Wade County was a political subdivision of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation ( Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

, prior to Oklahoma being admitted as a state. The county formed part of the Nation's

Apukshunnubbee District Apukshunnubbee District was one of three administrative super-regions comprising the former Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. Also called the Second District, it encompassed the southeastern one-third of the nation. The Apukshunnubbee District w ...

, or First District, one of three administrative super-regions. The county was named for Alfred Wade, a prominent

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

leader and statesman. Following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

—in which the

joined the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

—Wade was among the national leaders who traveled to Washington to negotiate with the American government to secure peace, achieved at great cost via the Treaty of 1866. Wade lived six miles east of Talihina. The county seat of Wade County was Lenox, or ''Tuli Hina'' in the Choctaw language, five miles east of Whitesboro and 14 miles east of Talihina. Lenox was situated near the

Kiamichi River The Kiamichi River is a river in southeastern Oklahoma, United States of America. A tributary of the Red River of the South, its headwaters rise on Pine Mountain in the Ouachita Mountains near the Arkansas border. From its source in Polk County, ...

. A

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

operated here from 1896-1913. Lenox served primarily as a court ground, not as a population center. The Choctaw Nation's capital, Tushka Homma, with its splendid

Choctaw Capitol Building The Choctaw Capitol Building ( cho, Chuka Hanta Chahta) is a historic building built in 1884 that housed the government of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma from 1884 to 1907. The building is located in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, two miles north ...

, was also located in the county. Wade County's boundaries were established and designated according to easily recognizable natural landmarks, as were the boundaries of all Choctaw Nation counties. As example, the confluence of Jack's Fork Creek with the Kiamichi River—just outside present-day

Clayton, Oklahoma Clayton is a town in northern Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 821 at the 2010 census. History Clayton was formerly known as Dexter. A United States Post Office was established at Dexter, Indian Territory on Marc ...

—served as the southwestern corner, with the county's landmass stretching to the east and north. From this corner point the southern border followed the Kiamichi to the south for a distance, and then was defined to the east along the tops of the

Kiamichi Mountains The Kiamichi Mountains (Choctaw: ''Nʋnih Chaha Kiamitia'') are a mountain range in southeastern Oklahoma. A subrange within the larger Ouachita Mountains that extend from Oklahoma to western Arkansas, the Kiamichi Mountains sit within Le Flore, P ...

framing the south side of the river valley, south of Tuskahoma and Albion. Wade County served as an election district for members of the National Council, and as a unit of local administration. Constitutional officers, all of whom served for two-year terms and were elected by the voters, included the

county judge The term county judge is applied as a descriptor, sometimes as a title, for a person who presides over a county court. In most cases, such as in Northern Ireland and the Victorian County Courts, a county judge is a judicial officer with civil ...

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

, and a ranger. The judge's duties included oversight of overall county administration. The sheriff collected taxes, monitored unlawful intrusion by intruders (usually white Americans from the United States), and conducted the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. The county ranger advertised and sold strayed

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

. As Oklahoma's statehood approached, its leading citizens, who were gathered for the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, realized in laying out the future state's counties that, while logically designed, the Choctaw Nation's counties could not exist as economically viable political subdivisions. In most the county seat existed generally for holding county court and not as a population center. This was true of Lenox, too. While Wade County contained more sizeable towns than most, it would have to be dismantled in order to accommodate changes required by the region as a whole. This conundrum was also recognized by the framers of the proposed

State of Sequoyah The State of Sequoyah was a proposed state to be established from the Indian Territory in the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma. In 1905, with the end of tribal governments looming (as prescribed by the Curtis Act of 1898), Native Americans ...

, who met in 1905 to propose statehood for the

. The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention also proposed a county structure that abolished the Choctaw counties. Wade County was divided principally into the proposed

Pushmataha Pushmataha (c. 1764 – December 24, 1824; also spelled Pooshawattaha, Pooshamallaha, or Poosha Matthaw), the "Indian General", was one of the three regional chiefs of the major divisions of the Choctaw in the 19th century. Many historians cons ...

and Wade counties. Talihina and

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

would have been Wade County's chief towns.Amos Maxwell, ''Sequoyah Constitutional Convention''. Although the map carried in Wikipedia's article on the State of Sequoyah speaks to the matter of borders, Maxwell's book offers further insight. Much of this proposition was two years later borrowed by Oklahoma's framers, who largely adopted the proposed boundaries or concepts of these counties for the future Le Flore, McCurtain and

counties in Oklahoma. Certain shifts were made: the town of Albion was given to the new Pushmataha County, and Wilburton was given to the new Le Flore County instead of Pittsburg County. (The Sequoyah framework had called for Wilburton to be placed in the same county as Hartshorne, and Albion to be grouped together with Talihina in a new Wade County). The territory formerly comprising Wade County now falls primarily within Le Flore and Pushmataha counties. Wade County ceased to exist upon Oklahoma's statehood on November 16, 1907.

References

Choctaw