USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 74
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
SEC. 6. The appointments of female persons as notaries public, heretofore made by the Gov- ernor of Oklahoma, and by the United States courts for the Indian Territory, and by the judges of said courts, are hereby confirmed and made valid, and all official acts of such notaries public heretofore performed are hereby validated, in so far as the acts of such notaries public may be affected by any intelligibility of such persons to appointments as notaries public. Female persons possessing the other qualifications prescribed by law shall be eligible to the office of notary public and of county superintendent of public instruc- tion.
SEC. 7. All property, real and personal, credits, claims, and choses in action, belonging to the Territory of Oklahoma at the time the State is admitted into the Union, shall be vested in and become the property of the State of Oklahoma.
SEC. 8. All judgments and records of deeds, mortgages, liens, and other instruments, filed or recorded, affecting the title to real and personal property in the Indian Territory and Osage In- dian Reservation, are hereby made as effectual to impart notice and for all other purposes under the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma extended in force in the State, as they were under the laws heretofore in force in the Indian Territory and Osage Indian Reservation.
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SEC. 9. All judgments and records of deeds, mortgages, liens, and other instruments, filed or recorded, affecting. title to real and personal prop- erty in new counties that have been created out of the Territory of any county or counties of the Territory of Oklahoma, or out of the Territory of any county or counties of the Territory of Okla- home, and of any recording district or districts of the Indian Territory, are hereby made as effectual to impart notice and for all other purposes under the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, extended in force in the State, as the same would have been if no changes had been made by the provisions of this Constitution in the boundaries of the coun- ties as they existed in the Territory of Oklahoma, or of the boundaries of the recording districts as they existed in the Indian Territory.
SEC. 10. Until otherwise provided by law, incor- porated cities and towns, heretofore incorporated under the laws in force in the Territory of Okla- homa or in the Indian Territory, shall continue their corporate existence under the laws extended in force in the State, and all officers of such municipal corporation at the time of the admis- sion of the State into the Union shall perform the duties of their respective offices under the laws extended in force in the State, until their successors are elected and qualified in the manner that is or may be provided by law: Provided, That all valid ordinances now in force in such
incorporated cities and towns shall continue in force until altered, amended, or repealed.
SEC. 11. All taxes assessed or due to incorpo- rated cities and towns in the Indian Territory, and all taxes levied by such incorporated cities and towns for the year nineteen hundred and seven shall, until otherwise provided by law, be levied and collected in the same manner as now provided by law in force in the Indian Territory, and under the laws and ordinances now in force in such municipal corporations.
SEC. 12. In all incorporated cities and towns in . the Indian Territory, all local improvements or public buildings in process of being made or con- structed under the laws in force in the Indian Ter- ritory, or for which proceedings have been com- menced under such laws at the time of the admis- sion of the State into the Union, shall be com- pleted under said laws, and said laws are hereby extended in force as to such improvements of pub- lic buildings until such local improvements of public buildings are completed and paid for, 88 by such laws provided.
SEC. 13. The Act of Congress entitled "An Act for the Protection of the Lives of Miners in the Territories," approved March 3, 1891, and the Act of Congress .entitled "An Act to Amend an Act entitled 'An Act for the Protection of the Lives of Miners in the Territories,'" approved July 1, 1902, are hereby extended to and over the State of Oklahoma until otherwise provided by law: Provided, That the words, Governor of the State, are hereby substituted for the words, "Gov- ernor of such organized territory," and for the words, "Secretary of Interior," wherever the same appear in said Acts, and the words Chief Mine Inspector, for the words, "Mine Inspector," wher- ever the same appear in said Acts. The Chief Mine Inspector shall also perform the duties re- quired by laws of the Territory of Oklahoma of the Territorial Oil Inspector until otherwise pro- vided by law.
SEO. 14. Until otherwise provided by law, all dental surgeons licensed to practice in the Terri- tory of Oklahoma and all dental surgeons who were residents of the Indian Territory on the sixteenth day of June, nineteen hundred and six, and who are graduates of some reputable school or college of dental surgery, shall be eligible and be licensed to practice in the State without exami- nation.
