USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. II > Part 13
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CHAPTER LVIII THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHT OF SETTLEMENT (CONTINUED)
The efforts to effect a settlement on the lands of the Unassigned District by forcible entry did not cease with the failure of the various "colonies" which attempted to locate in the forbidden area in the spring of 1879. It is not improbable that the ardor of the "boomers" (as the prospective settlers were commonly called) would have been materially dampened by the prompt and ener- getic action of the Federal authorities in having them removed by troops if the movement had resulted from individual initiative. The fact that two powerful railway corporations were directly interested in forcing the issue is not without its significance in this connection, however. Indeed, the persistence and regularity with which these first futile efforts were followed up during the course of the ensuing five years are suggestive of sources of inspiration more subtle and influences more powerful than the fleeting hopes and longings of a few land-hungry adventurers. Yet so well were the real sources of the movement concealed that, even after the lapse of more than a third of a century, the details of such a connection remain largely subject to conjecture.
The ostensible leaders of the first colonization movement soon disappeared, their place being taken by David L. Payne,1 who, as 1 David L. Payne was born near Fairmont, Grant County, Indiana, December 30, 1836. His mother was a first cousin of Davy Crockett, the noted hunter-statesman who gave up his life for the cause of Texan independence in defense of the Alamo. Payne's education was as meagre as that which fell to the lot of the average farmer's son in any of the western states of that period, but he is reputed to have been of a studious disposition and was an eager reader. When he was twenty-one years old Payne became a Kansas pioneer, settling on a homestead in Doniphan County. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in the Fourth Kansas Infantry, with which he served three years. Returning to Kansas after having been discharged at the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was elected to the Legislature in the fall of 1864. During the course of his campaign he was again in the field
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previously stated, did not return to the West until after the first efforts to effect such settlements had failed. Payne was peculiarly fitted for the active leadership of such a propaganda. By birth,
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CAPTAIN DAVID L. PAYNE
association and experience he could qualify as a pioneer, yet at heart he was a soldier of fortune. Outwardly frank and generous,
as captain in command of a company of state militia which had been called into the service to aid in repelling the Price raid. Dur- ing the legislative session of 1865 Payne was very active, especially in matters pertaining to military affairs. After the adjournment of the Legislature he immediately re-enlisted in the military service as a private (taking the place of a man who had been drafted, but who had a large family to support) and was assigned to the Eighteenth Regiment of the United States Veteran Reserve Corps. Shortly afterward he was offered a commission as a lieutenant in the regular army, which he declined. He was at Appomattox and
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he could easily play upon the credulity of the adventurous class which was attracted by the novelty of his scheme. Of robust and
thus was privileged to witness the end of the great conflict between the seceding states and the general Government.
After the end of the Civil war the career of Payne was so varied as to appear kaleidoscopic. He served as sergeant-at-arms of the Kansas House of Representatives during the legislative session of 1866. Shortly afterward he was appointed postmaster at Fort Leavenworth. In 1867 he was commissioned captain of the Eighteenth Kansas Cavalry-a battalion raised for service against the Indians of the plains, who were then at war. With this com- mand he saw much active and arduous service in the western part of Kansas. His troop was attacked by a scourge of cholera, which was epidemic on the plains at the time. In the fall of 1868 the war department called on the governor of Kansas for a full regi- ment of volunteer cavalry and, when it was mustered into the service as the Nineteenth Kansas, Payne's name appeared on the official roster as that of a troop captain. During the winter of 1868-69 the Nineteenth Kansas saw active service in Southwestern Kansas, Western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, being with Custer during the greater part of the Washita campaign.
In 1870 Payne settled on a homestead in Sedgwick County, Kansas. The next year he was elected to membership in the lower House of the State Legislature. During the session which followed his principal distinction was gained by introducing and successfully championing a measure for the removal of the political disabilities of ex-Confederate soldiers who, up to that time, had been disfran- chised in Kansas. In 1872 he was nominated as a candidate for the State Senate, but was defeated in the election, though running far ahead of his ticket. (He ran as a democrat then, though he had formerly been affiliated with the republicans.) He then spent several years in Colorado and New Mexico and at his boyhood home in Indiana. Afterward he secured employment as an assistant doorkeeper of the House of Representatives at Washington, where he remained until 1879. It is not improbable that he became acquainted with Boudinot and others who were interested in the opening of the "Oklahoma Country," as the unassigned district was coming to be called. In any event, he began to plan and agi- tate his Oklahoma colony proposition immediately after his return from the East, though others had already been in the same field. His activities were incessant along this line during the ensuing five years and he continued to be the soul and inspiration of the movement for the opening of Oklahoma to white settlement until his death. He was engaged in organizing for another invasion of the territory when he died, very suddenly and unexpectedly, at Wellington, Kansas, November 27, 1884. He was buried at Well- ington, his funeral being the largest that was ever held in that community.
