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History · Dewar

Dewar’s post office opened in 1909

Most of Dewar was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1920.

1909first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: TulGuy · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Dewar began

When was Dewar founded?

1909

The Dewar post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,558 in 19202020 census: 763117 years
Founding year: the first Dewar post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Dewar’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 Dewar are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Dewar’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Dewar, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Dewar yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Dewar is a town in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 763 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1909 by workers for the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (MO&G), it was named for William Peter Dewar, a railroad official. It incorporated in 1909. Dewar has a history with coal in the large Henryetta Coal Formation: the Thirty-sixth annual report of the Department of Mines and Minerals from 1943 shows production by four coal companies in Dewar— Berkey Coal Company, Coal Creek Coal Company, Dewar Coal Company, and Martin-Geary Coal Company—with a combined total of over 13,600 tons of coal annually. Dewar was along the route of the shortline Coalton Railway, later called the…

Its first post office opened in 1909. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 888 to 763 (-14%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Dewar, 1909 to 1990

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1909Post officeThe Dewar post office opens
  3. 1962On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1990Born hereRonnell Lewis is born here
By decade

Dewar, decade by decade

Today1 recent
OKMap-doton-Dewar2004OKMap-doton-Dewar
On the map

Dewar on the map, 1962 to 1979

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

Dewar on the 1962 USGS mapDewar on the 1979 USGS map1962Henryetta sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Dewar.

Every building

Dewar, building by building, 1914

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 sheet.

Dewar fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 11914Sheet 1 of 1
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

People over time

Dewar, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,600192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,558

Between 763 and 1,558 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Dewar

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Ronnell LewisAmerican football player · b. 1990
K
Kim BrownfieldAmerican Paralympic powerlifter
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Henryetta3 historic placesB−

Questions about Dewar’s history

What year was Dewar founded?

The Dewar 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 →
Start a conversation
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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), 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.