Oklaunion

Oklaunion is on U.S. highways 183, 283, and 70 and the Burlington Northern line, nine miles east of Vernon and fourteen miles northwest of Electra in northeastern Wilbarger County. A settlement called Mayflower was renamed Oklaunion about 1888 by "Buckskin Joe" Works in the hope that the Frisco line ( see ??FRISCO SYSTEM ) would connect there with the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway. Although the proposed linkage occurred in Vernon, Oklaunion prospered as a station on the Fort Worth and Denver. A post office was established at the community in 1889, when its population was sixty-five. The town's first school opened about 1893. By 1930 Oklaunion had grown to include a Baptist church, a bank, a hotel, and several other businesses. With a population of 400, the town voted to incorporate on June 6, 1928. Oklaunion had a population of 223 in 1945, but it declined to around 130 in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967 the town's school was consolidated with the Vernon schools, and Oklaunion dissolved its incorporation in the 1970s. The Oklaunion Baptist Church, organized in 1908, was disbanded in November 1984. In 1986 the town had the post office, a gin, two grain elevators, and a store and gas station. Located nearby was the West Texas Utilities Company, established in 1982, which maintained a spur railroad line to its plant south of town. In 1990 and again in 2000 the population of Oklaunion was reported as 138.