A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 59

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

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

many years surrounded by states. In the surging advance of settlement westward, a vicious element has always been borne on the crest of the wave. Kansas had her reign of outlawry. The meeting of Ameri- can and Spanish civilizations in Texas pro- duced conditions favorable to crime, and border ruffianism for many years infested that state. New Mexico, Colorado and Montana all experienced the evils of fron- tier existence. And California was the most conspicuous example of all.

But while the frontier, under the rapid expansion during the middle of the century, receded to the Pacific, and one state after another disposed of its dissolute and open corruption, the Indian Territory remained -a stagnant pool in the midst of the bustling, self-purifying activity of Ameri- can life. For years the Indian Territory offered the securest refuge for the out -. lawed of the nation, so that one of the strongest arguments offered for extending state lines around Indian Territory was based upon the necessity of changing the "state of semi-chaos and the farce of gov- ernment" that existed in the Territory un- der the ineffectual federal control. "I have good reason to suspect," wrote Governor Fishback of Arkansas to President Cleve- land, "that a very large percentage of the bank and train robberies which take place west of the Alleghanies and east of the Rocky mountains are organized or origi- nate in the Indian Territory. Let me add that the refuge which this sparsely settled rendezvous of outlaws affords to criminals is a constant temptation to crime in all the country around. . Those criminals who find a refuge in this Territory are rapidly converting the Indian country into a school of crime."

The State of Oklahoma is even now en- gaged in purging itself of this vicious in-

heritance from the past. With the aid of efficient local governments, the era of un- restrained and open iniquity is passing, but an occasional outburst of crime of the type that has so long been associated with the southwest, serves to remind the new state of a past that is still bearing fruits.

The spectacular criminal class has but short shrift under present conditions. But a more insidious and deeply rooted evil was given life and flourishing existence under the old regime. The peculiar relations sus- tained by this country to the general gov- ernment and the nation at large fostered a degree of moral laxity that can still be observed. Although it was a crime sub- ject to heavy penalty since the intercourse act of 1834, the illicit introduction of liquor within Indian Territory flourished for the greater part of a century, and "bootleg- ging' became a real industry. The "boot- legger," even now, though regarded with contempt by society in general, has a recog- nized place in the "lower world," and his offense is too often tolerated if not con- doned. Constant familiarity with this kind of violation of the statutes has produced, with contempt, a neglect of swift and sure punishment. This is but an instance. For years the Indian Territory was under re- strictions that, in theory, made it a "for- bidden country." But those who dared the violation of the laws entered and shared with little difficulty in the riches of the In- dian possessions. The attitude of the gov- ernment itself savored of hypocrisy and in- duced contempt for law. The solemn treaties with the Indians at the beginning of the century were only made to be broken, and when, one after another, they were set aside, both Indians and whites came to regard federal law as little better than hollowness. It came to be observed that selfish interests profited here and were

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strong enough to defeat the quiet enter- prise that claimed the protection of regular law and government. And the result of it all was a moral lesion, an undue exag- geration of the power of the individual over the guaranteed rights and privileges of the social order. The freedom to exploit the resources of a new country was carried to the point of license in obtaining all that the law of competition would allow.

Within recent years a reaction has set in against this laxity. Statehood came just at the time when this current of purifica- tion was strongest, and the result is seen in the constitution of the new state, which has been called radical and even socialistic. The spirit of reform is abroad in Okla- homa, and though, in endeavoring to cor- rect the abuses of the past, it may bear fruit in some impractical legislation, there is no reason to assume that the final equi- librium of social and civil tendencies may not result in a splendid justice to all and license to none.

Education.

Of educational facilities, of the means of culture, and of religion, both as manifested in institutions and spiritual influence, Okla- homa entered the Union with an inherit- ance that in many respects equalled that of older states.

In Indian Territory was the greatest lack of educational facilities for the whole peo- ple. This was due to the peculiar condi- tions that attended the settlement of that country by white people. Since the loca- tion of the five tribes in the Indian Terri- tory, the Indians have not been without means of intellectual culture. Some of the Indian schools were models of the kind. The girls' seminary at Tahlequah has long been a source of pride to the Cherokee Na- tion, and is a splendidly equipped institu- .

tion, both as to its buildings and quality of instruction.

The wishes of the American government for the education and improvement of the Indians were expressed during the Revolu- tion. The first treaty including an educa- tional provision was that of December 2, 1794, with the loyal Indians, for whom one or two persons were to be employed three years to instruct in the arts of miller and sawyer. Industrial training was from the first the most sought end in improving the Indians. Training of a literary character is first intended by the government in a provision of August 13, 1803, when a Ro- man Catholic priest among the Kaskaskias was promised the annual sum of one hun- dred dollars "to instruct as many of the children as possible in the rudiments of lit- erature."" This combined the support of the general government with the aid which had for many years been given by various church bodies and associations to the cause of civilization and improvement among the Indian people.

