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A Re-Telling by Lisa Greer
Many years ago Lawton was part of the Indian
Nations, the southwest corner of what is Oklahoma today. Native
Americans roamed the prairies there. They followed the buffalo and
roamed wherever they pleased. After the Medicine Lodge Treaty, the
natives were put on reservations.
| The
native Americans had their own police force to protect them. They
were called the Indian Police. But the Indian Police only worked
on the reservations.
After the natives were moved to reservations, Congress gave away their lands to white settlers. The 160-acre sections of land were raffled off. The raffle was called a "land lottery." |
Indian Police |
Guarding the Money |
Congress sent soldiers from Fort Sill to keep the peace. Thousands of people camped out in tent cities. They waited for the Land Lottery and Land Auction to start. The soldiers made sure that the people acted right. After the land was given away, town sites were sold at auction. The soldiers guarded the money. After the auction and lottery, the soldiers from Fort Sill left Lawton. |
The city of Lawton was now in charge of keeping the peace. But there was a big problem! There was no one at the town site to enforce the laws. The town site was not really a city yet. There was no local government. There were no policemen. But there were many, many outlaws!
Bad people called outlaws roamed the countryside. They did not believe they had to do what the law said. The outlaws saw the long, dusty roads to the Lawton town site as "easy pickings." There were no policemen to stop outlaws from robbing and killing people. The outlaws killed and robbed innocent people. The settlers brought cash money with them to Lawton. They had planned to use the money to buy town sites. People who won the lottery needed feed and seed, horses, and wagons. Instead of being able to use their money to buy what they wanted, some of these people were robbed. They were forced to give up their money, and sometimes their lives, to outlaws.
Bert Casey and George Moran were two of the outlaws who came to the town site. They were evil men. On their way to Lawton, they came upon the Beenblossom party traveling from Rush Springs. The outlaws shot an 11-year-old boy on August 4, 1901. The boy's father was Dr. Zeno Beenblossom. Casey and Moran took $42,000 from Mr. Beenblossom. They killed his son. Dr. Beenblossom spent more than a year tracking the outlaws.
The people who lived in the town site were terrified. Many people who had planned to settle in Lawton turned around. They went back home. The Army was not in charge of enforcing the law anymore. They knew there was no one to enforce the law. The outlaws did whatever they wanted.
The settlers who lived in Lawton wrote down stories about the outlaws. One story tells about two outlaws who went to a camp on Beaver Creek. Henry Leininger and his family lived at the camp. One of the outlaws seemed to be a charming young man. He had a clean-cut face. The other outlaw seemed to be brooding. He had a beard. The bearded outlaw kept staring at Henry's daughter. Henry did not approve.
Henry got his rifle and pretended to clean
and load it. Then he told the two outlaws that a crew of his workers
was on its way to his camp. The two outlaws left the Leininger camp.
In a few minutes, Henry heard gunshots and horses galloping. He later
heard that an old man had been robbed and murdered.
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The
camp quieted down after the old man was robbed and killed. But later
that night Henry heard someone yell, "Prairie fire!" Henry got out of bed
and went outside to see what was going on. He saw fire racing across
the plains. He was worried that the fire would burn right through
his camp.
Henry stopped worrying and started working! He started a controlled fire around his camp. He burned the grass and trees that were near his camp. Then he extinguished the controlled fire after it burned a circle around the camp. The burned circle Henry created kept the prairie fire from burning the camp. |
The next morning Henry walked across the burned prairie. He found two burned bodies lying in the ashes on the ground. Henry walked closer to the bodies. Then he realized they were the bodies of the two men who had visited him the night before. One of them was carrying a wad of bills. The burned man was also carrying the identification of the old man who had been robbed and murdered.
There are more stories about outlaws in
Lawton. Some people say that Jesse and Frank James rode right through
the town site.
| People
say Jesse James buried his loot in the Wichita Mountains. They say
Frank went to the mountains and retrieved the money after Jesse was murdered.
Once the people in the new town site elected a city marshal, things got better. Outlaws were caught and handcuffed to the wheel of a Conestoga wagon. There was no jail to lock up the outlaws. After a while, it was safe to ride the roads and walk the streets of Lawton. |
Law Enforcement Officers in Lawton |
