USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. III > Part 44
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Early on Friday morning camp was broken at Arkansas City and long lines of white covered schooner wagons entered the three trails leading across the strip. Most of these wagons were brand new, their white tops glistening in the sun, and making a picturesque aspect as they wound along the snaky trail across the prairie. But here and there could be distinguished wagons, the tops of which had turned to a dirty brown from age and hard usage, and were covered with patches of muslin and sacking. These were the wagons of the original boomers, who had been patiently waiting for years on the borders of the Indian terri- tory for the government to declare it open to settlement. These wagons had been in the camp in the Santa Fe park near Arkan- sas City, and some of them had not been moved since 1884, when the owners first pitched their tents at this place. When the start was made on the morning of the 19th both wagons and harness in many cases threatened to fall to pieces. Sets of harness were improvised out of rope, wire, and strips of the canvas covering of the wagons. It is related that one of the boomers' wagons was drawn by two colts, three and four years old, which had been born in camp. The old mare followed the wagon and was loaded down with a heterogeneous collection of camping utensils.
The trip of the settlers across the prairies was not without dan-
4-44
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
ger. Severe rain storms prevailed for several days prior to the opening day, making the roads well nigh impassable at places and swelling the low banked streams flowing through the Chero- kee strip. But the average emigrant was not to be side tracked by inclement weather, and rude bridges were constructed across streams that were too high to be forded. Misfortune overtook many of the contestants in the wild race over the prairies, wagons breaking down and horses drowning, but those who sus- tained such losses never hesitated, shouldering their packs and joining the infantry contingent.
The scenes in Arkansas City for a week before the 22nd of April beggar description. Night and day the hotel lobbies, streets, and depot were thronged with people. Citizens of Ohio and Illinois touched elbows with citizens from Kansas and Nebraska. All were there with a common purpose in view, and so intense was the excitement that the slightest rumor would either raise their hopes to the sky or dash them to the ground.
This invasion of the Indian country was a peaccable one. The hosts that made up the invading army were also unorganized. One was at liberty to travel alone or in one of the numberless squads or colonies. Although shot guns, rifles, revolvers and bowie knives were in evidence, the principal arms which this army of peace carried were spades, shovels, picks and hatchets.
The swindlers and the professional gamblers were numerous in Arkansas City at this time. The former styled themselves real estate agents and found ready victims. One fake concern sold lots in Oklahoma City, supposed to be situated in the panhandle of Texas, and right on the border of the Oklahoma lands. These lots were sold for two dollars, an additional fee of one dollar being asked for the recording of the deed. A competitive com- pany advertised lots in New Oklahoma, another fake city. Each swindler accused his rival of being a fraud, but all managed to do a "land office" business.
The Santa Fe road being the only line to enter the Oklahoma district was taxed beyond its capacity, but superhuman efforts were made to provide for the final rush on April 22nd. Many who had started from a distance purchased tickets clear through to Guthrie or Oklahoma City stations, at the time mere dots ou the map, but upon their arrival at these places they were either not allowed to get off or were forced to return on the next train. It was reported that the Sante Fe road was offered a fabulous sum to charter the first train entering Oklahoma after twelve o'clock noon on April 22nd, but the offer was refused.
Passenger trains and freight trains from the North blocked the
445
OKLAHOMA, SETTLEMENTS, STATISTICS, ETC.
line to such an extent that it became necessary to side track many cattle trains on their way from Texas. There were no facilities for watering the cattle packed on these trains and as a result hun- dreds of them died before they reached their destination.
Arrangements were made for the first emigrant train to leave Arkansas City at 9 o'clock a. m. on the 22nd of April, in order that it might be timed to reach the Oklahoma line as near the noon hour as possible. This plan was carried out and in all ten trains were sent forward carrying 6,000 people into Oklahoma before three o'clock. The supply of passenger coaches was soon exhausted and flat cars fitted up with plank seats were attached to some of the trains.
