A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 61

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

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Undoubtedly the constitution is open to serious criticism. In his recent visit to Oklahoma Secre- tary W. H. Taft censured the work of the con- vention as strongly as Mr. Bryan had commended it. His first objection was that the constitution was a code of laws rather than a constitution, and that it was excessively complicated. When it is recalled that the document contains nearly fifty thousand words, and that it goes into minute de- tail-it even establishes the flash test for kero- sene-the justice of the criticism is obvious, though its importance may be overestimated. Most of Mr. Taft's other objections the friends of the constitution would maintain are subjects for le- gitimate differences of opinion. He feared that the initiative and referendum might prove dan- gerous because of the large illiteracy of the people

in the Indian Territory and their lack of pre- vious political experience. He believed that the prohibition of the consolidating of corporations might hinder the state's growth, and that the jury trial for contempt cases was unwise. Fur- ther, he objected to the legislative districting of the state by the constitutional convention, which was overwhelmingly Democratic, and which carried out a flagrantly partisan gerrymander. In addi- tion criticism has been made of the elective cor- poration commission as likely to fall far short of the expectations of its projectors. Time alone, however, can show to what extent the constitution will prove workable, and whether those of its pro- visions which undoubtedly are admirable in in- tention will fulfill the purpose of their framers. The organic law thus adopted has been submitted to President Roosevelt to decide-in a purely ju- dicial capacity, as provided by law-whether it complies with the provisions of the enabling act and of the federal constitution. The president last week indicated his intention to decide this question in the affirmative, and he will accordingly by proclamation announce the entrance to the Union of the forty-sixth state. Officers for the new commonwealth were voted on at the election at which the constitution was adopted. The Demo- cratic state ticket was elected .- The Outlook, Oct. 5, 1907.

. The Added Star.

After eleven years the flag gains another star. The celebration of the adoption of the declaration of independence 132 years after the historic meet- ing in Philadelphia will have no feature so notable as this. A new state has been in existence for sev- eral months. But the formal recognition of its ad- vent into the Union by representation upon the flag of the nation dates from July 4, 1908.

The wondrous story of Oklahoma has been told and retold. Its marvelous development within a score of years has no parallel in the annals of mankind. Not the last of the territories possibly to be included within the "union of states none can sever," it will be counted the last illustra- tion of the migration of peoples for which the United States has been noted.

Partly southern and partly western, it has taken to itself the best characteristics of both sections of the country. In many of its features it follows the life of its geographical zone. In others it is dominated by influences from the western north. The combination of forces gives it an individuality and a strength for which other commonwealths have found substantial basis in a storied past.

The wise policy which discouraged holdings of more than one hundred and sixty acres has made it a state of homes, peopled by a strong, vigorous and self-reliant citizenship. These homes dotting

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the landscape and quickly recognized as the domi- nant feature of the environment have made it es- sentially a democratic and prosperous state. The people rule in Oklahoma as they do nowhere else in such marked degree.

The constitution adopted for the commonwealth attracted much attention because of its so-called radical provisions. But these sections only reflect the ideas of the time. In a measure every con- stitution does that. If the ideas are wrong the constitution will be changed when the errors are discovered. If they are right and stand the test of time they will remain as fundamental principles of statehood.

It is a bright star which is given a place as the forty-sixth in the galaxy. Many of those who watched the republic when it began its career back in 1776 feared lest the extent of its territory might prove its undoing. Many thoughtful men shrank from the accession of a limitless domain in 1803 lest the balance of power be lost to the eastern states. No better evidence of the substantial strength of the nation confronts the people as an- other birthday of the country is celebrated than the general contentment with which every one re- gards the addition of Oklahoma's star to the flag of the United States .- Chicago Tribune.

Oklahoma's Statehood.

