Asher, Oklahoma

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Asher, Oklahoma
settlement_type = Town
nickname = Baseball City
website = [http://www.asherok.info www.asherok.info]


imagesize =
image_caption =


mapsize = 250px
map_caption = Location in the state of Oklahoma


mapsize1 =
map_caption1 =
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = State
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name = United States
subdivision_name1 = Oklahoma
subdivision_name2 = Pottawatomie
government_type =
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name =
established_title =
established_date = Post Office 1901
area_magnitude =
area_total_km2 = 2.1
area_total_sq_mi = 0.8
area_land_km2 = 2.1
area_land_sq_mi = 0.8
area_water_km2 = 0
area_water_sq_mi = 0
area_water_percent = 0
area_urban_km2 =
area_urban_sq_mi =
area_metro_km2 =
area_metro_sq_mi =
population_as_of = 2000
population_total = 419
population_density_sq_mi = 523.8
population_density_km2 = 202.2
timezone = CST
utc_offset = -6
timezone_DST = CDT
utc_offset_DST = -5
elevation_ft = 1033
latd = 34 |latm = 59 |lats = 19 |latNS = N
longd = 96 |longm = 55 |longs = 36 |longEW = W
elevation_m = 315
postal_code_type = ZIP code
postal_code = 74826
area_code = 405
blank_name = FIPS code
blank_info = 40-03000GR|2
blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
blank1_info = 1089729GR|3
footnotes =

Asher is a town in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 419 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Asher is located at coor dms|34|59|19|N|96|55|36|W|city (34.988580, -96.926550),GR|1 at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 39 in Pottawatomie County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²), all of it land.

Nearby Areas

Asher is approximately convert|30|mi|km south of I-40 and convert|34|mi|km east of I-35. Nearby cities (with 15,000+ population) include Ada, Oklahoma (21 miles south) and Shawnee, Oklahoma (27 miles north). Asher is located two miles (3 km) west of Chisholm Spring, once the site of a trading post operated by Jesse Chisholm, for whom the famous cattle trail was named. [cite news|title=Asher Police Chief Vigilant... |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date= 1989-09-09 |work=] A Chisholm family home and cemetery are also located in Asher. [cite news|title=Family of Jesse Chisholm to meet Friday at COJC |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date= 2007-03-14 |work=] Nine miles east of Asher is the Sacred Heart Mission Site.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 419 people, 164 households, and 123 families residing in the town. The population density was 523.8 people per square mile (202.2/km²). There were 186 housing units at an average density of 232.5/sq mi (89.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 82.10% White, 12.89% Native American, 0.95% from other races, and 4.06% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.34% of the population.

There were 164 households out of which 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.0% were married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.0% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the town the population was spread out with 26.0% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $20,341, and the median income for a family was $21,875. Males had a median income of $29,750 versus $17,344 for females. The per capita income for the town was $9,340. About 20.5% of families and 22.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.2% of those under age 18 and 22.4% of those age 65 or over.

History

Beginnings

Asher dates back to 1892 when George "Matt" Asher, from Clay County, Kentucky, purchased land in Oklahoma Territory from a Shawnee estate salesperson to set up his farm home. The post office was established in 1901 when the postmaster of nearby Avoca, Oklahoma, George A. McCurry, moved the Avoca post office and his store to the new community that would become Asher. This was done without permission from the government and left Avoca without a post office. According to the tale, McCurry was given a home and store building as payment for moving the post office to the new settlement. The town was named for Mr. Asher, who supplied the land with the consideration the community would carry his namesake. There was a sale of public lots in 1902.

Avoca Township

Asher is the last remaining post office in the original Avoca Township, which also included the towns of Sacred Heart Mission, Osmit, Avoca, Meanko, Boyer and Violet.

Growth

On October 12, 1900, the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf (CO&G) bought the Shawnee to Tecumseh Railway branch from the Tecumseh Railway Co. and promptly extended the branch to Asher. For the next 40 years, Asher would serve as the termination point for the branch and its engine, "Old Beck." Rapid construction of railroads opened up convert|400|sqmi|km2 of a fertile section of the South Canadian River valley to shipping facilities. Asher was the trade center and market of the area. Further development came when, on January 15, 1903, The Jennings Company closed on 1,000 business and residence lots. The Jennings Company advertised investment in the growing town and new factories and industries of various kinds soon located in Asher.

Asher and the new settlers had hopes of creating a large city. However, the settlers were disappointed when the towns of Seminole and Konawa were built and took away much of Asher’s trade. The people of Asher would not give up, and pulled together town resources and constructed a bridge across the Canadian River. The state then used the bridge in its construction of State Highway 18, drawing a small amount of trade to the area from nearby cities, such as Ada. Before the construction of the bridge, those south of Asher could only cross the river when it was shallow enough.

Asher, originally a cotton farming community, suffered in its early years from crop losses caused by boll weevils. Farmers were then dealt a further blow when the town’s first two cotton gins were destroyed by fire. These set backs compounded the loss of trade and left the town in dire straits.

