A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 58

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

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"In the Democratic primaries for the nomination of state and county officers the Anti-Saloon League felt impelled to take a part, even though it was recognized that it would be seriously misunderstood. It was considered essential to the cause of prohibition that the first governor of the new state should be in sympathy with that policy. Therefore, when it became appar- ent that one candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor was an avowed friend of the saloon, another definitely op- posed to prohibition and in favor of local option, while a third was completely com- mitted to state-wide prohibition as submit- ted to the people, the league could do no other than to 'get into the game.' The tre-

mendous popularity of Mr. Cruce, his ster- ling integrity and unblemished moral char- acter, made him a difficult candidate to op- pose. But the question of prohibition was paramount and the league's tremendous in- fluence was displayed in the triumphant nomination of Hon. Charles N. Haskell for governor.

"After the nominations were made and the campaign came on for the election, the league kept free from party alliance as far as possible. Each candidate for governor declared that prohibition if adopted, would be enforceable and would be enforced if he were elected governor. The league was busy enough in handling the campaign for state-wide prohibition. Every county was organized and every city, village and rural community was reached by hosts of speak- ers and a flood of literature. Every county committee had its own list of speakers and the state office handled forty other speakers who covered the whole state. About ten million pages of literature were printed and distributed from state headquarters. The last six weeks of the campaign proved to be a great whirlwind in favor of prohibi- tion. Business men and politicians became thoroughly interested and enthusiastic ad- vocates of saloon suppression. The liquor men became so domineering and arrogant in their supposed control of the political sit- uation that large numbers of people who were not prohibitionists from principle and not 'teetotalers' in practice enlisted warmly in the effort to carry prohibition in the new state. Some keen observers of the situa- tion declared that the liquor men by their bulldozing methods were making more votes for prohibition than the Anti-Saloon League.

"An enormous amount of money was ex- pended, most of it in a secret way, by the liquor interests of Oklahoma and of the

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nation. A so-called citizens' league was maintained in Guthrie and a flood of liter- ature was sent out to all parts of the state. A few papers here and there published their literature at paid advertising rates, but a large majority of the daily and weekly papers refused to print their mat- ter under any circumstances. It became evident long before the vote was taken that prohibition was a sure winner. The result was an overwhelming victory for prohibi- tion. At first it seemed that the majority must reach thirty thousand, but it failed to do so because the Indian Territory vote did not come up to the earlier expectations. Thousands of votes that were actually cast had to be thrown out because of irregular- ity. And so the majority instead of being about twenty thousand as the votes actu- ally cast would probably have been, as

counted and canvassed was 18,103. The total votes for prohibition was 130,361, against 112,258. Seventeen counties voted wet out of the seventy-five, Oklahoma, Lo- gan and Osage on the Oklahoma side and fourteen on the Indian Territory side. The majority on the Oklahoma side for prohibi- tion was 14,412, and on the Indian Terri- tory side 3,691.

"It had been supposed by many that In- dian Territory would vote prohibition upon Oklahoma. But not so. The Oklahoma majority was many times larger than that in Indian Territory. It had been supposed also by many that the country would vote prohibition on the cities. But instead of that the cities almost all gave majorities for prohibition or gave majorities against so small that the effect was virtually the same."

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CHAPTER XXIX.

OKLAHOMA'S HERITAGE

November 16, 1907, the long story of the evolution of a state was completed. Okla- homa was a state. Its internal development subsequent to that event, and its position and influence in the union of states, are subjects that must be left for consideration until the present can be viewed through the perspective of years. It remains to account for the resources of material wealth and the sum of civic and moral ad- vancement which Oklahoma possessed when the goal of statehood was reached.

