Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Red Oak

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Red Oak

Red Oak’s post office opened in 1868, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1899 on, and the census since 1910.

1868first post office
0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Red Oak began

When was Red Oak founded?

1868

The Red Oak post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 398 in 19102020 census: 537158 years
Founding year: the first Red Oak post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Red Oak’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Mapped building by building4 fire insurance maps, 1899 to 1913, drew every building in Red Oak.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Red Oak’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Every building

Red Oak, building by building, 1899–1913

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.

Red Oak fire insurance map, 1899, sheet 11899Sheet 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.

The story

How Red Oak came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Red Oak.

Read it all →

The area around Red Oak has been inhabited since approximately 9,000 BCE, beginning with people of the Fourche Maline Culture who were descended from the first Native Americans to migrate from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge. Archaeological sites such as the McCutchan-McLaughlin site in southeastern Latimer County provide evidence of Fourche Maline settlements, particularly the burial mounds used by these people groups. The combination of poor health and prolonged drought led to the extinction of the Fourche Maline cultures by the early 15th century. European explorers, including Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Jean Baptiste Bernard de la Harpe, began arriving in the mid-16th century and found only scattered remains of these once thriving cultures.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Red Oak, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Red Oak 1-62,500 1943 - PCL Map Collection - txu-pclmaps-topo-ok-red oak-1943Date?Red Oak 1-62,500 1943 - PCL Map Collection - txu-pclm…Map
Today1 recent
OKMap-doton-RedOak2004OKMap-doton-RedOak
On the map

Red Oak on the map, 1940 to 1979

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

Red Oak on the 1940 USGS mapRed Oak on the 1979 USGS map1940Red Oak sheet · 1:62,500

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

People over time

Red Oak, census by census

0100200300400500600700192019401960198020002020Peak: 676

Between 398 and 676 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Red Oak

Nobody well known was born in Red Oak itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Sim InessAthletics competitor · b. 1930
T
Tim MeansMixed martial artist · b. 1984
William Grady StiglerAmerican politician · b. 1891
Lane AdamsAmerican baseball player · b. 1989
D
Duane WoodAmerican football player · b. 1937
Rilla AskewAmerican novelist and short story writer · b. 1951

Questions about Red Oak’s history

What year was Red Oak founded?

The Red Oak post office opened in 1868, 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 (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.