Our history

Hollis and Harmon County

The land, the plat and the people behind the records we search every day.

The county

Southwest Oklahoma, one parcel at a time.

Harmon County covers 532 square miles in the southwest corner of Oklahoma. Its seat, Hollis, sits where U.S. Highways 62 and 30 meet, and its residents are proud of the town they call home.

532

square miles

1909

year Harmon County was created

13,834

peak population, in 1930

2,922

residents in the 2010 census

Timeline

How Hollis was founded.

1898

A family camp becomes a townsite

The George W. Hollis family camped here after a November blizzard and built a house from lumber hauled in from Quanah, Texas. Filing rights to the land cost $600. Their general store and Jim Prock’s blacksmith shop became the first business district.

1900

Doctor, post office and school

Dr. J.E. Jones arrived as the first doctor, and his wife became postmistress. The post office, which had operated nearby as Witt, took the Hollis name. The first school opened in 1901 with Clara Belle Hudspeth as teacher.

1903

A town takes shape

A newspaper arrived, along with dry goods, millinery, hardware, cotton gins and drug stores. N.N. DeLamar, a veteran townsite promoter, traded a wagon, a team and his services for a half interest in ten acres. Rufus Connella later paid $1,600 for 75 acres to build a hotel, bank and general store.

1903

The Shoe Box Plat

The Hollis Townsite Company sketched the first plat on the lid of a shoe box. When the plat was challenged in court, a new one dated February 18, 1903 was filed in Mangum.

1909

A new county

Harmon County had been part of the disputed Greer County. After the 1907 constitutional convention divided Greer County, a 1909 proclamation by Governor C.N. Haskell created Harmon County, named for U.S. Attorney General Judson C. Harmon. Hollis won the county seat election that year.

The land

Cotton, wells and the record.

Harmon County counted 11,328 residents in 1910 and peaked at 13,834 in 1930. Cotton has long been a principal crop. Irrigation wells drilled around 1950 helped agriculture grow, and about 409 well logs are reported to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board today.

That history is why accurate records matter here. Every parcel in the county traces back through plats, patents and filings like these, and our work is keeping that chain complete.

Ready when you are.

Call us at 580.688.9255 or send an order online. We will take it from there.