A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 31

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645

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The Cimarron delegate, Chase, returned home after the adjournment of Congress, and the legislature of Cimarron Territory in the spring of that year enacted a number of laws which proved inoperative for lack of funds and power to enforce them. An attempt to collect taxes levied on herds belonging to cattlemen was met with Win- chesters, and the significant invitation "Go ahead and try to get the money if you dare." Chase went to Washington again in the winter of 1888-9 in hopes that he might be seated and draw his salary, but he failed in both. Then he began lobbying for the passage of the bill opening Okla- homa for settlement.

The first municipal government in what is now Oklahoma was organized in Beaver City, in the election of town officers in Oc- tober, 1887. The officers were: J. Thomas, mayor; W. B. Ogden, clerk; Merritt Ma- gan, attorney; Addison Mundell, marshal; John H. Alley, Thomas P. Braidwood, John Garvey and J. A. Overstreet, councilmen.

The status of "No Man's Land" in 1889, and the attitude of many of its citizens toward the proposition to include their country under the same territorial govern- ment with Oklahoma, are described in the report of the commissioner of the general land office for 1889.

"The opening of Oklahoma has increased the anxiety of the inhabitants of the narrow strip of public land just west of the Indian Territory, and commonly known as 'No Man's Land,' for some legislation in their behalf. I am in receipt of numerous peti- tions and memorials on the subject, and I desire to urge as strongly as I can the im- portance of calling the attention of Congress to this matter.

"The following petition, signed by Thomas P. Braidwood and eighty-nine others and addressed to the president,

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states the condition of that part of the country so clearly that I submit it, with my full indorsement :

Beaver, Public Land Strip, Indian Territory, May 22, 1889. To His Excellency Hon. Benj. Harrison, President

United States of America, Washington, D. C. We, the undersigned citizens of the Public Land Strip, commonly called "No Man's Land," being that portion of land lying between the In- dian Territory on the east, New Mexico on the west, Kansas and Colorado on the north, and Texas on the south, and containing about 3,600,000 acres, would respectfully state:

That we have a population of about 15,000, [1] the most of whom are law-loving and law-abiding people. That we have villages and towns building up, schools and churches in operation, and farmers tilling the soil and creating homes for themselves and their posterity, but it is all done under "squatters' rights" only, and we labor at great disadvantages. The money appropriated by Con- gress a few years ago to survey the country was exhausted before the survey was completed, and we are without land laws. We should be placed on at least an equal footing with other portions of the public domain under the law. Oklahoma, as an instance, containing 1,800,000 acres, only half our size, was recently opened up with these benefits. We stand in urgent need of the ex- tension of the land laws over our land, and land offices established, so that we may begin title to our homes. We only ask what is our right and justly due us as American citizens.

Therefore we earnestly request that in your call for an extra session of Congress, if you should in your wisdom call one, you embody our necessities as a part of the reasons for the extra session, 80 that these points will be considered. If there should be no extra session of Congress, we pray that in your message to the next regular session you call attention to and impress upon that body the urgent need we have of the survey being com- pleted, and land district established, and land

offices located, for all of which we shall be pro- foundly grateful.

"This petition is indorsed by Hon. P. B. Plumb, chairman of the senate committee of public lands, as follows :

These people should have the laws extended over their country. This would have been done long since but for the action of those who represented them at Washington, who said nothing was desired except in connection with Oklahoma.

"I call attention to the fact that before these lands can be opened to entry the sur- vey must be completed. The township and range lines have almost all been run, and they are marked by substantial iron posts placed every two miles, but the section lines have not been established. Certainly a tract of agricultural land on which there are 15,000 settlers should be surveyed. A careful estimate of the cost of completing the survey u this strip shows that $50,000 will amply suffice. I have therefore sub- mitted an estimate for a special appropri- ation of that sum for this purpose, to be immediately available, and not to be in- cluded in the general appropriation for sur- veying public lands, as this work was not taken into consideration in making the estimate for such general appropriation."

The outcome of the agitation was that in 1890 the public land strip was included in the territory of Oklahoma, and thenceforth the political interests of the country have been those of Oklahoma.

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CHAPTER XX

OPENING OF OKLAHOMA

The years of agitation in Congress and ern half of the territory originally granted the public press, the constant and increas- ing pressure of white settlement on all sides, and the frequent invasion of organ- ized bands of boomers, finally brought about the opening of Oklahoma to settle- ment in the early part of 1889.