January 22, 1818, the house committee on Indian affairs reported: "We are in- duced to believe that nothing which it is in the power of the government to do would have a more direct tendency to produce this desirable object [civilization] than the es- tablishment of schools at convenient and safe places amongst those tribes friendly to us." Soon afterward, on March 3, 1819, followed. the appropriation by Con- gress of ten thousand dollars as an annual sum "for the purpose of providing against the further decline and final extinction of the Indian tribes . and introducing among them the habits and arts of civiliza- tion," to which end persons of good moral

Sen. Ex. Doc. 48th Cong. Special report of the Bureau of Education, "Indian Education and Civilization," Alice C. Fletcher.

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character should be employed "to instruct them in the mode of agriculture suited to their situation, and for teaching their chil- dren in reading, writing and arithmetic."

The policy adopted in applying this fund was, instead of establishing separate gov- ernment schools, to assist the agencies al- ready organized for educating the Indians. The two principal organizations that were working for the education of the southern tribes at that time were the American Board of Foreign Missions and the Bap- tist General Convention, each of which thereafter for some years received a share of the fund disbursed by the general gov- ernment for Indian education.

It is interesting that the need of manual education was so early recognized by the teachers and missionaries who labored among the Indians. Many reports, almost from the time of the establishment of the Indians in the Indian country, contain rec- ommendations for the founding of manual labor schools, as the means by which the highest objects of Indian education would be promoted. The Indian's skill in mechan- ical occupations was early noted. In 1848 sixteen manual labor schools were in oper- ation among the various Indian tribes. By that time the annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars from the government had become a very small part of the total ex-

' At the time of statehood the principal denom- inational schools in Indian Territory, as reported in the "Oklahoman Almanac," were the follow- ing:

The Presbyterians have Henry Kendall College at Tulsa, Wynnewood College at Wynnewood, Cher- okee Institute at Tahlequah, Dwight Mission in the Cherokee Nation, Newyaka Mission in the Creek Nation, Elm Spring Mission at Welling, Park Hill Mission at Park Hill. The Baptist schools are Indian University, usually known as Bacone, at Muskogee, and the Cherokee Baptist Academy at Tahlequah. The Methodist schools are Spaulding Female College at Muskogee, Har-

pended by the Indians themselves for edu- cational purposes.

Among the southern Indians the Choc- taws took the lead in education. The pro- visions of the early treaty by which the government was to educate each year a number of Choctaw boys has been men- tioned elsewhere. But in 1845 the Choc- taws voluntarily devoted $18,000 of their annuities for the establishment of schools, in addition to the amount set aside for that purpose by their national laws. In 1846 the Choctaw Nation was supporting three academies, besides some boys' schools and five female seminaries, the management of the schools being entrusted to denomina- tional religious societies.

For many years the church denomina- tional schools were the chief centers of ed- ucational influence. Such schools as Dwight Mission have a place among the permanent influences for uplift among the Indians during their tribal existence. The Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Catholics were early in the field as mis- sionaries not only of religion but of prac- tical education. Until statehood brought with it the promise of public education, these denominational schools afforded ad- vantages to both Indians and whites.' Originally they were for the education of Indian children. But with the intrusion of

grove College at Ardmore and Willie Halsell Col- lege at Vinita. The Catholic schools are St. Agnes School at Antlers, Holy Name School at Chickasha, a school at both Lehigh and Coalgate conducted by the Benedictine Sisters, a school at Hartshorn and one at Krebs conducted by the Sisters of Mercy; at Muskogee are the Nazareth College and the Nazareth Academy, the former conducted by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart and the latter by the Sisters of St. Joseph; St. Elizabeth's Con- vent at Purcell, St. Mary of the Quapaws in the Quapaw agency, St. Theresa School at Tulsa, Sa- cred Heart Institute at Vinita.

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the whites, whose children were largely without free schools, they were so con- ducted that white children were given the opportunity to share in their advantages.

Besides the church schools, and the schools established by and maintained for the tribes, the government in time estab- lished schools for the training of the Indi- ans in the arts of industrial education. The Chilocco Indian Agricultural school is the most notable of these. A reservation of nearly nine thousand acres, near the Kan- sas line, in what is now Kay county, was set aside for this purpose. The school was opened in 1884, and was conducted for the benefit of Indians without regard to local- ity, some forty different tribes from various parts of the United States being repre- sented among its seven hundred scholars.

For many years the white residents of Indian Territory had no school facilities, except those mentioned above, and the schools that were supported in towns by private subscription. The Curtis act of 1898, in providing for incorporation of towns in the Indian Territory, also afforded means for the citizens of these towns to establish schools and maintain them by tax- ation.

