A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 39

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

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Here, then, is where perjury began to as- sert itself. Wilfully testifying falsely to a material question in these land contests, knowing the statements to be false or not believing them to be true, was declared by the United States courts to be perjury just as much as if the testimony had been given in court. It was also held that a false oath to any affidavit filed in the United States land office for use in any matter involving, legally, a contest is perjury, if all the other elements of perjury were pres- ent.

If the man who came legally from the line after 12 o'clock, noon, April 22, 1889, succeeded in getting the homestead entry, that is, if he got to the local land office first and his application for the homestead accompanied by the necessary affidavits was accepted first and a receipt issued, the other claimant would file a contest for prior set- tlement, in the trial of which the issue of

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the violation of the act of March 2nd, 1889, and of the president's proclamation was raised.

If the man who was in the country be- fore the hour of opening got his homestead entry of record in the local land office first, it became necessary for his opponent to file a contest with the proper corroboration, if he desired to further assert his claim to the land. In the latter case the contestant usu- ally alleged that the entryman had entered upon and occupied the land contrary to law and the president's proclamation, specifying, if he could, the circumstances of the dis- qualification, and offering to pay the costs of such contest.

Thus was created a new word in the vocabulary of the English language. The man who violated the acts of Congress and the president's proclamation opening Oklahoma to settlement came to be known as a "sooner." He who was lawfully in the country during the prohibited period be- cause of his employment as deputy United States marshal, soldier, clerk, railroad em- ploye and the like received the distinctive title of "legal sooner," while the one who, illegally in the country, admitted his pres- ence therein, but claimed a right to be there as long as he did not "enter upon and oc- cupy" a particular tract till after 12 o'clock, noon, April 22, 1889, never acquired any other appellation than that of a plain, ordi- nary, every-day "sooner."

The latter and the so-called "legal sooner," however, deserve considerable com- mendation for the force of character dis- played amidst the most seductive tempta- tions. These, being on the grounds at the hour of opening, settled upon tracts of land of great possible future value, some of which, adjoining Oklahoma City, literally became worth millions of dollars, and yet, with a rugged honesty worthy of the high-

est praise, these men stood upon the facts and their interpretation of the law and re- fused to commit perjury, when perjury meant to them, perhaps, a competency for life and in some instances wealth beyond the most fantastic dreams of avarice.

While the sooner lines were pretty well defined from the beginning, contestants and contestees were somewhat at sea as to what would be the final interpretation of the "sooner" clause, until on October 1, 1890, Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble handed down a decision in the case of the Townsite of Kingfisher vs. John H. Wood and William D. Fossett, in which the fol- lowing language was used:

"The evident intention of Congress was to give to all persons desiring homes in Oklahoma an equal chance to obtain them. The territory was opened for homestead settlement to any qualified homesteader, but under the same conditions. No partiality was intended to be shown to any individ- ual or class of individuals. Those who had been endeavoring for years to enter upon and occupy Oklahoma were confronted by the authority of government. The statute meant to lay a heavy hand on any one who persisted in the unlawful purpose of enter- ing upon and occupying this territory for settlement. The law was meant to be su- perior to the spirit of aggression so long prevalent-the spirit that had gathered those bands about this Indian reservation, whose avowed purpose was to enter upon and occupy it, not under the land laws of the United States, nor by any law, but that of the armed hand, and to conform to no statute or treaty until future necessity might compel. The evil was apparent. The law was meant to meet it. It condemned the purpose, and intended to render it fruit- less.

