[2] The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 established a reservation in the southwestern part of Indian Territory for the Kiowa, Apache and Comanche tribes.

The Jerome Commission started enrolling members of these tribes in 1892, a prerequisite to opening "excess" land for settlement by non-Indians.

[3] The county was founded at the time of Oklahoma statehood in 1907, and was named for Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina.

As of the 2010 United States Census,[10] there were 7,992 people, 3,216 households, and 2,136 families residing in the county.

Since statehood, Tillman County's economy has depended mainly on agriculture, including the raising of livestock.

[3] Cattle ranching became prominent during the 1880s, when prominent Texas ranchers (principally Daniel and William Thomas Waggoner and Samuel Burk Burnett) leased grazing land from the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes.

[3] The U.S. military established Frederick Army Air Field in 1941 to train crews to fly Cessna UC-78 Bobcats and North American B-25 Mitchells.