Roy Stewart wrote a classic history of Oklahoma City called Born Grown. The imagery comes from the fact that in a less than 24 hour period, the small dot along a rail line called simply, 'Oklahoma Station' would be descended on by about 10,000 people all clamoring for a space in the area that they knew was earmarked as a major community in the new region.
Along, with Purcell, Guthrie, Norman, Perry and other stopping points along the Santa Fe rail line, Oklahoma Station, was sure to be pivotal place. Of course, not all those people stayed, there were more of them than there were of lots and plots. Some were asked to move along because of their inability to get along with others. A few were carried out to a grave.
Two types of people came and settled that day. There were the staid, serious, business minded people with visions of creating a wonderful place where generations of families might be proud to call home. There were also the will-o-the-wisps who were flies once the picnic was set out and all the family called. As land speculators, gamblers, saloon keepers, soiled doves, allergic to work types, and trouble-makers they swarmed, they flitted, and they were not nearly as welcome. Many of them, however, like the flies, were very persistent and they stuck around becoming some of the progenitors of those generations of families who were proud to call the place home.
As has been proven so many times before. A person just cannot pick their ancestors....or their founding mothers and fathers.
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