* * *

"The language of the law was broad as it could be made, prohibiting any one from entering upon the lands for the purpose of settling the same. * * * The evident purpose of the law was to prohibit one or

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another entering the territory before the proclaimed hour, with a view and purpose of settlement of any part thereof. No one could be there, legally with such purpose, in whole or in part. Whether there before the time by some permit or without it, the one who then entertained the intention of mak- ing a settlement and to use the advantage which his presence gave, to the exclusion of others, was violating the spirit of the law, and it destroyed his claim when at- tempted. If he had declared it before, he should have been expelled; if he exhibited such preconceived purpose by his subse- quent act, he not only could not lawfully claim any particular tract, but forfeited all right to future acquisition. *

* * * *

"To hold that the few with permits, or especially engaged within the limits of these lands any more than those there without license, could pick out their claims in ad- vance of the hour of opening, and pounce upon them at the very moment the signal was given to the others to start on their long race, would be to support pretension and favoritism and punish honorable obedi- ence to authority. It is neither the law nor the equity of the case, and will not be . allowed. He who, being within these lands by special authority, as deputy, trainman, wagonmaster, or other, had the purpose to jump upon a particular tract, and who gave the evidence of his prior intent by his con- duct immediately thereafter, violated the statute. Such persons had entered upon and occupied this territory for the purpose of settlement-before the hour fixed in the proclamation-whatever license they may hold up or self-indulgent and self-deceiving pretext they may now present. They were not licensed or employed thus to defeat the law and injure their neighbors.

"Both classes were prohibited from ac- quiring rights to these lands: those who were in the territory at and before the hour designated in the proclamation without pre- tense or special license ; and those who were there by special authority, or for a special purpose, but attempted to pervert their presence to secure claims before others held on the border could arrive, even from the most distant parts thereof."

A "sooner" having thus been defined, there was a scurrying of claimants to cover. The "legal sooner" and the one who ad- mitted his presence in the country during the prohibited period hastened to try to fix up some sort of a settlement or compromise with his opponents, while the genuine simon-pure "sooner," he who left the line between two days, and hid in the brush on or in the vicinity of the land he subsequent- ly claimed as a homestead, loudly pro- claimed his presence, during the prohibited period, on the line outside of the country opened to settlement, and prepared to prove it, too, by as many of his neighbors as necessary, with whom he became acquainted in the brush where he himself had lain con- cealed when the soldiers were scouting in the vicinity.

Out of this condition of affairs grew se- cret combinations and organizations made up of men who had violated the law. The lands in controversy between themselves and others were too valuable for them to meekly allow their contestants to get them without every resistance in their power.

Some of these secret organizations had a carefully drawn set of by-laws and consti- tution. Regular meetings were held at the homes of the members at fixed times, and at other times witnesses were trained and drilled in the testimony they were ex- pected to give in a particular case. Hence by means of the perfect understanding be- tween the members of the various organi- zations, it became possible to furnish a "preponderance" of the testimony on any particular point in any case of one of its members. Indeed, a legal homesteader was usually overwhelmed in the number of wit- nesses introduced by the "sooner," and at one period in the early day history it almost seemed impossible for the rightful applicant to prevail. These secret organizations were

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usually composed of men in particular neighborhoods, but their sympathies and the ramifications of their interests were such that evidence was furnished from one to the other indiscriminately, although always on the basis of quid pro quo, on the theory that they were engaged in a common cause in which each member would be strength- ened by the success of every other.

There was the Crutcho Organization, so named because the most of its members lived in the valley of a creek known by that name and along the North Canadian river, One of the by-laws of the Crutcho Or- ganization was especially forceful and, as was no doubt intended, capable of any ex- treme interpretation the members saw fit to put upon it. It was: of which the Crutcho was a tributary. These lands are among the richest in America, the soil rivaling that of the valley of the Nile. It is hardly a marvel, therefore, that many persons fought with desperation to "Any person found guilty of violating any of the rules of this organization or of with according to a two-thirds vote of the members present." get such a home, where north and south meet and all the products of both grow. carrying news to the enemy shall be dealt side by side in such abundance as is not equaled in the one section or the other.

Another organization was known as the Lightning Creek Combination, so called, also, after the name of the valley in which most of its members were claiming lands. This "combination" was located south of Oklahoma City near the North Canadian river, and on some of the disputed lands is today Capitol Hill, a suburb of Oklahoma City, with a population of four thousand persons.