During the agitation for statehood, one of the strongest arguments employed against uniting Oklahoma and Indian Ter- ritory as one state was, that while Okla- homa had been provided with a generous school fund through the reserving of sec- tions of land in every township and large grants for special institutions, Indian Ter- ritory had no fund nor source of income for a public school system, and there was no authority to require an appropriation of Indian lands or funds for this purpose. When the enabling act was passed this in- equality between the two territories was relieved. The sum of five million dollars

was appropriated as a dower for Indian Territory in the absence of any other school fund. This sum, though paid to the gen- eral school fund of the state, was under- stood as a contribution in behalf of Indian Territory.

Concerning the educational equipment of Oklahoma territory up to the time of state- hood, an article written by David R. Boyd, former president of the University of Okla- homa, describes the principal features of education on that side of the state. His article follows :

"A very large percentage of those who came to take claims at the first settlement of Oklahoma, April 22, 1889, came from the disasters and disappointment of 'boom' conditions in other parts of the country to make a final effort to secure permanent homes. These people were generally intel- ligent and animated with the best ideals of American life. The first corollary of this condition of mind and material was that there should be some provision made for public education, and after mere shelter was provided for the family, consideration was given to what provision could be made for educating their children.

"So, before the legislature was convened or had provided a school law, almost every neighborhood had a school organization. Many of them had erected temporary struc- tures for schools and had employed teach- ers with private funds. In a number of cases, the obligations incurred by these schools were formed with the intention that when the districts were formally organized, these obligations should become the debt of the districts and should be paid by them under the provisions of law, to be enacted later. Teachers' wages, cost of temporary structures, cost of furniture and appliances were all made claims against the district, and in every case, so far as I know, were

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assumed and paid. I was in conversation some time since with the head of a large firm who had sold most of the school fur- niture to the old districts, in which he said that there was not a single case of these obligations, though having no legal stand- ing and binding only as a moral obligation, being repudiated.

"This spirit was so strongly marked that the first legislature established by law the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, the Normal School at Edmond and the university at Norman, on the con- dition that these localities furnish the site and bond themselves for sums of money- in the case of the university at Norman, amounting to $10,000. The people of Cleveland county voted favorably upon these bonds when there was perhaps not $25,000 worth of taxable property in the county.

"Later, when the second legislative as- sembly met, in order to keep these three institutions on their feet, it was necessary to incur the first and only bonded indebted- ness of the territory, namely, an issue of $48,000 worth of bonds, $18,000 for the university, $15,000 for the Normal School, and $15,000 for the Agricultural and Mechanical College. When it became necessary to float these bonds, a citizen of the territory bought them at a small pre- mium-I think of five or six hundred dol- lars-at a time when the panic of 1893 had paralyzed financial institutions all over the country and when it was impossible to sell bonds of any kind on the open market. I mention these facts to indicate the educa- tional spirit of the public mind at the time.

"The first legislature passed a school law that provided for the usual system in the main, providing for the organization of dis- tricts, school officers, and revenue for the support of the schools. There were two

unique features of this law. One was, that the territorial board of education was to consist of the territorial superintendent of public schools and the county superintend- ents of the counties then organized, which were Logan, Oklahoma, Kingfisher, Cana- dian, Cleveland, and Payne. This law re- mained in force until the meeting of the legislative assembly of 1893. In the mean- time, the reservations of the Pottawatomie, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were opened to settlement and eight addi- tional counties provided for. This made the territorial board of education consist of the territorial superintendent and four- teen county superintendents, which was a very unwieldy body. It did good work, however, and was, in fact, very favorable to the organization of the schools, as it brought the person in authority of the school system into close contact with the county superintendents or those who had in direct charge the duty of organizing dis- tricts.

"Another feature of the first territorial school law was that it made the township the unit of organization of education. The township was conceded to be the congres- sional and not the municipal township. This provided for four districts, threee miles square with the boundaries on the half section lines. The law provided that there were to be five directors elected at large from each township. It was found there- fore that one district had two representa- tives while each of the others had but one and that the district having two directors could combine with one of the other dis- tricts and could control the board of direct- ors on any proposition. The building of school houses and the buying of furniture and other questions of organization were pressing, and the exercise of this authority was not always salutary and caused a great

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deal of complaint. In addition to this, the school law did not provide for the issuing of bonds or other means of raising revenue for erecting buildings, so the people were obliged to erect the first buildings by direct taxation or by subscription or by both. Often school houses were erected by money, labor and materials advanced by in- dividuals, this expenditure being after- wards recognized by the districts provided by law and such obligations always in- cluded in the bonded indebtedness and aft- erwards paid by the district.

