Asher is a town in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, Asher had a population of 370.

Geography

Asher is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 39 in Pottawatomie County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.

Nearby areas

Asher is approximately south of I-40 and east of I-35. Nearby cities (with a 15,000+ population) include Ada (21 miles south) and Shawnee (27 miles north). Asher is located two miles (3 km) west of Chisholm Spring, once the site of a trading post operated by Jesse Chisholm, for whom the famous cattle trail was named. A Chisholm family home and cemetery are also located in Asher. The Sacred Heart Mission Site is nine miles east of Asher.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Asher had a population of 370. The median age was 38.4 years. 24.1% of residents were under the age of 18 and 15.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 79.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 76.7 males age 18 and over.

There were 141 households in Asher, of which 36.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 41.8% were married-couple households, 10.6% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 41.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 26.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 265 || 71.6%

|-

| Black or African American || 1 || 0.3%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 53 || 14.3%

|-

| Asian || 0 || 0.0%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 1 || 0.3%

|-

| Some other race || 14 || 3.8%

|-

| Two or more races || 36 || 9.7%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 28 || 7.6%

|}

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States census, There was a sale of public lots in 1902.

Avoca Township

Asher is the last remaining post office in the original Avoca Township, which also included the towns of Sacred Heart Mission, Osmit, Avoca, Meanko, Boyer and Violet.

Growth

thumb|left|alt=text|Rock Island Train Depot, Asher, 1902. The station was located at the west end of Main St., west of what is now US 177. The stationmaster, Bill Bailey, is pictured.

On October 12, 1900, the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf (CO&G) bought the Shawnee to Tecumseh Railway branch from the Tecumseh Railway Co. and promptly extended the branch to Asher. For the next 40 years, Asher would serve as the termination point for the branch and its engine, "Old Beck". Rapid construction of railroads opened up of a fertile section of the South Canadian River valley to shipping facilities. Asher was the trade center and market of the area. Further development came when, on January 15, 1903, The Jennings Company closed on 1,000 business and residence lots. The Jennings Company advertised investment in the growing town and new factories and industries of various kinds soon located in Asher.

Asher and the new settlers had hopes of creating a large city. However, the settlers were disappointed when the towns of Seminole and Konawa were built and took away much of Asher's trade. The people of Asher would not give up, and pulled together town resources and constructed a bridge across the Canadian River. The state then used the bridge in its construction of State Highway 18, drawing a small amount of trade to the area from nearby cities, such as Ada. Before the construction of the bridge, those south of Asher could only cross the river when it was shallow enough.

Asher, originally a cotton farming community, suffered in its early years from crop losses caused by boll weevils. Farmers were then dealt a further blow when the town's first two cotton gins were destroyed by fire. These setbacks compounded the loss of trade and left the town in dire straits.

thumb|Graham Hotel on Asher's Main Street, 1918

In 1927, oil was discovered in and around the town. Asher sprang up almost overnight to serve the needs of the oil workers. It was also around this time that executives moved into Asher and purchased enormous amounts of supplies and merchandise at inflated prices. There were many businesses in town including feed and grocery stores, jewelry stores and drug stores as well as banks, barber shops, hotels and a small theater. Many leading families of Oklahoma, such as the McAlisters, the O'Dells, the Patterson's, the Campbells and the Byruns, lived in the town. There were also many doctors with offices in Asher. For a while, Asher became prosperous.

County Seat potential

Tecumseh, Oklahoma, was originally the county seat of Pottawatomie County. In late 1930, a long-standing war between Shawnee and Tecumseh escalated when voters approved measures to move the seat to Shawnee. A spin-off of this feud was the move for the creation of a new county, to be named Petroleum County. The new county would be composed of prime oil-producing land, including the southern half of Pottawatomie County and portions of Seminole, Pontotoc and McClain Counties. The move was started by Tecumseh supporters who wanted to make Shawnee's county seat victory as hollow as possible by removing the most valuable section of the county. Asher was slated to be the county seat and it was planned that the greater part of Tecumseh would move down to form an impressive community. There was a paper--The Petroleum County Times—produced, meetings held and petitions circulated. However, the measure never progressed further as times were not favorable for the creation of a new county.

End of the oil boom

The oil boom ended when only four wells proved to be profitable. Once again, Asher was in danger of dying out. Fortunately, another oil well was found just west of the town. This time the people connected to the well were local citizens and were cautious and conservative in their estimates and spending. This led to a small but steady production of oil in the community. Asher was dealt another setback in 1967 when SH-18 was taken out of commission and traffic was diverted west of town on the new US Highway 177. Businesses migrated to the new highway and many storefronts in the original town were closed. The final business, Green's Market, which was located on Division Street (old SH-18) closed in 1985, after serving the community for 40 years. Several businesses on US-177 remain, mostly serving those traveling through the area.