Then there was the Bohemian Outfit, composed of forty or more naturalized citi- zens of that nationality, who "soonered" the valley of the Mustang, a section rivaling in beauty and productiveness the broad, rich, black, level bottoms of the Crutcho. While the latter organization was composed prin- cipally of foreigners, yet they exchanged witnesses with some of the Americans, so that altogether in the end these combina- tions became an amalgamated whole. In fact, so difficult was it to identify an indi-

vidual Bohemian that it seemed almost im- possible to break the stories cunningly told and abundantly corroborated. So thorough was the preparation of their cases that in the civil suits they won everything every- where till reversed by the secretary of the interior after criminal convictions. The exchange of testimony with the Americans, however, proved their undoing, for once the American organizations went to pieces the perjury of the Bohemians became easily ap- parent and as easily proven.

There was another similar combination on the South Canadian river, another be- tween Yukon and El Reno, and numerous small combines in other small rich valleys in various locations, and many exclusive sets surrounding Oklahoma City.

In some of these combinations were men of desperate character, many of whom later on served terms in prison for other crimes or died "with their boots on."

Such, briefly, was the condition of things at and near Oklahoma City at the time the United States government determined to stop the crime of perjury by driving the perjurers into the penitentiary.

Some lawyers contended that false swear- ing wilfully to a material matter in the land office was not perjury and that there was no law to punish persons so accused. Those who had been committing the crime openly and boldly defied the prosecution. The first grand jury that sat in the United States

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side of the territorial court in January, 1891, brought in seventy-five indictments for perjury. The foreman of the grand jury was a "sooner," but belonged to the class that believed that he was violating no law as long as he did not go upon the tract of land he sought, before the hour of opening, and spurned the thought of com- mitting the crime of perjury. His name was John A. Blackburn.

These indictments were followed rapidly by other indictments and the most vigor- ous prosecutions ever known in a western court. After being indicted, the accused persons defied prosecution, and boldly told the officers that they could never get con- victions, no matter what the government proved. Threats of assassination were fre- quent and ofttimes above board, but those charged with the duty of breaking up the hotbed of perjury relentlessly pursued the prosecutions.

Hon. John G. Clark, formerly of Lan- caster, Wisconsin, was the presiding judge, with Will H. Clark as clerk of court, while Hon. Horace Speed, of Guthrie, United States attorney for Oklahoma, and W. F. Harn, special agent, of Oklahoma City, acted for the United States government. Assistant United States Attorney John F. Stone and Special Agent John W. Scothorn rendered material assistance, although the work of the two latter was confined mostly to prosecutions in the vicinity of Guthrie, where similar "sooner" and perjury com- binations, but on a much smaller scale, had been formed and maintained.

The first few trials consumed as much as four weeks each, day and night, and were fought desperately by the several de- fendants and their attorneys. A conspiracy was unearthed, in which it was planned to dynamite the court house for the pur- pose of killing Judge Clark, United States

Attorney Speed and Special Agent Harn, but the plans of the assassins were thwarted by the early discovery of the details through a confession of one of the accused, who subsequently served time in prison for mur- der. A bomb was thrown under the house of Special Agent Harn, but the fuse was put out by the bomb striking some bushes. At another time Deputy United States Mar- shal Frank Cochran stayed the hand of a defendant perjurer's son-in-law, as the lat- ter was about to plunge a dirk into the back of Special Agent Harn, as the latter was leaving the court room. Other in- stances of this kind, never publicly made known, were numerous and frequent.

These acts of intimidation, however, failed to stop the monotonous and incessant grind of the court. Conviction followed conviction as rapidly as the cases were sub- mitted to the juries. Many defendants left the country as soon as they heard that their cases were under investigation by a grand jury, which they could pretty well figure out by the names of the witnesses before that body, while many of those indicted jumped their bonds, and never again ap- peared in the territory. The officers were deluged with offers from defendants to turn state's evidence, and many detailed confessions were had that were never used. Although the guilt of the defendants was established by untainted testimony, in all cases, yet usually the prosecution was able and did use the evidence of several accom- plices for the main purpose of showing the secret methods of the organizations.