The admission of Oklahoma to the union of the states will be hailed with satisfaction on every hand. Its period of probation has been well occu- pied. It has gathered a population of earnest citi- zens who have come from many of the older com- monwealths to share in the fortunes of the new- est child of the republic. Its rich agricultural re- gions have been occupied by a multitude of small holders whose homes are to be seen everywhere as a conspicuous feature of the landscape. That it will quickly take its place as one of the important states of the southwest no one doubts.

Larger in its area than that of thirty-one other states, almost fifty times the size of Rhode Island, it has an imperial domain capable of sustaining a large population in comfort. If comparison of the present population were made with that of many other states at the time of their admission it would be seen that Oklahoma far outranks some of those now most famous. Ohio, and Indiana, and Illinois were admitted to the Union with a population insignificant in size when compared with that of Oklahoma today.

Oklahoma's admission comes in response to a widespread sentiment that it is ready and worthy of statehood. There is no shadow of fear for the future when the temporary boom has lost its force. There is to be no transition period in which the new commonwealth will suffer from the acts of

picturesque outlaws such as those who marked a former generation on the border. The first ex- citement about admission to the Union being over, Oklahoma will settle down to a quiet career as a representative western community, rich in the strength brought to her by her immigrants from many an older commonwealth.

One of the most interesting features of the situ- ation is furnished by the Indians. Many years ago, when they were transferred from the southern states, the leading tribes which have inhabited Indian Territory were promised in solemn agree- ment that for all time to come there should be no further encroachment from the whites. Their new home beyond the Mississippi should be for them and their descendants forever. The language was explicit which declared that this region should never be brought within the boundaries of any state.

Andrew Jackson and his contemporaries never dreamed that the banishment from Georgia, Ala- bama and Mississippi meant settlement upon a tract of land some day to be valuable to other whites for its rich soil and its richer deposits of mineral stores. Their vision did not pierce the future. Their language was the hasty writing of a day, with little thought of a future when de- scendants of southern whites and settlers from the northern states as well might covet the Indian lands once more.

Because of its area, the size and character of its population, the quiet conditions under which it secures statehood, and the peculiar element fur- nished by the Indian portion of its people, the admission of Oklahoma is a notable feature of the country's history for the year. Taking its place as entitled to equal privileges with the oldest of states, it calls attention once again to this peculiar American provision, in accordance with which one after another territories have been admitted to a share in the glory and sovereignty which the orig- inal thirteen won when the Union was established. -Chicago Record-Herald.

The Making of a State.

The admission of Oklahoma to the full respon- sibilities of American statehood on Saturday, No- vember 16, 1907, makes the date one of the most memorable in American history. Something more than local pride shows itself in the fullness with which the people of the new state itself display their deep appreciation of the meaning involved. Their processions, their salutes of artillery, their demonstrations of overflowing enthusiasm are not mere boasts of their own achievements in creating a new commonwealth which in seventeen years, since the organization of Oklahoma as a territory, they have built "from the ground up" into great-

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nees above that of some states which had a hun- dred years the advantage of them in the rights and privileges of membership in the Union. Deep- er and higher than any spirit of local pride is the appeal they make to the United States and to the world to recognize that instead of being effete the principles of American greatness out of which their results come find in such results their vindication on November 16, 1907, as fully as it could have been hoped for at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

The country still remembers as if it were only yesterday what seemed to be the wild confusion of the first rush across the Kansas line into what . was then a wilderness. If any one then did not understand that controlling all other motives in this confusion was the impulse to be first at the front in using the last chance to build up an American commonwealth, that impulse explains itself now in the change of the wilderness into one of the greatest productive areas of the country, with scores of thriving towns and cities, equipped for a growing civilization based on equal oppor- tunity under the law and equal responsibility be- fore the law. Within less than thirty days it was to this that the wild, the magnificent, the appar- ently lawless rush had reduced itself, and it is through this great evolutionary force of American progress that all subsequent results have been reached as they now appear in vindication of American impulses of constructiveness.

