Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Wewoka Trading Company

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

WEWOKA TRADING COMPANY.

The Wewoka Trading Company, a once-prominent business establishment, was located in Wewoka, Seminole Nation, Indian Territory. Elijah J. Brown, a white trader, established a trading post at Wewoka in 1866. Over two decades the post passed through several owners. In 1880 Seminole Chief John F. Brown and his brother Andrew Jackson Brown bought it from Courtland L. Long. In 1891 Long repurchased an interest in the firm from the Brown brothers and named it the Wewoka Trading Company.

Located at the corner of Main Street and Wewoka Avenue, the general store offered clothing, stoves, furniture, wagons, and farm implements. Customers included whites and African Americans as well as American Indians. The company issued its own scrip, which could be exchanged at other local businesses. The vault at the Wewoka Trading Company safeguarded the Seminole Nation records and the federal annuity payments to the Seminole. In the early 1900s Charles Ross Anthony, founder of Anthony Stores, worked as a bookkeeper at the firm. Following the death of John F. Brown on October 21, 1919, the Wewoka Trading Company had a closeout sale. Wewoka Mayor C. Guy Cutlip purchased the three-story, brick building, which existed until destroyed by a fire on October 28, 1925.

Linda D. Wilson

Browse By Topic

Industry and Business


Learn More

Bruce Gilbert Carter, "A History of Seminole County, Oklahoma" (M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1932).

Louise Welsh, Willa Mae Townes, and John W. Morris, A History of the Greater Seminole Oil Field (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 1981).

"Wewoka Trading Company," Vertical File, Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Linda D. Wilson, “Wewoka Trading Company,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=WE024.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.