The first train left Arkansas City shortly after nine o'clock and reached Guthrie, near the northern boundary of Oklahoma, at 12:15. It is reported that 1,024 tickets were collected on this train. The first coach was reserved for the members of the press, who were well represented. Two ladies rode on this train, viz., Miss Brita Hult of Topeka, and Miss Nellyes of the same town. They were each equipped with a light boomer's outfit and are said to have succeeded in locating claims upon arrival at Cuthrie. One hundred and eighty members of the Old Soldiers' colony, under the command of Capt. Thomas Hicks and C. W. Holden were on this train and got off at Seward. Their purpose was to start a town and locate a Grand Army post.
As the first train slowed down at the Guthrie station meu sprang to the ground and ran for the land office or to locate a claim, and as each succeeding train came in the same mad scran- ble from the depot took place, until lots were staked out covering three times the 320 acres set aside by the land office for the town of Guthrie.
The same thing happened at Oklahoma City, to the south of Guthrie. The latter town was principally settled by boomers from the South coming by way of Purcell, although the overflow from the North helped to swell the number who got off the trains at this point. The original allotment of land for this town also not proving sufficient, lots were laid off in the surrounding quar- ter sections.
It became evident to the boomers who had waited until the time fixed by the president's proclamation to enter the new terri- tory that they were forestalled, and that many of the best quarter sections and town lots were already claimed by men who had succeeded in evading the vigilance of the soldiers and getting into the territory prior to the legal hour. These people were divided . into two classes; those who had been hiding in the bushes and
146
THE PROVINCE AND THIE ST.ITES.
those who had succeeded in getting into the country as employes of the government, principally as deputy United States marshals, resigning their commissions at the stroke of twelve and taking their pick of valuable town lots. Great was the indignation of the honest, law abiding boomers against the "sooners," as the squatters and claim jumpers were called who were in the country before the legal hour.
The deputy marshals were appointed to assist the military in keeping out the "sooners" and in preserving order. It was not contemplated that they would use their official positions only as a cloak to cover their treacherous plans. Their action in resign- ing promptly at noon on the 22nd of April and before the arrival of the first train filing claims to the choicest town lots in both Guthrie and Oklahoma City was reported to the interior depart- ment at Washington. Full reports were made to the department by special agents on the ground, but before any official action was taken in the matter the citizens organized a vigilance com- mittee and either scared or forcibly ejected many of the erstwhile deputies from their claims.
Throughout the farming districts, however, it was not prac- ticable to determine who were "sooners" and who had complied with the law. Considerable litigation grew out of the attempt to eject "sooners" and by reason of the fact that in many cases the same quarter sections and town lots had half a dozen claim- ants.
The town of Guthrie, which at noon on April 22, 1889, was merely a name on the map, a little red station house by the rail- way, was at nightfall a booming city of seven hundred tents and nearly eight thousand people. It boasted a newspaper, which issued its first edition from a freight car ; a bank with a capital of fifty thousand dollars doing business over a counter in front of a tent, and a hotel, called the Guthrie House, the guests of which slept under a canvas roof. Twenty-eight land lawyers hung out their shingles and did a thriving business. The lawyers, however, differed as to whether prior filing or prior occupation gave the best title, and the result was considerable confusion. When other sections of the Indian territory were opened to set- tlement, regulations were made by the land department and laws enacted by congress the object of which was to avoid the confu- sion that was a marked feature of the first rush.
Besides the two towns of Guthrie and Oklahoma City there also sprang into existence on the 22nd of April, 1880, towns of a thousand or more population at Kingfisher, Norman, Edmond and Stillwater. Before the towns of Guthrie and Oklahoma City
447
OKLAHOMA, SETTLEMENTS, STATISTICS, ETC.
were a day old, movements were set on foot by the citizens of each, to secure its selection as the capital city of the future ter- ritory to be organized.
For several weeks both of these two towns had dual and triple sets of municipal governments. In Oklahoma there was a North- ern and Southern faction, and in Guthrie the first provisional council proved unpopular and a rival organization was effected. These factions did not result from any especial lack of order, but were to be expected when several thousand men from the east, West, North and South were brought together in the same com- munity.
