Charleston, in Okea, stood along the east-west section line one mile south of here, formerly Locust Street. Its first post office was established on June 18, 1901, about one and one half mile south and one half mile west of here near the center of Section 10. The community was named after Charles J. Eilerts, on whose homestead it was located and who was the first postmaster and merchant in the area. The Charleston School District was organized on March 27, 1902, and the first school was taught in a tent about two miles west of here by Edna B. Coffey. Travel from the area to the nearest railroad took all day by team and wagon loaded with wheat or livestock for market, and roads were little more than traces in the grass, limiting visits between neighbors, so a Saturday trip to town became both a social event and a shopping chore. Yet homesteaders brought musical instruments and books as well as plows, and before statehood in 1907 the community developed a lodge room, a race track, and a brass band. In 1908 Charles J. and Edna B. Coffey Eilerts surveyed 26 acres of the northwest corner of their homestead into six blocks and lots with seven streets, and the town, including the post office and later the school, moved to the new location bordering Locust Street where lots could be obtained for homes and businesses. During its most active period, Charleston had a doctor and a justice of the peace, two churches, a school, a post office, two rural mail routes, two general stores, a drug store, a blacksmith shop, and a livery stable. Its principal commerce served farmers and ranchers who raised wheat, broom corn, hogs, and cattle. Although its population of 100 was often exceeded on Sundays by church attendance and on weekends by visitors drawn to baseball or school or literacy society programs, the population declined after 1920 when the Santa Fe Railroad bypassed the town to the south. The post office was moved to Selman but kept the name Charleston until 1923, and the schoolhouse remained in use until 1933.