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 45
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OKLAHOMA, SETTLEMENTS, STATISTICS, ETC.
assembly at the city of Guthrie, "at such time as the governor thereof shall appoint and direct; and at said first session, or as soon thereafter as they shall deem expedient, the governor and legislative assembly shall proceed to locate and establish the scat of government for said territory at such place as they may deem eligible, which place, however, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor and legislative assembly." Section XVI provided for the election of a delegate to the house of repre- sentatives. Section XVII amended the national bank act relative to the qualification of directors of national banks, providing that persons otherwise qualified to act as directors should not be required to have resided in said territory for more than three months immediately preceding their election at such. Section XVIII reserved sections number 16 and 36 in each township for the purpose of being applied to public schools in the state or states hereafter to be erected out of the territory.
Another paragraph of Section XVIII refers to the settlement of the Public Land strip and the method of acquiring title to the lands therein. It reads : "All the lands embraced in that portion of the territory of Oklahoma shall be open to settlement under the pro- visions of the homestead laws of the United States, except Sec- tion 2301 of the Revised Statutes which shall not apply; but all actual and bona fide settlers upon and occupants of the lands in the Public Land strip at the time of the passage of this act shall be entitled to have preference to and hold the lands upon which they have settled under the homestead laws of the United States. by virtue of their settlement and occupancy of said lands, and shall be credited with the time they have actually occupied their home- steads, respectively, not exceeding two years, in the time required under said laws to perfect titles as homestead settlers."
The future settlement of other lands in the territory at the time occupied by the Indian tribes, after these lands should be allotted to the members of these tribes in severalty, was provided for in the following paragraph under Section XVIII: "Whenever any of the other lands within the Territory of Oklahoma, now occupied by any Indian tribe, shall by operation of law or proclamation of the President of the United States, be open to settlement, they shall be disposed of to actual settlers only, under the provisions of the homestead law, except Section 2301, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which shall not apply: Provided however, That each settler, under and in accordance with the provisions of said homestead laws, shall before receiving a patent for his home- stead pay to the United States for the land so taken by him, in
454
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
addition to the fees provided by law, a sum per acre equal to the amount which has been or may be paid by the United States to obtain a relinquishnnent of the said Indian title or interest therein, but in no case shall such payment be less than one dollar and twen- ty-five cents per acre. The rights of honorably discharged soldiers and sailors in the late Civil war, as defined and described in Sec- tions 2304 and 2305, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall not be abridged except as to such payment. All tracts of land in Oklahoma Territory which have been set apart for school pur- poses, to educational societies, or missionary boards at work among the Indians, shall not be open for settlement, but are hereby granted to the respective educational societies or missionary boards for whose use the same has been set apart. No part of the land embraced within the territory hereby created shall inure to the use or benefit of any railroad corporation, except the rights of way and land for stations heretofore granted to certain railroad corpora- tions. Nor shall any provision of this act or any act of any officer of the United States, done or performed under the provisions of this act or otherwise, invest, any corporation owning or operating any railroad in the Indian Territory or Territory created by this act, with any land or right to any land in either of the said Terri- tories, and this act shall not apply to or affect any land which, upon any condition on becoming a part of the public domain, would inure to the benefit of, or become the property of any rail- road corporation."
The portion of the above paragraph relating to railroads was inserted in the act to prevent the railroads which had been author- ized by acts of congress in 1866 to extend their lines southward from Kansas and given large grants of land in the Indian terri- tory upon the extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands through which the roads passed, to have any legal claim to same. One railroad was to be granted ten sections per mile and the other twenty sections per mile. The charter of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad to cross the territory from cast to west contained a sim- ilar provision. The railroads in question lost what right they had to any such lands in the Indian territory by not completing their lines within the time specified by their charters, but to prevent any possible litigation the above amendment was embodied into the act of establishment of the territory of Oklahoma. Section XIX made the Public Land strip a public land district. Section XX, enacted regulations relative to homestead procedure. Sec- tion XXI, prescribed that a patent should be granted to all per- sons, after a residence of twelve months, who settled on lands in
455
OKLAHOMA, SETTLEMENTS, STATISTICS, ETC.
accordance with the proclamation of the president of April 1, 1889, upon the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Section XXII, enacted laws relative to the reservation and sale of town-sites, and made provision for parks in said town-sites for school and other purposes, of not less than ten or more than twenty acres. Section XXIII prescribed that public highways should be reserved, four rods wide, between each section of land, the section lines to be the center of the highways.