After the backbone of perjury had been broken, it was no unusual sight for de- fendants to appear in court and enter pleas of guilty with a request for immediate sen- tence. On one morning, in single file, no less than eleven defendants appeared be- fore Judge Clark and asked that they be

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permitted to change their former pleas of not guilty to pleas of guilty as charged in the indictments.

The Bohemian Outfit were indicted at Oklahoma City, Guthrie and Wichita for perjury committed in cases tried at Okla- homa City, Guthrie and Kingfisher. At the time of the giving of the evidence at King- fisher the United States court at Wichita had jurisdiction over the territory, which accounts for the prosecutions in Kansas.

There was little else than perjury tried at Oklahoma City in the year 1891, yet the docket was far from cleared of cases charging that crime as the end of the last term of court drew near. The Bohemians were notified that in a few days their in- dictments at Guthrie would be tried. But a trial was not what they were looking for, and some sixteen or more hurried to Wichita, where they were under bond and asked the United States marshal to lock them up, in order that their bondsmen might be exonerated. This was done, and when it was discovered that their voluntary re- turn to prison was merely a ruse to get the defendants out of the jurisdiction of the Guthrie court, the Kansas officers vol- unteered to return the accused to Guthrie for trial. Inasmuch as the defendants and their attorneys seemed to prefer the Kan- sas jurisdiction, all of the cases were set down for immediate trial in that court be fore United States Judge Williams.

A desperate effort was made by the de- fendants' attorneys to avoid trial. Messrs. Speed and Harn were charged with having Oklahoma terrorized by their prosecutions, and it was claimed that the defendants could not get a fair trial, because of the fear of their witnesses to testify. After being forced into trial, however, the same old gang of witnesses was on hand for the de- fense with the same old brazen stories. The

prosecution examined nearly one hundred witnesses on behalf of the government, hammering to pieces every material state- ment made by a perjury witness. A jury returned verdicts of guilty against fifteen defendants in three days. Since the con- victing jury came from every part of the state of Kansas and had little or no ac- quaintance with conditions in Oklahoma, the verdicts were a complete vindication of the Oklahoma officers. When prominent defendants went upon the stand and made a full confession of perjury and suborna- tion, the hitherto almost impregnable de- fense wasted away like a mist before the rising sun. One defendant escaped. His indictment was dismissed on the motion of the United States attorney for a defect in the copying.

Hon. Joseph W. Ady, United States at- torney of Kansas ; Hon. Pliny Soper, assist- ant United States attorney, and W. F. Harn prosecuted, while Stanley, of Wichita, later governor of the state, defended. Judge Williams was so greatly impressed with the completeness of the government's prosecu- tion to the minutest detail, that he volun- tarily remarked that it was the most re- markable series of prosecutions that ever came to his attention on account of the pre- paredness of the prosecution to meet every point in law or evidence that might possi- bly have been raised by the defense.

These fifteen defendants were sentenced to the penitentiary for terms of from a year and a day to four years at Leaven- worth.

There were other trials of perjury cases, but the crime had been stamped out, and the later prosecutions were of a desultory character. Numerous cases, also, were tried that involved perjury on matters other than the "sooner" question, but they were few when compared to the whole number

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tried. During the service of Special Agent Harn prosecuting perjury not a single ac- quittal took place.

In most cases the rightful claimant in the end prevailed, notwithstanding repeated defeats in the civil suits. And yet there are instances where valuable claims were held by "sooners," and all efforts to dislodge them proved of no avail. The suspected persons were smart enough to keep their matters to themselves, but as one or more would part with his interest he would often confide the true facts to a friend.