The failure of the Springer bill left the 50,000 people that entered Oklahoma on the 22nd of April, 1889, without any form of government, whatever. The country which these white people had settled was still a part of the Indian territory, and therefore- under the control of the interior department. General Merritt, commanding the department of the Missouri, was directed by the president to act in conjunction with the United States marshals in preserving the peace. But there were no wild scenes of dis- order that were the rule at frontier towns of the West. Before the opening of the district a lawless element made trouble at l'ur- cell, in the Chickasaw nation, and the newspapers reported sev- cial murders as a result of contests over land. claims during the rush, but the preponderance in numbers of the honest and law abiding citizens over the toughs, gamblers, and other lawless members of society, peace and order in the new country, even without the presence of the troops. The settlers were too busy improvising temporary dug-outs, huts, or log cabins, and turning the sod of the sage brush covered prairies in readiness for their ; first planting, to bother much about the lack of a form of gov- ernment for the new country.
At the beginning of congress in the fall of 1889 steps. were taken to provide for a territorial form of government over that part of the Indian territory which had been opened to settlement under the terms of the president's proclamation and also the strip of land lying outside of the Indian territory, and known as the Public Land strip.
A number of bills were introduced in congress with this object in view. Some of these bills provided for a territorial form of government for the whole Indian territory, not only embracing the small section in the heart of the Indian country which had been recently settled by the whites, but including all the reser- vations of the Indian tribes in the western part as well as the lands of the five civilized nations in the eastern half. Congress
448
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
and the government, however, were not ready to change the established policy that had prevailed since the foundation of the republic relative to the treatment of the Indians. It was claimed by the opponents of these measures that the Indians were not in condition to have the rights of citizenship conferred upon them, that the establishment of a white man's government in the Indian country would destroy the Indian autonomy, and finally that the fands occupied by the Indians were held in common, and that it would take several years to divide them in severalty. The five civilized tribes were ably represented at this congress and pro- tested vigorously against any invasion of their rights, which they ciaimed had been given them under numerous treaties.
The bill that found favor with the committees of both branches of congress, excluded the lands occupied by the five civilized tribes from the new territory, but did include the reservations of the Indians inhabiting the western part of the Indian country, generally known as the "wild" or "blanket" Indians. These Indians had made but little progress toward civilization, refusing as a rule to till the soil and living on the bounty of Uncle Sam. Statistics furnished by the interior department showed that 12,000 ci these Indians were living on 11,685,025 acres of land, which had been originally granted them for hunting purposes, but which no longer served for that purpose as the buffalo and elk had long since disappeared. The names of these tribes, the number in cach, the total amount of land in their reservations, the estimated acre- age per capita, the acreage required for each tribe, and the amount of surplus lands are given in the following table:
Name of tribe.
Popula- tion.
Acreage of reserva- tion.
Acreage per capita.
Acreage required by Indians.
Surplus.
Osage ..
1,8.52
1,470,059
917:1
62,0-0
1,407,979
Kansas ( Kaw)
225
100, 137
410%
5,000
95,137
Pawnee ..
1,045
293, 120
2.0%
41,800
241,224
Sac and Fox
457
479,667
1,01912
18,280
461,387
Pottawatomie.
550
575,877
1,011
22,000
553, 877
Tonkawa
92
100,000
1,087
3.+80
96,320
Ponca ....
5:4
101,891
17%
8,619
93, 284
Otoe and Missouri
236
1 9,113
15556
10,610
118,473
Iowa.
89
22 -. 118
2, 566,2
3,200
225, 158
Kickapoo.
346
206,466
59.
14,5:0
190,876
Cheyenne and Arapaho.
3,60:
4,297,771
1,19 95
111,160
4, 153, 611
Wichita
1.89
713,610
3,800
7,5+0
736,050
Kiowa, Comanche and Apache.
11, 032
2,965,84%I
979
121,250
2,847,611
'Tota
12, 026
462,910
11,220, 9%9
President Harrison in his message to congress at the beginning of the first session of the Fifty-first congress, referred to the lands opened to settlement in the Indian territory, to the failure of con .
