The early years of the twentieth century were years of tremendous growth for Caddo. Much of that was due to promotion pieces such as this one. There was also a booklet printed by the Commercial Club that praised Caddo’s assets and displayed photos of homes, businesses, and abundant crops. The title page says, “Caddo, Oklahoma- A Prosperous Town Located in the Center of the Richest Agricultural Section of the Great New State.” Groups traveled by train and wagon to other towns to promote the Corn Carnival. Caddo was the location for major meetings, speeches, and entertainment. For a few years it was truly a city worthy of promotion.
The Caddo Herald
August 11, 1911
Caddo
It is needless for The Herald to extol the virtues of Caddo. They are self evident.
Its location is ideal from many standpoints; healthful, slightly, prosperous and growing. It is surrounded by a body of the richest land in Oklahoma. This land embraces almost every soil known to man; from the black waxy upland to sand and loam bottom land, all the very best of the kind.
Caddo is one of the oldest towns in Oklahoma, having been established at the coming of the Katy railroad in 1872. For many years this was the main trading point of the old Indian Territory. Freight shipments were made here and transferred by wagons to Bonham, Paris and all eastern points, and to Fort Sill, Gainesville, and all western points, it being a rendezvous of all freighters in the early days.
With the passage of the Curtis bill in 1898, Caddo began, like other Indian Territory towns, to make permanent improvements. Previous to that time the tenure of a town lot was only during the lifetime or will of the citizen claimant. The Curtis bill provided that improved lots might be bought at half the appraised price, by the owner of the improvements. With this also came the allotment of the Indian lands which previously had been held in common, though many individuals had large bodies of land under fence, which they were compelled to release under allotment, not being entitled to hold it all.
With the advent of this improvement Caddo began to grow. It was then a village of some three hundred people; it was incorporated, new business houses and dwellings went up, and in 1900 it possessed among its inhabitants some fifteen hundred people. The wet season three years ago caused many of her inhabitants to go to Mexico, the droughts following caused them to “come back” hence, now every house in town is occupied and every farm that has a house on it has a tenant. Many of the farms have been sold to home builders who now are flourishing. Of course the large numbers of farmers in this county are renters, but they are prosperous as a rule, and contented. Many in a few years make enough to buy the farm they are working.
Caddo being located on a blackland prairie naturally has suffered in time from an excess of mud, but this condition is largely alleviated because the streets are well graded, and more than six miles of cement sidewalks have been laid in Caddo this year.
Caddo has four church organizations and three houses of worship: the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist each have handsome buildings, while the Christian denomination at present is using the opera house for their services. Each maintains a flourishing Sunday school besides the Ladies auxiliaries. The membership is composed of good citizens.
Caddo has one handsome brick school building with eight large class rooms, auditorium and offices, which was built eight years ago. The need for more room became so great that recently the district voted $25,000 bonds with which to build and equip another structure, on which work will start in a few weeks. This will make our school facilities equal to those of any town in the state.
All lines of business and professions are represented in Caddo. The merchants carry as good goods and have as attractive prices as any in the state. The professional men are gentlemen worthy of their callings: layers, doctors, dentists, engineers and contractors compose them.
Caddo’s one newspaper covers the field completely. The Caddo Herald was established nineteen years ago, and has kept pace with the growth of the town. It is newsy, containing those items that are of particular interest to local citizens and persons interested in this locality. It does not aspire to metropolitan honors, but it desires to cover the Caddo field completely. That this is done by the Herald is evidenced by reading its columns. Mr. Carraway has been with the Herald five years, and Mr. Crossett numbers his term an even dozen years, with two out on vacation.
In banks Caddo is well represented, having three. The Caddo National with a capital and surplus of $75,000; the Security National with a capital of $25,000; the Oklahoma State with a capital of $15,000; making a total banking capital of $115,000. All are housed in up-to-date and modern buildings.
Caddo has three large cotton gins with a total of sixteen stands, all in readiness to take care of this year’s crop.
Three excellent blacksmith shops take care of that kind of trade.
The Katy Mill & Elevator Co. with an enormous capacity takes care of the grain and feed business by the wholesale. They have an excellent plant, and have been successful for the start.
The lumber yards supply the building material for the town, and their sales the past year are much greater than similar periods.
Caddo and Crops
The words are alliterative and the meanings in the sense are synonymous. A crop failure is never known around Caddo. Of course all crops are not successes every year, but no year sees a complete failure of all the crops. Our interests are so evenly divided between the three principal crops that one or two of the three- Oats, Cotton, and Corn- are sure to be hit.
This year of lack of moisture, while it did not aid the corn in its growth, we made an excellent oat crop, and prospects were never better for a large yield of cotton. In prior years corn has been excellent while cotton short, sometime it happens that both cotton and corn are short, then Mr. Oats comes to the rescue.
This feature of not being a one-crop country is our most valuable asset, since by the diversification of crops the farmer is saved that loss of complete failure in his crop.
Come to Caddo if you want to be assured a certain living.
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