Welcome to
Greer County,
Oklahoma Territory
Coordinator - Susan Bradford
Greer County has a unique history!
If you have any information, suggestions or comments,
or the correction of an error, please e-mail.
Due to an error by the surveyor of the region, and a mistake in identifying the main channel of the Red River, the southwest corner of Oklahoma, the area between the Red River, the North Fork of the Red River, and the 100th Meridian was claimed by Texas and designated as Greer County in 1860, named for John Alexander Greer, a Texas lieutenant governor.
The area includes all of the current Greer, Jackson, and Harmon Counties and that part of Beckham County south of the North Fork River. Mangum was the county seat of this empire. In 1886, the Greer County boundary commission, consisting of four officers of the United States Army and four citizens of Texas, met at Fort Worth, Texas to settle conflicting claims, with no results. To see a map of the disputed territory, click here. For ten years the area was designated "Indian Territory" by postal authorities. The Oklahoma Organic Act of 1889 provided for Greer County, Oklahoma Territory. In United States vs. Texas, 162 U.S. 1 (1896), the Supreme Court declared the county to be a part of Oklahoma Territory. The Choctaw Nation claimed that it should be included as part of their land.
However, before a decision could be reached on the Choctaw claim, Oklahoma became the 46th state. At the Constitutional Convention, the area was divided among Beckham County, Jackson County, and Greer Counties. After statehood, Harmon County was created out of the southwestern portion of Greer County. A more complete account of the history of Greer County and the dispute between Oklahoma and Texas is available at Old Greer County History.
Greer County has a unique history!
If you have any information, suggestions or comments,
or the correction of an error, please e-mail.
Due to an error by the surveyor of the region, and a mistake in identifying the main channel of the Red River, the southwest corner of Oklahoma, the area between the Red River, the North Fork of the Red River, and the 100th Meridian was claimed by Texas and designated as Greer County in 1860, named for John Alexander Greer, a Texas lieutenant governor.
The area includes all of the current Greer, Jackson, and Harmon Counties and that part of Beckham County south of the North Fork River. Mangum was the county seat of this empire. In 1886, the Greer County boundary commission, consisting of four officers of the United States Army and four citizens of Texas, met at Fort Worth, Texas to settle conflicting claims, with no results. To see a map of the disputed territory, click here. For ten years the area was designated "Indian Territory" by postal authorities. The Oklahoma Organic Act of 1889 provided for Greer County, Oklahoma Territory. In United States vs. Texas, 162 U.S. 1 (1896), the Supreme Court declared the county to be a part of Oklahoma Territory. The Choctaw Nation claimed that it should be included as part of their land.
However, before a decision could be reached on the Choctaw claim, Oklahoma became the 46th state. At the Constitutional Convention, the area was divided among Beckham County, Jackson County, and Greer Counties. After statehood, Harmon County was created out of the southwestern portion of Greer County. A more complete account of the history of Greer County and the dispute between Oklahoma and Texas is available at Old Greer County History.
