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CHistory
History · Beggs

Beggs’ post office opened in 1900, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: maps from 1901 on and the census since 1910.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Beggs began

When was Beggs founded?

1900

The Beggs post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 855 in 19102020 census: 1,179126 years

How historic is Beggs?

C

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Beggs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Beggs’ History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Beggs is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Beggs’ overall grade.
Founding era1900, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 194024.0% of homes (±6.5) · typical OK town 7.0% · U.S. 8.4%A−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical OK town 5.9 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 28%
NewerOlder

Oklahoma towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oklahoma town has 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Beggs’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (18% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Beggs’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Beggs are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19013 editions of the USGS map, 1901 to 1990. Watch Beggs change.Boom and bustPeaked at 2,327 in 1920; 1,179 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Beggs’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Beggs’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Beggs on the map, 1901 to 1990

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Beggs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Beggs on the 1901 USGS mapBeggs on the 1973 USGS mapBeggs on the 1990 USGS map1901Nuyaka sheet · 1:125,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Beggs.

People over time

Beggs, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,500192019401960198020002020Peak: 2,327

Peaked at 2,327 in 1920; 1,179 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Beggs’ Wikipedia page.

The story

How Beggs came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Beggs.

Read it all →

Starting as a Frisco railroad stop in 1899, Beggs officially became a town on September 15, 1900, when its post office opened. It originally was a center for hog, cattle, and horse ranches in the area. In 1918, oil was discovered just to the west, and Beggs became an oil boomtown until circa 1926. After that, corn, cotton, pecans, and stock raising became important local industries, but Beggs went into a gradual decline, going from an official population of 2,327 in 1920 to 1,531 in 1930 and 1,107 in 1970. The population has since shown some upward fluctuation, settling at 1,179 as of the 2020 Census.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Beggs, 1900 to 1920

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1900Post officeThe Beggs post office opens
  3. 1901On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 2,327
By decade

Beggs, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Beggs Pay Phone & City Hall 7-2025 Wikipedia2025Beggs Pay Phone & City Hall 7-2025 WikipediaBeggs Downtown 7-2025 Wikipedia2025Beggs Downtown 7-2025 WikipediaOKMap-doton-Beggs2004OKMap-doton-Beggs
Every building

Beggs, building by building, 1914

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Beggs fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 21914Sheet 2 of 2
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

LibertyIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWinchesterIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Beggs’ history

What year was Beggs founded?

The Beggs post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Beggs rank for history?

Beggs is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Beggs?

24% of Beggs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1975.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.