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Gc 976.6 T35s V . 2 1535236
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
IYI.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02302 5353
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A Standard History
OF
OKLAHOMA
An Authentic Narrative of its Development from the Date of the First European Exploration down to the Present Time, includ- ing Accounts of the Indian Tribes, both Civilized and Wild, of the Cattle Range, of the Land Openings and the Achievements of the most Recent Period
BY
JOSEPH B. THOBURN
Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors
1.2. VOLUME II
Ec 976.6 T352 V.2
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1916
Copyright 1916 By THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1535236
OKLAHOMA: AN ODE
By Freeman E. Miller
Read on "Oklahoma Day," July 19, 1915, at the Oklahoma Building, Panama-Pacific International Expo- sition, San Francisco, California
I.
Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Romance of the ages thou! Now unknown; a moment later Crowns of glory on thy brow! Morning saw a captive sleeping In the wards of long distress; Night beheld an empire keeping Waten above the wilderness! Lo! Above the lonely valleys Progress swung her torch of light,
And they leaped with instant vigor Shaking out their locks of might! O, the Fair God wreathes his roses Into garlands for thy brow; Oklahoma! Oklahoma ! Romance of the ages thou!
II.
Beyond the gates the Land of Promise lay And slept unvexed through all the storms of men, Save when to her their mighty dreams found way And shook her limbs-and then she slept again! The gaunt wolf dug unscared his public den And knew no danger when he roamed to slay; Locked by the law, the land wore fetters then Though strong men raged and women knelt to pray. Brave questors beat the barriers, but in vain! They storm the portals, bend the iron bars, But swords of flame imprison all the plain And sere the Fair God's empire with new scars- The last great fragment from old banners slain To be young Freedom's pathway to the stars.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
The tribes long herded from ancestral fields Their ancient hatreds tame as slow they rear Their roof-trees in strange forests, and their shields Around new homes in walls of love appear; No more the swift Tombigbee's streams are dear, The Chattachooche dimmest memory yields; New Everglades where Peace her scepters wields Safe refuge give from wrongs the sachems fear. No more for slaughter do the fierce clans rove And wage wild battle on their wilder foes; Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee in love Join Seminole and Choctaw for repose; And where the pipes of peace in council strove The Cadmic temples of Sequoyah rose.
III.
Behold! The marshaled legions wait The turning of the desert gate, That men of might may enter in And freedom newer trophies win! Lo, where these thousands make assail The lonely barrens long shall fail, And proud advancement find her way Where savage commonwealths decay!
The morning hours haste hurried by ; Behold, the noon, the moon, is nigh! Now hope exultant wildly rolls Through all the brave adventurous souls Who here in one tumultuous band Would take and keep the Promised Land! Upon the trampled grasses beat Impatient steeds with fretting feet; The clamors of discordant cries Above the restless thousands rise; Shrilly the fretful children call And soft the words of women fall, While men with voices hushed and weak Their harsh commands impulsive speak, Till suddenly a mighty cry, A shout of warning, smites the sky :
"Attention ! Ho, Attention here! Attention ! Lo, The noon is near!"'
O'er hill and brake Resounds the cry; The moment great is nigh; The hosts awake;
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
Awake to strive in mad delight, Awake to wage the friendly fight! Legions gather on the plain, Chaos and confusion reign ! Haste and hurry breathless come From encampments stricken dumb! Steeds unruly seek a place For the running of the race;
Oxen stripped of every load Amble down the crowded road-
Wagon, buggy, carriage, cart Forward, forward, forward dart Into line ! Ah, there's life In the strife Of the tournament divine ! "Line up! Ho, there! Line up! Line up!" And o'er the boundless prairies fair The hands of Progress shake the cup
Filled to the brim with magic seeds That harvests hold for human needs! Misgivings master beasts and men; Saddle-girths are tightened o'er, Stirrups lengthened out once more. Till silence softly falls again; Then man and horse in chosen place Is ready for the mighty race!
Behold! A waving hand Signals aloft the great command That sight and senses understand, And open swings the Promised Land! A shot! A hundred, thousand more The grassy oceans echo o'er- A shout! From countless throats a shout
On rolling winds leaps madly out- A yell, a raging roar, that flies On bounding wings o'er hill and glen. And 'round the land electrifies A thousand living miles of men!
