December 13, 2009 — Editor’s note: This is the first in a series on the Bayless family and Rogers County banking history.



People love ghost stories. In 1843 Charles Dickens penned a ghostly tale called “The Christmas Carol” that has endeared audiences for more than two centuries.

Rogers County has a few ghost stories of its own.

The Belvidere, that mysteriously beautiful Victorian mansion, haunts us with stories of Bayless family ghosts. Lively tales of the entrepreneur who built it but died before its completion are some of the more colorful pieces of Rogers County history. In the stories of the Belvidere, historical twists of fate fire our imaginations.

But there is more to the legacy left by John M. Bayless than the Belvidere, however powerful the mystique associated with the mansion, now fully restored and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bayless was the first of four generations to make a mark on the Oklahoma banking community and on the history of Rogers County. That story is as interesting as any ghostly tale.

Part 1: John M. Bayless

John Melvin Bayless was not the first banker in his family.

“If you go back to my great, great grandfather, he was in banking,” said Tom Bayless, Sr. Executive Vice President RCB Bank.

Tom’s great grandfather, John M. Bayless, followed in his father’s footsteps and got into banking long before he moved to Claremore.

“He came from Tennessee,” said Tom Bayless.

John’s first wife died giving birth to his oldest child, a daughter, Fannie. John moved to Cassville, Mo. and married Mary Melissa Stubblefield.

“He was involved in banking there in the Barry County Bank,” said Tom Bayless.

In Missouri, John built Hotel Barry. He also built, then leased out a five mile spur of railroad from Cassville to Exeter.

“Around the turn of the century, he made the decision to move to Indian Territory,” said Tom Bayless.

John owned several properties in Oklahoma before statehood. He was the President of the First National Bank, Sulphur. Other holdings in Sulphur included Hotel Bland, a 160 room facility. He also built a mansion there, similar in size and scope to the Belvidere. That house burned down, however.

John eventually became President of City National Bank in Tulsa. In 1902 the Claremore Bank was formed. John’s son-in-law, George Davis, was running that bank.

John decided to build a grand house, and he had to decide whether to build his new mansion in Tulsa or Claremore. The first of the materials for that home were delivered to property he owned in Tulsa around Eighth and Boulder, but he did not build his mansion there.

Bankers may be men of numbers, but John was also a visionary. Ultimately, he selected Claremore as the site of his future home.

“He felt like Claremore was going to be the bigger of the two towns because it was the intersection of two railroads,” said Tom Bayless.

Downtown Claremore had a lot of three-story buildings which was unusual at that time. The town was developing quickly. Before building the Belvidere, however, John built a brick hotel, the Sequoyah. It housed the old First National Bank on the first floor.

“Hotel Sequoyah is a hostelry of which Claremore can well be proud, being one of the finest in the Southwest... the house is provided with a complete system of water works, with hot and cold water, and toilet rooms on each floor. There is a complete system of electric bells, and electric lights will be put in a few days,” reported the Claremore Progress, May 3, 1902.

He also built a three story Windsor Opera House at Third and Missouri across the street from the hotel, and an Athletic Club with an indoor pool near the site of the current Rogers County Courthouse.

In those days Claremore was famous for its radium water baths. Radium water occurs naturally here and was believed to have healing properties.

According to the U. S. Geological Survey, naturally occurring unstable radioactive elements are found in all rocks, soil, and water. In some places that leaches into the water.

In 1903, George Eaton struck an underground pool of water that smelled of sulfur while drilling for oil east of Claremore, according to Wikipedia.

Local physician, W.G. Williams, began marketing the Radium Water. Bath houses sprang up all over Claremore.

Brochures indicate baths were available at the Will Rogers Hotel as late as the 1970s. Also known as mineral water or radio-active mineral water, the waters discovered in 1903 continued to be used in the treatment of arthritis, neuritis, hypertension and nervous disorders for decades.

Celebrities came to Claremore for the radium baths at the height of popularity during the 1920s and 30’s.

As in his other ventures, John was one of the earliest in the radium water business.

John’s investment in Claremore was not displaced, but discoveries of oil in the Tulsa area changed the course of history. A strike in Red Fork was followed by an even larger oil find in 1905.

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, Wildcatter Robert Galbreath procured an oil lease from Robert and Ida E. Glenn for 160 acres. Galbreath struck oil Nov. 22, 1905, at a depth of 1,481 feet in the Glenn Pool Field. It became one of the largest oil finds in the Southwest.

Tulsa came to be known as the Oil Capital of the World and emerged as the larger of the two cities.

The Bayless family had cast its fortunes in Claremore and never regretted that choice.

John and Mary had six children in addition to Fannie, John’s daughter by his first wife. The Belvidere was started in 1902 and finished in 1907, shortly after John’s death. He never got to live in the three-story mansion he built for his family.

With a turret on each corner and a slew of stories to go with the character of the place, the Belvidere has become a Claremore landmark.

Mary and her family lived in the Belvidere until 1919. All of the children were involved in banking.

The Bayless boys and their descendants would eventually leave a lasting legacy on Rogers County financial history. John’s son Guy would become President of the Bank of Claremore, but he would face challenges that rocked the nation.

To be continued...

In Tuesday’s Progress

Part 2: Guy Bayless, Sr.

A stalwart citizen whop

went down with his bank

Note: Online sources for this story include Wikipedia, the Oklahoma Historical Society, and Legends of America.