In the closing days of the fiftieth Con- gress, on March Ist, 1889, Congress rati- fied and accepted the cession and agree- ment made with the Creek Nation in the preceding January,1 by which all the west-

" The cession of these lands was concluded at Washington, the Creek delegates being Pleasant Porter, David M. Hodge, and Esparhecher, and the secretary of interior, William F. Vilas, rep- resenting the United States. The cession was approved by the national council on January 31st. The principal provisions of this cession are given in the act of March 1, 1889 (this act is en- titled, "An act to ratify and confirm an agree- ment with the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," 25 Stat., 757), namely:

Art. 1. That the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation, in consideration of the sum of money hereinafter mentioned, hereby absolutely cedes and grants to the United States, without reservation or con- dition, full and complete title to the entire western half of the domain of the said Muscogee (or Creek) Nation lying west of the division line surveyed and established under the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and also grants and releases to the United States all and every claim, estate, right, or interest of any and every description in or to any and all land and ter- ritory whatever, except so much of the said former domain of the said Muscogee (or Creek) Nation as lies east of said line of division, surveyed and established as aforesaid, and is now held and occu- pied as the home of said nation.

WHEREAS, The Muscogee (or Creek) Nation ·

to this nation was ceded to the United States. By the same act, these lands were declared a part of the public domain, and to be opened to entry in quantities not ex- ceeding 160 acres to each homestead claim- ant. Congress was to fix a date upon which these lands would be open to settle- ment, and no entry before that time should be permitted.

The day following the ratification of the Creek agreement, in the appropriation bill

of Indians has accepted, ratified and confirmed articles of cession and agreement by act of its national council, approved by the principal chief of said nation on the thirty-first day of Janu- ary, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, wherein it is provided that the grant and cession of land and territory therein made shall take effect when the same shall be ratified and confirmed by the Congress of the United States of America, there- fore:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that said articles of ces- sion and agreement are hereby accepted, ratified and confirmed.

Sec. 2. That the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain, but they shall only be disposed of in accordance with the laws regulating home- stead entries, and to the persons qualified to make such homestead entries, not exceeding one hun- dred and sixty acres to one qualified claimant. And the provisions of section twenty-three hun- dred and one of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not apply to any lands ac- quired under said agreement. Any person who may enter upon any part of said lands in said agreement mentioned, prior to the time that the same are opened to settlement by act of Con- gress, shall not be permitted to occupy or to make entry of such lands or lay any claims thereto.

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for the Indian department, the sum of $1,912,942.02 was appropriated to pay the Seminole Nation of Indians in full for all right, title, interest, and claim in lands ceded by the Seminoles by the third article of the treaty of 1866.ª The Seminole dele- gates, on March 16, 1889, executed a re- lease of these lands. The lands thus released, with those ceded by the Creeks, formed what was known as the "Oklahoma country."

The act of March 2, with further refer- ence to the Creek and Seminole cessions, contained all the directions that Congress

' These were the lands that had been ceded to the Seminoles by the treaty of 1856 (which see), and in the treaty of 1866 had been granted to the United States for the settlement of other tribes of Indians. The portions of the act of March 2, 1889, pertaining to the Seminole lands, are as follows:

(57) Sec. 12. That the sum of one million nine hundred and twelve thousand, nine hun- dred and forty-two dollars and two cents be, and the same hereby is, appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay in full the Seminole Nation of Indians for all the right, title, interest and claim which said nation of Indians may have in and to certain lands ceded by article three of the treaty be- tween the United States and the said nation of Indians, which was concluded June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and proclaimed August sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and which land was then estimated to contain two million one hundred and sixty-nine thousand and eighty acres, but which is now, after survey, ascertained to contain two million thirty-seven thousand four hundred and fourteen and sixty- two hundredths acres, said sum of money to be paid as follows: One million five hundred thou- sand dollars to remain in the treasury of the United States to the credit of said nation of Indians and to bear interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from July first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, said interest to be paid semi-annually to the treasurer of said nation, and the sum of four hundred and twelve thou- sand nine hundred and forty-two dollars and twenty cents, to be paid to such person or persons as shall be duly authorized by the laws of said nation to receive the same, at such times and in such sums as shall be directed and required by

provided for the opening and settlement of Oklahoma. In this respect, the deficien- cies of the act caused some temporarily serious consequences, especially the failure to provide any form of civil government. The act provided for the reservation of sec- tions 16 and 36 for public schools ; that the land was to be occupied by actual settlers only, under the homestead laws; and that land not exceeding 320 acres might be en- tered for townsite purposes. These are all the essential provisions of the act which provided for the opening of Oklahoma.ª

