Beckham County was created at statehood from parts of territorial Greer and Roger Mills counties and named for J.C. Beckham, former governor of Kentucky. Sayre, founded in 1891 and named for a railroad promoter, became the county seat after a June 16, 1908, election in which it edged Erick by eleven votes. The county courthouse was completed in 1911 at a cost of $69,000.00 and was designed by Solomon A. Layton, associated with the turn-of-the-century firm Layton, Wemyss, Smith and Hawk; historians have called Layton the "Father of Oklahoma courthouses." The present courthouse's cornerstone was laid in 1911, and Oklahoma Quarries and Construction Company built the structure as a symmetrical blend of Neo-Classical and Second Renaissance Revival styles. Its notable features include colossal Doric columns above the main entryway, classical pilasters, a grooved ground-floor surface, distinctive belt courses, and a dome with a colonnade supporting a vaulted and babbled roof topped by a smaller dome reproduced to scale. The courthouse also appears briefly in the 1940's film "The Grapes of Wrath," when the Okies drive past the domed building as they leave Oklahoma.