In order to avoid, in the future, the fraudulent practices of spec- ulators and others in obtaining lots and quarter sections, experi- enced in the settlement of the Oklahoma district, congress inserted in the act of establishment the following section, viz .: Section XXIV. "That it shall be unlawful for any person, for himself or any company, association, or corporation, to directly or indirectly procure any person to settle upon any lands open to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, with intent thereafter of acquiring title thereto; and any title thus acquired shall be void; and the parties to such fraudulent settlement shall severally be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished upon indictment, by impris- onment not exceeding twelve months, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court."
The bounds of the new territory did not include "Greer county" which was claimed by both the United States and by the state of Texas until the controversy should be decided in favor of the United States by the supreme court. This subject was treated in Section XXV, as follows: Section XVV. "That inasmuch as there is a controversy between the United States and the state of Texas as to the ownership of what is known as Greer county, it is hereby expressly provided that this act shall not be construed to apply to said Greer county until title to the same has been adjudicated and determined to be in the United States; and in order to provide for a speedy and final judicial determination of the controversy aforesaid the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby authorized and directed to commence in the name and on behalf of the United States, and prosecute to a final determination, a proper suit in equity in the Supreme Court of the United States against the State of Texas, setting forth the title and claim of the United States to the tract of land lying between the North and South Forks of the Red River where the Indian Territory and State of Texas adjoin, cast of the one hundredth degree of longitude and claimed by the State of Texas as within its boundary and a part of its land, and designated on its map as
456
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
Greer County, in order that the rightful title to said land may be finally determined, and the court, on the trial of the case may, in its discretion, so far as the ends of justice will warrant, consider any evidence heretofore taken and received by the Joint Boundary Commission under the act of Congress approved January 31, 1885 ; and said case shall be advanced on the docket of said court, and proceeded with to its conclusion as rapidly as the nature and circumstances of the case permit."
Section XXVI appropriated funds for the expenses of census, common schools, salaries and provisional government. Section XXVII declared that the rights of the occupants of any portion of the territory shall not be impaired by this act but such claims adjudicated by the land department. Section XXVIII. The laws and constitution of the United States were made applicable to the new territory and all acts in conflict with the provisions of this act were repealed, provided that Section 1850, of the Revised Statutes of the United States was not to apply to the territory of. Oklahoma. The remaining sections of the act, viz., sections 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44 applied to that portion of the Indian territory occupied by the five civilized tribes, and not embraced in the bounds of the territory of Okla- homa.
457
OKLAHOMA, THE TERRITORIAL ERA.
CHAPTER IV
The Territorial Era
A WESTERN journalist, writing on the eve of the opening of the Oklahoma lands, uttered the following prophecy relative to the new commonwealth about to be created :* "To the south and adjoining Kansas lies Oklahoma, 'the land of the red men.' From her loins will spring vigorous communities to people the inchoate state which is now forming. Products more varied and a greater vegetable life will spring up from her teeming soil. As the civilization of the West and the East are planning and uniting to form a more vigorous and compact growth, so the products of the more northern and the extreme southern regions will furnish the greatest yields in this warm soil and genial climate from comparatively the forces that dwarf their development in the Gulf States and lake regions or the mountain- ous areas of New England. The ideal western commonwealth will . there be formed. Climatic conditions are perfect. Topographic- ally inspirations are not wanting. The atmosphere is electric and full of life-giving properties. The struggle for the possession of Oklahoma has been long and arduous. The cattle syndicates made a desperate and prolonged contest. But the appeals of the settlers have finally been heard. Soon the vast unpeopled solitude of this mighty domain will be filled with the hum of machinery and the voices of the productive industries, and the opening of farms and the building of cities will possess the place where deso- lation and solitude now reign. From the great conquest an ideal State will spring, and a type of the best civilization of the age will finally be found in Oklahoma. It will be vigorous, independ- ent, strong, but conservative and cosmopolitan and it will be the
*Milion W. Reynolds.
