By Gabrielle Merchen
Staff Writer
Established in May of 1891 by Nathan and Almira Beecham, The Beecham Cemetery has an incredibly rich history.
The book “Blistered Heels” by Elsie Smith-Davison, first published about 1946 by a granddaughter of Nathan Beecham, provides a thorough second-hand historical account of how the cemetery came to be as well as tells a deeply enriching story about early Oklahoma settlement in the late 1800s. The book has been republished this year.
“I think it’s an interesting account of what life was like for people who were coming to settle in Oklahoma,” said Vice President of the Beecham Cemetery Association Kimmy Moore. “It’s (Nathan’s) story going from an orphan in Illinois to joining the Union army and serving in the Civil War and then him traveling west after he was done in the army. They settled in Kansas for a while, and then they settled in ‘no man’s land’ in Oklahoma.”
Nathan Beecham, who opened the cemetery after the deaths of his two children, was Moore’s great, great grandfather. She, along with other members of the family have been running the Beecham Cemetery Association for many years.
“The organization was formed back in the 70s by my grandfather, Glenn Allen Beecham, and other family members to form a bit of a trust to perpetually care for the cemetery,” said Moore.
“Blistered Heels” was recently republished as part of a fundraiser for the cemetery. Copies had circulated throughout the family for a long time, but this second edition was pursued in large part to finally allow the public access to the story of Nathan Beecham.
“The book is an account that Elsie wrote down based off of stories that Nathan had told her, because Nathan would’ve been her grandfather,” said Moore. “We’re not sure exactly when she first wrote everything, but we estimate it’s between 1955 and 1970. She wrote down a secondhand account of the story of Nathan Beecham and how he came to Oklahoma and his whole journey of coming west. It would’ve been the same year as the land run when they had opened up the territory for expansion and settlement.”
The Beecham Cemetery is located in Canadian County between El Reno and Okarche on the northeast corner of NW 178/Edmond Road and N Shepard Avenue.
The donated acre of land originally began serving as a cemetery in response to a devastating Diphtheria epidemic that ravaged the local area. Nathan Beecham had a 3-year-old daughter Anita Pearl and baby named Guy who died from the disease and were buried at the cemetery. Many children were lost to the illness around the same time.
“When that happened, they didn’t have a formal cemetery, so Nathan donated this one acre of his land to be the community cemetery,” said Moore. “It started as a cemetery that was mostly full of children in the first couple of years. Something that we are trying to do is find grants because we want to do a ground penetrating radar to find out how many children are buried there.”
Inspired by her mother’s suggestion to give “Blistered Heels” another read, Moore dove back into the story of Nathan Beecham as told through the eyes of Elsie Smith-Davison.
“I got to re-reading the story for the first time in a couple of decades and I was like ‘this is an insane story,’ so we thought, ‘let’s reprint this and we can sell it as a fundraiser,” said Moore.
“Blistered Heels” currently resides in the Library of Congress and is available for rent within Oklahoma exclusively at the El Reno Library.
Those interested in purchasing the book can reach out to the association directly or visit their website at https://www.beechamcemetery.org/blistered-heels. All sales of “Blistered Heels” benefit the Beecham Cemetery Association and contribute to the perpetual care of their historic cemetery.