Payne is popularly credited with having originated the idea of
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picturesque physique and possessed of a personality that was not lacking in magnetism among those of an adventurous disposition, he easily became a hero in the eyes of followers who believed him capable of martyrdom in a holy cause. With the cool calculation of a demagogue and the swagger of a knight errant, he combined the talent of an actor which enabled him to artfully play his part to the end. To just what extent he was backed by the interested railway corporations may never be known, and it is quite possible that substantial assistance from such quarters was but temporary at best. But, whether he was in the pay of the railway companies or not, he always charged a membership fee for the privilege of joining any of his projected colony organizations, and he also bor- rowed freely from some of his more well-to-do and over-trustful followers who in the end found they had merely contributed to "the good of the cause." He was also notoriously indifferent to the conventions of society in regard to domestic relations. Taken altogether, his character can scarcely be held up as a model for emulation. It may even be doubted whether he would have remained long in Oklahoma if he had succeeded in effecting a per-
colonizing the Oklahoma country and by many he is believed to have bestowed the Indian name of Oklahoma upon the country in which he tried to effect a settlement. As a matter of fact, he was not entitled to credit on either account. The suggestion of the name Oklahoma can be traced back to a time long before Payne ever dreamed of leading white settlers into it and, moreover, at least two attempts were made to colonize it before he returned to the West from Washington. But, although others who had tried to organize colonies and lead them into Oklahoma became discouraged and turned to other pursuits, Payne persisted with a determination that seemed born of a mighty purpose and, seemingly, no amount of defeat or disappointment could dampen his ardor or discourage his dauntless spirit. Heedless alike of obstacles and sneers, he kept his one great purpose in mind. One arrest and removal from the forbidden territory might satisfy the adventurous longings of some of the other Oklahoma leaders, but not so with Payne. He spent over five years in actively pushing the Oklahoma propaganda. During that time no less than eight attempts were made to colonize the Oklahoma country under his direction. It was largely due to his ability as an organizer and to his persistent agitation that Okla- homa became a household word. He commanded the confidence and even the affection of his followers. His activity and zeal in behalf of the proposed opening of the unoccupied lands of the Indian Territory ended only with his life and, even then, the movement had gained such impetus under his leadership that it went on to the point of achievement without him.
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manent settlement, as he had already used his homestead right twice only to drift on in search of adventures which seemed to lure him away from the land. Yet, notwithstanding his obliquities and shortcomings, his success as an agitator made possible the opening of Oklahoma to white settlement much sooner than it would have been done otherwise and his picturesque career in that capacity was so unique as to insure him an indisputable right to a place in the state's history.
REPEATED INVASIONS
Learning that the settlers were again organized for the invasion of the Oklahoma country, President Hayes issued a second proc- lamation, February 12, 1880, warning them to desist from such a purpose. Such warning proclamations had but little effect upon the "boomers," however. Captain Payne led a colony to the Northı Canadian River, in April, 1880, locating near the site of Oklahoma City.2 The colonists were arrested, on May 15th, by Lieut. George H. G. Gale, in command of a detachment of the Fourth United States Cavalry, and were taken to Fort Reno. Sub- sequently the prisoners were escorted to the Kansas border by troops under the command of Capt. T. B. Robinson, Nineteenth United States Infantry, where they were released, June 7, 1880. Payne returned to Oklahoma within a month (July 12th), only to be again arrested (July 16th) and, with a few of his leading asso- ciates, he was again taken to Fort Reno. From that post Payne was taken to Fort Smith, where he was cited to appear before the Federal Court at its November term and was then released without bond.
During the autumn of 1880, Payne was very active in organizing a new colony for the purpose of settling in the Oklahoma country. The intending settlers assembled in camp at Caldwell, Kansas. The Indians of the five civilized tribes sent a delegation to that place to visit Payne and his followers, in November, for the pur- pose of dissuading them from further efforts to effect a settlement in Oklahoma. Payne planned to move across the border into the Indian Territory on the 6th of November. The war department caused a strong force of troops, under the command of Maj. George
2 Twenty years later the excavation which was made for Payne's log-walled dugout cabin was still pointed out on the edge of the river terrace near the present entrance to Wheeler Park, Oklahoma City.
