John E. Mabee was born in 1880 in Cedar County, Mo., near Jerico Springs. He worked at home, helping his father and mother and received what little education he could. At the age of 18, Mabee left Missouri and went to work on several ranches in Idaho. He was 20 years old when he married his wife, Lottie Estela Boren, better known as Lottie Jane.
The two moved to Oklahoma in 1907, the year of statehood for the territory, and homesteaded 160 acres in the southwestern part of the state. He and several friends established the town of Randlett. In 1920, the couple moved to Walters, Oklahoma where he bought and sold oil leases. In 1921, he started his career as a drilling contractor, and in the Oklahoma City field alone, he drilled more than 200 wells.
The late Will Rogers, a close friend of the Mabee’s, said, "He used to trade and sell mules. Now he has more holes in the ground than a gopher, and the funny part of it, the things got oil spouting out of 'em."
In 1923, Mabee and his brother-in-law, W.M. Pyle, formed a partnership and began a cattle business in West Texas and New Mexico. Mabee owned three ranches himself and the partnership owned three. At the peak of their industry, the two owned close to 20,000 head of Hereford cattle. In 1943, Pyle died and gradually Mabee retired from the cattle and ranch business.
Mabee died Jan. 25, 1961. Through the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, he and his wife gave ACU $644,065, funding the Mabee men's residence hall. At the time, it was the largest gift in the history of the college, and it was the first major gift that permitted the construction of seven buildings in a 12-year span.
In 1951, the Mabees also founded a student loan fund at ACU with $10,000. This endowment was increased to $20,000 in 1954.
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