The Tobucksy County Newsletter is our official Society publication, bringing you regular updates on Society activities, events, and research alongside in-depth articles from Society members and guest writers. While we’ve been on hiatus since September 2019, we’re excited to revive the Newsletter as a quarterly, digital publication, with print copies available upon request!
Vol. 36, No. 4 (Digital 1.1): October-December, 2025
Welcome back to the Tobucksy County Newsletter! In our return edition, we’re excited to share with you some of the highlights the Pittsburg County Genealogical and Historical Society has seen over the past few years, along with an article researched by Society officer Christina Thurber.
Current PCGHS Board
- President – David Beall
- Vice President – Christina Thurber
- Secretary – Adeline Whisenhunt
- Treasurer – Jim Young
- Members At-Large: Melinda Dobson, Paige McClain, Julie Wolf
Since We’ve Been Gone – Society Highlights Since 2019
Since our last Newsletter in September 2019, the Society has continued to serve Pittsburg County residents by bringing educational events to the greater McAlester community, along with partnering with community businesses/organizations and statewide/international associations to broaden our services and provide opportunities to Society members and the general public. These include:
- Hosting regular history programs at the PCGHS Library, all of which are free and open to the public (ongoing)
- Providing monthly history presentations at the McAlester Public Library, all of which are free and open to the public (ongoing)
- Coordinating with the McAlester Building Foundation in efforts to reopen the McAlester Area Museum (ongoing)
- Donating items to the Choctaw Cultural Center in Calera, OK, for their “Our Lands, Our Legacy” exhibit (open July 2025 – April 2026)
- Operating informational booths at McAlester’s OktoberFest and Juneteenth celebrations (yearly)
- Coordinating with the Jefferson Highway Association, and McAlester Tourism to facilitate a stop in McAlester for the Military Vehicle Preservation Association’s 2024 Convoy along the Jefferson Highway (October 2024)
- Coordinating sponsorship from Sam Wampler’s Freedom Ford, the Okla Theater, the Jefferson Highway Association, American Songline, McAlester VFW, Prairie Artisan Ales, and McAlester Pepsi to host trivia at Spaceship Earth Coffee (October 2024)
- Coordinating with the Jefferson Highway Association, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and McAlester Tourism to host the 2025 International Jefferson Highway Association Conference, with sponsorship from: Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma Department of Tourism, Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Stringtown Association, Atoka County Historical Society, Dancing Rabbit Music Festival, Sam Wampler’s Freedom Ford, Joe’s Yardbird, Reba’s Place, Lost Street Brewing, Prairie Artisan Ales, Roseanna’s, McAlester Country Club, Downtown 312, and Luna’s Wedding and Event Center (June 2025)
Featured Article: McAlester OktoberFest
Research by Christina Thurber and Cullen Whisenhunt
A celebration of German culture, McAlester’s Oktoberfest was first held October 27-28 of 2023. The brainchild of local citizen Dennis Wilson, it consisted of a two-day downtown festival featuring booths with local businesses, including breweries and wineries. Coordination with Downtown 312 and the McAlester Area Arts and Humanities Council led to the inclusion of, respectively, a haunted house and the return of CultureFest, which had last been hosted by the Arts Council in 2019 (Beaty).
In 2024, Oktoberfest was relocated from downtown McAlester to the Southeast Expo Center, where the festivities included performances by a traditional German dance troupe. 2024 was also the first year that the Historical Society manned a booth at the festival. The Society booth featured a poster discussing the German Prisoner of War Camp located along McAlester’s northeastern city limits during World War 2, specifically 1942-1945.
Initially intended to house Italian “enemy aliens” (recent immigrants to coastal states that were deemed a threat due to increased wartime security policies), the surrender of the German Afrika Korps–combined with the high number of Italian immigrants already in the area–saw the camp’s mission changed. Remains of the camp today include the foundation of Fassio’s Fitness (a former officer’s quarters) and the miniature stone castles located near the McAlester Public Schools Administration Building and at the entrance to the Green Meadows neighborhood.
The poster was designed by independent researcher Nathaniel Marshall and Society member Adeline Whisenhunt.
This year’s booth is being designed by Society Vice President Christina Thurber. From her press releases about her booth:
Germans were in McAlester well before statehood. In 1900, the U.S. Federal Census found 28 McAlester residents who were born in Germany. They included three cooks, bakers, and dry goods dealers plus one stone mason, a hotel keeper, farmer, coal miner, railroad man, and others. For some of these Germans, their only contribution to McAlester was their name on a census record. Others left tangible reminders that will be explored and displayed during McAlester’s 2025 Oktoberfest.
One of them was William Weaver, who established a florist business that by 1923 was described by the McAlester News Capital as “one of the greatest florist establishments in Oklahoma.”
According to his 1900 census record, William came to the United States in 1871. According to his obituary, he spent a few years in Kentucky before coming to McAlester and marrying Mary Elizabeth
Bodeck, another German emigrant, in 1883. The Weavers started their business with a greenhouse next to their home on West Choctaw. About 1897, they relocated to 528 East Delaware, where they built a new home, more greenhouses, and a larger horticulture capability.
William’s life-long interest in flowers extended to the beautification of his adopted community. In July 1913, he was named McAlester’s park superintendant, a new office that paid no salary. By December, he was one of the judges that selected “Chadick Park” and “Hok-Loksy Park” as names for the second ward and sixth ward parks.
–Press Release, July 2025
The Sittel family relocated to McAlester in the 1860s and ’70s, approximately. Arriving in Baltimore in 1863, Edward Sittel left his wife and son in the city and headed west in search of work, which he
found as a butcher for employees of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company in McAlester. He and James J. McAlester started “batching” it in a little shack in North McAlester.
When his family joined him around 1873, Edward built a one-room house. Their house gradually expanded to a 24-room hotel called the Elk House, which was destroyed in North McAlester’s “Great Fire of 1906.” When Edward died in March 1922, his estate included 42 lots in the City of McAlester.
Lena Tronnier Sittel worked at the Blair Meat Market in Baltimore until Edward sent for her and Fritz. According to Fritz, Lena was not favorably impressed by McAlester’s six-by-ten-foot railroad depot and its “wild and uninhabited surroundings.” But she stayed anyway and had four more children. Lena baked bread for hotel guests and railroad employees. She died on 7 February 1929.
Fritz Sittel came to McAlester with his mother in 1873. In 1882, he married Malvina Pitchlyn, a Choctaw citizen. At one time Fritz and Malvina owned the majority of the land in what is now the city of
McAlester. After Fritz “retired” from stock raising, he served as a Pittsburg County jailer and a guard at the Oklahoma State penitentiary. Fritz died on 27 May 1949.
–Press Release, “The Sittel Family”
Come learn about William Weaver, the Sittel family, and other historic German citizens at this year’s Oktoberfest celebration, October 24-25, 2025, at the Southeast Expo Center (Hwy 270 west of McAlester)!
References:
Beaty, James. “Major McAlester Oktoberfest Celebration in Planning Stages.” McAlester News-Capital, rep. by Yahoo! News (Aug 2023), https://www.yahoo.com/news/major-mcalester-oktoberfest-celebration-planning-231100851.html.