Ada, Oklahoma

==History==
[[File:PontCoCH.jpg|thumb|right|[[Pontotoc County Courthouse]] in Ada]]

In the late 1880s, the Daggs family (by way of [[Texas]]) became the first white family to settle what is now known as Ada, which was formerly known as Daggs Prairie. In April 1889, Jeff Reed (a Texan and relative of the Daggs family) was appointed to carry the mail from [[Stonewall, Oklahoma|Stonewall]] to Center (which was later combined with Pickett), two small communities in then Indian Territory. With his family and his stock, he sought a place for a home on a prairie midway between the two points, where he constructed a log house and started Reed's Store. Other settlers soon built homes nearby. In 1891, a post office was established and named after Reed's oldest daughter, Ada.<ref name="historyada">[https://web.archive.org/web/20100922033206/http://adaok.com/history_of_ada.htm City of Ada, OK] (accessed February 23, 2007).</ref> Ada incorporated as a city in 1901 and grew rapidly with the arrival of the [[St. Louis and San Francisco Railway]] line. Within a decade the [[Santa Fe Railroad]] and the [[Oklahoma Central Railroad (1914-1942)|Oklahoma Central Railway]] also served the town.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/A/AD001.html|title=OHS Publications Division|date=2016-05-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505064809/http://www.okhistory.org/publications/|archive-date=2016-05-05|access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref>

Ada was originally a [[sundown town]], where African Americans were not allowed to live. In the 1900s, the town was opened up to African Americans so that black witnesses could stay while testifying in [[Oklahoma District Court|district court]]. Despite a violent episode in 1904, the town remained open to African Americans to provide labor for a local cotton compress.<ref>{{cite news|title=After Negroes in Ada, I.T.|work=[[The Cowley Courier Traveler|Arkansas City Daily Traveler]]|location=Arkansas City, Kansas|date=March 30, 1904|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29072585/|via=Newspapers.com|quote=Until recently the people of Ada, a town of 300, have refused to allow negroes to reside within the corporation. As district court is held there it became necessary to secure some place where negro witnesses might stay during the session. Judge Townsend induced the people to allow a negro restaurant to be established. Following this barber shops, stores and hotels were put up by negroes. Notices were served on these people by unknown parties that unless they left the town immediately they must suffer the consequences. They refused to leave and last night a negro restaurant was blown up by dynamite and an occupant of the building seriously injured. ... As a cotton compress is to begin operations here next fall considerable negro labor will be required, and most citizens now believe negroes should be allowed to live there.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Used Dynamite|work=Alexandria Daily Town Talk|location=Alexandria, Louisiana|date=March 31, 1904|page=7|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29072626/|via=Newspapers.com|quote=Unknown parties dynamited the house of Lum Williams, seriously injuring one negro and demolishing the building. The negroes occupying the house had been warned several times not to let the sun go down on them in Ada. The card of warning was signed 'Old Danger.' Heretofore negroes were not allowed to live in Ada, and these were only allowed to stay to accommodate the negroes attending court. After court they refused to leave.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Considers Conspiracy Law|work=The Wagoner Echo|location=Wagoner, Indian Territory|date=November 19, 1904|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29387086/|via=Newspapers.com|quote=Now in [[Durant, Oklahoma|Durant]] and other towns in the Central District, and for that matter, in [[Holdenville, Oklahoma|Holdenville]], Ada and other towns in the territory notices had been posted for the Negroes not to let the sun go down on them in said towns.}}</ref>

In 1909, the women of Ada organized an effort to build a [[normal school]] in their city. It resulted in the founding of East Central College (now [[East Central University]]).<ref name=":0" />

On April 19, 1909, an organized mob hanged four men, among whom was American outlaw [[Jim Miller (outlaw)|Deacon Jim Miller]], who was set to be tried for the murder of a former U.S. marshal and member of the local freemason lodge.<ref name="lynching">[http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/ada_lynching.html "Ada, Oklahoma Lynching, 1909"] at [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/ Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon] (accessed April 1, 2010)</ref> The town had a population of about 5,000 at the time, and 38 murders a year at the time of the lynching.<ref name="lynching"/> The ''[[The Ardmoreite|Daily Ardmoreite]]'' reported that the four lynched men were "one of the bloodiest band of murderers in the state of Oklahoma and an organization of professional assassins, that for a record of blood crimes, probably has no equal in the annals of criminal history in the entire southwest".<ref>[[The Ardmoreite|The Daily Ardmoreite]]. Ardmore, Oklahoma. Monday, 19 April 1909 www.oklahomahistory.net (accessed January 1, 2008).</ref>

The first manufacturing company in Ada, the Portland Cement Company, installed the first [[cement clinker]] in Oklahoma in 1910. American Glass Casket Company began manufacturing glass caskets in 1916, but the business failed. Hazel Atlas Glass bought the plant in 1928 and produced glass products until 1991.<ref name=":0" />

===National Register of Historic Places===
The following sites in Ada are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma]]:<ref>[[Pontotoc County, Oklahoma]]</ref>

* [[Ada Arts and Heritage Center]]
* Bebee Field Round House
* [[East Central State Normal School]]
* [[F.W. Meaders House]]
* Mijo Camp Industrial District
* [[Pontotoc County Courthouse]]
* [[Sugg Clinic]]
* [[Wintersmith Park Historic District]]