In a material sense, Oklahoma has often been called "The Land of Now." It is in many ways a land of opportunity. When

' An editorial in an eastern paper in April, 1889, indicates one point of view in regard to the first Oklahoma settlers. It was a true state- ment of the situation in the main. It follows:

"A large number of persons who are preparing to rush into Oklahoma as soon as it is opened to settlement will be badly disappointed and before long will return to their old homes in disgust. Oklahoma is not a paradise, and even the settlers who get there in time to receive choice pieces of land and avoid controversy with claim-jumpers will have no easy time before them. They must go to Oklahoma provided with means of subsist- ence for the summer and to carry them along at least until their first crops can be sent to market. Not one in a hundred of the city-bred men who are arranging to take claims in Oklahoma will re- main there long enough to perfect their titles. They should understand that the prospect before them is one of hard work, plain living, economy and self-denial. They must be prepared to aban- don wholly the dissipations and the amusements to which they have been accustomed, and accept the frugal living and hard toil of the pioneer farmers. .

"Still there is opportunity for hard-working, self-denying poor men to become land owners and

its lands were first thrown open to settle- ment, thousands rushed in who had failed of success in other states, hoping to find here the golden gain that misdirected en- ergy or misfortune had denied elsewhere. It would be interesting to know how many realized their expectations.1 As a reading of the careers of many of the individuals whose personal sketches appear in the sec- ond volume will show, there are numerous examples of the "pioneers," not only "89'ers," but "Cherokee Strippers" and set- tlers on other reservations, who stuck to their posts, outlived the storm and stress period of Oklahoma's history,? and are

make themselves independent farmers in Okla- homa. They will not have to submit to any such hardships as bore on the successive generations of pioneers who led the advance of civilization from Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Missouri river. They will have no struggle with Indians or wild beasts. They will not have to hew and grub farms out of heavy forests. They will not find them- selves with unsalable produce on their hands and compelled to burn corn for fuel. The railroads will go with them, carrying all the supplies they are able to buy and furnishing quick transporta- tion of products to market. Towns will be built in a few days, and in a year the country will be thickly settled. The old pioneers of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa might claim that the Oklahoma settlers will in fact experience little of the hard- ships of life in a new country, and will have no right to be styled frontiersmen."

" The proclamation for the opening of Okla- homa did not come in time to permit the majority of the settlers to grow crops in 1889. The follow- ing year was an unusually dry one, not only in Oklahoma but in many of the older states. The crops failed in part or wholly, and these two suc- cessive years of meager production, coupled with the fact that many of the settlers had experienced

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today prospered and contented citizens of the land which they developed. Yet there can be no doubt that the dominant class in business affairs today consist largely of those who came later, after the excitement and confusion of the first years had sub- sided, and conditions had attained the sober pulse and custom that prevailed in other states.

It is a matter of history that ten years wrought a great change in Oklahoma ter- ritory. The composition of the popula- tion in 1890 and at the beginning of the

drought in Kansas and Texas before coming to Oklahoma, caused great destitution and suffering. An appeal went to Congress, which appropriated generously, and the two principal railroads through the territory furnished seed wheat to the settlers in the spring of 1891 at actual cost and waited payment without interest until the abundant har- vests of 1891 enabled the settlers to pay most of their obligations.

In his special message to Congress of August 8, 1890, President Harrison reviewed conditions in the territory as follows:

"I have received, under date of July 29 ul- timo, a communication from Hon. George W. Steele, governor of the territory of Oklahoma, in which among other things he says:

" 'A delegation from township 16, range 1, in this county, has just left me, who came to repre- sent that there are at this time twenty-eight fam- ilies in that township who are in actual need of the necessaries of life, and they give it as their opinion that their township is not an exception, and that in the very near future a large propor- tion of the settlers of this territory will have to have assistance.

" 'This I have looked for, but have hoped to bridge over until after the legislature meets, when I thought some arrangements might be made for taking care of these needy people; but with little taxable property in the territory, and very many necessary demands to be made and met, I doubt if the legislature will be able to make such pro- vision until a crop is raised next year as will be adequate to the demands.

