Agawam was founded around 1909, when its post office was built; the post office closed in 1918.[3]
On 19 October 1915, two Rock Island Railroad trains collided head-on here, a southbound passenger train and a northbound freight train, resulting in seven fatalities and numerous injuries; engineer William Powell was blamed for the accident.[4]
In October 1922, it was announced that Agawam, located on the main line of the Rock Island Railroad, would become a shipping point for a gas field in Grady County, due to its location: four miles from the Oklahoma Gas Company's pumping station.[5] Agawam was described as a "new oil town" in 1923, when an auction of town lots was held.[6]
A gymnasium was completed in 1935. In 1955, Agawam had a grade school with a "small enrollment", but it was large enough to field a very good girls' basketball team that, over the course of three years, had amassed 90 wins against four losses, despite usually only having seven players.[7]
References
^"Oklahoma". World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. N–O. Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. 1960. p. 544.
