Beale Family
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-·--- OKLAHOMA O MN I BUS I, e y e l- > c- :!l ) 8'" :-o· u .d -·ad t, -I ur n, Ot '!Y 1e 1e 1e 18, :o, V>~ ::> nd :;,, >f. > > )r, ~ ffi tn- •••§ § ita Afonie Heal married C.11". Payne (upper left) i11 July 1902. Six ymrr It/fer. they mtn;ed i1110 their home (upper right) with Of/ upstairs ta! ballroom and a w:indinK stairrase. Before .lfanie rould plan her homt'. h~et:er. she had to "prove up" herrloim (below right) by living there. an Durinl{ ,l/011iis early days in lnurton. roundups (below left) ~:ere held 011 prairies that btrome the site of Oklahoma's third largest city. id- m- up for blocks in the scorching s~m to site, the southern one-mile bound first si te in Lawton to be placed on :re pay their res pect~. ai:· allowed for only rwo I 60-acre the !\acional Register of Histo ric Though he li\·ed unti l 1947. C.\\'. claims. J.F. Woods, who drew :\o. Places. Ics historical significance and nd Pav ne sold cheir home in 1939. \ lac I, chose his 160 acres in a long strip unusual architecture merited its list dy tic. Bea l's house was owned by se\· along the entire boundai:-, forci ng ing. The Lawton Heritage Associa :ed era I other families before the \laccie to choose a strip farther back. tion opens the restored house at the 1er Lawton Heritage Association bought T his action earned him the nick corner of 5th and Summi t to the ied it in the early I 970s and began re name "Hog" Woods from disap public from 2 to 4 p.m. on the sec and stori ng ic. prov ing L awronians, and the ond Sund aY afternoon each month. an ~! a tt ic had drawn :\o. 2 in che El homesteader is still remembered bv A small ad~iss i on fee is charged. th- Reno lottel"-. But what about the tha t name. The \larrie Beal House is a beau man who h·ad drawn che right for \!attic's name, however, is associ tiful monument to a beautiful wom :ars firsr pick of the land? In 1901. with ated with the Beal Heights Presby an who was deeply committed to the ttie Fon Sill alreadv established. the terian Church. She gave the land on people and the city of Lawton. m fo l- rownsite la id o~t for Lawton was wh ich it was built, and she also gave en- bou nded on three sides b,· federal or Se\·en acres fo r a public park, as well ·the school land. For a h omes ~ ea d cr who as a three-acre tract for a school. 10111' Berkmo11, a nOtJelist and 1ed wanted a claim adjoining the town- The ~! a tti c Beal House was the freelance rzriter, ln:es in Haltm. 37 ::> DAY I Jl lLY·Al "G l sr '87 J --- ·~ OKLAHOMA OMNIBUS Mattie Beal By Jone Beckman he was young, beautiful, sin prices were high around Lawton, S gle-and lucky. and many prospective settlers were In the Oklahoma Land Lottery of still camped in cents because they 1901, Manha Helen "Mattie" Seal's couldn't afford to buy lots in the name was the second drawn to pick new town. \ifattie decided to com a claim for an 160-acre fann near mute her land fo r townsites. If Mat Lawton. More than 200 newspaper tie had waited until October 6, 1902, reporters covered the romantic story she would have paid only $200 co of the 22-year-old Wichita, Kansas, commute all her land, but instead telephone operator who had became she decided co pay the $10 per acre, rich overnight. Even in 1901, the or $1,48 1. 40, to commute her land land was worth $20,000 to $40,000, in June. :\1attie said, " ... if I wait, and Mattie found herself an instant many people will have co leave- I national celebrity. More than 500 want them co stay and help build our marriage proposals arrived by mail, cown." but Mattie, as sensible as she was Mattie sold the land at auction, lucky, didn't answer any of them. and it was Lawton that profited, not Earlier in 1901 , congressional che Paynes. le was 1907 before they members decided to open the two accumulated che money to build the million surplus acres of Kiowa, C.0- house Mattie wanted. She chose the manche, Wichita, Caddo and neoclassic Greek Revival style. The Apache lands for settlement by lot two-story home, completed in 1908, tery because they felt the previous had a semicircular entrance portico, Oklahoma land runs had been both C.Orinthian