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THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
product of that civilization which is the resultant of the westerner, not of twenty-five years ago, but of the young men of the plains as we see them marching in battalions, strong, fresh from the col- leges and schools, manned and equipped for the highest duties of a social life that demands and is content only with the best results.
"Oklahoma has fulfilled this and all other prophecies. The peo- ple were ready and eager for a territorial form of government. As a rule they profited by the experience of older territories and avoided their mistakes. The unparalleled prosperity of the Terri- tory has also been a potent factor in establishing an 'ideal com- monwealth.'"
The first governor appointed for the new territory was the Hon. George W. Steele, of Indiana. He received his commission on May 15, 1890, and arrived at Guthrie, the temporary seat of gov- ernment, on May 22nd. The new governor was born in Fayette county, Ind., December 13, 1839, and was educated in the common schools with one term at the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, O. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861. In April of that year he entered the Union army and served until the close of the war, being commissioned a lieutenant- colonel June 1, 1863. After the war he remained in the army umtil 1876, serving in the Fourteenth regiment United States infantry on the frontier. From 1876 until 1880 Mr. Steele engaged in farming and pork-packing. From 1881 until 1889 he was a mem- ber of the lower branch of the national legislature, and upon retir- ing from congress was appointed governor of the territory of Oklahoma.
Mr. Steele was governor for twenty months, and during his incumbency of that office the political machinery for the new ter- ritory was put in motion by the appointment of county officers and the election and organization of the territorial legislature. As President Harrison said in his message to congress, the capacity of the people of Oklahoma for self-government had already been demonstrated during the year in which they had been left to shift for themselves, and the task of the first governor in this respect was not difficult. There were many problems, however, that had to be solved. While the courts were busy deciding land titles the legislature was drafting a code of laws, and endeavoring to locate a seat of government. Although the first legislature occupied too much time with the various "capital removing schemes" and not enough with the consideration of the new code, considerable progress was made in the latter direction.
One of the first acts of Governor Steele was the taking of a cen-
OKLAHOMA, THE TERRITORIAL ERA.
459
sus of the new territory. The number of inhabitants was shown to be 60,417, divided among the several counties as follows:
First county (how Logan) ..
11, 254 | Fifth county (now Kingfisher) .. 8,837
Second (now Oklahoma)
12,794 |Sixth
16
(now Payne) .. ..
6, 836
Third
(uow Cleveland) ..
7,011 | Seventh ''
(now Beaver) 2,982
Fourth (now Canadian)
7,703
Total
60,417
Whites
57, 117
Oklahoma City
5,056
Colored
3,289
Stillwater
625
Chinese
11 [ El Reno.
519
Males
34,464
Norman ..
761
Females
25,953
Kingfisher
1,278
Guthrie .
5,854
These figures differ siightly from those published by the cen- sus department for the same year, the total population of the ter- ritory as shown by the latter being 61,834, including 2,674 in Beaver county and 5,338 in Greer county. Immigrants were arriving every day in the territory and many disappointed home- seekers were also leaving for their former homes, and an accurate census at that time was not practicable. A conservative estimate places the number of inhabitants of Oklahoma at 75,000 by the end of the year 1890. Since then the population has increased not steadily, but by jumps and bounds. Every time a new sec- tion was thrown open to settlement the number of inhabitants was swelled by thousands in a day ; the opening of the Cherokee strip added 125,000, Greer county brought 15,000, and the occu- pation of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache reservation increased the grand total by over 50,000. The twelfth census places the total population at abont 400,000, but today there are over half a million people living in Oklahoma territory.
