The name “Egan” has made its print on Sapulpa from the beginning. The Egan brothers came to this area a century ago and opened general stores at Sapulpa, Kellyville and Tulsa. In more recent times, the grandson of John F. Egan has expanded the legacy.
Peter D. Egan, 80, is best known ‘round here at “Pete” Egan. He is a local historian, a land surveyor, former U.S. Marine and 2011 Sapulpa’s Citizen of the Year. A builder of models—an architect, if you will—Egan has built a miniature replica of Sapulpa with its stately buildings, streets and utility systems the way they appeared in 1929. Even though the electric trolley system was mostly dismantled by the era reflected in Pete’s work, the display includes a lone trolley car and tracks “just so people get an idea of how and where it was.”
Beneath the huge diorama which takes up much of a room on the second floor of the Sapulpa Historical Museum [the old YWCA Building] is an earlier model of the town—the 1895 edition that featured the Egan General store with mostly dirt streets with hitching rails and wooden sidewalks much like many pioneer and “Old West” towns. Pete’s grandfather was a solid entrepreneur. The store had its own script that could be redeemed only at Egan’s. And business interests went beyond the store. “I was told that he loved to trade and barter and that on a Saturday he could make a $100 profit at the corner of Main and Dewey,” Pete said.
Egan is a 1953 graduate of Sapulpa High School. He was an Eagle Scout. He served in the Marines 1954-56. He later developed his own land survey company and did a lot of work for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
Egan and his wife, the former Faye Gray were married for more than 50 years when she passed just recently. Pete Egan’s two published books: “Sapulpa, OK! The greatest City in The Known World” are available at the Museum.