columns, bas-reliefs and dangerous and unfair. More than dentiled cornices and tiled roof. 165,000 hopeful settlers registered There was a curved entrance door, at Fort Sill and El Reno for the faceted glass and stained glass win 15,000 claims. One who made the dows depicting the nearby Wichita .lfa train trip to El Reno was Miss Mat \.fountains. The interior had crystal ba/, tie Beal, who hoped to win a fann courting Mattie by mail. So Payne chandc:liers, wooden stairs with an Dui for herself and her widowed mother. bought "the finest and fastest horse ornate banister, richly grained wood \fattie heard the news of her and nicest buggy I could find " and work and a long room upstairs, com up good fortune from a newspaper pho built a stable for it near \ifaccie's plete with a dais where dances were pa• tographer as she left the telephone house. He put the horse and buggy held. exchange on July 29, the day of the on her claim and cold \ifactie and her \.lactic entertained graciously and Pa drawing. Accompanied by her broth brother thev could use the transpor elegantly. Classical music frequently CI C er, Frank, Mattie traveled to Law tation any dme they wanted. Later, filled the spacious, high-ceilinged er: ton and filed on her land on August when Payne proposed, \lactic rooms, sometimes provided by her La 6. Lawton was a tent city then, and accepted. three daughters, who all studied it soon afterward she sec about to build On July 16, 1902, \ifatcie Beal and classical music. With her home and StC a house on her claim. While buying C. W. Pavne were married in the her lifestyle, Martie Beal brought an lumber, Manie met her future hus parlor of her mother's home in elegance co the wi ndy, dusty south Re band, C.W. Payne, owner of a Law Wichita. It was one dav short of one west Oklahoma plains. m~ ton lumber vard, who wrote in his year from the day \ifa.ctie had trav On July 24, 193 1, almost 30 years fi r. diary that he" and Mattie must have eled co El Reno co register fo r the co the day after the lottery, Manie Fo fallen in love while he figured her lottery. Beal Payne died unexpectedly fol COi bill. But during the months before the lowi ng surgery for a ruptured appen bo Payne knew he had competition; wedding, Mattie had been busy dix. Her funeral was held in the sci not all the prospective suitors were with more than her trousseau. Land home she loved, and mourners lined wa 36 Oklahoma TODAY Jl ·1.y - N 1)£ MU rll Cottouwood i11 a 11t1111111 dress ti; ,. · ·I • .. _ l • •••• "'" .,., ... reported t hat a rancher named .\litzoo H astings. \\'hose can be fo ll<1\\·ed. Desert \\'inds of a century lrnve blo\\'n ranch \\'as "a little above G old Ca mp on the San Francist:o away the first camel tracks. Fragrant pine' needles have Hi,·cr." had shot thi s strange red camel as it was pcacc gc nrl ~· cm·cred the narrow w inding trai I. In one spot, ful l~ · g razing in his turnip patch. H e fo und it was all tied rot:ks \\'O rn into ruts by wagon-wheels wcstw<1rd can stil l up \\'ith leather thongs. Thus came the end of the tc rr if~· be seen. In 1880 t he Santa Fe Rail way reached into no rth ing " Red G host." and the good people of the countryside ern rizona, follo\\'ing c.:l oscly rhc o riginal \\'agon road. need fear it no more. From then on, the Beale Trail was unused for interstate £ lonoring t he memory of Lt. Bea le's passing t hrough commerce, t hough ir was still used for many years by rhcrc. and of Bea le Springs as a t raveler's stopping place, \\'agon travelers. T he broad hig hway of today cuts a the rown of Kingman has erected a beautiful stone monu st raight path, through mountains, over canyons. Beale's mc nr at t he triangular intersecti on of Hig hwavs "66" and T ra il of _vcstc rda~· \\'Ot1nd , sometimes tortuously, through "en" (to Lake i\... l cad and Las \ 'egas, Nevada). Built of bea uty. .-\ sh fork stone in the shape of a fl at-topped p~r ramid, each Ii: is D r. Colton's beli ef rhat it led to rhe spring at the of its three sides bea rs a dcdicarional inscription. Along t he ~I use um, and that this was the Sa n Francisco spring \\'hi ch fl at rop, in black metal silhouettes, march three cararnns.