In 1927, oil was discovered in and around the town. Asher sprang up almost overnight to serve the needs of the oil workers. It was also around this time that executives moved into Asher and purchased enormous amounts of supplies and merchandise at inflated prices. There were many businesses in town including feed and grocery stores, jewelry stores and drug stores as well as banks, barber shops, hotels and a small theater. Many leading families of Oklahoma, such as the McAlisters, the Campbells and the Byruns, lived in the town. There were also many doctors with offices in Asher. For a while, Asher became prosperous.

County Seat potential

Tecumseh, Oklahoma was originally the county seat of Pottawatomie County. In late 1930, a long-standing war between Shawnee and Tecumseh escalated when voters approved measures to move the seat to Shawnee. A spin-off of this feud was the move for the creation of a new county, to be named Petroleum County. The new county would be composed of prime oil-producing land, including the southern half of Pottawatomie County and portions of Seminole, Pontotoc and McClain Counties. The move was started by Tecumseh supporters who wanted to make Shawnee’s county seat victory as hollow as possible by removing the most valuable section of the county. Asher was slated to be the county seat and it was planned that the greater part of Tecumseh would move down to form an impressive community. There was a paper--"The Petroleum County Times"—produced, meetings held and petitions circulated. However, the measure never progressed further as times were not favorable for the creation of a new county. [cite book
last = Fortson
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = POTT COUNTRY...
publisher = Herald Printing
date = 1936
location = Shawnee, OK
pages = 72
url =
doi =
id = ]

End of the oil boom

The oil boom ended when only four wells proved to be profitable. Once again, Asher was in danger of dying out. Fortunately, another oil well was found just west of the town. This time the people connected to the well were local citizens and were cautious and conservative in their estimates and spending. This led to a small but steady production of oil in the community [cite news|title=People Worked for Town |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date= 1990 |work=] . [cite news|title=Looking Back |publisher=Wanette Newsletter |date= January 1988|work=] [cite news|title=This is Oklahoma |publisher=Oklahoma's Orbit (Oklahoman) |date= 6 March 1960|work=] Asher was dealt another setback in 1967 when SH-18 was taken out of commission and traffic was diverted west of town on the new US Highway 177. Businesses migrated to the new highway and many storefronts in the original town were closed. The final business, Green's Market, which was located on Division Street (old SH-18) closed in 1985, after serving the community for 40 years. [cite news|title=Sleepy Hamlet Sees 'End of an Era' |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date= 1985-06-09 |work=] Several businesses on US-177 remain, mostly serving those traveling through the area.

Centennial

In 2001, Asher celebrated its 100th anniversary. The town, along with others in the county that had passed the centennial mark, was honored on a centennial monument dedicated September 21, 2007. This date was chosen to coincide with the Oklahoma Centennial. Other Asher honorees were the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1902 and Asher School, which was established in 1903. The monument is located in Centennial Park, on the grounds of the Santa Fe Museum, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. [cite news|title=Monument dedication set for today |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date= 2007-09-21 |work=]

Timeline of major events

Below is a time table of major events that occurred in Asher as well as surrounding communities whose events affected Asher's history.

Post Office

Asher's Post Office was established on November 26, 1901 when it was moved from nearby Avoca.

Postmasters

Below is a list of Asher Postmasters [cite book
last = Kennedy
first = Authur Ward
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = They Came from Everywhere and Settled Here
publisher = Kennedy Library of Konawa
date = 1995
location = Konawa, OK
pages = 166
url =
doi =
id = ] [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = USPS Display Postmasters by City
work =
publisher = USPS
date =
url = http://webpmt.usps.gov/pmt003.cfm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-07-20] .

Asher School

Brief history

Asher Public Schools is an independent school district. It has an elementary school (grades Pre-K to 8) and a high school (grades 9 to 12). [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Asher, Oklahoma (OK) Detailed Profile
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.city-data.com/city/Asher-Oklahoma.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-11-03] The school was established in 1903. In 1913, there were four other school districts within three miles (5 km) of Asher—Clover Dale, Gravel Hill, Avoca, and Pleasant Hill. The schools were small, consisting of only a room or two. Basic facilities were at a minimum. Talk began of consolidating all of the schools into the Asher district. [cite news|title=The Alligator |publisher=Asher High School |date=October 1913 |work=] This was later accomplished, presumably around the time Asher’s new school building was built in 1929.