SEC. 15. Until otherwise provided by law, the officers of the State shall receive annually as com- pensation for their services, the following sums:
The Governor, four thousand, five hundred dol- lars; Lieutenant Governor, one thousand dollars: Secretary of State, two thousand, five hundred dollars; Attorney General, four thousand dollars; State Treasurer, three thousand dollars; State
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Auditor, two thousand, five hundred dollars; State Examiner and Inspector, three thousand dollars; Chief Mine Inspector, three thousand dollars; Labor Commissioner, two thousand dollars; Com- missioner of Charities and Corrections, one thou- sand, five hundred dollars; Corporation Commis- sioners, four thousand dollars each; Superintendent of Public Instruction, two thousand, five hundred dollars; the Insurance Commissioner, two thousand, five hundred dollars.
SEC. 16. The salary of the Justices of the Su- preme Court of the State shall be four thousand dollars per annum, each, and that of the Judges of the District Court, three thousand dollars per annum, each, until changed by the Legislature.
SEC. 17. The members of the Board of Agricul- ture, Bank Commissioner, Clerk of the Supreme Court, and all other State officers, except as herein provided, or such as may be created, and all clerks and assistants, shall receive such compensation for their services as may be provided by law.
SEC. 18. Until otherwise provided by law, the terms, duties, powers, qualifications, and salary and compensation of all county and township officers, not otherwise provided by this Constitu- tion, shall be as now provided by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma for like named officers, and the duties and compensation of the probate judge under such laws shall devolve upon and belong to the judge of the county court: Provided, That the term of office of those elected at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or first ap- pointed under the provisions of the laws extended in force in the State, shall expire on the second Monday of January in the year nineteen hundred and eleven: And provided further, That county attorneys and judges of the county court of the several counties of the State, having a population of more than twenty thousand shall be paid a salary of two thousand dollars per annum; and of counties having a population of more than thirty thousand, a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars per annum; and of counties having a population of more than forty thousand, a salary of three thousand dollars per annum; such salaries to be paid in the same manner as is provided by law in force in the Territory of Oklahoma for the pay- ment of salaries to county attorneys.
SEC. 19. Until otherwise provided by law, the boards of regents of the University of Oklahoma, of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, of the Normal Schools now established, of the University Preparatory School, and of the Colored Agricul- tural and Normal University, shall continue to hold their offices and exercise the functions thereof until their successors are elected or appointed and qualified.
SEC. 20. The Legislature shall provide by gen- eral, special, or local law for the equitable division
of the property, assets, and liabilities of any county existing in the Territory of Oklahoma be- tween such county and any new county or counties created in whole or in part out of the territory of such county.
SEC. 21. All property, real and personal, and credits, claims, and choses in action, belonging to the county of Day at the time of the admission of the State into the Union, shall be vested in and become the property of the county of Ellis: Pro- vided, The Legislature shall provide, by general, special, or local law, for the equitable division of the assets of Day county, thus transferred to Ellis county, and of the liabilities of Day county, be- tween the counties of Roger Mills and Ellis.
SEC. 22. The Clerk of the Supreme Court shall procure a seal and cause such inscription to be placed thereon as may be prescribed by the Su- preme Court. Each clerk of the District Court shall procure a seal, and, under the direction of the Judge of the District Court, cause to be in- scribed thereon the style of his office and the name of his county. Each County Clerk, County Treasurer, Register of Deeds, County Surveyor, and County Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall procure a seal, and, under the direction of the County Judge, cause to be inscribed thereon the style of his office and name of his county. Said seals shall be sufficient and used for all law- ful purposes until otherwise provided by law: Pro- vided, That, until any of such officers shall have procured a seal, the signature of any such officer shall be sufficient for all purposes without a seal.