"The present school law was passed by the legislature of 1893. This changed the board of education to the present board, consisting of the territorial superintendent, the president of the State University, the president of the Central Normal School, (ex officio members) with one city super- intendent of a city of the first class and one county superintendent appointed by the governor. This board is charged with the duty of passing on the qualifications of persons who give instruction in. any ca- pacity in the territory. They prepare the course of study for the county normal insti- tutes ; they pass on the qualifications of in- structors for these institutes; they prepare the questions for the examination of teach- ers for the city and rural schools; they prepare a course of study for the rural schools covering the work as high as the eighth grade, and discharge other general duties provided for by law.

"In 1896, Congress authorized the terri- tory to lease the lands reserved for educa- tional and eleemosynary purposes within the bounds of Oklahoma, the money to go to the schools and purposes for which they were reserved from settlement. This has been a source of great revenue for the schools, aggregating for each pupil approx- imately more than one dollar per year.

"The school system of Oklahoma has been found very well adapted to the conditions of the developing commonwealth. It is now apparent, however, that in the near future, important modifications must be made. Fully seventy-five and perhaps eighty per cent of the children of the ter- ritory do not have opportunities for carry- ing their education beyond the so-called eighth grade, or the common school. There is therefore a break in the course of study of four years. This is being rapidly met by. the provisions of the schools in the larger towns for giving this work, and in many of the smaller towns two grades be- yond the eighth are being given. In two counties, county high schools have been es- tablished and have met this need.

"Experience has shown that the township which was originally conceived of in the original law of the territory is the logical and natural unit for an educational system. This can now be easily planned and be freed from the objections that were made to it in the early days of the school organi- zation of the territory which permitted a board to control the location and the de- velopment of schools in the districts as the board does in our larger towns. It would permit advancing the course of study from the eighth grade as far as the educa- tional needs of the township would re- quire. In many cases in the country, town- ship high schools could be established. This would bring high school privileges nearer to the pupils in their homes than in any other way that has been devised. Trans- portation could be provided for pupils in sparsely settled districts. This provision has grown quite beyond the experimental stage in other states and should be incor- porated in the school laws of the future state of Oklahoma.

"The limit of this article does not permit

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an extensive treatment of the institutions of higher education established and main- tained by the territory. This would fur- nish material enough for an extended ar- ticle in itself. The territory supports the university at Norman with a faculty of thirty-seven instructors and an attendance of 500 pupils, three normal schools well equipped with well selected faculties, with an aggregate attendance of about 1,800 to 2,000 pupils, an agricultural and mechani- cal college with a strong faculty and a large equipment provided for the future with an enrollment of something like 500 pupils. There is also a preparatory school at Tonkawa supported by the territory, which has an enrollment of about 400 stu- dents, making preparations for life and for advancing their education in the higher in- stitutions of learning. There is also a well equipped school for the negroes located at Langston, which has an attendance of about 300 students. These institutions are main- tained by legislative enactment and appro- priation. Appropriations for maintenance, equipment and erection of buildings amounting to' an aggregate of $600,000 were passed at the last meeting of the legis- lature.

"Section 13 of each township was reserved from settlement in the opening of the Cher- okee Outlet, Greer county, and the Kiowa- Comanche country for university, normal school and agricultural and mechanical col- lege purposes. The aggregate amount of lands is something like 280,000 acres, all of which is leased; producing an annual income of between sixty and seventy thou- sand dollars, which is devoted to the insti- tutions for which these reservations were made."

The State University of Oklahoma was founded by act of the territorial legislature, and was established at Norman in 1892.

The location of the university, which is the head of the public school system of the state, is the county seat of Cleveland coun- ty, a town of four thousand inhabitants, situated eighteen miles south of Oklahoma City, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, in approximately the geograph- ical center of the state. The university campus consists of sixty acres, which has been planted chiefly to elm and ash, and commands a beautiful view of the valley of the South Canadian river. The sightly buildings are constructed mainly of brick with stone trimmings, and consist of Uni- versity Hall, built in 1902-3, at a cost of $70,000, and being the administration build- ing, as well as containing various society halls and recitation rooms; Science Hall, the first building on the campus, completed in 1894, burned in 1903 and rebuilt in the following year; Carnegie Library, opened in January, 1905; the gymnasium, com- pleted in the summer of 1903; the anatomi- cal laboratory and the shops, the latter be- ing two frame buildings in which are con- ducted engineering and manual training work and mechanical tests. The city of Norman having given to the territory the $10,000 and forty acres of land required by legislative act, in the spring of 1893 work was begun on Science Hall, the school was organized in the following summer under the presidency of Dr. David R. Boyd and in September opened its doors. Dur- ing the first several years the school was a university only in name-a large majority of the students being drawn from the lower classes of the preparatory department. In 1898 the first class was graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences. Since then new schools have been added, until they embrace the following: Applied Sciences, Medicine, Mines, Fine Arts and Pharmacy. The chemical and pharmaceutical labora-

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 59

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