In 1541 when Francisco Vasquez Coronado of Spain set out from New Mexico and crossed the northwestern part of Oklahoma looking for the mystical golden city Quivira, he and other Spanish explorers who followed him found only scattered tribes of nomadic Indians on the gentle, rolling plains and tree-covered hills, teeming with buffalo, deer, antelope and wild horses. Later the French claimed this land and in 1796 Jean Pierre Chouteau established a settlement in Salina, in northeast Oklahoma, which became an important trading post during the 1849 gold rush from the east to California. Finally, as an outcome of the Louisiana Purchase, Oklahoma became a part of the United States in 1803.

 

From 1825 to 1842, with the influx of white settlers from the East taking possession of their lands, a procession of homeless Indians began to stream westward. Then from the Deep South came another group known as the five Civilized Indian tribes .They were expelled from their lands in the 1830s to be relocated in the central and eastern part of Oklahoma, then known as the Indian Territory. This forced march through the bitter winter months, known as the Trail of Tears, was the cause of many Indians losing their lives along the way. No white man was supposed to settle in the Indian Territory, but slowly settlers moved in, changing the picture once again.

 

 

The post-war cattle boom brought huge herds crossing Oklahoma from Texas along the Chisholm Trail and other lesser trails to the Kansas rail centers. With the discovery of coal in the Choctaw Nation in 1870 and oil in Chelsea in 1889, the influx of white men could not be stopped. The groups of white people who attempted to settle Indian Territory were evicted until a cattleman’s association pressured authorities in Washington, D.C., to open the lands for settlement. The United States finally yielded to the demands of “sooners” (who arrived too soon) and the “boomers” (looking to become rich) and purchased 2,000,000 acres of land in central Oklahoma from the Indians. Early in March, 1889, a bill was passed to open the unassigned lands, and on April 22 settlers who had gathered on the borders in all kinds of transportation—race horses, plow horses, bicycles, carts and wagons—rushed in to drive a stake in the ground to lay claim to a piece of land.

 

As early as the 1860s there were scattered groups of Seventh-day Adventist in Kansas. By 1888, as a result of evangelism by two German preachers, Pastor Schrock and L. R. Conradi, Kansas became the second largest conference in the denomination, but the severe drought and plague of grasshoppers drove many to move away. That is when some turned south to Oklahoma. Apparently one settler, H. G. Buxton of the Chandler Company in Oklahoma territory, was a Seventh-day Adventist. He wrote to the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald with an invitation which appeared in the May 3, 1892, issue: “Two railroads run parallel through it (the Territory) about 30 miles apart, affording easy access to most of the towns. To any who may be sent here to canvass, I would suggest that two could, by taking the lines of the two railroads, soon work over most of the territory and would, I think, be justified in the effort, thus preparing the way for the living preacher. This is going to be a magnificent country for raising fruit, vegetables and small grains and good for corn raising. Wood and water are plentiful and good…We hope someone can come here or be sent to help us in the truth as we believe these two territories can be made a conference.”

 

The invitation was taken up by stalwart “canvassers” such as J.B. Blosser and Hattie White Sorenson, who traveled from place to place in a two-wheeled cart and who became the first Sabbath school secretary after the conference was organized, and Eugene Couch,. William Lewis and Cynthia E. Gordon Couch, who canvassed the sparsely-settled territory on foot. Seventh-day Adventist living in Kansas and other states to the north were attracted to this new land. Conrad Meier, a railroad worker in Lehigh, Kansas, made the run to stake a claim for his family’s new home. A scout had previously told him if he rode south and a little west, he would see a cottonwood tree about a mile to the south. This location, they said was good land. Conrad and two of his brothers staked out three tracts of land a mile west of that tree. There he built his home and that’s were Sabbath services were held until a church could be built. The Henry Meier family gave a piece of land on which the East Cooper Church was built, the first Adventist church in Oklahoma. Many German-speaking families came to settle in various parts of the territory. No sooner had they settled than they began holding Sabbath services, first in homes of members, then by sacrificial giving to build churches which were often better looking than their homes.

 

On March 1, 1901 another 65 Adventist families from the Lehigh (south of Wichita) area of Kansas moved by immigrant train to Shattuck. The railroad cars carried people and all their possessions, including animals, food, furniture, dishes, grain, baled hay, seed for planting, implements and tools. On arrival they sit to work building shelters for themselves and the animals. Sod huts were common. Spring came bringing severe weather and dust storms. A few people became discouraged and moved back to Kansas. The month of May brought moisture, so the homesteaders were able to plant. More rain came and things began to grow, bringing new hope to the people. The first harvest was in the spring of 1894. In the course of time, 13 German churches were organized, although today only five remain: Alva, Hooker, Guthrie, Okeene and Shattuck. The Shattuck Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in the winter of 1901-2 by Jacob Lorenz and G.F. Haffner, who was the director of all the German work in North America. He and his wife decided to make their home in this area.

 

 

Richard R. Brock and his wife, pioneer missionaries from Winfield, Kansas, responded to the request from Adventist headquarters in Battle Creek and came to Oklahoma to help shepherd the scattered members. Brock wrote to the Review saying, “I left Winfield for Stillwater, Oklahoma, April 21, in a spring wagon drawn by two ponies. The distance is about 85 miles. I kept the Sabbath all alone in the “Cherokee Strip” (border lands between Kansas and Oklahoma). Sunday I arrived at Stillwater, where I found 14 letters from brethren and sisters living in the Territories…On the 18^th I arrived in Oklahoma City where George Page and I expect to begin tent meetings...” Those tent meetings began in Oklahoma City the evening of June 9, 1892. In August they reported that among the seven who decided to obey the truths presented was “a Colored man of considerable ability” who had been a school teacher and a “most interesting lady 100 and four months old” who had belonged to another denomination for 85 years. Another woman who was baptized was Cynthia E. Gordon Couch, widow of Captain William Lewis Couch, who came from North Carolina. Capt. Couch had been leader of the Boomer movement that paved the way for the white settlement of Oklahoma. He became the first mayor of Oklahoma City.

 

The basement of the first Oklahoma City church bas built on a piece of a cornfield purchased at 217 NW Seventh Street, and services were held there until the upper story was completed. Later the east side of the basement was occupied by the church school and the west side by the Oklahoma Conference Office.

 

 

Because Adventist families were scattered across the state, camp meetings played a very significant part in keeping the members encouraged and in touch with each other. The first camp meeting was held in Edmond, October 1, 1892. The invitation from R.H. Brock that appeared in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald read: “I feel very anxious to have all attend this meeting who possibly can…The Lord is soon coming, and we have a great work to do. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that we have this meeting…that we may seek the Lord together and get acquainted with each other… If it was so necessary for God’s people anciently to appear before the Lord three times a year, is it not very necessary for us who are living so near the end of time and the coming of the Savior, to meet at least once a year?”

 

 

Oklahoma was organized as a conference at camp meeting in August, 1894, with 17 churches, 500 members and three ordained ministers. The president was J.M. Reese. Today, the Oklahoma Conference is made up of over 6,300 members who worship in 75 churches. Although the economy has fluctuated through the years, many members still have the pioneer spirit which keeps them working faithfully and still looking, like their forbearers, for the day of Jesus’ return.