Before the Founding of Lawton
Land Lottery and Auction
Game
Teaching Materials
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On August 6 at 10:00 o'clock in the morning, the town site lots were auctioned. On that same day, people filed their lottery homestead claims. People who were there that day wrote down what happened. One person remembers the crowd of about 40,000 people. They gathered at the auction stand. The auction stand was set up close to where the City Hall now stands. |
Bidding on a Town Site |
N. J. O'Brien was the auctioneer. He built a platform to stand on to sell the lots. The platform had wheels. After he sold one lot, the platform was wheeled to the next lot. O'Brien auctioned off the business lots first.
"... fortune failed to award me a winning number in the lottery, so I decided to come on down to the Big Government Townsite Sale ... By the 8th of August, the Government had sold the business section of Lawton ... I sold my entire Goo Goo 4 venue business holdings, consisting of one wash tub, six tin dippers and one yard of beautiful though slightly soiled bunting... That afternoon, as I walked to the town site auctioneer's wagon, he was selling the corner just west and across the street from where the Carnegie Library now stands. My bid of ninety dollars brought the word 'sold', and my liquid assets were immediately converted into real. I was a full-fledged citizen and property owner of Lawton, Oklahoma. "
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