" 'Now I know whereof I speak, and I say there are a great many people in this territory who have not the necessary means of providing meals for a day to come and are being helped by their very poor neighbors. No one regrets more than I do the necessity of making the foregoing

twentieth century was essentially different, due not alone to increased numbers but to a change in character as well. Crop fail- ures and a prolonged financial panic were retarding conditions that prevailed throughout the first decade of Oklahoma's existence. Yet the progress of the terri- tory continued at a rate that is nothing less than remarkable. During this period Okla- homa not only expanded territorially and in material development, but also evolved a new people."

It was merely a bit of rhetoric to call

statement, and I have hoped to bridge the mat- ter over, as I have said before, until the legislature would meet and see if some provision could be made.

" 'I now see the utter hopelessness of such a course, and I beg of you to call the attention of Congress to the condition of our people, with the earnest hope that provision may be made whereby great suffering may be relieved; and I assure you that so far as I am able to prevent it not one ounce of provisions or a cent of money contrib- uted to the above need shall be improperly used.'

"Information received by me from other sources leads me to believe that Governor Steele is alto- gether right in his impression that there will be, unless relief is afforded either by public appro- priation or by organized individual effort, wide- spread suffering among the settlers in Oklahoma. Many of these people expended in travel and in providing shelter for their families all of their accumulated means. The crop prospects for this year are by reason of drought quite unfavorable, and the ability of the territory itself to provide relief must be inadequate during this year."

' A writer in the Forum in 1898 says: "Most of Oklahoma's population is composed of the peo- ple whose families, pushed westward from the Atlantic coast by advancing civilization, have lived on the border for generations. The instinct to seek out new homes and fresh adventures is inborn. Other people mingling with these acquire the same restlessness." Writing in 1900 in the Atlantic Monthly, the same observer finds it nec- essary to revise many of the opinions expressed in the first article. "While during the four or five years after the rush the territory was in ill repute, and harbored many who sought temporary residence there for sinister motives, a great change has since come about. One must make over his ideas concerning Oklahoma."

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Oklahoma "a place where civilization's fail- ures are made conspicuous successes," but in the wealth of material resources with which the new state is endowed it seems that here is a land where both the weak and the strong may share in the riches that a kindly nature lavishes upon the possessors of a new country in America.

With an area of 70,000 square miles, which would mean approximately a quar- ter section for every one of a quarter of a million inhabitants, Oklahoma has agricul- tural possibilities that are unsurpassed in variety of products. From the Choctaw country in the extreme southeast to Beaver county in the northwest, the variation of rainfall is greater than in any states of the Union except California, Texas, Washing- ton and Oregon. The altitude, variety of the soil, and diversity of natural resources are correspondingly great.

In Oklahoma, American corn, or maize, grows from Kansas to the Red river. In Oklahoma territory it was for some years considered an unsafe and unprofitable crop, but in 1905 the crop in this territory was sixty million bushels, and was increasing annually. In adjoining fields, in practically every county of the state, cotton produces an average yield of about half a bale to the acre. In the south half of the state are found the most favorable conditions for this crop. According to the report of the sec- retary of the territorial board of agricul- ture for 1906, Oklahoma stood at the head of the list of states in point of yield of cot- ton per acre. Cotton is an old crop in

Secretary C. A. McNabb, of the Oklahoma board of agriculture, in his report for 1906 said: "I believe I am perfectly safe in saying that on April 22, 1889, there were not one dozen fruit trees that had been planted by the hand of man in all Oklahoma. There were, however, a few or- chards on Indian reservations to the east, south and west of it, the planting of which had been in-

southern Indian Territory, Indian planters, with slave labor, having engaged in grow- ing it since the tribes were removed to the west. In the newly opened counties of western Oklahoma and in what was once No Man's Land, broom corn is a staple crop, and in total production is said to be the largest crop of its kind in the world.