The number of persons of voting age in the territory in 1900 was 109, 191, and of school age 147,656. Only, three and one-half per cent of the total population was foreign born. The following table shows the population by counties for 1900 and 1890, as published by the census department :
POPULATION OF OKLAHOMA BY COUNTIES.
Counties.
1900.
1890.
Counties.
1900.
1890.
Beaver
3,051
2,671
Oklahoma
25,915
11,742
Blaine
10,658
Pawnee
12, 366
Canadian.
15,9%1
7,158
Payne
20,999
7,215
Cleveland.
16,388
6,605
Pottawatomie
26,412
Custer
12,261
Roger Mills
6,190
Day
2,173
Washita
15,001
Dewey
8,819
Woods ..
31,975
Garfield.
22,076
Woodward ..
7,469
Grant
17,273
Kaw Indian Reservation ..
768
Greer
17,922
5,338
Kay
23,530
Kingfisher
18,501
8,332
Lincoln.
27,007
Logan
26,563
12,770
Total.
393,331
61,831
Noble
14,015
Kiowa, Comanche und Apache Ind'n Reservat'n Osage Indian Reservation Wichita Indian Reservat'n
4,968
6,717
1,120
-
1
460
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
No crops were raised during the first year of the occupancy of Oklahoma, and during the second year a severe drought pre- vailed in that section of the country, causing a scarcity of crops, and subsequent suffering on the part of many of the settlers, who had used the small means at their disposal in getting into the country and in buying farm implements, so that they were not prepared to meet the emergency. The governor, however, came to their rescue, and appealed first to the railroads, and the Atchi- son, Topeka & Sante Fe and the Chicago & Rock Island railroads responded by supplying the settlers with twenty thousand dollars worth of seed wheat. Congress also came to the aid of the needy by appropriating a balance in the treasury of a fund donated to the sufferers of the Mississippi flood.
The first legislature was elected August 5, 1890, and met for the first time at Guthrie on August 27. At the time of the election of the members of the assembly the names for the seven counties were chosen, with the result as indicated above. The members of the first legislature were as follows:
Canadian county : Council-Jos. Smielser ; house-John A. Wimiberly, M. A. Daniels, D. W. Talbott.
Kingfisher county : Council-W. A. McCartney, Daniel Hara- der ; house-J. C. Post, D. C. Farnsworth, G. I. Currin, E. C. Tritt.
Payne county: Council-G. W. Gardenshire; house-J. L. Matthews, 1. N. Terrill, S. W. Clark.
Logan county : Council-Chas. E. Brown, John Foster, J. F. Lin ; house-W. S. Robertson, W. H. Merten, R. J. Barker, J. L. Smith, W. H. Campbell, Sammel Lewis.
Oklahoma county : Council -- J. L. Brown, L. G. Pittman, J. W. Howard; house-C. G. Jones, H. G. Trosper, Moses Neal, D. W. Perry, S. D. Pack.
Cleveland county : Council-R. J. Nisbett ; house-T. R. Wag- gner, W. C. Adair, J. M. Stovall.
Beaver county : Council-C. F. Grimmer ; house-E. H. Long. Delegate at large: A. M. Colson.
The political complexion of the first legislature was peculiar. Oklahoma and Cleveland counties elected Democratic delegations, the representatives of Logan and Kingfisher counties were Repub- lican ; those from Payne county were allied to the Independent or Alliance party, and the balance was about equally divided among the three parties mentioned. When it came to an election of presiding officers it was found that the Independent or Alliance party hield the balance of power and succeeded in seating men of that faith as speaker of the house and president of the council.
461
OKLAHOMA, THE TERRITORLIL ERA.
G. W. Gardenshire, of Payne county, was elected president of the upper house, and M. A. Daniels, of Canadian county, of the lower house.
Early in the session, which lasted one hundred and twenty days, as specified in the organic act, the question of the permanent location of the seat of government, came up for discussion and was the cause of a long and bitter fight between the rival cities for the honor, viz., Guthrie, Oklahoma City and Kingfisher. Governor Steele took a prominent part in this contest, vetoing the bill removing the seat of government from Guthrie to Okla- homa City, and sending the bill making Kingfisher the capital city, back to the legislature for revision, which practically amounted to a veto. With the governor's aid the city of Guthrie came out of the contest with flying colors and is still the capital city.
