Haskell was founded about one and a half miles northeast of the Muscogee Creek Nation town of "Sawokla," which already had a post office, a store and a cotton gin. Sawokla was a Hitachita town and had been the home of Creek Chief, Samuel Checote. The original tract had been allotted to Amos Rolland, a member of the Creek Nation. The store and gin relocated from Sawokla to Haskell as soon as the railroad was completed in 1904. The first store, S. Beshara and Brothers, was started in a tent by two immigrants from Syria. Haskell's first post office was established in 1902, with Nat Lambertson, owner of a new hardware and general store, appointed as first postmaster. Other early businesses were C. E. Henson's general store and A. J. Englert's mill and elevator. The Haskell National Bank was organized in 1904, soon followed by the First National Bank, the International Bank, and the Arkansas Valley Bank. In the early 1990s, the town appointed Charlie B. White, a native son, its first black mayor. He died on March 17, 2013.