Oak Park Cemetery

The run that brought Frank Shoup here was the first to open land previously occupied by American Indians. In 1890 the Jerome Commission met the Iowa, Sac and Fox, Kickapoo, Absentee Shawnee and Citizen Band Potawatomi; on June 12 the Sac and Fox Nation agreed to 160-acre allotments for each member and sold the remaining 391,189 acres for $1.23 an acre. President Harrison signed the proclamation on September 18, 1891, and four days later about twenty thousand people lined the boundaries for 6,097 homesteads of 160 acres.

What the plaque says

Oak Park Cemetery Ripley, Oklahoma This approximately 2.5 acre cemetery with 880 burial spaces dates back to the late 1800's. Legal description: A tract of land in the SE/4 of Section 20, Township 18 North, Range 4 East of the I.M., Payne County, Oklahoma, more particularly described as beginning at a point 614 feet west of the northeast corner of said SE/4, thence south 330 feet, thence west 330 feet, thence north 330 feet, thence east 330 feet, to the point of beginning. At this site on September 22, 1891 Frank A. Shoup staked his claim for homestead rights to SE/4 of Section 20, Township 18 North, Range 4 east of the I.M., Payne County, Oklahoma, in the opening of the Sac and Fox lands. He donated and was buried here where he staked his claim. The cemetery was plotted, dedicated, and recorded with the Payne County Courthouse on September 27, 1901 by owners W. H. Bowdlear and F. A. Shoup (Book 3 of Misc and Page 176.) William H. Bowdlear provided burial services in the Ripley community from 1901 to 1911. He was bought out by E.G. Messecar (funeral home) who then operated from March 28, 1911 to August 27, 1926, in the Ripley community. Frank A. Shoup granted 1/2 interests (partnership) in this cemetery to William H. Bowdlear on October 16th, 1901 (Book 4, Page 550.) William H. & Lillie M. Bowdlear returned the 1/2 interests (partnership) to Frank A. Shoup on November 10th, 1926. It continued to be owned and operated by the Shoup family until the cemetery association was organized in April 1959. Shoup descendants have continued to be active members of the association and operation of this cemetery. 2009 Oklahoma Historical Society marker

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pawnee Nation Museum — 22 mi
  The Pawnee Nation's own museum in Pawnee, keeping the Nation's objects and the record of a military tradition it traces from the Pawnee Scouts of 1864 to the code talkers of World War II.
• Cherokee Strip Museum and Rose Hill School — 30 mi
  Perry's museum of the Cherokee Outlet, in a town that was a land office on bare prairie the morning of September 16, 1893 and held some 25,000 people that night.

More markers nearby

• Outlaw Battle — 6.5 mi
• Stillwater — 11 mi
• World Famous Athlete Jim Thorpe — 13 mi
• Turkey Track Ranch — 13 mi