Elgin: A Lottery Town with Two Names

Elgin, Oklahoma came into being in nineteen oh two when the land that had belonged to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache peoples was opened by lottery to non-Indian settlers. The Oklahoma City and Western Railroad was pushing a line toward Lawton, and a townsite appeared. The post office first opened under the name Ceegee, taken from the initials of developer Charles G.

Jones. Railroad management demanded a change, and it became Elgin in July of that same year. The town incorporated in July nineteen oh two.

Oil and gas wells developed nearby in the early nineteen hundreds, and Elgin grew slowly as a small agricultural and energy community at the northeastern corner of Comanche County, a few miles from the busier hub of Lawton.