Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Hamilton Rd, Bldg 425
GPS coordinates: 34.671617,-98.38465
Take a photo of your rally flag with the above image.

The “Old” Post Chapel was constructed in 1875 by elements of the 11th Infantry and the 4th Cavalry under the command of General Ranald S. McKenzie. The sum of $2,500 was appropriated for the purchase of materials for the erection of a chapel and schoolhouse.

Built of native limestone and local timbers, this little outpost of Christianity was the first structure of the post visible to weary travelers coming by stage from the distant eastern states.

Captain Jeremiah Porter was the first to hold services in the chapel on Christmas Eve, 1875. By January 1876, he requested a bell to announce services across the post. The bell mysteriously disappeared was replaced in 1930.

Father Isadore, noted Catholic priest who founded the mission at Anadarko, and Reverend Frank Wright, son of the Choctaw Indian who named Oklahoma, both conducted services in the chapel from time to time.

School was also held in this building for the children of the post. The teachers were usually Sergeants paid at the rate of fifty cents per day for their efforts. Children of these officers, as well as Indian women who sometimes worked in the family quarters, attended school here.

Parties were frequently held in the chapel. The services were scarcely over sometimes when the benches were pushed aside and the dancing would begin. Masquerade balls were occasionally held with men and women donning the attire of the opposite sex.

In 1930, the stone latrines behind the family quarters were torn down and the stone used to construct a vestry on the north side of the building.

In its setting of quiet beauty, the little chapel remains as a hallowed symbol of the place that religion has held in the lives of military personnel of this nation.

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Tour of Honor-Oklahoma is sponsored by Michael Hickman from Broken Arrow.