Rio Grande Ranch Headquarters Historic District

History

An Act of Congress in May,1908, allowed the sale of Cherokee lands to non-Cherokees. Previously, non-Cherokees were only allowed to lease such land. In August, 1908, Dr. Charles E. Daily bought 50 acres (0.20 km²) in the newly-created Wagoner County, Oklahoma. The land would become the headquarters of the Rio Grande Ranch. Daily continued to buy land, and owned 285 acres (1.15 km²) by the end of the year. In 1910, Dr. Daily bought enough shorthorn cattle from his father's ranch in Indiana to establish his own herd. The herd proved successful in its new home. However, the elder Daily died in 1915, and his son felt he needed to sell his Oklahoma ranch and return to Indiana.

Frank A. Gillespie, a Tulsa oilman, bought the ranch in November, 1915. Born in Oil City, Pennsylvania, he had come to Tulsa in 1904, where he was said to be highly successful. His hobby was raising purebred shorthorn cattle. He already owned several other large ranches in the state. Gillespie immediately began the Rio Grande's land holdings and its herd.In 1916, he built a 16,000 square feet (1,500 m²) concrete barn as a place to show his cattle. In 1917 he bought an unspecified amount of Grand River bottom land to add to the ranch. Gillespie sold the ranch to Clinton R. Strong on February 11, 1918.

Although Strong continued to raise shorthorns, he apparently did nothing else to improve the ranch. One year after buying it, he traded it for ownership of some railroad stock. By 1920, the ranch was owned by James W. Maney, an Oklahoma City railroad contractor. Money's son, Robert, actually moved into the Rock House in 1920-1921 and managed the ranch with the help of three ranch hands. James actually started a couple of sidelines for the property: a producing oil well and a gravel production business on the Grand River. But it was still cattle raising that brought in the big profits. In 1920, the ranch held a sale of registered shorthorns in Tulsa and grossed an average of $395 per head, which was considered a good price at the time.

James Maney sold the ranch to Yeoman Life Insurance Company in 1935, ending the ranch's significance as a source of purebred shorthorn cattle.

"Rock Manor" Ranch house

The 3,500 square feet (330 m²), one-story main residence was one of the first structures built in 1909 - 1910. Its walls were covered with Atoka sandstone, which was quarried on the ranch. Hence, the house was always known as "Rock Manor" or "Rock House." The architecture is Prairie Style, and has the darker stone laid at the bottom of the elevation, becoming lighter as the exterior walls reach the roofline. The hipped roof is low-pitched and covered with asphalt shingles, interrupted by two front-facing dormers. Each dormer has white clapboard walls and two windows, with three small glass panes over one larger pane. The wide eave overhang is enclosed with a wooden fascia and a tongue-in-groove wooden soffit. There are three brick chimneys penetrating through the roof. One chimney is on the center ridge and connects to the living room fireplace. The other two are on the roof slopes, serving four wood stoves (kitchen, dining room and two bedrooms).

A porch spans the front facade (south elevation) and wraps around about one-third of the elevation. It is raised with a concrete floor and steps. The steps are flanked by short sandstone wing walls that are capped with concrete and decorated with concrete horse heads. Slightly tapered sandstone columns with concrete capitals support the porch roof, whose ceiling is made of tongue-in-groove wood painted white. Four-inch diameter metal pipes connecting the columns , serve as the porch rail.

The double-hung windows are made of wood and are of different sizes. The NRHP application said that they were probably made on-site to fit specific window openings, which were not all of uniform size. The main entrance door is oversized and has a single pane of glass, with an overhead transom. Other exterior doors are wooden, paneled type, single doors with a transom. The transoms were adjustable to facilitate natural cooling during the summer.

Inside the house, the most notable feature is a large rock fireplace in the living room, faced with quarried sandstone and having a simple wooden mantle. The concrete floor in the living room probably prevented serious damage to the house whenever sparks may have flown out of the fireplace. All other rooms in the house have wood floors. Ceilings in all the rooms are 12 feet (3.7 m) high, and most rooms are decorated with picture molding. All interior doors have transoms (again to promote air circulation), and have solid brass hardware. There are two wooden built-in cabinets: a gun cabinet in the sitting room and a china cabinet in the dining room. Ceilings and interior walls are covered with plaster over wood lath. The inside of exterior walls was covered directly with plaster.

Secondary buildings

Three secondary buildings share the 1.1 acres (4,500 m²) yard of the Rock House: the spring house and the root cellar are southwest of the main house, and the smokehouse is northeast. A rock wall encloses the yard. The three secondary buildings each have Atoka sandstone walls, 2 feet (0.61 m) thick, and sloped concrete roofs, 4 inches (10 cm) thick.