History of Pryor

Until the coming of the railroad no one apparently had considered settling where Pryor Creek (Pryor) now stands. Traffic through the area either followed Grand River or Texas Trail, both of which passed several miles to the east.

Finally, in 1870 the MK&T railroad began building a line across Indian Territory and by 1871 the shining ribbons of steel had passed the point where the future City of Pryor Creek would one day be located.

In fact, the tiny section house built by the Katy stood completely alone on the prairie until James M. Gambill built his home near the tracks some two or three years later.    He also dug the first well in the new settlement, approximately in the center of the present day U.S. Highway 69, just north of where Oklahoma 20 intersects.

Charlie Gambill, the son of James Gambill, who retired from the U.S. Postal Service August 12, 1964, after 42 years service, said "My father's house was built on what is now the northwest corner of Graham Avenue and Mill Street, and the barn was located to the east on the present northeast corner of the intersection. The well was dug about half-way between the house and the barn."

Only two dwelling houses where in evidence when W.H. (Tip) Mayes established the first store in the town in either 1874 or 1875 . Mayes was a brother of Joel B. and       S. H. Mayes, both of whom later became Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation.

The little town wasn't called Pryor Creek yet, though a meandering stream just west and south of the settlement bore that name in honor of Capt. Nathaneil Pryor who had operated a trading post at Three Forks on the Verdigris River. Pryor had been a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the Northwest and had distinguished himself in the Battle of New Orleans before coming to the Territory in 1816, to enter the Indian trade.

The first post office in what is now Mayes County was established at Coo-Y-Yah, several miles to the south. It was called Pryor's Creek and later became the Town of Chouteau. Another post office was then located on the creek banks four miles northwest of Coo-Y-Yah and was called Pryor Creek -- without the possessive spelling. This post office was discontinued, reestablished and discontinued, several times during the next few years, but was finally permanently discontinued in October of 1884. Residents of the area were notified that all mail service was being transferred to    Coo-Y-Yah where another office had been established during previous years .

However, the white man's difficulty in both spelling and pronouncing the Cherokee name of the town soon forced postal officials to formally change the name to Pryor Creek on April 23, 1887.

In 1909 the post office, for the sake of brevity, dropped Creek from the name and shortly afterward both the Katy Railroad and map publishers followed suit.

So -- today the city is known as Pryor, although officially it is still Pryor Creek and is so written on all legal documents.