Information Sheet

 

 

R            Sapulpa and Oil Field Railroad Company.

96                    Ledger, 1918-1925.

                                    One volume.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

This is a monthly record of revenues and expenses of the Sapulpa and Oil Field Rail­road.  The nine-mile long branch ran from a junction with the St. Louis-San Francisco (“Frisco”) Rail­way at Depew, Oklahoma, to Shamrock, Oklahoma.  The Frisco purchased the line in 1917.

 

The Sapulpa and Oil Field Railroad was built in 1915-1916 to tap the Cushing oil field, one of the largest pools in Oklahoma.  Upon the discovery of oil, attempts were made to induce the then St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company to build a branch from its main line at De­pew to Shamrock, a distance of almost nine miles.  The Frisco, however, was in the process of reor­ganization under foreclosure, and could not finance the line.  Local inves­tors, led by A. J. Frates, Sr., incorporated the Sapulpa and Oil Field Railroad and built the needed trackage.  The reorgan­ized Frisco thereupon purchased the line in 1917.

 

The Sapulpa and Oil Field’s ledger contains monthly recapitulations of income and expen­di­tures.  The entries begin with those for January 1918, five months after the Frisco’s takeover.  The relationship of the two roads is evident in entries for track and equipment rental, freight in­ter­changes, and joint maintenance of facilities at Depew.  The ledger might have been kept to sat­isfy the requirements of the United States Railroad Administration, as nearly every page bears the stamp of that agency.  Many of the pages also bear references to entries in the “Federal” and “Cor­porate” journals.  Among the accounts are those for collection of the war tax on freight and pas­sengers, commissions on mail service, and revenues from the Wells Fargo Express service.

 

 

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