Oklahoma is now often called "the al- falfa state." Some years ago the hay crop was confined almost exclusively to the na- tive prairie grasses. Clover and timothy were not grown satisfactorily. But now, especially along the fertile river valleys, the luxuriant alfalfa produces four or five crops a year, and pays high profit on the care and initial expense necessary to start this kind of grass. In both eastern and western Oklahoma, the rugged hills in spring and summer present a scene of ver- dure that is the more attractive because it affords pasturage to thousands of cattle. Prairie hay made Oklahoma and Indian Territory favorite grazing ground for the cattlemen before the era of white settle- ment.

In recent years the territories now com- bined in statehood have become noted for their horticultural products. Peaches, mel- ons, and small fruits of all kinds are almost in a native element here, and both in quan- tity and quality are considered unsurpassed. The early explorers noted the presence of wild-plum groves and other wild fruits, and with the advent of white enterprise the orchards have become a large factor in the total value of agriculture.^

duced by Indian agents and army officers. These had proved remarkably productive notwithstand- ing they had been somewhat neglected or at least had not received the careful consideration they probably would have received at the hands of professional horticulturists. However, the suc- cess which had attained in them and in the or- chards of eastern Kansas served to spur the set-

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Indian Territory brought to the state a wealth of mineral resources that places Oklahoma among the leading states in the production of coal, oil and gas." Its depos- its of rock asphalt are but partially devel- oped, but promise in time to be one of the richest sources of supply of that material in the world. In the old Cherokee Nation are quarries of vari-colored marble. The most conspicuous building in Oklahoma City has been constructed of the white

tler to prompt action, and the work of tree plant- ing was begun immediately after the opening. The ground on which they were planted in many instances had not been disturbed by the plow, holes being dug in the virgin sod to receive the roots of the young trees .. It is needless to say to the experienced horticulturist that fully 90 per cent of the trees thus planted soon succumbed. Undismayed, the operation was repeated as soon thereafter as ground could be broken and gotten into fair condition, with more pleasing results.

"Early in the history of Oklahoma the horti- cultural enthusiasts met and perfected the or- ganization of a Territorial Horticultural Society, which has been maintained to the present time, embracing in its membership many of the largest fruit growers in the two territories. This organ- ization, in cooperation with the agricultural ex- periment station, has materially influenced the planting of varieties suitable to the climate and soil, encouraged the organization of local fruit shipping clubs, preached the gospel of full pack- age of first-class fruit; and in many other ways has it contributed to the high degree of success attained in fruit culture.

"Oklahoma thus early arose to distinction and prominence as a peach country, which reputation she has steadfastly maintained since that time. "These conditions apply not alone to Oklahoma but to the Indian Territory as well. The writer has visited orchards in the Indian Territory that are the equal of anything of the kind found any- where; peach trees set twenty-five feet apart each way, eight to ten years ago, with branches now interlacing from three to five feet, with a growth so dense as to shut out from the earth all sunlight when the trees are in foliage. There are found the oldest orchards of the two territories, but the acreage devoted to fruit in Oklahoma is consider- ably in excess of that in the Indian Territory, which is due to several causes, chief of which is the absence of the white man's farm holdings. Until quite recent years the titles to all farm lands

blocks from this source. Granite abounds in various parts of the state, incalculable beds of gypsum lie in the west, while in the Wichita mountains and in the mountainous region of southern Oklahoma deposits of iron, zinc and even gold and silver are found, and may prove profitable in time.

The coal production of Oklahoma in 1907, according to the report of the United States geological survey, was valued at seven and a half million dollars. The coal

were vested in the Indians, and although farmed by the white man, in but few instances did he feel justified in planting orchards on leased lands which he had no assurance of controlling when the trees were old enough to bear.

"The world-famous Elberta finds in these ter- ritories its natural environments and grows to its greatest perfection, and the major portion of the peach trees now growing are of this valuable va- riety. Individual specimens of fruit measuring ten inches in circumference and weighing that many ounces are not uncommon, and, too, grown on trees burdened with all the fruit possible for them to bear. Orchards of from ten to fifteen thousand trees of this variety are becoming a com- mon sight in Oklahoma."