Original building

Asher Schools’ main and original building (after consolidation) was constructed in 1929. The building would later receive two additions, to either end. The center of the facility originally served as the schools’ gym, before being converted to an auditorium when a new gym was built in the 1940s. An extensive renovation was completed in late 2006 on the original building. The work was made possible by a $1.295 million bond issue that was approved by residents in February 2005. [cite web
last = Holt
first = Brad
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = asherok.info :: School Renovation
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.techelp.us/asher/renovate_pics.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-11-03]

Extracurricular activities

Asher School, the Indians, participates in baseball, softball and men and ladies basketball. Probably no small town is known as well for a sport than Asher is. For forty years, from 1959 to 1999, Asher had the winningest high school baseball team in the nation. No high school in history, public or private, has won as many games as the Asher Indians. In those forty years, Asher won 2,115 games, lost only 349, hauled home forty-three state championship trophies, and sent dozens of players to college and minor-league baseball. [cite book
last = Grisham
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
publisher = Doubleday
date = 2006
location =
pages = 29-30
url =
doi =
id = ]

Asher also has chapters of the Business Professionals of America (BPA), Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and the National FFA Organization (FFA). [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Asher School
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.asher.k12.ok.us/new_page_31.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-11-03] Asher 4-H and FFA regularly captures the top sheep honors at livestock shows. [cite news|title=Sheep Trophy Goes to Asher's Thompson Family for 10th Year |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date=1998-03-13 |work=]

Media

Television

Asher receives the following television stations off-air. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Broadcast Media in Oklahoma City
work =
publisher = Wikipedia
date =
url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_media_in_Oklahoma_City
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-11-10]
*KFOR-4 NBC (Oklahoma City)
*KOCO-5 ABC (Oklahoma City)
*KWTV-9 CBS (Oklahoma City)
*KTEN-10 NBC (Sherman-Denison, TX)
*KXII-12 CBS (Sherman-Denison, TX)
*KETA-13 PBS (Oklahoma City)
*KOKH-25 FOX (Oklahoma City)
*KOCB-34 CW (Oklahoma City)
*KAUT-43 MNT (Oklahoma City)
*KSBI-52 IND (Oklahoma City)
*KOPX-62 i (Oklahoma City)

Newspaper

The following newspapers are circulated in Asher.
*The Canadian Sands (Monthly Regional; Wanette, OK)
*The Ada Evening News (Daily; Ada, OK)
*The Shawnee News-Star (Daily; Shawnee, OK)
*The Oklahoman (Daily; Oklahoma City)

Notable persons

*District Judge J. Knox Byrum. Born in Asher in 1904, Judge Byrum was admitted to the bar on 1927, elected to the state legislature in 1928, served as a Shawnee municipal judge from 1930 to 1934, elected county judge in 1934 [cite book
last = Fortson
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = POTT COUNTRY...
publisher = Herald Printing
date = 1936
location = Shawnee, OK
pages = 72
url =
doi =
id = ] and later became a district judge. Knox is now deceased. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Oklahoma Baptist University Alumni
work =
publisher = Oklahoma Baptist University
date =
url = http://www.okbu.edu/alumni/alumachieve.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-03-23]
*Coach Murl Bowen. Bowen coached the Asher Indians from 1959 to 1998. Coach Bowen's teams won 2,115 games, lost only 349, hauled home forty-three state championship trophies, and sent dozens of players to college and minor-league baseball. [cite book
last = Grisham
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
publisher = Doubleday
date = 2006
location =
pages = 30
url =
doi =
id = ] Coach Bowen is now retired from Asher and lives north of town.
*Ron Williamson. Williamson is the primary character in John Grisham's first work of non-fiction, "The Innocent Man." He graduated from Asher High School in 1971 and played baseball for the Indians. Williamson went on to play minor-league ball for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees before beginning a downspiral that ended with him being arrested and sent to death row for a crime he was eventually cleared of. [cite book
last = Grisham
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
publisher = Doubleday
date = 2006
location =
pages = 31-37, 347, 352
url =
doi =
id = ] Williamson died December 4, 2004 due to cirrhosis of the liver.
*Will Hunt. During his high school years at Asher, he won multiple state titles and was named the 1989 Oklahoma Player of the Year. In college, he won national honors at Seminole Junior College (now Seminole State College) and Louisiana State University (LSU). Later he was drafted into Minor League Baseball by the Detroit Tigers and also played with the independent Northern League. [cite news|title=Hunting for Home (Former standout athlete returns to Asher as coach) |publisher=Shawnee News-Star |date=1998 |work=] Hunt briefly coached the Indians in baseball and basketball following the retirement of Coach Bowen. He is now an Oklahoma City firefighter and resides in Tecumseh.
*Cody Whitney. A 1999 Asher graduate and current resident, Whitney was an actor when he was young, in the television shows "Young Riders" and "Webster" and the TV movie "Red River". Whitney is now a PBR (Professional Bull Riders, Inc.) bullrider. [cite news|title=Asher's Whitney is Riding High |publisher=The Oklahoman |date=2005-01-28 |work=]

Additional photos

ee also

* "Old Beck" Train Engine
* Rock Island Railroad
* Avoca, Oklahoma
* Chisholm Spring, Oklahoma
* Sacred Heart, Oklahoma

References

External links

* [http://www.asherok.info Town Website]
* [http://www.flickr.com/asherok Asher Photos on Flickr]
* [http://www.asher.k12.ok.us/ School Website]