Tillman County, Oklahoma: History
=== Early history ===
The earliest signs of human settlement in Tillman County are believed to have come from the Clovis culture, a prehistoric culture that appeared in roughly 10,000 BC. Prehistoric settlement was sparse, and the area that is now Tillman County does not appear to have been especially populated. The Comanche people arrived in the area in the 14th to 15th century, although they too did not establish any major settlements in Tillman. While there is a possibility that Spanish and French explorers arrived in the area in the 1600s, no records remain.
In 1819, the United States, which had recently acquired the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase, settled a boundary with the Spanish Empire along the Red River of the South, Tillman County's southern border. The first major expedition to the area came in 1852, when captain Randolph B. Marcy set out to survey the river. Tillman and Southwest Oklahoma remained entirely unsettled and undisturbed throughout the American Civil War, after which negotiations involving the area began.
The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 established a reservation in the southwestern part of Indian Territory for the Kiowa, Apache and Comanche tribes. Following the opening of the Western Cattle Trail, which followed the county line between Jackson and Tillman counties, ranchers from Texas began to take note of the rich ranges of Tillman County, leasing much of the land from Native tribes that saw little use for the area themselves. The Jerome Commission started enrolling members of the tribes in 1892, a prerequisite to opening "excess" land for settlement by non-Indians. The first lottery was held on August 6, 1901. It was followed in 1906 by the "Big Pasture" Lottery. At the turn of the century, the Blackwell, Enid and Southwestern Railway was built through the county, further increasing its attractiveness. It was soon followed by the Frisco Railroad, which established a station around which the city of Frederick emerged, and later by the Katy Railroad, around which many of the smaller towns in the county emerged.
The county was founded at the time of Oklahoma statehood in 1907, and was named for Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina. It had previously been part of Comanche County, Oklahoma Territory. Frederick was designated as the county seat at the time of statehood. In 1910 and 1924 portions of Kiowa County were added to the north side of the county. Since then, Tillman County has remained an agricultural county, and has struggled in recent years with the rural depopulation that affects much the rest of the country.