A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 75

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

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G. W. Wood, Dist. No. 8. J. S. Lattimer, Dist. 99.

Jno. B. Harrison, Dist. 45.

Joel M. Sandin, Dist. 22. L. J. Akers, Dist. 102. John L. Mitch, Dist. 29. W. A. Ledbetter, Dist. 103. Christopher C. Mathis, Dist. 100. Edwin T. Sorrells, Dist. 92. Carlton Weaver, Dist. 87. Henry S. Johnston, Dist. 17. J. E. Sater, Dist. 20. Milas Lasater, Dist. 94. S. W. Ramsey, Dist. 30.

R. L. Williams, Dist. No. 108.

Henry L. Cloud, Dist. 23.

John J. Carney, Dist. 36. Gabe E. Parker, Dist. 109.

W. C. Hughes, Dist. 28.

H. O. Tener, Dist. 42.

C. H. Bower, Dist. 41.

J. K. Norton, Dist. 35. . Matthew J. Kane, Dist. 37.

Joseph J. Curl, Dist. 57. O. H. P. Bruner, Dist. 77.

A. S. Wyly, Dist. 72.

William H. Eddy, Dist. 53.

T. J. Leahy, Dist. 56. George Martin Bilby, Dist. 6.

Territory of Oklahoma, Logan county :

I, William H. Murray, President of the Consti- tutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma, do hereby certify that the within and

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foregoing is the original parchment enrollment of the Constitution and the several articles thereof adopted by the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma, to be submitted to the people of the proposed State of Oklahoma for ratification, and that all the interlineations therein contained and all the erasures and words stricken out, were made and done before the same was signed by the President, the Vice Presidents, and the members of the convention.

Witness my hand this the sixteenth day of July, A. D. nineteen hundred and seven.

WM. H. MURRAY, President of the Constitutional Convention of the proposed State of Oklahoma.

Attest: JOHN McLAIN YOUNG, Secretary.

Resolution Adopting the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas, the enabling act provides that a declaration be made by the delegates to this con- vention adopting the constitution of the United States; therefore, be resolved by the organized convention, that the delegates elected to the con- stitutional convention for the proposed State of Oklahoma, assembled in Guthrie, the seat of gov- ernment of said Oklahoma Territory, do declare on behalf of the people of said proposed state, that they adopt the constitution of the .United States.

I hereby certify that the above and foregoing resolution was duly passed by the convention upon its organization, on the 21st day of No- vember, A. D. 1906.

WM. H. MURRAY,

President of the Constitutional Convention. Attest: JOHN McLAIN YOUNG, Secretary.

Prohibition.

The manufacture, sale, barter, giving away, or otherwise furnishing, except as hereinafter pro- vided, of intoxicating liquors within this state, or any part thereof, is prohibited for a period of twenty-one years from the date of the admission of this state into the union, and thereafter until the people of the state shall otherwise provide by amendment of this constitution and proper state legislation. Any person, individual or corpora- tion, who shall manufacture, sell, barter, give away, or otherwise furnish any intoxicating liquor of any kind, including beer, ale and wine, contrary to the provisions of this section, or who shall within the state, advertise for sale or solicit the purchase of any such liquors, or who shall ship or in any way convey such liquors from one place within the state to another place therein, except the conveyance of a lawful pur- chase as herein authorized, shall be punished on conviction thereof, by fine not less than fifty dol-