Hon. Caleb R. Brooks, Hon. T. F. Mc- Mechan and Hon. Roy Hoffman, United States attorney and assistants, assisted by W. F. Harn, then a practicing attorney, who succeeded the officers under the Harrison administration, followed the early day prosecutions with commendable vigor, but the crime became unpopular and the great State of Oklahoma is the better for it.

After almost twenty years have expired, in looking back over the facts in those historic trials, in which at least one hun- dred and fifty persons were indicted for perjury, and two-thirds of that number either convicted, made fugitives from jus- tice or allowed to turn state's evidence, the writer does not recall a single instance of a prosecution by him not justified by the facts.

Some valuable information touching the settlement of Oklahoma City and the dis- putes over the homestead claims adjoining the townsite is contained in the "Findings of facts and conclusions thereon by the register and receiver of the Guthrie land office," in the case of "Townsite Settlers of Oklahoma City vs. Frank M. Gault et al.," in the United States land office in 1890. An abstract of these findings appears herewith :

Sections 3 and 4 of township 11 north, range 3 west, and the southeast quarter of section 33 and the southwest quarter of section 34, town- ship 12 north, range 3 west, are bottom land, but the north half of sections 33 and 34 are rolling uplands, with a gradual slope to the south. The beginning of this elevation is about one thousand feet south of the south line of the north half of those sections. . There is a small ravine on the line dividing sections 33 and 34, each section having a gradual slope thereto.

Prior to noon, April 22, 1889, there had been con- structed and was in operation a railroad, known as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, running in a southwesterly direction down the ravine, and on the line dividing the sections mentioned. At a point about 800 feet north of the point where the sections corner was located the station, freight and passenger depot, side tracks and water tank. Near the depot was the postoffice.

At noon on that day about thirty people were at the station and from one hundred to one hun- dred and fifty in that vicinity. At noon, Charles Chamberlain, a civil engineer and a resident of Great Bend, Kan., was at the station with a plat which he had previously made, of a proposed town to be known as Oklahoma City, to embrace the. north half of the northeast quarter of section 4, the southeast quarter of section 33 and the south. half of the northeast quarter of section 33. He was at the station to survey the ground into lots, blocks, streets and alleys at the instance of a private citizen, whose name he refused to disclose in this case. At two minutes past noon he, with six assistants, began the survey about 1,728 feet north of the south line of section 33, and ran the south line of Main street west and at right angles with the railroad a distance of two blocks. He then returned and ran the east line of Broad- way south from Main one block and a half. Then he ran the east line to the north line of the south half of the northeast quarter of section 33, this line being run at one o'clock, and small stakes one inch square were driven on the lines of the survey. Returning to Main street he extended the south line to the west line of the east half of section 33. Broadway was located at right angles with Main street about 400 feet west of the east line of section 33.

At once, after the survey was begun, the peo- ple present began to stake lots on Main and Broadway, and on the commons on the southeast quarter of section 33. About 150 people settled upon this southeast quarter before two o'clock and ten minutes p. m. of that day.

Several hundred of the thousands of people who had congregated at Purcell before the opening day had decided to locate at Oklahoma station,

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and to establish a town to be known as Oklahoma City on the east half of section 33. The train on the Santa Fe left Purcell at noon, and before it arrived at Oklahoma station it was arranged that one of their number, Peter G. Burnes, a civil engineer, should survey the townsite. The train arrived at 2:10 p. m., and two thousand of the people thereon left the train and went in various directions to locate lots, but the greater number went west and north of the depot and settled upon the southeast quarter of section 33. After the arrival of the train Peter G. Burnes made prepar- ations to survey the townsite and devoted the re- mainder of the day in finding the township line, from which he intended to start. He first sur- veyed Reno avenue, located on the township line, then California avenue, then Grand avenue. He was about three weeks doing this work. About the middle of May he began to survey the north half of the northeast quarter and was prevented from doing so by force. The differences between the Chamberlain and Burnes surveys were subse- quently adjusted, which surveys locate Oklahoma City on the east half of section 33, but the north half of the northeast quarter was never surveyed.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 39

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