SEC. 23. When this Constitution shall go into effect, the books, records, papers, and proceedings of the probate court in each county, and all causes and matters of administration and guar- dianship, and other matters pending therein, shall be transferred to the county court of such county, except of Day county, which shall be transferred to the county court of Ellis county, and the county courts of the respective counties shall proceed to final decree or judgment, order, or other termination in the said several matters and causes as the said probate court might have done if this Constitution had not been adopted. The District Court of any county, the successor of the United States Court for the Indian Territory, in each of the counties formed in whole or in part in the Indian Territory, shall transfer to the county court of such county all matters, proceed- ings, records, books, papers, and documents apper- taining to all causes or proceedings relating to estates: Provided, That the Legislature may provide for the transfer of any of said matters and causes to another county than herein pre- scribed.
SEC. 24. Until otherwise provided by law, the seal of the probate court in the counties of the
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Territory of Oklahoma shall be the seal of the county courts, and in that part of the State here- tofore comprising the Indian Territory and Osage Indian Reservation, and in the new counties cre- ated in the Territory of Oklahoma, until the county court shall have procured a proper seal, the sig- nature of the county judge shall be sufficient for all purposes without a seal.
SEC. 25. Any county, city, incorporated town, township, board of education, school district, or other municipality, either in the Territory of Okla- homa or the Indian Territory, that shall owe, at the time of the admission of the State into the Union any indebtedness, evidenced by warrants, script, or other evidence of indebtedness, is author- ized, through the proper officers thereof, to make provision for the payment of, and to pay, such indebtedness, either by tax levy or by issuing bonds in lieu thereof, in accordance with and under the provision of the laws extended in force in the State: Provided, That the limitation upon the amount of indebtedness that may be created by any county, city, incorporated town, township, board of education, school district, or other mu- nicipality, and upon the amount of taxes that may be levied by any county, city, incorporated town, township, board of education, school district, or other municipality, under the provisions of this Constitution, or of law, shall not apply to the indebtedness, the levying of taxes, and the issuing of bonds provided for herein.
SEC. 26. All cases, civil and criminal, pending, upon the admission of the State into the Union, in the Supreme Court of the Territory of Okla- homa, on appeal or writ of error, from the district or probate courts of any county or subdivision within the limits of the State, and the papers, records, proceedings, and seal of said court shall be transferred to the Supreme Court of the State, except as is otherwise provided in the Enabling Act of Congress. And all cases, civil and crim- inal, pending, on the admission of the State into the Union, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory, and the papers, records, and proceedings of said court, shall be transferred to the Supreme Court of the State, except as is otherwise provided by the Enabling Act of Con- gress and the amendments thereto.
SEC. 27. All cases, civil and criminal, pending, at the time of the admission of the State into the Union, in the District Courts of the Territory of Oklahoma, in any county within the district, and the records, papers, and proceedings of said Dis- trict Court, and the seal and other property apper- taining thereto, shall be transferred into the Dis- trict Court of the State for such county, except as is provided in the Enabling Act of Congress, and all cases, civil and criminal, pending, at the time of the admission of the State into the Union,
in the United States Court for the Indian Terri- tory, within the limits of any county created in whole or in part within the limits of what was heretofore the Indian Territory, and all records, papers, and proceedings of said United States Courts for the Indian Territory, and the seal and other property appertaining thereto shall be trans- ferred to the District Court of the State for such county, except as is provided in the Enabling Act of Congress and the amendments thereto: Pro- vided, That the Legislature may provide for the transfer of any such cases from one county to another county.
SEC. 28. The terms and provisions of an Act of Congress, entitled "An Act to Amend Section Six- teen, Seventeen and Twenty, of an Act Entitled 'An Act to Enable the People of Oklahoma and Indian Territory to form a Constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states; and to enable the people of New Mexico and Arizona to form a Constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states,'" are hereby accepted, and the jurisdiction of the cases enumerated therein is hereby assumed by the Courts of the State.
SEC. 29. Any person who shall be a qualified elector of any county of a judicial district at the time of the election held to ratify this Constitu- tion, and who shall, in all other respects, be eligible under the provisions of the Constitution, to be elected judge of the District Court of such district, shall be eligible to be elected judge of the District Court of such district at the first election held for the election of State officers.