During the first session of the territorial legislature it was nec- essary to enact all the future laws of the territory, as the Nebraska laws placed over the territory expired at the close of the session. . While the council contained a number of able lawyers the lower body did not boast of a single lawyer, agriculture being the prin- cipal vocation of its members. For this reason many errors crept into the laws enacted, but were, however, subsequently removed.
Oklahoma has always followed a liberal policy with reference to the public schools of the territory and has been upheld and assisted in this respect by the national legislature.
The first settlers appreciated the importance of the public school and during the first winter, before the establishment of the territory, their children enjoyed a term at schools supported by voluntary subscription, the school houses being rudely constructed huts with thatched roofs. The second year the huts were replaced by substantial log houses and these in turn made way for the handsome frame and brick structures that are to be seen in every district today.
In the beginning the township was the unit of organization for the school system, but later the district system was adopted, embracing rural, town and city divisions, together with higher educational institutions. Each county has a superintendent, elected every two years. There is also a territorial superintendent. The school system is under the supervision of a board of educa- tion, consisting of the territorial superintendent, the president of the university, president of the normal school, and one city and one county superintendent appointed by the governor. This board grants teachers' certificates, diplomas, and shapes the policy to be followed with reference to curriculum, methods, etc.
462
THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
The organic act appropriated one hundred thousand dollars to be expended in the cause of education in the new territory. In addition sections 16 and 36 in each township in the original Okla- homa district, and in Beaver county, and in the Cheyenne and Arapahoe, lowa, Sac, Fox, and Pottawatomie reservations, were reserved from settlement and held in trust for the use of the public schools.
When the Cherokee outlet was opened to settlement congress provided for the setting aside of four sections in each township; sections 16 and 36 for the benefit of public schools, section 13 for the benefit of the higher institutions of learning and section 33 for the benefit of public buildings. In place of lands lost to the territory in the Cherokee outlet, in the Osage and Ponca reserva- tions and through allotments to Indians and other causes, there were selected in 1894 tracts of land in the Kickapoo reservation and in Woodward county ( Cherokee strip), containing 101,188 acres and 21,840 acres respectively, and which were known as indemnity lands. When other sections were thrown open to set- tement, including Greer county, the same liberal reservations were made by the government of four sections of land in each township for school and other purposes.
To Governor Steele belongs the credit of originating a scheme by which the territory could realize a profit by these lands imme- diately. The usual policy pursued with reference to such lands in other territories had been to allow them to remain unused until the state governments were organized. Governor Steele con- cvived the idea of leasing these lands at a fair rental and using the money obtained thereby for the public schools. He made a trip to Washington on purpose to urge congress to agree to this plan, and succeeded in having that body pass an act which was approved March 3, 1891, giving him authority to lease these pub- lic lands. A considerable sum of money was made immediately available by this means for the use of the public schools, and up to the present time the territory has realized considerably over a million dollars from this source. By act of congress approved May 4, 1894, a school land department was organized, and a board created having in charge the business of leasing the public lands. The board was composed of the governor, secretary of the terri- tory and the superintendent of public instruction.
Three higher institutions of learning were established by the first legislative assembly, viz., the Territorial University of Okla- homa, the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and a Territorial Normal school. The University of Oklahoma was located at Nor- man, an ideal town for this purpose, eighteen miles south of Okla-
463
OKLILIOM.I, THE TERRITORIAL ER.1.
homa City on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The town donated ten thousand dollars and forty acres of land for the use of the university. The first session opened September 6, 1892, with sixty-nine students. The university boasts of a large main building, containing twenty-six recitation rooms and a large chapel. The large campus of forty acres has been planted with shade trees of elm, ash, locust, etc. The scope and purposes of the university are set forth in the following sections of the act establishing the same :
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