lars and by imprisonment not less than thirty days for each offense: Provided, That. the legis- lature may provide by law for one agency under the supervision of the state in each incorporated town of not less than two thousand population in the state; and if there be no incorporated town of two thousand population in any county in this state, such county shall be entitled to have one such agency, for the sale of such liquors for medicinal purposes; and for the sale for industrial purposes, of alcohol which shall have been denaturized by some process approved by the United States commissioner of internal reve- nue; and for the sale of alcohol for scientific purposes to such scientific institutions, universi- ties, and colleges as are authorized to procure the same free from tax under the laws of the United States; and for the sale of such liquors to any apothecary who shall have executed an approved bond, in a sum not less than one thousand dollars, conditioned that none of such liquors shall be used or disposed of for any pur- pose other than in the compounding of prescrip- tions or other medicines, the sale of which would not subject him to the payment of the special tax required of liquor dealers by the United States and the payment of such special tax by any person within the state shall constitute prima facie evidence of his intention to violate the provisions of this section. No sale shall be made except upon the sworn statement of the applicant in writing setting forth the purpose for which the liquor is to be used, and no sale shall be made for medicinal purposes except sales to apothecaries as hereinabove provided unless such statement shall be accompanied by a bona fide prescription signed by a regular practicing physi- cian, which prescription shall not be filled more than once. Each sale shall be duly registered, and the register thereof together with the affida- vits and prescription pertaining thereto, shall be open to inspection to any officer or citizen of the state at all times during business hours. Any person who shall knowingly make a false affida- vit for the purpose aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Any physician who shall pre- scribe any such liquor, except for treatment of disease which after his own personal diagnosis he shall deem to require such treatment, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for each offense by fine of not less than two hundred dol- lars or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and any person connected with any such agency, who shall be convicted of making any sale or other disposition of liquor contrary to these pro- visions shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year and one day. Upon the admission of this state into the union these pro-

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visions shall be immediately enforceable in the courts of the state; Provided, That there shall be submitted separately, at the same election at which this constitution is submitted for ratifica- tion or rejection, and on the same ballot, the foregoing Article- entitled "Prohibition," on which ballot shall be printed FOR STATE- WIDE PROHIBITION and AGAINST STATE- WIDE PROHIBITION: And Provided Further, That, if a majority of the votes cast for or against State-wide prohibition are for State-wide prohibition, then said Article shall be and form a part of this constiution and be in full force and effect as such, as provided therein; but, if a majority of said votes shall be against State-wide prohibition, then the provisions of said article shall not form a part of this con- stitution and shall be null and void.

I hereby certify that the above and foregoing provision and ordinance submitting the same separately to a vote of the people of the state as heretofore adopted on the 11th day of March, A. D. 1907, as above engrossed, was adopted as engrossed upon roll call for the purpose of such separate submission, on this the 22nd day of April, Anno Domini, 1907.

WM. H. MURRAY, President of Constitutional Convention, Attest: JOHN McLAIN YOUNG, Secretary.

Be it ordained by the constitutional conven- tion for the proposed state of Oklahoma, that said constitutional convention do, by this ordi- nance irrevocable, accept the terms and conditions of an Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act to Enable the People of Okla- homa and the Indian Territory to form a Consti- tution 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," approved June the sixteenth, Anno Domini, Nineteen Hundred and Six.

I hereby certify that the foregoing ordinance Accepting the terms and conditions of the En- abling Act as the same has heretofore been passed and engrossed, was engrossed with the engrossed copy of the constitution on parchment, was read as engrossed and roll call had thereon and the same duly adopted by a majority of the votes of all the delegates elected to and constituting this convention, at 11:41 o'clock a. m., this 22nd day of April, Anno Domini, 1907.

WM. H. MURRAY, President of Constitutional Convention. Attest: JOHN McLAIN YOUNG, Secretary.

Adair County.

Adair county, situated on the Arkansas border, is a rugged country, with a large forest area. Fruit and potatoes are among its important agricultural yield, though the staple crops of cotton and corn are also largely depended on.

The population of the county by the state- hood census was 9,115. Stilwell, the larg- est town, had a population of 948, and Westville, the county seat, a population of 624. Stilwell was named for the chief pro- moter of the Kansas City Southern Rail- way, which as the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf was built about 1897. The build- ing of the Frisco line about 1902 made Westville, the junction point of the two roads, a place of advantageous location, and when the new county was formed it became the county seat.

Atoka County.

