Coalgate is county seat of
Coalgate County Oklahoma. Coalgate was the second county seat, selected by
special election in 1908. Lehigh was the first county seat, designated with the
backing of Boone Williams, Democratic representative to the first seating of
the Oklahoma Legislature in 1907. Williams was a resident of Lehigh, so it is
not surprising that he wanted his hometown as county seat. Williams was also a
member of the convention that wrote Oklahoma’s constitution, so he was a man of
some influence.
Williams did not, however,
have enough influence to override opinion in all of Coalgate County. “(M)any
individuals objected” to Lehigh as the county seat, so a special election was
held in Coal County in 1908. A majority of voters said they wanted Coalgate
over Lehigh.
However, some people got a
hold of voter records and noticed something strange. More people voted in the
election than were registered to vote. “Lehigh sued, but the courts refused to
hear the case.”
How could that be? Well,
consider Oklahoma politics. Consider, also, that what was now the state went
through some harrowing times transitioning from an area of Indian reservations
and the former five nations of the Five Civilized Tribes, whose authority was
wiped out when the U.S. Congress approved Oklahoma as a state.
People were shot and some
killed over the question of statehood. Oklahoma needed some time of peace and
reflection.
Unfortunately, the state got
neither. But Coalgate got to be the county seat.
“Coalgate celebrated its victory with a visit
from Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs and a barbecue on July 4, 1908.”
That’s the way things were back then. Your town
wins an election, you get a visit from the head of the Socialist Party.
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