A move, a dash! Swift whip and spur together clash And wheels on wheels that totter crash !. Away! Away! No stop nor stay! The race for homes they ride today, Is on! Is on! Is on! Is on!
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
The host is gone, Like shadows thrust Through clouds of dust To answer elfin calls that spill Their echoes over vale and hill! Madly the scattering centaurs ride In fierce assail With hurried pace unsatisfied Where none dare fail, By broken path and lonely trail!
Ah! one by one, afar, anear, The racing thousands disappear, Till only shadows dimly blent Tell where the mounted visions went,
Like shifting phantoms faint and dim Or ghostly specters gaunt and grim Across the far horizon's rim! Behold! Beyond the valley bright
The last lone straggler fades from sight, And only hasty hoof-beats say In echoes from the startled hills What heroes rode the race today With hopeful hearts and fearless wills- What hosts with dreams that build and bless Found homes amid the wilderness!
IV.
Here through the ages old the desert slept In solitudes unbroken, save when passed The bison herds and savage hunters swept In thundering chaos down the valleys vast; But lo! Across the broken shackles stepped The free man's mighty children, and one blast From his transforming trumpet filled the last Lone covert where affrighted wildness crept! Full armed, full armored, at her wondrous birth, Her shining temples wreathed with richest dower, She sits among the princes of the earth; Her great achievements o'er the nations tower Won by her peoples with the matchless worth Of lofty culture, wisdom, wealth and power!
Her fields were deserts once, but like the sea The tides of life with leaping currents warm Swept in the countless thousands swarm on swarm To frame the roof and plant the homely tree; The wilderness throbbed with visions of the free, And man's firm hand tamed smooth the savage storm, Till slow and sure came rounding into form The giant limbs of commonwealths to be!
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
Her prairies laugh with plenty; her wide streams Roll rich, unmeasured lengths of waters down, And cities rise beside them whose fair dreams With stately splendors all her longings crown; A rose blooms by the doorway and love waits With laughing lips beside her open gates!
All things of worth her clever hands have wrought! She stripped the serpent's den, the eagle's nest And from the world's vast wisdom chose the best To fashion thrones for Freedom's latest thought; The perished prophets to her childhood taught And learned she large from farthest East and West; Then to the stars she climbed in daring quest And dauntless for the gifts of empire fought ! Her fields are fertile with unwakened power; Within her bosom lavish Midas poured The golden streams of opulence at flood; But these she boasts not! There's a richer dower Of church and school her miser passions hoard, Of law and justice, and the world's clean blood!
V.
She stands here with her sisters by the sea Where nations play and continents rejoice To rear majestic temples of their pride- The music of the tempest in her face. The vastness of the prairies in her eyes; She sips old waters that Balboa saw, Beholds the skies of ancient Argonauts, And views the white sails of forgotten ships That clove the harbors of the Farthest East Till Farthest East was only Farthest West; She sees the masters of the mountains move Their shapes leviathan till oceans join Across the wallows where the monsters lay- And yet she marvels not! She from her birth Has walked with miracles; Pillar and Cloud Have kept her night and day; her children came From earth's far ends, within their mighty hearts Whatever men on tiresome fields have wrought, Whatever men beneath the stars have dreamed, Whatever men before dim shrines have heard, And brought their gifts to rear the walls of home, To slay the hoary hags of prejudice, To level down the battlements of pride And shake established thrones of precedent.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
She has no envy for the gorgeous piles, The pillared domes that borrow of the sun, The endless aisles that strut with lace and pearl, And all the pompous trophies man has seized; For these are but the playthings of his quest, The laughters and the antics of his dream, The tossing heaps of monumental dust He piles about him on the sands till time With careless feet shall scatter them again.
She loves the greater things: the one who toils That Life may blossom into greater Life While singing to the stars; the heart that loves With tenderness supremely, till it lifts The wayward up to heaven; the law that saves From want and weakness and with gentle hand Rewards the righteous and corrects the wrong; The freedom that protects enlarging souls And crowns each freeman's labor with large fruits- The happiness that sits at each man's gate And tells the passer-by. "Here dwells a king!" Such royal children are the sons she breeds!
