Darlington Agency

The Darlington Agency was an Indian agency on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation in Canadian County, Oklahoma. The agency was established in 1870, when the agency established at Fort Supply the previous year was moved to a more accessible location for the tribes. Brinton Darlington, a Quaker for whom the agency was named, was the first agent at the agency, a position he held until his death in 1872. The agency gained a post office and an Indian school run by John Homer Seger, and it became a stop on the Chisholm Trail. [lower-alpha 1] By 1880, the agency had its own newspaper, the Cheyenne Transporter; it was the first in western Oklahoma. The Cheyenne left to form their own agency at Concho in 1897; when the Arapaho reunited with them, they both occupied the Concho agency, and the Darlington Agency became the property of the State of Oklahoma. The Masons used the site for a boarding school and retirement home until 1922; the state then briefly used the site as a drug rehabilitation center before making it the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's main bird hatchery and research station.[lower-alpha 2] [4]

Darlington Agency Site
Darlington Chapel
Nearest cityEl Reno, Oklahoma
Coordinates35°34′31″N 98°0′32″W
Area3 acres (1.2 ha)
Built1870 (1870)
NRHP reference No.73001557[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 14, 1973

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1973.[1]

History

Fort Reno had been established near the Darlington Agency in 1874, at the insistence of Agent John Miles to pacify the Arapahos and Cheyennes who had already settled there. At first, Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry were dispatched from Fort Sill to establish an installation tentatively called “Camp Near the Cheyenne Agency,” but these were diverted to the Wichita Agency, 30 miles (48 km) south of Darlington because of Indian unrest in that area. Instead, troops of the 5th Infantry and 6th Cavalry from Forts Dodge and Leavenworth under Lt. Col. Thomas Neil were given the job at Darlington. Neil was authorized to select a site on the south side of the North Canadian River, build corrals and a wagon yard, dig wells, and set up a sawmill for the military post. In February, 1876, General Phil Sheridan named the new facility Fort Reno.[5] [lower-alpha 3]

In December, 1876, the chief clerk of the Office of Indian Affairs. S. A. Galpin, inspected the Darlington Agency. In his report, he gave a largely favorable review. He seemed especially impressed by the Indian school, writing that it was "... the largest, and in many respects the best, Indian school that I have found." At the time, John H. Seger was running the school for the second straight year, and had an enrollment of 115 scholars. Galpin noted that the school was in excellent condition, and that "... the furniture of which is as yet without a scratch made wantonly..."[4]

In 1877, Dull Knife and 900 other Cheyennes were escorted to Darlington to be interned. The following year, most of this group escaped en masse and fled toward their northern homeland. Troops from Fort Reno and other posts pursued and captured most of the escapees and returned them to Darlington. Troops from the fort also removed Boomers and ranchers who illegally trespassed or grazed cattle on reservation property. In 1889, the troops fought Sooners trying to sneak into Oklahoma before the land run officially opened.[3]

Fort Reno was declared a remount station in 1908. Its primary aim was to supply animals (primarily horses) to other military units. In 1938, cavalry units were already being mechanized and horses were no longer needed; the fort became a quartermaster depot. During World War II, Fort Reno became a camp for captured German soldiers. In 1949, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) acquired the facility as a livestock research station. It has since been renamed as the Darlington State Game Farm.[3]

See also


Notes
  1. Agent Darlington had been selected to represent President Ulysses S. Grant's commitment to a Peace Policy.[2][3]
  2. The NRHP nomination form also lists the site name as "Darlington State Game Farm.
  3. Major General Jesse L. Reno was a close friend of Gen. Sheridan, a fellow Virginian and was killed during the Civil War in 1863, at the Battle of South Mountain in Maryland.[5]


References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. National Park Service. Soldier and Brave. The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. (1971). Robert G. Ferris, Series Editor.
  3. [Ferris, pp. 266-268.
  4. Ruth, Kent (February 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Darlington Agency Site". National Park Service. Retrieved September 12, 2014. Accompanied by photos.
  5. Early History of Fort Reno." Historic Fort Reno. 2019. Accessed November 10, 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.