Volume 13 , Issue 14

Mattie Beal's Lucky Day

In 1901, one lot in one town went to one very fortunate telephone operator. By then, the government had given up on the colorful but chaotic land runs in favor of a more orderly lottery system. Would be claimants registered with land officials, then waited to make their choices as names were drawn in order.

In the case of the sprawling comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands, among the very first names drawn was that of Mattie Beal. Until then, Mattie Beal had worked as an operator for the Wichita, Kansas, phone company. Once her own lucky number was called in the lottery, she lost any need ever to ask again, "Number, please!"

Instead, she selected a fine piece of property -- perhaps the most valuable in the whole region: a full quarter section, 160 acres, that sat right on the edge of the Lawton town site.

A year later, Mattie Beal and her newly acquired husband, Charles W. Payne, manager of Lawton's first lumberyard, built the city's first mansion, a fourteen-room structure that is today on the National Register of Historic Sites.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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