4
VI.
Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Romance of the ages thou! Now unknown; a moment later Crowns of glory on thy brow! Morning saw a captive sleeping In the wards of long distress; Night beheld an empire keeping Watch above the wilderness! Flags of many nations claimed thee, Hearts of many people named thee! But above thy lonely valleys Progress swung her torch of light. And they leaped with instant vigor Shaking out their locks of might! O, the Fair God wreathes his roses Into garlands for thy brow; Oklahoma ! Oklahoma! Romance of the ages thou!
Stillwater, Oklahoma, July 12, 1915.
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
CHAPTER L
POLITICAL AFFAIRS
POLITICS AND POLITICIANS IN THE INDIAN SERVICE
From the establishment of the Federal Government down to 1849, when the Department of the Interior was instituted, the ad- ministration of Indian Affairs was conducted under the supervision of a bureau in the War Department. Many of the Indian agents and superintendents were men who had seen service in the army, either during the war for American Independence, or the War of 1812, or in the regular military establishment. The creation of a new executive department designated as the Department of the Interior, which was organized at the beginning of the administration of Zach- ary Taylor, resulted in the transfer and reorganization of the office of the commissioner of Indian Affairs and, thenceforth, partisan politics and the spoils system played a much larger part in the selec- tion of Indian Service officials, especially the superintendents and agents. Thus, for instance, in 1853, when the national administra- tion was changed from whig to democratic control, there was an almost complete change in the personnel of the Indian Service offi- cials and employes, from commissioner and superintendents down to tribal agents and minor employes. Again, in 1861, a complete change was made in the service from top to bottom.
President Lincoln appointed as his commissioner of Indian Affairs, William P. Dole, who was a citizen of his own state-Illinois. In reorganizing the service at that particular time, it was necessary, of course, to make many changes because of the known disloyalty of some of the superintendents and tribal agents. Nevertheless, some very unwise changes were made upon very questionable pretexts, professedly in order to have men of known loyalty in such positions.
1 Albert Gallatin Boone was born at Greenup, Kentucky, April 7, 1803. His father, Jesse, was a son of Daniel Boone, the pioneer of Kentucky. Jesse Boone moved to Missouri when the subject of
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
An instance of this kind that might be cited was the discharge of Albert G. Boone,1 agent for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes (then living in Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado), merely because he was from Missouri and, as he was from a slave state, he was pre- sumed to be in sympathy with the secession movement. His suc- cessor, proceeding upon the theory that one should "make hay while the sun shines," installed a member of his own family as trader at the agency, and utterly failed to measure up to the opportunity and requisite efficiency as an agent of the Government, nor was he able to gain any influence over the Indians of the tribes which were in- cluded in the agency of the Upper Arkansas.
Shortly before the death of President Lincoln, James Harlan, senator from Iowa, was appointed to the office of Secretary of the Interior. He also continued to hold the office for more than a year in President Andrew Johnson's cabinet. After President Lincoln's death, Secretary Harlan proceeded to reorganize the Indian service throughout. Dennis N. Cooley of his own state was installed as commissioner of Indian Affairs. Elijah Sells, also of Iowa, was selected as a superintendent of Indian Affairs for the southern
this sketch was a small child. His education was limited by the character and quality of the schools of the period. At the age of twenty-one he accompanied the expedition of Gen. William Ashley to the Rocky Mountains in 1824. After his return, he became asso -. ciated with his brother-in-law, Lilburn Boggs (afterward governor of Missouri) in trading with the Indians in Southeastern Kansas and the Indian Territory. Later he engaged in business at St. Charles, Missouri, and still later, he settled at Westport, where he became a member of the firm of Boone & Barnard, general outfitters for the overland trade, in which he became more or less intimately acquainted with Bent, St. Vrain, Bridger, Fitzpatrick, the Subletts and other noted figures in the Indian trade of the Plains and Rocky Mountains. He went to Colorado at the instance of Bent & St. Vrain, in 1858, and, a year later, was appointed to succeed the lat- ter as agent for the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches and Plains Apaches. His removal from the position in 1861 by the new administration at Washington was always regarded as a regrettable blunder which excited the open displeasure of the Indians, whose confidence and respect he always commanded. Notwithstanding the slight thus placed upon him, he remained loyal to the Union (though a southern man) and generously volunteered his services as a mediator and peacemaker during the troublous times of 1867-8, when the Indians of the Plains were on the war-path ; was restored to the service as a special agent, in which capacity he had charge of the Comanches and Kiowas when they were compelled to settle on the reservation at Fort Sill, in 1869. Subsequently he served as a member of the Government peace commission in Dakota, at the end of the Sioux war. He died in Denver, Colorado, July 14. 1884.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