SEC. 30. Any person who shall have been a resident of the territory within the limits of the State for a period of one year next preceding the date on which the election for the ratification of the Constitution is held, and who shall otherwise be eligible, under the provisions of this Constitu- tion, to be elected to any State office, shall be eligible to be elected to any such State office at the first election held for the election of State officers.
SEC. 31. The assessment of property in the Osage Indian Reservation for the year nineteen hundred seven, by the authorities of Pawnee County shall be the assessment of Osage County for the year nineteen hundred seven, and the proper authorities of Pawnee County shall levy a tax on the property of the Osage Indian Reserva- tion for the year nineteen hundred and seven, as now provided by law, and immediately upon the admission of the State into the Union, the county treasurer of Pawnee County shall turn over to the county treasurer of Osage County the tax books and records of taxes in the Osage Indian Reserva- tion, so made for the year nineteen hundred seven,
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and the treasurer of Osage County shall proceed and have the authority to receive all such taxes in the Osage Indian Reservation for the year nine- teen hundred seven, and such taxes shall be col- lected and enforced in the manner provided by law. And there shall also be collected, in addi- tion to the tax so levied by the authorities of Pawnee County, a county school tax of ten mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation, and the same shall be and become the property of the said Osage County : Provided, That, out of the funds so collected, the county treasurer of Osage County shall pay to the county treasurer of Pawnee County the costs and expenses of making such assessment and the levying of such taxes.
SEC. 32. The Legislature shall provide by gen- eral, special, or local law for the equitable division of the property, assets, and liabilities of any school district existing in the Territory of Okla- homa between such school district and any new school district created in whole or in part out of the territory of any such school district, as may be affected by a change in the county boundaries under this Constitution.
SEC. 33. All attorneys-at-law licensed to prac- tice in any court of record of the Territory of Oklahoma, or in any of the United States Courts for the Indian Territory, or any court of record of any of the five Civilized Tribes, shall be eligible to practice in any court of the State without examination.
SEC. 34. Until otherwise provided by law, any newspaper, published at the time of the admission of the State into the Union, in any new county, created in whole or in part out of the territory of any county of Oklahoma Territory, or in any county, created in whole or in part, out of terri- tory within the limits of the Indian Territory or Osage Indian Reservation, shall, under the laws extended in force in the State, be considered, in law, to have been published continuously for fifty- two weeks in said county and shall be a newspaper entitled to publish all legal notices, advertisements, or publications of any kind required or provided by any law of the State.
SEC. 35. All debts and indebtedness, authorized to be incurred by the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma, and all ex- penses of holding the election for the ratification or rejection of this Constitution and for the elec- tion of officers of a full state government, which shall remain unpaid after the appropriation made by the Congress of the United States has been exhausted, are hereby assumed by the State; and it is hereby made the duty of the Legislature, at its first session, to provide for the payment of same: Provided, That the debts and indebtedness, the payment of which is hereby assumed by the State, shall not include any debt or expense as a
salary or compensation of the delegates of the Constitutional Convention.
SEC. 36. The Ordinance adopted by the Consti- tutional Convention, entitled, "An Ordinance, pro- viding for an election, at which the proposed Con- stitution of the proposed State of Oklahoma shall be submitted to the people thereof for ratification or rejection, and submitting separately to the peo- ple of the proposed State of Oklahoma the pro- posed prohibition article, making the terms of the Enabling Act uniformly applicable to the entire State, for ratification or rejection, and for the election of certain state, district, county and town- ship officers created by such proposed Constitu- tion, and for the election of members of the Legis- lature of said proposed State of Oklahoma and for five Representatives to Congress," is hereby ratified and shall be valid for all the purposes thereof.
SEC. 37. Nothing in this Constitution contained shall legalize or make valid any illegal or invalid indebtedness of any county, city, incorporated town, township, board of education, school district or other municipality, either in the Territory of Oklahoma or the Indian Territory, nor impair any defense against the payment of the same.
