Avery

Originally settled in the 1890s, the small community south of present day Cushing, Oklahoma was called Mound City. With the arrival of the railway, George Castiller deeded land for a town site and the town was plotted in 1901. Selecting the name Avery, named after a local railroad official, Avery Turner, the town was officially established in September of 1902 with the opening of its post office. Roads were poor at best, and at the time, no large towns existed in the immediate area. Ironically, the poor transportation was one of the primary reasons for Avery's early success. Avery never experienced the rapid growth of the boom towns, but became a thriving community in the early part of the 20th century.

Due to its rail access, it became a key agricultural and shipping center, moving large amounts of cattle, hogs, wheat, cotton, poultry and other agricultural products from a large surrounding area. It was not uncommon to see as many as one hundred twenty-five cotton wagons during one day at the peak of the cotton season. Four passenger trains a day passed through Avery and the railroad also brought in much needed items, such as seed, coal and machinery.

At one time, this small town boasted at least two grocery stores, two cafés, a millinery and dress shop, barber shop, hotel, two churches, drugstore, grain elevator, cotton gin, lumber yard, blacksmith shop, saloon, meat market, and livery stable. One could buy milk, butter, and eggs from individual homes. Initially, Avery had no school building, so children walked to a school district one mile east of town, known as Pleasant View. Avery's first school house was built in 1907 and served until it was replaced by a WPA-built school in 1938 as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. Avery had two banks during its existance. The Citizens Bank, which later moved to the oil boom town of Shamrock (now also a ghost town) on January, 11th, 1916, and the First State Bank of Avery, voluntarily liquidated on May 5th, 1935.

Mail was delivered via three rural routes delivered by horse drawn mail hack. The brothers Oscar and Bruner Hoyt, owned the saloon, which was probably the most frequently visited establishment in town. The town's two hotels were in constant competition so a person could get a hotel room and breakfast for fifty cents, or a home cooked meal for twenty five cents. The Matthews hotel also had a madstone, which was used for people suspected of being bitten by a rabid dog. A madstone is a stony concretion (as a hair ball taken from the stomach of a deer) supposed formerly in folklore and by some physicians to counteract the poisonous effects of the bite of an animal (as one affected with rabies)

For more, go here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/madstone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madstone_(folklore)
https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/su83k.htm

Avery also once had a dance hall above the drug store and dances and magic lantern shows were held on Saturdays. Magic Lanterns were sort of a combination of an overhead projector and viewmaster.

Beginning in 1913/1914, the first automobiles began showing up and service stations and garages, along with horseless carriages, which replaced the livery stable business.

The general merchandise store owned by G. A. Robertson was just that. One could buy anything from fresh meat to hardware items, from toothpicks to funeral services. General merchandise stores of the day were kind of the local Wal-Mart, except the service was better.

The town saw a rapid decline in the depression years. Oil had been discovered nearby, but Avery never experienced any benefit from it. About the only full time work available in Avery during that time was as a section hand on the railroad or part time work with the Works Progress Administration. Many young men joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. The new WPA built in 1938 did little to restore the town. Overuse of the soil and lack of fertilizers resulted in lower crop productions and many of the farms consolidated and returned to pasture. The nearby oil booms now meant much larger towns now surrounded Avery, attracting people away in search of jobs.

The post office closed in 1957 and little remains of the community today. In fact, if it were not for the cemetery, it would be difficult to tell that a town had even existed there at all. Standing in viewing distance the the Cushing oil tank farm, the remains of a few scattered homes, a church, the cemetery, and the old WPA school are all that remain.

* AbandonedOK.com contributors. (2011, January 20) Ghost Town of Avery, Oklahoma. Retrieved 9:30, November 11, 2018, from http://www.abandonedok.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1465

* Wikipedia contributors. (2018, January 14). Avery, Oklahoma. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:52, November 11, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avery,_Oklahoma&oldid=820432157