superintendency, which included the five civilized tribes. These two men, it will be recalled, were the most active members of the peace council at Fort Smith, in September, 1865, and also in the negotiation of the new treaties with the same tribes at Washing- ton, the following year. In insisting upon the most notable features of those treaties (such as the relinquishment of surplus lands for the settlement of tribes from Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and else- where, the enfranchisement of tribal freedmen, consent for the es- tablishment of a territorial government, and the granting of the right to build and operate railways) they were merely carrying out a policy which had been planned and outlined by their depart- ment chief. Whether he had an ulterior purpose in mind or not may be open to question. However, when the administration of Andrew Johnson began to be unpopular and Secretary Harlan saw an opportunity to go back to the Senate from Iowa, he embraced it without hesitation, for, by that time, it was more than doubtful if anyone connected with the Johnson administration would be war- ranted in entertaining any aspirations in connection with the nomi- nation for the presidency at the hands of the dominant party in 1868. When he retired from the cabinet he was succeeded by Or- ville H. Browning, a former senator from Illinois. Apparently, Secretary Browning did not bestow as much personal attention on the Indian Affairs bureau as his predecessor had done. To be sure, there was another change in the office of the commissioner of Indian Affairs, but, as the new commissioner, Nathaniel G. Taylor, was from East Tennessee, it is fair to presume that his appointment was a personal one on the part of President Johnson. Likewise, there was also a change in the office of the superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern superintendency, the new incumbent, James Wortham, also being from Tennessee and, in due time, several minor officials, also from the same state, arrived in the territory to enter the Government service among the people of the five civilized tribes.
After General Grant had been elected to the presidency, a com- mittee representing the Society of Friends (Quakers) called upon him and urged upon his attention the expediency and propriety of selecting religious men for appointment as agents of the various tribes, arguing that such men would endeavor to secure sober, up- right, truthful men as agency employees as far as practicable, and expressing the opinion that the effect of such a policy would be to lead to much more satisfactory results with the Indians. General Grant listened to the representations of the committee with evident interest and, when they had finished, he replied: "Gentlemen, your advice is good. I accept it. Now give me the names of some
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
Friends for Indian agents and I will appoint them. If you can make Quakers out of the Indians, it will take the fight out of them. Let us have peace." 2 This was more than the members of the com- mittec had expected. He wished them to suggest the name of a man for appointment as superintendent of the central superintendency and also to nominate suitable persons for appointment as agents of the several tribes still living in Kansas and also for the so-called wild tribes living in the western part of the Indian Territory. An- other committee, representing the various "yearly meetings" of the Orthodox Friends of the United States, was appointed to make suitable selections and submit the nominations of such persons to the new President.
Although he had been an Indian fighter during part of his earlier career in the "Old Army," President Grant seems to have retained only the most kindly feeling toward them and, as far as it was possible, he apparently wished to place them beyond reach and exploitation of corrupt politicians. Not only did he readily agree to adopt the suggestions of the committee of Quakers, or Friends, but in other instances he also sought to place them under the admin- istrative care of officers who were detailed from the army for that purpose. Parenthetically, it may be stated that an Iroquois (Sen- eca) Indian, Col. Ely S. Parker, had not only served on General Grant's staff throughout the Civil war, but he had also been chosen by the new President to fill the office of commissioner of Indian Affairs. In January, 1868, the peace commission, which had nego- tiated the new treaties with the tribes of the Southern Plains at Medicine Lodge, and with those of the Northern Plains at the mouth of the Big Cheyenne River and at Forts Sully, Thompson and Laramie, submitted a report to the President of the United States, wherein was embodied a recommendation that the Indian Bureau should be transferred from the Department of the Interior to the War Department.3 Commissioner Taylor, as the president of the peace commission, had signed this report, but, in his own per- sonal official report to the Secretary of the Interior, for 1868, he took decided issue with his colleagues on the policy of such a change.4
Gen. William T. Sherman gave a different version of the origin of President Grant's "Quaker" Indian policy. In his Memoirs, General Sherman made the following statement concerning the matter :
