History

Our Brother in Red was an Indian and religious newspaper. The motto read “Christian Education the Hope of the Indian.” An alternative title to Our Brother in Red was Indian Methodist. It was published in Muskogee, Indian Territory, Oklahoma beginning in 1882. It was also published in Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1897 and in McAlester, Oklahoma in 1898.

The papers geographic coverage included Ardmore, Carter County, Oklahoma, Muskogee, Muskogee County, Oklahoma and McAlester, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. It was published by J.F. Thompson and T.F. Brewer. In 1896, the paper was edited by the Rev. F.M. Moore. Rev. J.M. Moore served as assistant editor. Corresponding editors included Rev. M. Gross, Rev. A. C. Pickens, Rev. A.K. Miller, and Rev. B.H. Greathouse.

John Jasper Methvin, a Methodist preacher who came to Oklahoma to “spread the good word” was a frequent contributor to Our Brother in Red. A subscription to Our Brother in Red was one dollar and twenty-five cents for one year, and only a dollar a year for preachers. The paper claimed to be a“…inpedisnsible [sic] to the Methodists of Indian and Oklahoma Territories if they would keep posted upon the affairs of their church. The paper will be valuable in any home where a clean, moral newspaper is wanted instead of the weekly record of crime.”

Our Brother in Red was recognized as the official organ of the Indian Mission Conference. The paper claimed to have the largest general circulation “of bona fide subscribers of any paper in the Indian Territory.