Geary Avenue: named for a forgotten pioneer
There is a short street east of I-235 named Geary Avenue. It’s longer on the south side of the river.
I figured the street was named for the town of Geary in Blaine County. I was wrong.
With a little research in The Oklahoman’s archives, I learned about one of Oklahoma City’s forgotten pioneers.
James Geary was born in 1844 in Missouri. At age 15, after the death of his parents, he left home to become a frontiersman. He helped survey the area where Denver, Colo., now stands and rode with wagon trains on their way to New Mexico and beyond.
During the Civil War, he was an Army scout in the company of William “Wild Bill” Hickock, Amos Chapman, Ben Clark and Col. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. After the war, he built houses under government contract in Oklahoma before moving to Kansas and settling down as a rancher and merchant.
On April 22, 1889, James Geary came to Oklahoma City and on May 3, 1889, he opened the Citizens’ Bank at the corner of Main and Broadway. He sold the bank in 1893 to Capt. Daniel Stiles, another pioneer with a street named for him. He joined Stiles, and the two became real estate developers.
They developed the Maywood Addition, Oklahoma City’s first “Nichols Hills,” which included the area around Geary Avenue. It was the fashionable part of town where the wealthy lived.
Geary served on the Board of Trade , the predecessor to the Chamber of Commerce, which was formed on May 25, 1889. He later was elected and served as an alderman (city councilman) and, at the time of his death, was still involved in real estate.
James Geary died on Oct. 21, 1904. In The Oklahoman for Oct. 25, an article said his funeral was attended by “the largest throng of people ever assembled in this city to pay a parting tribute to a deceased citizen.”
After a procession consisting of “a platoon of twelve members of the police force. A band followed, and the remainder of the line of march was composed of the city fire department, the city officials, forty members of the Knights Templar, members of the A. F. & A. M., and hundreds of citizens,” Geary was eulogized in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church by the Hon. Sidney Clarke.
In his address, Clarke said about his friend: “He lived an active and honorable life in this world and with malice toward none and charity for all, he met the envitable with that sincerity and composure which characterized all his intercourse with his fellow men.”
James Geary is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery.
Mary Phillips
mphillips@opubco.com
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