Having plowed out and harrowed out these re- sults from the bare ground in half a generation, the million and a half of Americans who are now in full control of their own future appeal through their enthusiasm of the present to more than eighty million other Americans to put their full confidence for the future in the creative freedom of action for all good purposes which makes this new state, the last built up out of the soil of con- tinental America, great as an illustration of what the same impulses, the same rights, the like ener- gies mean for all in the results of the past as these force open the way for the greater results of the future.

Missouri, which opened the first highway into the territory of the new state; Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and other states, which sup- plied it with the builders of its greatness, cannot fail to share the enthusiasm Oklahoma itself feels in such a demonstration that the way is still fully open for progress. As there has been no greater single demonstration yet given in American state- making than this, so there has been no other occa- sion calling for fuller strength of confidence in the principles of progress, the equal opportunity, the equal responsibility, which, as they find stand- ing room and working room on the bare ground,

build greatness out of it .- St. Louis Republic, Nov. 17, 1907.

Payne and Oklahoma.

In all that has been written upon the joyous oc- casion of Oklahoma's admission to the union of states comparatively little reference has been made to Captain David L. Payne, the "Father of Okla- homa." To this dauntless spirit, this typical pio- neer, is due more than to any other man the splen- did realization of the dreams for complete devel- opment of that "Land of the Fair God" to which he devoted much of his life. It is regrettable that Payne did not live to enjoy the full consummation of his plans, but he did live to see himself fully vindicated. There is no doubt that the future years will hold his name in higher honor than now, and that a proper estimate will be given the great work that he did.

Captain Payne, as described by M. W. Reynolds, was "a typical boomer, big-brained, big-hearted, broad-breasted and broad-shouldered. He was built to carry a great burden of responsibility. He was as brave as a Numidian lion." There are many men living today who retain vivid impres- sions of this remarkable man-for he was re- markable, and held his place with Kit Carson, Wild Bill, California Joe, General Custer and other noted westerners. But Payne was greater than any of them in one thing-he had a great purpose which, considered in the light of time, was almost monumental. He dreamed of a new empire of surpassing richness. He knew the ter- ritory of the present Oklahoma as a man knows his own dooryard. For years he roamed over it and repeatedly conducted pioneers into it, only to be removed time and again.

Like some other early explorers of the west, Captain Payne was a man of considerable educa- tion and native refinement. That he was well ac- quainted with the affairs of civil life was shown by the fact that he was elected to the Kansas leg- islature from Doniphan county, and later from Sedgwick county, "serving his people faithfully and satisfactorily." He was also postmaster of Leavenworth at one time. But the call of the wilderness possessed this sturdy man, and he lived for his ambition. Hunting and scouting were merely means to an end. Captain Payne in his imagination pictured the Oklahoma of today, the state of splendid cities and unrivaled richness of soil and prosperous farms. In the early days of his campaign for the opening of Oklahoma he made many speeches in Wichita, Arkansas City, Caldwell, Winfield and other southern Kansas cities, in which he told of the greatness that was to come. Some of his hearers received these prophecies as the utterances of an unbalanced en- thusiast. But many others knew Payne to be a

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man of sound sense and judgment. His followers were numerous and he tried repeatedly to establish colonies.

The memory of Captain Payne will linger long, and the new state will some day give his name that high place it deserves. Just now his services are somewhat obscured by the horde of claimants for pioneer honors, but time will separate the wheat from the chaff and will link Captain David L. Payne's character and work imperishably with the origin and development of Oklahoma itself .- Kansas City Journal, Nov. 17, 1907.

OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

The Oklahoma Historical Society had its origin with a meeting of the editors of the territory at Kingfisher, May 27, 1893. The following members of the association were present :

Frank Greer, Guthrie State Capital; W. P. Thompson, Guthrie News; Frank Prouty, Guthrie Real Estate Exchange; John Golobie, Guthrie State Capital; E. E. Brown, Oklahoma City Times-Journal; Frank McMasters, Oklahoma City Ga- zette; Mr. Pitts, Guthrie Leader; J. B. Campbell, Hennessey Clipper; Reub Wees- ner, Hennessey Democrat; J. E. Quein, Edmond News; Mr. Owen, Edmond Sun; H. B. Gilstrap, Chandler News; Miss Effie Gilstrap, Chandler News; C. E. Hunter, Okarche Times; Mr. Hummer, Okarche Times; C. F. Cook, Cloud Chief Sentinel; J. L. Admire, Kingfisher Free Press; Frank Purcell, Kingfisher Times; W. P. Campbell of Kingfisher.

In the course of the proceedings W. P. Campbell stated that it had been his humble privilege to attend a meeting of Kansas editors at Manhattan on the 9th day of April, 1875, and aid in establishing the so- ciety which had preserved the newspapers of that state; that he hoped this meeting would do something to perpetuate its mem- ory for all time. He therefore moved that the editors of Oklahoma form a Histori- cal Society for the purpose of collecting

and preserving files of all publications of Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and such other matters that may be deemed worthy of preservation for the future historian. The motion prevailed, and Mr. Campbell was chosen custodian.

Two days after the editors adjourned the following "Circular No. I" was issued and sent broadcast, especially among the press :

KINGFISHER, OKLA., May 29, 1893.

At their annual meeting in this city, May 27, the editors of Oklahoma created a department in connection with the association, to be called the Oklahoma Historical Society, of which the under- signed was selected as secretary and custodian to serve for the ensuing year.

The object in establishing this department is the collection of newspapers, books and periodicals, productions of art, science and literature, matters of historic interest, etc. It is especially desired that publishers send regularly two copies of their publications, to be filed, and bound at the end of each year.

While this is designed as an Oklahoma institu- tion, anything of the nature suggested will be thankfully received from any source, and will be given a proper place among the exhibits.

For the present, headquarters will be at King- fisher, where a suitable building has been secured for the storage, safe care and proper exhibition uf contributions.

Those feeling an interest in laying the perma- nent foundation for one of the most important institutions of Oklahoma are requested to forward as early as possible and as often as they secure them any articles that may seem of historic in- terest, beautiful, instructive or curious. Address, prepaid,

W. P. CAMPBELL, Historical Custodian, Kingfisher, O. T.

The first official recognition is contained in Governor Renfrow's message to the leg- islature of 1895,, which reads :

"During May, 1893, the Oklahoma Edi- torial Association established a bureau known as the Historical Department of the Oklahoma Press Association. The special object of this bureau is the collection and preservation of newspapers and other pub- lications of the territory, views, reports

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and general matter which may prove of information and historic interest. Mr. W. P. Campbell, the custodian, reports quite successful results from the work thus in- augurated. He has now, practically, files of all territorial publications, including those which have been suspended or been merged. The importance of collecting and preserving inviolate this great source from which the future history of Oklahoma may be read and written, is a subject which ought to demand the attention of the legis- lature to secure the permanency of such a bureau."

The next official recognition was through a concurrent resolution of the legislature of 1895 ordering a sufficient number of public documents of the territory to enable the custodian to make exchange with the various states and territories for like docu- ments, and under this resolution the docu- ments for that year were furnished. Up to this time, and subsequently until moved to Norman, the collection was furnished a room in the Kingfisher county court house, through the kindness of J. B. Camp- bell, then register of deeds of that county, and the work of making the collection and caring for it, including expenses, was met by the custodian.