449
OKLAHOMA, SETTLEMENTS, STATISTICS, ETC.
gress to provide civil government for the people who had settled therein, and to the imperative necessity for prompt legislation by congress on the subject. He said :
"The land remaining and available for settlement consisted of 1,887,796 acres, surrounded on all sides by lands in the occupancy of the Indian tribes. Congress had provided no civil government for the people who were to be invited by my proclamation to settle upon these lands, except as the new court, which had been established at Muscogee, or the United States courts in some of the adjoining States, had power to enforce the general laws of the United States.
"In this condition of things I was quite reluctant to open the lands to settlement. But in view of the fact that several thon- sand persons, many of them with their families, had gathered upon the borders of the Indian Territory, with a view to securing home- steads on the ceded lands, and that delay would involve them in much loss and suffering, I did, on the 23d day of March last, issue proclamation declaring that the lands therein described would be open to settlement under the provisions of the law on the 22nd day of April following, at 12 o'clock noon. Two land dis- tricts had been established, and the offices were open for the trans- action of business when the appointed time arrived.
"It is much to the credit of the settlers that they very generally observed the limitations as to the time when they might enter the Territory. Care will be taken that those who enter in violation of law do not secure the advantage they unfairly songht. There was a good deal of apprehension that the strife for locations would result in nuich violence and bloodshed, but happily these anticipa- tions were not realized. It is estimated that there are now in the Territory about sixty thousand people; and several considerable towns have sprung up, for which temporary municipal govern- ments have been organized. Guthrie is said to have a population of almost 8,000. Eleven schools and nine churches have been established, and three daily and five weekly newspapers are pub- lished in this city, whose charter and ordinances have only the sanction of the voluntary acquiescence of the people from day to dlay.
"Oklahoma City has a population of about 5,000, and is propor- tionately as well provided as Guthrie with churches, schools and newspapers. Other towns and villages having populations of from -100 to 1,000 are scattered over the territory.
"In order to secure the peace of this community, in the absence of civil government, I directed General Merritt, commanding the 111-20
450
THE PROVINCE AND THE ST.ITES.
Department of the Missouri, to act in conjunction with the marsh- als of the United States to preserve peace, and upon their requi- sition to use the troops to aid them in executing warrants and in quieting any riots or breaches of the peace that might occur. He was further directed to use his influence to promote good order and to avoid any conflicts between or with the settlers. Believing that the introduction and sale of liquors, where no legal restraints or regulations existed would endanger the public peace, and in view of the fact that such liquors must first be introduced into the Indian reservations before reaching the white settlements, I further directed the general commanding to enforce the laws relating to the introduction of ardent spirits into the Indian country.
"The presence of the troops has given a sense of security to the well disposed citizens, and has tended to restrain the lawless. In one instance the officer in immediate command of the troops went further than I deemed justifiable in supporting the de facto . municipal government of Guthrie, and he was so informed and directed to limit the interference of the military to the support of the marshals on the lines indicated in the original order. I very urgently recommend that Congress at once provide a Territorial government for these people. Serious questions, which may at any time lead to violent outbreaks are awaiting the institution of courts for their peaceful adjustment. The American genius for self government has been well illustrated in Oklahoma, but it is neither safe nor wise to leave these people longer to the expedi- ents which have temporarily served them."
Congress was practically a unit relative to the necessity for a territoral form of government for the white peoples who had set- tled in the Oklahoma district and in the Public Land strip. In the latter section several thousand settlers had occupied the vacant lands and had organized a provisional government of their own, which they called the territory of the Cimarron, with headquar- ters at Beaver City. They had memorialized congress, requesting a territorial form of government, and were willing to be placed in the same territory as their brethren in Oklahoma.
While congress had decided to pass the bill establishing the territory of Oklahoma, considerable filibustering took place before the bill finally became a law. The question of the sale of whisky in the new territory formed the chief topic for the filibusters to harangue about. Their objections, however, were swept aside and congress passed the act without serious opposition.