Atoka county just before statehood had a population of 12,013. Agriculturally the county is not so highly developed as many other counties in the southern part of the state, and its principal resource has for a number of years been the coal-mining in- dustry. Corn and cotton are good crops. A large amount of the lands of this county has been in the coal leases, and the removal of restrictions in 1908 promises to open a considerable part of the agricultural lands to improvement and settlement. The area of this county has been benefited by railroad facilities since 1872, when the M., K. & T. line was completed. For many years Atoka was the foremost shipping point for a broad district of country lying both east and west. The principal overland road through the southern part of Indian Territory intersected the railroad at Atoka.

Atoka, besides being the county seat of the large county of the same name, has been a noted town in the Choctaw Nation for a

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long time. It was here that the agreement was made in 1897 which was the first deci- sive step toward allotting the lands of In- dian Territory among the individual Indi- ans. Atoka was also a Choctaw Indian court town, and the seat of a U. S. com- mission's court, both of which added to the consequence of this center of trade. Atoka has been a locality since the sixties, when it was a stage station on the overland road. The railroad in 1872 caused it to increase more rapidly, and thenceforth it attracted a number of white settlers. The famous missionary, J. S. Murrow, settled at Atoka about 1867 and prepared the petition for the first postoffice at that point. From here he continued to direct the missionary work of the Baptist church among this nation, and is the last and most venerable of that class of pioneers of Oklahoma.

Atoka in 1907 had a population of 1,700, and has recently made rapid advances as a municipality, having established water- works, electric light plant, ice plant and other business concerns that indicate prog- ress in modern affairs.

The principal towns besides the county seat are Caney, with a population of 300, and Stringtown, with 200. Stringtown was formerly an important railroad point for the region about Lehigh and Coalgate, be- fore the railroad reached the latter places.

Bryan County.

Bryan county was named in honor of William J. Bryan. Its area of about nine hundred square miles, two sides of which are bounded by the Red and Washita rivers, is a well developed agricultural region, pro- ducing corn, cotton and wheat, the farm lands being held at a higher than average value of Oklahoma real estate. The M., K. & T. Railroad, the oldest railway line in Oklahoma, crosses the county, while the

two lines of the Frisco have been built dur- ing the present decade. The Missouri, Ok- lahoma and Gulf Railroad, now building southward from Wagoner, will traverse the county, if constructed as now proposed.

Durant is the county seat, and was named for the family which lived on the site at the time the railroad was built in 1872. Mem- bers of this family are still prominent here. Dixon Durant kept the first store and was the first postmaster. This has been a pop- ular trading center for the citizens of the Choctaw Nation since the railroad came, and in recent years Durant has made much progress. It was water works, and is ac- quiring the facilities of education and mu- nicipal convenience demanded in the mod- ern cities. The Presbyterian college and the public schools are adequate and pro- gressive. The population of Durant in 1907 was 4,600, having increased from about 3,000 in 1900.

Caddo, near the north line of the county, was a court town of the Choctaws in terri- torial days, and has for years been an im- portant commercial point. The public school is one of the most modern institu- tions in this section of the state. The pop- ulation of Caddo is 1,300.

Sterrett, formerly called Cale, is another shipping point and town of the county. It is said to have been the first townsite in which white persons outside of the Indian Nation could purchase lots and get a title direct from the tribe. The first sale of lots occurred in September, 1899. The rail- road station and some village activities had been here since the construction of the rail- road.

Since the building of the line of the Frisco along the Red river valley, various towns have attained commercial standing on that route. Bokchito in Bryan county is a

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prosperous village, and the center of an time of the civil dissensions in 1839. It is interesting community.

Carter County.

Carter county contains the city of Ard- more, the metropolis of south central Okla- homa, and in its natural products and re- sources is one of the richest and most diver- sified counties of the state. Some of the streets of Ardmore are paved with asphalt which is produced from the rock asphalt deposits of Carter county. Though a con- siderable part of the county is of such rugged topography as not to be fit for suc- cessful agriculture, the aggregate of live stock and corn, and cotton crops is one of the largest in the state. A few years ago Ardmore claimed to be the largest local cot- ton market in the world.