SEC. 38. Should the first session of the Legisla- ture, provided by this Constitution, fail to provide for the division of the property, assets and liabili- ties of any county existing in the Territory of Oklahoma between such county or counties created in whole or in part out of such county original jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Supreme Court to make equitable division of such property, assets and liabilities, and for the purpose of hear- ing and receiving evidence and reporting findings of law and fact may appoint a special Master in Chancery in any such case.
SEC. 39. The qualifications prescribed by the laws of Oklahoma shall not apply to Superintend- ents of Public Instruction, elected at the time of the ratification of this Constitution, in the Indian Territory, and Osage Indian Reservation.
SEC. 40. The terms of all officers of the State government elected at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall begin upon the admission of the State into the Union.
SEC. 41. All persons elected at the time of the adoption of this Constitution to any of the offices provided under the Constitution shall be deemed to have duly qualified upon their taking the oath of office before any officer authorized by law to administer oaths, and executing such bond as may be required by law.
SEC. 42. All officers elected at the time of the adoption of the constitution shall execute such official bond as may then be required by law or thereafter required by act of the Legislature; and such bonds shall inure to the benefit of the State
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or other beneficiary, for whose protection or se- curity the same shall be required.
SEC. 43. When this Constitution shall have been ratified by the people of the State of Oklahoma and the State admitted into the Federal Union, under the same, as engrossed on parchment and signed by the officers and members of this Con- stitutional Convention, it shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State and sacredly preserved by him, as the fundamental law of the State of Oklahoma.
Done in open convention at the City of Guthrie, in the Territory of Oklahoma, on this, the six- teenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven; and the Inde- pendence of the United States of America one hundred and thirty-first.
WM. H. MURRAY, President of the Constitu- tional Convention of the proposed State of Okla- homa and Delegate from District No. 104. ATTEST:
JOHN McLAIN YOUNG,
Secretary.
(SEAL) CHAS. H. FILSON, Secretary of Oklahoma.
PETE HANRATY, Vice President. ALBERT H. ELLIS,
Second Vice President, and Delegate Dis- trict 14. PHILIP B. HOPKINS, District 75. C. N. HASKELL, District 76.
C. S. Leeper, 96.
T. O. James, Dist. No. 1.
C. H. Pittman.
J. H. N. Cobb.
C. W. Bord, 73.
W. S. Dearing, Dist. 44.
David S. Rose, Dist. 15.
Geo. A. Henshaw, Dist. 107.
W. F. Hendricks, Dist. 10.
E. F. Messenger, Dist. 82.
James H. Chambers, Dist. 105. William I. Caudill, Dist. 50.
Cham Jones, Dist. 101. John M. Carr, Dist. 54.
I. B. ยท Littleton, Dist. 32.
J. B. Tosh, Dist. 52.
J. K. Hill, Dist. 63.
J. J. Savage, Dist. 48.
J. S. Buchanan, Dist. 34.
J. C. Graham, Dist. 106.
J. A. Alderson, Dist. 12. Thad D. Rice, Dist. 38. A. G. Cochran, Dist. 98. William N. Littlejohn, Dist. 78. James R. Copeland, Dist. 62. C. V. Rogers, Dist. 64. B. E. Bryant, Dist. 47. Samuel W. Hayes, Dist. 85.
James I. Wood, Dist. 89. David Hogg, Dist. 43. Flowers Nelson, Dist. 68. Boone Williams, Dist. 97. W. L. Helton, Dist. 24. Edward R. Williams, Dist. 3. J. F. King, Dist. No. 16. J. W. Swarts, Dist. 60. W. E. Banks, Dist. 51. R. J. Allen, Dist. 93. Charles M. McClain, Dist. 86. Fred C. Tracy, Dist. 2. G. M. Berry, Dist. No. 18. William C. Liedtke, Dist. 83.
J. A. Baker, Dist. 81. T. C. Wyatt, Dist. 33. Charles L. Moore, Dist. 13. A. L. Hausam, Dist. 70. J. J. Quarles, Dist. 56. Ben F. Harrison, Dist. 88. E. G. Newell, Dist. 19. Hamner G. Turner, Dist. 80. Delphas G. Harned, Dist. 9. J. Howard Langley, Dist. 65.
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