Beale Defeats Overholser For Mayor

Beale Defeats Overholser For Mayor (HM2MIA)

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N 35° 28.118', W 97° 31.21'

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Oklahoma City November 27, 1889

— The '89er Trail —


With a margin of only 14 votes, Beale claimed a mandate to overturn seven months of Seminole-dominated city rule. Within a month the city was in chaos and city governance was shut down by federal authorities.


Dr. A. J. Beale, the leader of the Kickapoo faction was nominated to replace Mayor Couch after his resignation on November 11. The Seminole faction, knowing how badly they had lost the charter election in late August, were leery of nominating one of their own. Instead, they pressed Henry Overholser, the chairman of the Board of Trade and a businessman aligned with neither faction, to run against Beale. 732 voters turned out for the election on November 27, and Beale won by 14 votes.

Facing a hostile Seminole city council, the new Kickapoo mayor announced his intention to declare two council seats vacant and to call an election for December 30. He also stated his opposition to recognizing the validity of Seminole lot certificates and announced a plan to file a plat of the city at the Land Office that would conflict with the Consensus Survey in use since April 27. A frenzy of lot jumping erupted, and panicked property owners began appealing to federal authorities for help. On December 30, US Marshal Walker in Wichita called off the election and ordered an end to any adverse claims against existing property



ownership.

Photo captions:
Middle top left: Dr. A.J. Beale, an outspoken Kickapoo, wasted no time in articulating new city policy on lot claims. Lot jumping became rampant.

Oklahoma Images Collection, Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County
Middle bottom: Henry Overholser, a prominent businessman and Chairman of the Board of Trade, lost the election by 14 votes. Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society
Middle top right: After troops from Fort Reno were dispatched to Oklahoma City on Dec 26, US Attorney General William H. H. Miller (shown here) instructed US Marshals
Needles and Walker on Dec 29 to "... keep the peace as heretofore."
Courtesy of the Indiana State Library
Right: A month later, another status quo order from US Attorney General Miller confirmed his earlier. instructions to Oklahoma City, this time to apply to all city governments in the Unassigned Lands.
Details
HM NumberHM2MIA
Tags
Year Placed2018
Placed ByOklahoma City Community Foundation, Wiggin Properties
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Thursday, October 31st, 2019 at 11:02pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)14S E 634267 N 3926020
Decimal Degrees35.46863333, -97.52016667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 35° 28.118', W 97° 31.21'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds35° 28' 7.0799999999999" N, 97° 31' 12.6" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling South
Closest Postal AddressAt or near , ,
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