2 Lawrie Tatum's "Our Red Brothers," pp. 17-19.
3 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for 1868, pp. 26-50.
4 Ibid., pp. 7-20.
.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
"By act of Congress, approved March 3, 1869, the forty-five regiments of infantry (in the Regular Army) were reduced to twen- ty-five and provision was made for the 'muster out' of many of the surplus officers, and for retaining others to be absorbed by the usual promotions and casualties. On the 7th of May, of that year, by authority of an act of Congress approved June 30, 1834, nine field officers and fifty-nine captains and subalterns were detached and ordered to report to the commissioner of Indian Affairs to serve as Indian superintendents and agents. Thus, by an old law, surplus army officers were made to displace the usual civil appointees, un-
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QUAKER AGENTS
doubtedly a change for the better, but distasteful to the members of Congress, who looked upon these appointments as part of their proper patronage. The consequence was the law of July 15, 1870, which vacated the military commission of any officer who accepted or exercised the functions of a civil officer. I was then told that certain politicians called on President Grant, informing him that this law was chiefly designed to prevent his using army officers for Indian agents, 'civil offices,' which he believed to be both judicious and wise; army officers, as a rule, being better qualified to deal with Indians than the average political appointees. The President then quietly replied : 'Gentlemen, you have defeated my plan of Indian management, but you shall not succeed in your purpose, for I will
.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
divide these appointments among the religious churches with which you dare not contend.' The army officers were consequently re- lieved of their 'civil offices,' and the Indian agencies were appor- tioned to the several religious churches in about the proportion of their supposed strength-some to the Quakers, some to the Meth- odists, to the Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc., etc .- and thus it remains to the present time, these religious communities selecting the agents to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. The Quakers, being first named, gave name to the policy and it is called the 'Quaker' policy today. " >
THE QUAKER AGENTS
Enoch Hoag, of Muscatine, Iowa, was selected by the Quaker Committee for the important position of superintendent of Indian affairs for the central superintendency, with headquarters at Law- rence, Kansas. Nine agents were also nominated and were duly ap- pointed and confirmed. Most of these were for tribes which were still in Kansas but which were subsequently removed to the Indian Territory. The three Quaker agents who were assigned to places in the Indian Territory at the beginning were, Brinton Darlington, Cheyenne and Arapaho; Lawrie Tatum, Kiowa and Comanche; and Thomas Miller, Sac and Fox. The number of Quaker agents in the Indian Territory was increased to six in 1872 by the removal of the Osages from Kansas, Isaac T. Gibson, agent, by the division of the Fort Sill Agency by which the Wichitas, Caddoes and affiliated tribes were given a separate agency (the Wichita Agency) with Jonathan Richards as tribal agent, and by the appointment of Hiram W. Jones as agent at the Quapaw Agency. Jonathan Had- ley succeeded Thomas Miller the same year.
The Fort Sill Agency was established by Gen. W. B. Hazen, an army officer, who was temporarily assigned to duty in the Indian service. Agent Darlington (who was the senior in age of all the Quaker agents) found the temporary agency of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at Camp Supply. He removed it to a point near where the 98th meridian intersects the North Canadian River, where his "rief but faithful service as agent was ended by his death, May 5, 1872. The Cheyenne Agency was named Darlington in his honor.
5 "Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman," Vol. II, pp. 436-7. General Sherman was in error in attributing the selection of the first Quaker agents to the effect of the act of July 15, 1870, as the first Quaker agents had entered upon the discharge of their duties nearly fifteen months prior to that date.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
It is now the seat of the Masonic Home for aged Masons, their widows and orphans. The site chosen for the Osage Agency is now a part of the City of Pawhuska.
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