The act establishing the territory of Oklahoma was entitled :
450
OKICHHOMI, SETTLEMENTS, ST.ITISTICS, ETC.
"An act to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Oklahoma, to enlarge the jurisdiction of the United States Court in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes." It was approved on May 2, 1890. The preamble recites: "That all that portion of the United States now known as the Indian Territory, except-so much of the same as is actually occupied by the five civilized tribes, and the Indian tribes within the Quapaw Indian Agency, and except the umoccupied part of the Cherokee Outlet, together with that portion of the United States known as the Public Land Strip, is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Oklahoma." Provision was made that "whenever the interest of the Cherokee Indians in the land known as the Cherokee Outlet shall have been extinguished and the President shall make proclamation thereof, said outlet shall thereupon and without further legislation, become a part of the Territory of Oklahoma."
Care was taken that the wards of the government, who were domiciled within the limits of the new territory should still have the paternal protection of the Great White Father at Washington : Section I of the above act continues as follows: "Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to impair any right nor pertaining to any Indians, or Indian tribe in said Territory under the laws, agreements, and treaties of the United States, or to impair the rights of person or property pertaining to said Indians, or to affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any regulation or to make any law respecting said Indians, their lands, property, or other rights which it would have been competent to make or enact if this Act had not been passed." Sections Il and Ill provide for the appointment of a governor and secretary, each to hold office four years. "Section IV. The legis- lative power and authority is vested in the governor and a legisla- tive assembly, the latter to consist of a council of thirteen members and a house of representatives to consist of twenty-six members. Members of the assembly to serve two years. Sessions to be held biennially and to continue for sixty days. Provision is made for the first session to continue for one hundred and twenty days." Seven provisional conties were named, to be called First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh counties, names for which were to be voted for at the first election of members of the assembly. The Seventh county to embrace the Public Land strip, and the boundaries of the other counties to be determined and fixed by the governor. The county seat of the First county was fixed at Guthrie, of the Second county at Oklahoma City, of the
452
THE PROVINCE IND THE STATES.
Third county at Norman, of the Fourth county at El Reno, of the Fifth county at Kingfisher City, of the Sixth county at Stillwater and of the Seventh county at Beaver City. Provision was made for a census to be taken. Section V prescribed the qualification of voters. Section VI defined the legislative power and provided for the enactment of laws, Section I'll provided for the appoint- ment of township, district and county officers.
To prevent the new territory from going into debt to subsidize railroads, congress wisely inserted the following paragraph under Section VII, viz .: "It is further provided that the legislative assembly shall not authorize the issuing of any bond, script, or evidence of debt by the territory, or any county, city, town, or township therein for the construction of any railroad." Section VIII prescribed that a member of the legislature should not be eligible to hold any public office created or the salary of which was raised during the term for which he was elected. Section IX: The judicial power was vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and justices of the peace. The territory was divided into three judicial districts and the jurisdiction of each defined. Jurisdiction over that portion of the Cherokee outlet not embraced in the boundaries of the territory was con- ferred upon the territorial district courts. Section X, enacted regulations relative to the manner and place for holding trials. Section XI, provided that those chapters and provisions of the compiled laws of the state of Nebraska, in force November I, 1880 and in so far as locally applicable, and in conflict with laws of the United States or with this act, should be extended to and put in force in the territory of Oklahoma mutil after the adjourn- ment of the first session of the legislative assembly of said terri- torv.
Provision was made by the same section, for the counties to be divided by the governor into election precincts and other political sub-divisions other than school districts as required by the laws of the state of Nebraska. Section XII granted jurisdiction to district courts in Oklahoma territory over all controversies arising between members or citizens of one tribe of Indians with the members or citizens of other tribes of Indians, but not between the members of the same Indian tribe as long as a tribal relation existed. Section XIII provided for the appointment of a marshal and United States attorney for the territory. Section XIV pre- scribed the manner of qualifying for territorial officers, and pro- vided for annual appropriations for salaries and expenses of the territorial government. Section XV fixed the meeting of the first
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