Immediately that the passage of the act

the legislative authority of said nation, to be immediately available; this appropriation to be- come operative upon the execution by the duly appointed delegates of said nation, specially em- powered to do so, of a release and conveyance to the United States of all the right, title, interest, and claim of said nation of Indians in and to said lands, in manner and form satisfactory to the President of the United States, and said release and conveyance when fully executed and deliv- ered, shall operate to extinguish all claims of every kind and character of said Seminole Na- tion of Indians in and to the tract of country to which said release and conveyance shall apply, but such release and conveyance and extinguish- ment shall not inure to the benefit of or cause to invest in any railroad company any right, title, or interest whatever in or to any of said lands,. and all laws and parts of laws so far as they conflict with the foregoing, are hereby repealed, and all grants or pretended grants of said lands and interest or right therein now existing in or on behalf of any railroad company except right of way and depot grounds, are hereby declared to be forever forfeited for breach of conditions.

" These provisions from the act are herewith quoted :

Sec. 13. That the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain, to be disposed of only as herein provided, and sections sixteen and thirty- six of each township, whether surveyed or unsur- veyed, are hereby reserved for the use and benefit of the public schools, to be established within the limits of said lands under such conditions and regulations as may be hereafter enacted by Congress.

That the lands acquired by conveyance from the Seminole Indians hereunder, except the six-

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allowing the opening of the Oklahoma country was made known, the boomer or- ganizations on the borders increased their activity, and the press throughout the coun- try, by descriptions of the wonderful coun- try that now lay as a gift to home-seekers, focused the attention of thousands in this direction. The president was importuned from all sides to issue his proclamation for the opening. Congress had adjourned after passing the act of March 2, and President Harrison, after his inauguration, had to pursue one of two courses : either delay the opening until Congress should meet and remedy the defects of the legislation enacted by the preceding Congress, or yield to the insistent demands of the boomers and trust

teenth and thirty-sixth sections, shall be dis- posed of to actual settlers under the homestead laws only, except as herein otherwise provided (except that section two thousand three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes shall not apply) : And provided further, That any person who hav- ing attempted to, but for any cause, failed to secure a title in fee to a homestead under exist- ing law, or who made entry under what is known as the commuted provision of the homestead law, shall be qualified to make a homestead entry upon said lands: And provided further, That the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors in the late civil war as defined, and de- scribed in sections twenty-three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes, shall not be abridged: And provided further, That each entry shall be in square form as nearly as practicable, and no person be per- mitted to enter more than one-quarter section thereof, but until said lands are opened for settle- ment by proclamation of the President, no person shall be permitted to enter upon and occupy the same, and no person violating this provision shall ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any right thereto.

The Secretary of the Interior may, after said proclamation and not before, permit entry of said lands for town-sites, under sections twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven and twenty-three hun- dred and eighty-eight of the Revised Statutes, but no such entry shall embrace more than one-half section of land.

That all the foregoing provisions with refer-

to the good sense and self-restraint of the settlers in regulating their own affairs until Congress could come to their aid. The lat- ter course was the one he adopted, though with reluctance .*

The proclamation for the opening of the Oklahoma lands was issued on March 23, providing that at noon on April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma lands, containing 1,887,800 acres, would be open for settlement. The proclamation is a document of more than ordinary interest in Oklahoma history, marking, as it does, the culmination of years of aggression against the integrity of the Indian Territory, and also the begin- ning of that period of history which closes with the extension of white man's govern-

ence to lands to be acquired from the Seminole Indians, including the provisions pertaining to forfeiture shall apply to and regulate the dis- posal of the lands acquired from the Muscogee or Creek Indians by article of cession and agree- ment made and concluded at the city of Wash- ington on the nineteenth day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eighty- nine.