Centennial

In 2001, Asher celebrated its 100th anniversary. The town, along with others in the county that had passed the centennial mark, was honored on a centennial monument dedicated September 21, 2007. This date was chosen to coincide with the Oklahoma Centennial. Other Asher honorees were the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1902 and Asher School, which was established in 1903. The monument is located in Centennial Park, on the grounds of the Santa Fe Museum, in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Timeline of major events

Below is a time table of major events that occurred in Asher as well as surrounding communities whose events affected Asher's history.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Date

! Event

|-

|1847

|Jessie Chishom establishes trading post east of Asher

|-

|1902

|George Stone (Dep. Sheriff) moves to Asher

|-

|Up to 1920s

|2 hardware stores, 2 banks, jewelry store, lumber yard, dry goods store, general store, and (until 1907) 6 saloons—per Annie Roe

|-

|May 1921

|Canadian River Bridge opens

|-

|1922

|Fire destroys 2 blocks of businesses

|-

|1927

|Pearson oil discovered

|-

|1928

|Water well drilled to supply water to oil fields

|-

|1931

|Petroleum County/Asher county seat talks

|-

|1967

|Asher segment of SH-18 is replaced with US-177, diverting traffic from town.

|-

|1985

|Green's Market closes after 40 years

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Date started

! Postmaster

|-

| 29 Nov 1901

| George A. McCurry

|-

| 8 June 1904

| Charles Snook

|-

| 11 June 1906

| Kate R. Snyder (or Snider)

|-

| 14 Sept 1914

| John S. Wood

|-

| 8 Dec 1917

| Winnie D. Rawlings

|-

| 20 Feb 1920

| Winnie R. Farmer

|-

| 25 Aug 1922

| Fred M. Perkins

|-

| 12 Mar 1923

| Lillian Gilpin (acting)

|-

| 11 June 1923

| Francis T. Laster

|-

| 7 Mar 1927

| John R. Hibbard (acting)

|-

| 15 Dec 1927

| John R. Hibbard (appointed)

|-

| 1 July 1935

| Orval L. Harris (acting)

|-

| 24 Jan 1935

| Orval L. Harris (appointed)

|-

| 14 June 1940

| John A. King

|-

| 19 May 1949

| Pearl A. Hopkins (acting)

|-

| 1 Sept 1950

| Perry H. Townsend, Jr.

|-

| 14 Dec 1979

| Linda L. Sturgill (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 8 Mar 1980

| Rosemary McKinley

|-

| 30 Sept 1992

| Janna Jones (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 28 Oct 1992

| Teresa Sexton (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 9 Jan 1993

| Donald Slarve

|-

| 28 Jan 1993

| Teresa Sexton (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 14 May 1993

| Vicky Stover (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 13 Nov 1993

| Deborah L. Cooley

|-

| 29 Mar 1995

| Lois L. Rennewanz (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 22 July 1995

| Lois L. Rennewanz

|-

| 11 Apr 1998

| Cynthia Schaffer (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 5 June 1998

| Debbie Turner (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 12 Sept 1998

| Deborah D. Turner

|-

| 21 Feb 2001

| Deborah Zimmerman (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 7 July 2001

| Carol Kelly (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 25 Mar 2002

| Bill Beard (ofc. in charge)

|-

| N/A

| L. M. Conley (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 13 May 2003

| Lindsay A. Williams-Likens (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 23 July 2003

| Michael L. Hockersmith (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 19 May 2004

| Wayne A. Cooksey (ofc. in charge)

|-

| 13 Nov 2004

| Michael L. Hockersmith

|}

Education

thumb|Asher School following renovation

The town is in the Asher Public Schools<!--UNI 03300--> school district.

Asher Public Schools is an independent school district. It has an elementary school (grades Pre-K to 8) and a high school (grades 9 to 12). The school was established in 1903. In 1913, there were four other school districts within three miles (5&nbsp;km) of Asher—Clover Dale, Gravel Hill, Avoca, and Pleasant Hill. The schools were small, consisting of only a room or two. Basic facilities were at a minimum. Talk began of consolidating all of the schools into the Asher district. This was later accomplished, presumably around the time Asher's new school building was built in 1929.

Media

Television

Asher receives the following television stations off-air.

  • KFOR-4 NBC (Oklahoma City)
  • KOCO-5 ABC (Oklahoma City)
  • KWTV-9 CBS (Oklahoma City)
  • KTEN-10 NBC (Sherman-Denison, TX)
  • KXII-12 CBS (Sherman-Denison, TX)
  • KETA-13 PBS (Oklahoma City)
  • KOKH-25 FOX (Oklahoma City)
  • KOCB-34 CW (Oklahoma City)
  • KAUT-43 MNT (Oklahoma City)
  • KSBI-52 IND (Oklahoma City)
  • KOPX-TV-62 i (Oklahoma City)

Newspaper

The following newspapers are circulated in Asher.

  • The Canadian Sands (monthly, regional; Wanette, OK)
  • The Ada Evening News (daily; Ada, OK)
  • The Shawnee News-Star (daily; Shawnee, OK)
  • The Oklahoman (daily; Oklahoma City)

Notable people

  • Ron Williamson - minor league baseball player, subject of John Grisham's first work of non-fiction, The Innocent Man

Additional photos

<gallery>

File:Early Asher gas station.jpg|An early Asher gas station

<!-- Deleted image removed: File:Old18_bridge.gif|Original South Canadian River Bridge, opened 1921 -->

File:27_BANK_CHECK.jpg|An Asher State Bank check, from 1910s

File:1956_Speers_Joseph.jpg|Albert Browder's station (Joseph Lessie Speers, pictured), 1956

File:Asher_Water_tower.JPG|Asher water tower 1, 2006

File:GYM_01JUL06.JPG|Asher gymnasium, 2006

File:BowenField.JPG|Bowen Field, 2006

</gallery>

References

  • Town website
  • Asher Photos on Flickr
  • School website
  • Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Asher