Massacre of Pat Hennessey

The town around this plaque took the freighter's name. After the run of April 22, 1889, the Hennessy Townsite Company laid out lots here on the expected route of the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway, a Rock Island line building south through the Cherokee Outlet, and the first train arrived in late September. The post office was designated "Hennesy" on July 20, 1889, and respelled "Hennessey" that October, with Guy R. Gillett as postmaster. When the Outlet opened in 1893, a land office stood just north of town, and Hennessey grew to an estimated fifteen hundred people.

What the plaque says

Massacre of Pat Hennessey Freighter Hennessey's charred body tied to his wagon wheel was found in a smouldering fire near 3 of his drivers, all killed on July 4, 1874, in last Indian wars when his train was on way along Chisholm Trail to Kiowa Agency. Grave is 2 blocks west. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1957

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Chisholm — 18 mi
  Kingfisher's farming and ranching museum on the Chisholm Trail's stage branch, with a heritage village and Horizon Hill, the mansion a territorial governor built for a capital that never came.
• Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center — 19 mi
  The Oklahoma Historical Society's Enid museum of the September 1893 run into the Cherokee Outlet, with the town's original land office among the old buildings out back.

More markers nearby

• Roy V. Cashion — steps away
• First Rural Mail Route — steps away
• Bull Foot Station — 0.8 mi
• Cherokee Strip — 3.7 mi