Ardmore took the lead among the various towns founded along the line of the Santa Fe during the late eighties, and by the cen- sus of 1900 was the largest town of Indian Territory. At that time its population was 5,681, Muskogee at that time having 4,226 population. Ardmore has been the home of many of Oklahoma's foremost men, in poli- tics, the professions and business. Being the judicial center for the southern district of Indian Territory, Ardmore attracted a large number of lawyers, and the territorial bar which was represented there contained many men whose influence was felt in the developments which led up to statehood and has also been potent under the present gov- . The population of Choctaw county by the ernment.

Cherokee County.

Cherokee county is the center of the old Cherokee Nation, the scene of many of the events which shaped the history of the na- tion of Cherokees and also of the state of Oklahoma. At Tahlequah has been the seat of the Cherokee government since the

still the business metropolis of the county, with a population of 1,916. There was no railroad in the county until 1902, but the presence of the capitol, the national schools and other institutions of the Cherokees made Tahlequah the center of much of the national life of this nation.

Choctaw County.

Choctaw county comprises some of the oldest communities of Oklahoma. Old Fort Towson and Doaksville in the eastern part of the county were the scene of treaties and other events connected with the settlement of the Choctaw people in this country. Fort Towson was one of the military posts of the Indian country, but has been abandoned for that purpose over half a century. One in- teresting fact is that cotton was first raised on a large scale in the vicinity of Fort Tow- son. That was more than seventy years ago, hence the growing of cotton is not one of the modern industries of Oklahoma. Cot- ton, corn and potatoes are abundant crops in Choctaw county, which is a good agri- cultural area, but an important industry for a' number of years has been lumber manu- facture. About a third of the county's area is covered with forest, much of it adapted to profitable lumbering, and there are sev- eral large companies and individual op- erators whose sawmills are perhaps the largest productive enterprise of the county.

census of 1907 was 17,340, the principal towns being, Hugo, 2,676; Boswell, 836; Fort Towson, 745; Grant, 440; Soper, 296.

Goodland was formerly an important trading center of this county. The Spring family, prominent in Choctaw history, lived in this vicinity, and members of the family were concerned in the first activities of the place. The building of the Frisco Railroad

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from Fort Smith to Paris during the eighties caused the establishment of ship -. ping stations along the route, and Goodland was the name of the community that grew up around the railroad station. The build- ing of the Red river valley line of the Frisco about 1903 gave this county an east and west line, and the intersection of the two was at a point several miles south of Good- land. The junction point soon proved the most attractive commercial center of the vicinity, and the town of Hugo was pro- moted and developed and deprived Good- land of its former prestige, until the latter is now little more than a name. Hugo is the county seat.

Coal County.

Coal county, which comprises fourteen and a half congressional townships situated at the western edge of the old Choctaw Na- tion, is part of the great coal section of Oklahoma. The growing of corn and cot- ton and other crops and raising of live stock, though a valuable resource in the ag- gregate, are of minor importance in this county compared to the output of the coal mines. The development of the mines be- gan in the eighties and for this reason the settlement of white men in the region now comprised in Coal county began earlier than in the purely agricultural counties. The various coal operators have been mining coal here for a quarter of a century. The population of the county in 1907 was .15,- 585, half of which was grouped in or about the three principal towns, Coalgate, Lehigh and Phillips. Coalgate is the metropolis of the county, with a population of 2,921. The census of 1900 gave it 2,614. Lehigh, the county seat of the new county, has a popu- lation of 2,188, against 1,500 in the census of 1900. Phillips is a town of 650 people.

A branch of the M., K. & T. Railroad

extended from Atoka to Lehigh in the early nineties. This was primarily little more than a side track to the coal mines, and as such was gradually extended on to Coal- gate, where in 1901-02 it was connected with the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf. The construction of these railroads marks the beginning of the towns and the development on a large scale of the coal mines.

During the present decade Coalgate has become a very enterprising little city, has built a system of water works, has estab- lished public schools of a high grade, and with its factories and business concerns, churches, is one of the flourishing places of the new state.

Lehigh, the county seat, has been a cen- ter of the coal industry for many years. This is now the eastern terminus of the Oklahoma Central Railroad.

Craig County.

