Samuel W. Butler – Kiowa County, Oklahoma

Homesteading patent issued to Samuel W. Butler under Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.

Government Land Office

Quick Facts

Significance:

Oklahoma Black Homesteader

Place of Birth:

Tennessee

Date of Birth:

1862

Place of Death:

El Centro, California

Date of Death:

August 1939

Samuel Warren Butler filed an application for a homestead on October 3, 1901 in Hobart, Oklahoma where his land was valued at $1.25 an acre or $200 for 160 acres. The land was located in the Southeast quarter of Section 28 in Township 5N and in Range 15 West near Indian Meridian. Several witnesses provided testimonials and affidavits verifying the legitimacy of his land claims including, J. B. Harden, John C. Bradshaw, J. A. Coulter, and W. R. McKee, all from Cooperton, Oklahoma. The property, a mixture of prairie, timber, and farmland, included nearly sixty acres of cultivated land, a two-room log house, stables, a water well, planted orchard, and a hen house.

Butler first settled the land on March 28, 1902, with his family and lived in a tent house until they built a two room home a year later. He also built a cellar and a barn on the property. The land was valued at approximately $500. Butler’s application for the homestead was approved after several years on April 13, 1908. Several months later, he was granted the patent to the property by President Theodore Roosevelt on November 9, 1908.

According to the Harrison Gazette, Samuel Butler was the only Black Homesteader in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

Samuel W. Butler and his wife made their home on the property for many years, where they raised their nine children. In 1923, the Butler family began a new life and relocated to El Centro, California. There, Samuel W. Butler worked as a janitor at the local public library until he died in August 1939.