The Alderson post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Anderson (1913), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 786 in 19102020 census: 220136 years
How did Alderson get its name?
Alderson was named for William Charles Alderson, treasure of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad.
More on the name
W.C. Alderson, under the name "Willy," was one of the children written about and the source of much of the material in Mary Howitt's Our Cousins in Ohio (1849).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Alderson. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1898McAlester sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Alderson.
Every building
Alderson, building by building, 1899–1904
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1899Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
A post office was established at Alderson, Indian Territory on March 5, 1890. It was named for William Charles Alderson, treasure of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad. W.C. Alderson, under the name "Willy," was one of the children written about and the source of much of the material in Mary Howitt's Our Cousins in Ohio (1849).
At the time of its founding, Alderson was located in Tobucksy County, a part of the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation.
Alderson was linked to McAlester, Krebs, Bache, Haileyville, and Hartshorne by the Pittsburg County Railway interurban from 1903 to 1946.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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