A meeting of the editors of the territory had been called at Perry for February 13, 1895, with a view of procuring a charter and going before the legislature for aid in prosecuting the work of the society and maintaining its collection. However, on January 16th preceding this meeting, mem- bers of the faculty and students of the Uni- versity at Norman, and citizens of that town, organized "The Oklahoma Histori- cal Society," with a like purpose as that of the Press Association Society, and January 2Ist procured a charter. The Norman peo- ple went at once before the legislature ask-

ing recognition, with Norman as the seat of their society. Under an agreement that the society should be maintained forever without aid from the territory, a bill passed the upper house, but before it passed the lower house the editorial meeting at Perry came off. At this meeting the collection was assigned to the custodian and he was placed at liberty to take such action as he deemed necessary under the premises. A compromise was thereafter effected where- by the collection was to be moved to Nor- man, and an appropriation asked with which to maintain it the next two years, and the editors should forever have a con- trolling membership on the board. Under this compromise a bill passed both houses of the legislature and became a law, cre- ating the Oklahoma Historical Society as the trustee of the territory, and carrying with it an appropriation of $2,000. The collection was at once shipped to Norman and formed the nucleus of the present col- lection.

The statute creating the society as trus- tee of the territory was approved by Gov- ernor Renfrow, February 21, 1895, and provides that the society shall be the trustee of the territory, with a board of directors to consist of as many members as the society shall determine.

July 10th, after the collection had been moved to Norman, Mr. Campbell retired as custodian, succeeded by W. T. Little, who, as a member of the legislature, had been influential in securing the appropri- ation. Among the many valuable acces- sions during Mr. Little's custodianship were documents pretaining to Cimarron Territory.

The crowded condition of the university building at Norman made new quarters for the collection necessary. The legislature of 1901 provided for the removal of the col-

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lection from the university at Norman. In accordance with this enactment the board, at its annual meeting in June, 1901, author- ized the executive committee to accept an offer made by the board of directors of the Carnegie Library building at Oklahoma City. On the first of January, 1902, the collection was moved to the Carnegie Li- brary building, in fire-proof rooms. For the first eight months after the removal Sidney Clarke acted as custodian of the society.

On the retirement of Mr. Clarke, April 1, 1903, Mrs. Marion Rock, Carnegie li- brarian at Oklahoma City, was appointed custodian and served until June 1, 1904, when, after an absence of nine years from connection with the society, W. P. Camp- bell was appointed custodian, and is still serving.

The Historical : Society, which at this writing has temporary quarters, will on the completion of the remodeled Carnegie Library, be assigned a room on the ground floor of the new building. The society, being now under the auspices of the new state, has a future of large usefulness be- fore it. Because of its various removals, the lack of systematic co-operation from the territory and state, and other patent causes, the progress of the society has been interrupted and it is now only fairly started upon the work which it will perform for the benefit of the state. Owing to the dil- igence of the custodian, the collections of newspapers are fairly representative of the press history of the state and territory. As a working reference library, the collec- tion of books and pamphlets is far from complete, a condition that can be excused when the difficulties under which the so- ciety has labored are understood. A good beginning has been made in gathering archeological data and material for local

history, a field that has rich possibilities especially in the eastern half of the state. With the rapid advance of white men's civilization over the old Indian country, it would seem that the personal representa- tives of the old aboriginal stock will de- crease in number, and the records of their civilization and life will be lost unless care is exercised to preserve such material dur- ing the next few years. While the collec- tion of newspapers and other contemporary documents insures a complete record of the present history of the state, it remains a duty of the state, through this society, to direct the work which will search out the records of the past.

Mr. W. P. Campbell, who deserves the principal credit for the collection and main- tenance of the materials belonging to the Historical Society, became an Oklahoman with the opening of the Strip in 1893. For a number of years he was engaged in news- paper work, and has held a few official positions, including register of deeds of Pottawatomie county, Kansas, 1884-89, and deputy register of deeds of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, 1892-94. Mr. Camp- bell is a native of St. Joseph, Mo.

EARLY CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA CITY. To a letter, dated November 6, 1889, commending the military administration in the city, are signed a number of names that are of interest as indicating a considerable part of the business population of the early town and also the then dominant element in control of the city government, since the majority of the signers evidently were "Seminoles." The list follows:

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 61

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