" Says State Geologist C. N. Gould:

"The new state of Oklahoma is very rich in minerals, so rich that it is excelled in the amount and variety of its minerals by very few states.

"Oklahoma has 6,000,000,000 tons of unmined coal, produced last year 40,000,000 barrels of oil, and has hundreds of gas wells, yielding all the way up to 50,000,000 cubic feet daily. Neither the coal fields nor the oil and gas fields have been developed up to anything near their capacity. The abundance of these fields insures power for many generations. Besides there is a vast amount of undeveloped water power.

"Among raw products Oklahoma has 100,000,- 000,000 tons of glass sand, 3,000,000,000 tons of rock asphalt, 125,000,000,000 tons of gypsum, and salt water going to waste sufficient to make 2,000 tons of salt a day. The deposits of limestone, marble, sandstone, granite, gabro, valuable clays and Portland cement material are all practically inexhaustible and are widely distributed in the state. There are also deposits of iron, lead, zinc, tripoli, novaculite and volcanic ash, all undevel- oped. With this array of valuable material Okla- homa is manufacturing practically nothing. Not one per cent of the mineral resources is now de- veloped."

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fields are a broad belt, running from the north line of the state on both sides the Verdigris river as far south as Atoka, lying in the former Cherokee, Creek and Choc- taw nations. The Choctaw fields are the most extensive, and in the allotment to the Choctaws and Chickasaws nearly half a million acres of coal lands were "segre- gated," that is, set apart from the lands that could be assigned for individual home- steads, and reserved for the benefit, under a leasing system, of the entire citizenship of the tribes. Besides this segregated area, it is estimated that an equal amount of coal underlies individual allotments, and the state geologist believes the amount of coal available in Oklahoma to be six billion tons.

The working of the oil and gas deposits in northeastern Oklahoma has produced nothing less than a stupendous transforma- tion of that country within the past ten years. Nowhere can the power, and one might also say grandeur, of man's industry be better realized than among the forest of derricks that cover the landscape from Sapulpa to Bartlesville. In the western part of the state, the waving grain fields, the herds of cattle, and the broad prospect of agricultural prosperity cause delight and even surprise in the beholder who sees the results of civilization in producing such marvels of wealth. But the same observer, viewing the effects of a giant industry in the oil and gas fields, is possessed of awe and a reverence before the great mysteries of nature which man has unraveled. Here men have unlocked the pent-up forces of the earth, and have captured and turned into the channels of commerce a fluid wealth greater than the value of all the mines of gold in the dreams of the avari- cious Coronado as he marched through this land nearly four centuries ago. The mere statement that the "mid-continent" oil

fields of Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Kansas in 1906 produced 22,250,000 barrels of oil, more than the total product of any other state or any two states except Cali- fornia, gives no idea of what those figures really mean. In 1902 the same fields pro- duced less than 400,000 barrels, but that marked practically the beginning of pro- duction in Indian Territory. The most convincing manner in which to compare the development of the oil industry is in noting the marvelous advance of the oil country in other ways. Ten years ago, Tulsa was a village. Today, located in the heart of the oil region, it is the metropolis of northeastern Oklahoma with ten thou- sand inhabitants. The atmosphere of the city fairly pulsates with the energy and en- thusiasm of its enterprising people, and though everywhere are the evidences of freshness and newness, the improvements of the municipality and the commercial ac- tivities rival those of any city of its size in the southwest.

Oklahoma's inheritance from the past consists of more than lands and the riches underneath. The state government was organized on the basis of a million and a half population. Over three-fourths of this population had entered since the open- ing of '89. The development of Okla- homa's social community has taken place within the past twenty years. However, it would be impossible to say that the history recorded in Indian Territory during the half century before the coming of the whites left no results upon the people of today. Oklahoma has many disadvantages of the past to outgrow. The amalgamation of the Indian tribes with American civiliza- tion presents insignificant problems com- pared with the conditions that grew out of the existence of this alien community for

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 58

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