Euchee Boarding School
| Euchee Mission Boarding School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1891 |
| Construction Began | 1892 |
| Construction Ended | 1894 |
| Opened | 1894 |
| Closed | 1947 |
| Location | 1M East of Sapulpa, OK (7 S Mission St. Sapulpa, OK) |
| Alternate Names |
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History[edit]
In 1891, the Presbyterian Mission Board began plans to established a school among the Euchee Indians in this area. Much credit for founding the school is due to Samuel Brown, Noah Gregory, Henry Land, and William Sapulpa. Their work influenced the Creek council to appropriate money for the school from tribal funds. The school was to serve both Euchee and Creek children.
At first the school was in the charge of the Park Hill Prebyterian Mission School, but in 1897 the Creek Nation took over maintaining the school.
Buildings were constructed and the school opened in the fall of 1894 with the capacity for about 80 students. At first the school was coeducational and had only two dormitories and a three-room schoolhouse all located on 40 acres of tribal property about a mile east of Sapulpa. The council appointed a Euchee and Methodist minister, Noah Gregory, as the first superintendent, Henry Land and William Sapulpa served as second and third superintendents respectively.
Agriculture was a part of the curriculum at Euchee, with a huge vegetable garden where the Sapulpa HS football field is now. In later years the boys also took care of rabbits, playing with them on the front lawn until reportedly dogs killed the rabbits over the Christmas holiday.
In 1925 it became a school for boys - 110 Euchees and Creeks and more buildings were added. The girls were sent to Eufaula. The school was improved, enlarged and maintained by appropriations from the Creek council until 1928, when it was taken over and supported entirely by federal appropriations under supervision of the United States Indian Office. In 1929, boys above the 4th grade were transferred to Supulpa City public schools. Under federal guidance the school received Creek, Euchee, Cherokee and Seminole boys until 1947. In 1947 the school closed. The land and buildings where sold to school district No. 33 for use by the public schools.
In October 1998, Euchee graduates returned to their old stomping grounds for a reunion and to witness the erection of a new stone marker.
Oklahoma Historical Society #233-1998
