Marlow is a city in Stephens County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,385 at the time of the 2020 Census. Marlow is located 10 miles north of Duncan, Oklahoma, and 30 miles east of Lawton, Oklahoma.
History
The site that would become Marlow was first settled by Dr. Williamson Marlow, the father of the five Marlow brothers, when he and his wife, Martha Jane, moved from Missouri to the Wildhorse Creek area in Oklahoma in 1880. William Rathmell's 1892 book Life of the Marlows detailed the history of the brothers' escapades and set a narrative for the city's legacy.
Marlow brothers
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Born along the Chisholm Trail and on the banks of Wildhorse Creek, the legend of the Marlow family and the five Marlow brothers has been proven to be more fact than fiction.
Dr. Williamson Marlow and his wife, Martha Jane, a relative of Daniel Boone, first established a homestead in this area during the early 1880s. The site of the original Marlow family home is reported to have been located just north of Redbud Park.
Somewhat of a nomad by nature, Dr. Marlow provided medical treatment to the many settlers in this portion of Indian Territory and to many cowboys driving cattle up the Chisholm Trail. He also farmed while his sons reportedly herded horses, selling many of the animals to the U.S. Army located at neighboring Fort Sill. Dr. Marlow died in 1885.
In 1888 his five sons were accused of horse-stealing, a charge which was later proven to be unfounded. Four of the brothers (Charlie, Alfred, Boone and Lewellyn) were arrested and transported by a U.S. Deputy Marshall to the Federal Court in Graham, Texas, for trial.
Hearing of this brother's arrest, George Marlow took the entire family to Graham to clear his brothers but soon found himself behind bars.
Boone Marlow ultimately escaped and returned to the Marlow area in Indian Territory, while his four brothers were scheduled to be transported to an ostensibly safer jail in Weatherford, Texas.
Several attempts were made by Graham citizens and law enforcement officials to lynch the Marlows. On the night of January 19, 1889, the brothers were shackled in pairs—George to Lewellyn and Charlie to Alfred—for the trip to Weatherford.
When the group reached Dry Creek outside of Graham, a signal was given and a hidden mob opened fire on the seemingly defenseless Marlows.
The guards ran to join the mob while the brothers leaped from the wagon and armed themselves with guns taken from guards. In the vicious gunfight that followed, Lewellyn and Alfred were killed. Both George and Charlie were seriously wounded.
Retrieving a dead mob member's knife, George Marlow unjointed his dead brother's ankles. He and Charlie used a wagon to escape the ambush site.
Three members of the mob were also killed and a number of others wounded. Several members of the mob were later prosecuted and convicted for the assault upon the brothers.
Boone was later poisoned near Hell Creek, west of Marlow. His corpse was then shot in an attempt to obtain a $1,500 reward, but his killers, too, were brought to trial.
Alfred, Boone and Lewellyn are buried in a small cemetery at what was once Finis, Texas, outside of Graham.
George and Charlie Marlow survived the attack, eventually moving their families to Colorado where they became outstanding citizens, serving as law enforcement officers.
In 1891, after sentencing mob members for their part in the attack, Federal Judge A. P. McCormick was quoted as saying: "This is the first time in the annals of history where unarmed prisoners, shackled together, ever repelled a mob. Such cool courage that preferred to fight against such great odds and die, if at all, in glorious battle rather than die ignominiously by a frenzied mob, deserves to be commemorated in song and story."
The Sons of Katie Elder, an American western film, uses concepts from Life of the Marlows, a book about the Marlow brothers.
Jim Crow era
From the end of the Reconstruction era until the mid 20th century, municipalities in different parts of the country enacted Jim Crow laws, which heavily restricted the rights of Black people. In Marlow, prominent signs were erected publicly that stated, "Negro, don't let the sun go down on you here."
Murders of Berch and Johnigan
On December 17, 1923, Albert W. Berch, a white hotel owner, and his Black porter, Robert Johnigan, were confronted and later murdered by an angry mob of Marlow residents at the Johnson Hotel. Berch had hired Johnigan as a porter 10 days before Johnigan decided to quit, citing racial tensions and a planned move to Duncan, but upon the request of J. L. Campbell, Berch had overheard the conflict between Johnigan and the mob, and he ordered the crowd to leave the hotel, stepping between Johnigan and mob member Marvin Kincannon, a man in his 20s alleged by Mrs. Berch as the leader of the mob. A preliminary hearing on January 2, 1924, before County Judge Eugene Rice included Marvin Kincannon, Elza Gandy, Bryon Wright, Fred Stotts, Ollie Lloyd, Homer Thompson, Ellis Spence, and Frank Cain as defendants. An appellate court stated that "Gandy was one of the chief instigators of the mob which was formed to run the negro out of town." and again for five days to visit his sick sister in Hobart, Oklahoma, on August 13, 1929.
The story was featured in The Casper Daily Tribune,<!-- The exact same story is reported in different papers, so subsequent citations on the topic should point to this cite to avoid ref clutter. --> The Albany-Decatur Daily, the Shreveport Journal, The Vancouver Daily Province, among others. Elza Gandy died on December 9, 1949, in Caldwell, Kansas. Marvin Kincannon died at age 71 in July 1972. In 2019, Berch's maternal grandson, Albert Berch Hollingsworth, published a non-fiction book about the incident titled Killing Albert Berch, which he spent five years researching.
Geography
Marlow is located in northern Stephens County about 29 miles east of Lawton at the intersection of U.S. Route 81 and Oklahoma State Highway 29. Duncan, Oklahoma, the county seat of Stephens County, is ten miles south of Marlow.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and 0.14% is water.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Marlow had a population of 4,385. The median age was 40.2 years, 24.6% of residents were under the age of 18, and 20.9% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 84.1 males age 18 and over.
0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 1,764 households in Marlow, of which 33.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 48.2% were married-couple households, 15.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Percent
|-
| White || 81.5%
|-
| Black or African American || 0.5%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 6.1%
|-
| Asian || 0.6%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0%
|-
| Some other race || 1.5%
|-
| Two or more races || 9.9%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 5.2%
|}
2010 census
As of the 2010 census, there were 4,662 people, 1,862 households, and 1,257 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 2,119 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.2% white, 0.2% African American, 5.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 1.6% from other races, and 5.6% from two or more races. Males had a median income of $34,325 versus $29,21 for females.
See also
- List of sundown towns in the United States