson in 1854, though it remained as the Choctaw capital until 1859, then declined precipitately after being bypassed by a new railroad in 1870. It is now a ghost town and an archaeological preservation site.

Accessibility to steamboat traffic on the Red River made Doaksville a principal town of the Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. In the 1820s and 30s, it was a major destination for Choctaws who were required to move from their homes in the Southeast and move to Indian Territory. Josiah and his brother originally established the post at the mouth of the Kiamichi River, then relocated one mile west of the Fort Towson-Doaksville Cemetery, after the U.S. Army established Fort Towson in 1824. The community began significant growth in 1831, when the Army reactivated Fort Towson nearby, across the creek to the east.

In 1837, the Chickasaws and the Choctaws signed the Treaty of Doaksville, which allowed the Chickasaw Nation to lease the western part of the Choctaw Nation for settlement.

By 1840, the town had several stores, a gristmill, a blacksmith and a hotel. The Choctaw agent, William Armstrong, reported in 1842 on the unusual nature of the town:

"(It) is one of the most orderly and quiet towns that you will find in the west. There is a resident physician, a good tavern, blacksmith shop, wagon maker and wheelwright. A church has been erected. A temperance society has been organized which numbers a large population of the most respectable Choctaws and Chickasaws as well as our own population. I have been in this village a week at a time without seeing anything like ardent spirits or a drunken Indian."

A post office opened in Doaksville in 1847.

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Wikipedia