Harrison's message in December, 1889, refer- ring to the Oklahoma opening the previous April, said: "Congress had provided no civil govern- ment 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 re- luctant to open the lands to settlement; but in view of the fact that several thousand persons, many of them with their families, had gathered upon the borders of the Indian Territory with a view to securing homesteads 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 a 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 districts had been established and the offices were opened for the transaction of business when the appointed time arrived."

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ment over all of the Indian country and the admission of Oklahoma to the Union.

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by said Act of Congress, approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine aforesaid, do hereby declare and make known, that so much of the lands, as aforesaid, acquired from or conveyed by the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians, and from or by the Seminole Nation of Indians, respectively, as is contained within the following described boundaries, viz .:

Beginning at a point where the degree of longi- tude ninety-eight west from Greenwich, as sur- veyed in the years eighteen hundred and fifty- eight and eighteen hundred and seventy-one, in- tersects the Canadian river; thence north along and with the said degree to a point where the same intersects the Cimarron river; thence up said river, along the right bank thereof, to a point where the same is intersected by the south line of what is known as the Cherokee lands lying west of the Arkansas river or as the "Cherokee Outlet," said line being the north line of the lands ceded by the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians to the United States by the treaty of June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six; thence, east along said line to a point where the same intersects the west line of the lands set apart as a reservation for the Pawnee Indians by act of Congress approved April tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, being the range line be- tween ranges four and five east of the Indian meridian; thence, south on said line to a point where the same intersects the middle of the main channel of the Cimarron river; thence, up said river, along the middle of the main channel there- of, to a point where the same intersects the range line between range one east and range one west (being the Indian meridian), which line forms the western boundary of the reservations set apart respectively for the Iowa and Kickapoo Indians, by executive orders, dated, respectively, August fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three; thence, south along said range line or meridian to a point where the same intersects the right bank of the North Fork of the Canadian river; thence, up said river, along the right bank thereof, to a point where the same is intersected by the west line of the reservation occupied by the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie, and the Absentee Shawnee Indians, set apart under the provisions of the treaty of February twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, between the United States and the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, and referred to in the act of Congress approved May twenty- three, eighteen hundred and seventy-two; thence,

south along the said west line of the aforesaid reservation to a point where the same intersecta the middle of the main channel of the Canadian river; thence, up the said river, along the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point opposite to the place of beginning; and thence north to the place of beginning (saving and excepting one acre of land in square form in the northwest corner of section nine, in township sixteen north, range two west, of the Indian meridian in Indian Territory, and also one acre of land in the south- east corner of the northwest quarter of section fif- teen, township sixteen north, range seven west, of the Indian meridian in the Indian Territory; which last described two acres are hereby reserved for Government use and control), will, at and after the hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April, next, and not before, be open for settlement, under the terms of, and subject to, all the conditions, limitations and re- strictions contained in said act of Congress, ap- proved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty- nine, and the laws of the United States applicable thereto.

And it is hereby expressly declared and made known, that no other parts or portions of the lands embraced within the Indian Territory than those herein specifically described, and declared to be open to settlement at the time above named and fixed, are to be considered as open to settle- ment under this proclamation or the Act of March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, aforesaid; and Warning is hereby again expressly given, that no person entering upon and occupy- ing said lands before said hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, hereinbefore fixed, will ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any rights thereto; and that the officers of the United States will be required to strictly enforce the provisions of the act of Con- gress to the above effect.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this Twenty- third day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirteenth.

(Seal) BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President: JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State."

"It is said that the proclamation for opening the Oklahoma country, as originally prepared in the interior department and sent to President

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The act of Congress of March 2d was the signal for a rapid concentration of home-seekers on all the borders surround- ing the Oklahoma lands, and with each day the number increased until the little band of faithful who for years had fol- lowed the leadership of Payne and Couch had swelled into an army even before the president's proclamation had given the final assurance of the opening. During the month that intervened between the date of the proclamation and the day of the open- ing, the waiting multitude was reinforced by additions from every portion of the country. Those who came to participate in the rush were not only the original boomers, nor confined to those actually de- sirous of finding homesteads, but comprised a great host of the curious, the speculative, and the adventurous element, who gravi- tated naturally to this scene of border ex- citement, and whose presence would con- tinue only so long as the incidents of the opening would satisfy their craving for the free and unrestrained life of a new country.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 31

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.) Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company Number of Pages: 645

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645