Cromwell

The Cromwell oil field and town were named for Joe I. Cromwell of Muskogee, Oklahoma. A gas well, the #1 Jim Willis in the SE/4 SE/4NW/4 of Section 15-10N-8E, was completed at a depth of 3,466 feet by the Cosden Oil Co. on November 11, 1922. However, it was not until the discovery of oil by the Cromwell Oil & Gas Company at the #1 Bruner in the NW/4 NE/4 SW/4 of Section 15-10N-8E on October 2, 1923, that the drilling boom started. This well was completed to a depth of 3,475 feet. A total of 393 wells produced oil in the field with the largest oil well producing 5,600 barrels per day, and the largest gas well producing 125,000,000 M.C.F. The town of Cromwell and the surrounding oil field had a peak population of 10,000 during 1923 and 1924. Lawlessness became rampant and caused the town to be named "Cromwell the Wicked". In September 1924, prisoners from Cromwell were handcuffed to a log cabin and marched 14 miles to the county jail in Wewoka. To help curb the lawlessness in the town, William (Bill) Tilghman, a pioneer law officer and one of the famous "Three Guardsmen" of Oklahoma was named Chief of Police in September 1924. On November 1, 1924, at the age of seventy, Tilghman was slain at the entrance of Murphy's dance hall located where this marker stands.