A Re-Telling by Shannon Gregg

James R. Woods was a canny businessman, or a greedy man.  It depends on your point of view.  James was working as a hardware clerk in Weatherford, Oklahoma, in 1901.  He did not make much money.  James wanted to have a better life, so he took a chance.

James rode in a wagon pulled by a horse all the way from Weatherford to Lawton.  He wanted to register for the Land Lottery.  Pieces of land in southwest Oklahoma were up for grabs!  Over 165,000 people registered for the lottery.  James registered to win land in the Lawton district.  Once the land had belonged to the Indians.  Then the United States government took it away from the Indians.  They opened the land to settlers to farm and build towns.

Out of almost 165,000 names, James's name was drawn first.  He was very lucky.  Only 6,500 sections of land were selected for homesteads in the Lawton area.  Since his name was the first to be drawn, James got first pick.  James wanted to pick the land that was the most profitable.  So he chose land on the south side of the town site of Lawton.

Most people chose a square piece of land.  James picked out land that was a long strip, one quarter of a mile wide and a mile long.  Everyone else had to pick land farther away from town.   Their land was worth less.  A woman named Mattie Beal won the second draw.  Since James had already chosen the best land, people felt he had been unfair.  The way James chose his land upset many people.  They thought he had cheated Mattie.

A reporter gave James a new name, "Hog" Woods.  The newspaper headlines read, "He Robs a Lady!"  This was scandalous!  Gentlemen were supposed to be kind to ladies, not rob them!  James did not understand what all the fuss was about.  He thought he had been clever to think of this way to pick the best land.

James was lucky because he won the first draw.  He was smart to have thought of how to get the best land. 

But, in the long run, maybe James was not so lucky, after all. As it turned out, Mattie Beal's land proved to be more valuable.  Her land was on higher ground, above the high water.  James's land was in the lower Squaw Creek bottom.  It often flooded there.

The rules said that James and anyone else who won land in the lottery had to live on the land.  The land had to be a homestead.  James built a shack on his land.  He lived there with his wife.  Part of his shack can still be found in Lawton at 517 H Street.

Then squatters began to camp on the lots in the Woods homestead.  Some of them dug wells.  Others started to build buildings.  Some of these people said James gave them receipts for rent that they had paid him.  Many lawyers tried to contest James's right to his land.  They said that since James took rent money, he admitted the land was not used for homesteads.  The lawyers hoped to prove that James was defrauding the government.

This might have caused James to lose his land.  But James Woods did not live long enough to know what happened.  He died of typhoid fever just a few months after he won the land.  Mrs. Woods and her father took over James's claim.

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