Craig county, taken from the northern portion of the Cherokee country and com- prising the country adjacent to Vinita, which is the county seat, has a population of 14,955 by the statehood census. Farm- ing, stock raising and brick manufacture are given as the principal industries of the county. A great variety of agricultural crops are produced here, but the county is a little too far north to be ranked among the cotton sections of the state.

In one important respect the territory comprising this county has a great advan- tage over the rest of the state. The two first railroads of the state were built to a junction point at Vinita, and that town was the first railroad town, and for some years remained the most important shipping point, of old Indian Territory. The con- struction of a part of the M., K. & T. to the north line of the Territory was completed in 1870 (see history of Railroads, else-

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where), and within the next two years the line was opened to the Red river. At the same time the Atlantic and Pacific (later the Frisco) was being built from Monett, Missouri, to Vinita, which remained its terminus for a number of years. The town of Vinita was platted by the authorities of the Cherokee Nation in February, 1872. Its original name of Downingville was changed through the influence of Col. E. C. Boudinot. The name is said to have been given in honor of a sculptress, who was a friend of Colonel Boudinot. For some time the M., K. & T. would not stop trains at the crossing nor establish a station for Vinita. The Frisco kept a freight train standing over the crossing and in this way held up the trains of the other road until passengers could get off. Finally the rail- roads compromised their differences.

Vinita was incorporated in 1873 under the Cherokee laws. For several years the town was noted for its disorder and the congregation here of a large number of lawless characters. Several marshals were frightened out of office, until a veteran fighter was found who was willing in the course of his duty to give battle to all dis- turbers of the peace, and this man soon brought a condition of comparative quiet and order upon the town of Vinita.

The population of Vinita in 1907 was 3,157. Besides being the county seat of the new county, it has for a number of years been noted as an education and business center. Several denominational schools and colleges are located there, and a free public school system has been in vogue for the past ten years. Vinita has paved streets and other municipal utilities, and besides its retail business has some large factories and wholesale houses.

There are no large towns in the county outside of the county seat. The population

of the smaller centers by the last census is: Welch, 481; Bluejacket, 427; Centralia, 405; Big Cabin, 190.

Creek County.

Creek county is the northwest corner of the old Creek Nation. With an area of 972 square miles, and with about 200,000 acres producing crops of corn, cotton, wheat and oats, the county is also one of the centers of petroleum production. Practically the entire eastern portion of the county is a vast oil field, derricks rising like a forest from all the valleys and climbing to the crests of all the hills. Kiefer is a village surrounded by derricks, and though not a "city of tents" its buildings are quite gen- erally of the unpainted boards, tar-paper roofs, and general uniformity of pattern which characterize the very new oil towns. Sapulpa, the county seat, which also derives much of its prosperity from the oil indus- try, is a much older town, comparatively speaking, and a substantially built little city with many improvements.

Sapulpa for a number of years was the western terminus of the Frisco Railroad. This road, constructed under one of the old railroad charters granted shortly after the Civil war (described in a previous chapter ) originally came into the Territory only as far as Vinita, and then in the early eighties was continued into the Creek Nation and a few miles beyond the Arkansas river, and there stopped short as if on the edge of civilization and for fifteen years failed to advance a mile into the splendid country both west and south. About 1898 began the building of the extension west to Okla- homa City and in 1900 the main line to Texas was completed.

Sapulpa was named for one of the hon- ored citizens of the Creek tribe, one of his sons being a prominent resident of this

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city. The railroad reached Sapulpa in 1884, and during the years when it remained a terminus . and hence a supply point for nearly all the region to the west of it, this town was a frontier place and a rendezvous of characters the like of which can never again assemble anywhere in the state of Oklahoma. A noted place in the history of border days is occupied by the Stockade Hotel, an institution which once flourished in Sapulpa. On its dirt floor members of the Dalton gang, the French and James boys, Cole and Bill Younger and other out- laws are said to have danced and caroused. As a shipping point this was a regular re- sort for the cattlemen of an earlier day, and the cowboys also supplied their share of revelry and excitement to the wild and liberal scenes that characterized this little community.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 75

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