Attractions

• Brushy Lake
• Festivals

History

Marble City is located in the northern part of Sequoyah County in Oklahoma, about four miles south of the junction of Adair, Cherokee and Sequoyah counties. Our little community is hidden along the Sallisaw Creek, in the beautiful scenic hills, with plenty of wild life to capture your interest. The area history dates back to 1817 when the United States made a treaty with the Cherokees allowing any Cherokee who signed over their rights to land in the Eastern Cherokee Nation to move to western Arkansas. They were given land, which happened to be the hunting grounds of the Osage Indians. Bloody warfare broke out between the tribes. In 1827, Major William Lovely took it upon himself to negotiate a treaty and create a buffer zone between the two tribes, which he called Lovely County, Arkansas. He established a county seat named Nicksville. Records indicate that the first post office in what we now know as Oklahoma was established in Nicksville on April 25, 1828. Lovely’s treaty was never ratified and he never received governmental approval for his county. They were dissolved in less than two years. In 1829 the United States took the Arkansas land from the Cherokees and moved them farther west into what was to later become Indian Territory. While in Arkansas, a mission school had been established by the American Board for Foreign Missions for the Presbyterian Church. When the Cherokees came west to their new home Dwight Mission was moved into the abandoned buildings of Nicksville.

Lovely County was abolished when the Cherokees entered into a treaty on May 6, 1828. This treaty established the current Arkansas boundary. Nicksville became Kedron. Then, after relocating near a huge marble deposit in the mid-1800s, it was called Marble. In 1897, after the Kansas City Southern Railroad built a switch in the area, the community was called Marble Switch. On July 29, 1903, a tract of land containing about 240 acres, located in the Sections 24 and 25, Township 13 North, Range 23 East, was surveyed as a townsite. In September 1903, the company advertised a picnic, barbeque, horse racing and sale of town lots at the Marble City Townsite. Several stock holders joined together to purchase the Marble Townsite Company on October 11, 1904. E.B. Guthrey purchased the holdings of the other stockholders in 1905, making him the majority stockholder with 90% of the entire stock.

The Marble City Citizen's Bank building was built during the prosperous times for our town. Records indicate that it was built in 1911 and closed around 1916. The stones used in the building came from the marble mine located just north of town. This building was entered into the National Historic American Buildings Collection on Sept. 8, 1980. The Marble City Historical Society has been working with the community to restore and preserve this building. Much progress has been made and the building is now being used for community functions. Our community has joined together in recent years to improve our surroundings and provide enrichment activities for all ages. Several Organizations are working together to establish a plan for the development of areas in and around Marble City.

Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd is known to have visited several ‘safe houses’ in and around Marble City. These safe houses were homes where he could get a hot meal or a night’s sleep without worrying about being turned in to law enforcement. Contrary to some beliefs, he never robbed the Citizens State Bank of Marble City nor did he keep money there. Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was only 12 years old when the bank permanently closed for business.

At various times during our history there have been hotels, barber shops, confectionaries, monument companies, lumber mills, grist mills, hardware stores, feed stores, millinery stores, dress shops, general mercantile stores, a library, a pharmacy and a licensed medical doctor. Soon after the establishment of Marble City, a conscription school was opened. In 1911 Marble City built its first public school. It was a two-story building, which housed 12 grades. In 1924 the top floor was removed from the building and the high school students were bussed to the high school at Sallisaw.

Of the pre-1920 structures left in the Marble City area, there are less than ten. There is the George and Elizabeth Choate home, north of Dwight Mission, built in 1894 with Cherokee Strip money now owned by their great-grandson Lelland Choate and wife, Jana; and in town are the Watie and Adron Davault home, owned by Jack and Sue Woodward; the Lynn McDonald home restored by Larry and Bonnie Rider and owned by their son Trent Rider; the Alvis Sloan home, better known as the Earl and Lou Perry home now owned and restored by Larry and Bonnie Rider; the Citizens State Bank Building operated by the Marble City Historical Society; the two buildings immediately north of the bank building, built to house the Rogers Hardware Store, which became the Davault General Mercantile Store and is remembered today as Drain’s Grocery owned by Jack and Adrian Drain; the old school building owned by the Marble City Food Pantry and Youth Services; and finally the Marble City Jail, built in 1905.

An undocumented story is that Bonnie Parker of “Bonnie and Clyde” was once placed in the jail, but was gone the next morning. As the story goes, Clyde broke her out during the night.

Marble City was a boomtown from 1905-15 and a couple of times since. The last big boom was in the 1950s when there were three large grocery stores, two cafes, a beer tavern and two churches. By the 1960s the availability of better transportation allowed residents to shop at Sallisaw, Tahlequah and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Saddle horses and wagons and teams were no longer seen in town. Over time our grocery stores closed. A convenience store survived until April 2007 when it, our final business shut down..

*** Thank you to Mildred Taylor for the historical information.

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