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History · Atwood

Atwood’s post office opened in 1909

Most of Atwood was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1968. Below: maps from 1896 on and the census since 1970.

1909first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Atwood began

When was Atwood founded?

1909

The Atwood post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Newburg (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 439 in 19702020 census: 85117 years
Founding year: the first Atwood post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Atwood’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Atwood are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18964 editions of the USGS map, 1896 to 1990. Watch Atwood change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Atwood’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Atwood’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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On the map

Atwood on the map, 1896 to 1990

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Atwood. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Atwood on the 1896 USGS mapAtwood on the 1900 USGS mapAtwood on the 1967 USGS mapAtwood on the 1990 USGS map1896Coalgate 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 Atwood.

The story

How Atwood came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Atwood.

Read it all →

The town is named for Chester C. Atwood, an early settler of what would later become Hughes County, Oklahoma. Atwood was an educated farmer, extensive area landowner, and elected commissioner of Hughes County. He was born in July 1862 in central Texas, to natives of Tennessee who had migrated to Texas before the Civil War. In 1881, Atwood left Texas for the Mushulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Settling in western Tobucksy County, some 28 miles (45 km) west of a pioneer general store owned by J.J. McAlester, Atwood married a young woman named Patsy Ann, of the Choctaw Nation, giving him settlement rights by marriage. By 1885, he was farming 25 acres (100,000 m2) of what later would become eastern Hughes County, and was enumerated in the Choctaw Nation census of that year.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Atwood, 1896 to 1933

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  3. 1897Post officeThe Newburg post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1909Post officeThe Newburg post office closes
  6. 1909Post officeThe Atwood post office opens
  7. 1933Born hereBob Bennett is born here
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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People over time

Atwood, census by census

0100200300400500198020002020Peak: 461

Between 74 and 461 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Atwood’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Atwood’s post office has been open since 1909. Another post office, Newburg, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Newburg
1897–1909
Atwood
1909–today
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Atwood’s history

What year was Atwood founded?

The Atwood post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.