Book about Wagoner citizens to be released Saturday

WAGONER — The third edition of the Wagoner People Book series will be released at an autograph party from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Wagoner's Historical Museum.

This volume includes a lot of wonderful pictures and stories, said Liz McMahan, who authored the book with Kenneth Peters.

McMahan is a Muskogee Phoenix staff writer, and Peters is retired from the Wagoner Public Works Authority. Both are Wagoner natives.

“There are stories like how the Jones family came to move to Wagoner,” McMahan said. “Their tale involves moonshine whiskey and a knife.”

There are also a lot of pictures, some of them quite rare, like a picture of President Teddy Roosevelt waving from the back platform of a train to an old Rough Rider buddy.

“This book includes a lot of stories about businesses that faded from Wagoner's history years ago, such as the Cozy Theater and Jimmy's Shoe Shop,” Peters said. “But it also has a lot of stories about how some of today's businesses were established.”

“Wagoner People 3” is the last in the series of books that began with the publication of “Wagoner People” in 2000 and “Wagoner People 2” in 2001.”

“All three books tell not only the story of Wagoner's people and the hardships and successes they had in life, but also of the area and the community,” McMahan said. “Families have been very generous in sharing their pictures with us, and they add a great deal to telling our story.

“We started this project because we wanted to record history. We started writing about people we thought we knew. It didn't take us long to find out there was much about their families we didn't know.”

The books are softcover and about 160 pages each. They are $13 for each volume.

They are available for purchase at Wagoner's City Historical Museum, 122 S. Main St. and Crossroads Treasures Antique Mall on U.S. 69 north of Wagoner.

Books are shipped for $15 each. To order a copy, call Peters at 485-5073 or McMahan at 485-3094, or mail a check to Wagoner People Book, in care of Liz McMahan, 27703 E. 710 Road, Wagoner, OK 74467.

Text Only