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M. Randall, to be posted on the line for the purpose of preventing the proposed invasion of the "boomers." Hundreds of the latter were gathered in camp, many of them remaining all winter, closely watched by the soldiers, who also remained encamped close at hand. · As the winter was one of exceptional severity, the colonists in camp suffered considerable hardship.
Baffled as it was in its attempt to enter the Oklahoma country, Payne's colony gradually dwindled in numbers. Payne's activity was incessant, however. He never became discouraged, but seemed rather to be hopeful in spite of repeated failures. Some of his followers stood loyally by him and his cause in the days of adver- sity. If he fretted at all it was not because of any hardship that had to be undergone, but rather because of his inability to have his contentions tested in the courts. The hearings of the charges against him were always postponed and finally dismissed. In order to force the issue, he brought suit in the United States District Court at Topeka, Kansas, in May, 1881, against Gen. John Pope, Department Commander of the United States army at Fort Leaven- worth, for damages on account of being forcibly removed from the territory. In this effort he was again frustrated by repeated post- ponements. General Pope was very bitter in his denunciation of Payne, as will be noted in the following extract from his report to the adjutant-general of the Military Division of the Missouri : 3
"The notorious 'Captain Payne' again made an attempt with a small party to enter and occupy the Oklahoma district of the Indian Territory, but, as heretofore, he was arrested by the troops and taken to Fort Reno with several of his followers. Thence he was, at the request of the Interior Department, taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and turned over to the United States marshal for the western district of Arkansas for trial before the United States courts. He was, of course, released from custody and notified to appear at the next term of the court. He brought suit at once in the State courts of Arkansas against the officer who took him to Fort Smith, and laid his damages at an amount which his whole colony could not have made in fifty years. His history, in connec- tion with his oft-repeated and publicly-proclaimed violation of the laws of the United States, is contained in the following letter to division headquarters by me in June last :
"We shall no doubt soon have a repetition of the attempts of Payne and his followers to enter and occupy the Oklahoma district
3 Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1882, pp. 98, 99.
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of the Indian Territory, necessarily followed by his arrest by the troops after long marches, his transportation to the line of the Indian Territory, either north or south, and then his release, with- out any consequence whatever to him. In a short time he will appear again on the southern line of Kansas, and the same process will be gone through with. These proceedings have been going on for some years. The Government is punished for them by a heavy expense. The troops are punished by long and severe marches at all seasons of the year. The soldiers employed in this business are taken from the posts in the vicinity of the Indians, where they are much needed, and have their horses worn and broken down so as to be in part unfitted some time after for the active service which may be imposed on them at any moment, and all this because a convicted criminal, once condemned and fined for his violation of law, persists repeating his crime. Being wholly impecunious, and the law imposing no other punishment in his case except a fine, which he is unable to pay, he is practically beyond the reach of law. He proclaims with all the publicity of the newspapers and posters his purpose to renew the offense for which he is now under convic- tion ; assembles openly a considerable number of persons at some point on the southern line of Kansas, and enters at once upon another violation of the law. This one man under sentence by the United States courts publicly enacts his performance about once a year, and the Government appears to have no remedy except to keep a company of cavalry simply to watch and to rearrest and remove him from the Territory. It would be easy to stop all this brazen outrage upon law and upon respect for the authority of the Government by simply confining Payne in the guard-house at the post in the Indian Territory nearest to which his arrest by the troops is made, and compelling him for a time to work for his living, a thing probably very unusual and painful to him; but I presume that process cannot be pursued under the law. Meantime, Payne brings suit in the courts for $25,000 damages against me for my acts as department commander in having him ejected from the Indian Territory, proclaims his purpose publicly to repeat his invasion this autumn, and then repairs to Washington City, as is stated in the papers, to confer with the Interior and War Depart- ments on the subject of his next attempt to invade and occupy the Indian Territory.
"These transactions would appear to be rather in the nature of a farce but for their effects. Few people in this region have any respect for laws or decisions of the courts in the matter of the
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Indian Territory, when they see such performances going on con- stantly, and observe, as they cannot fail to do, that the Government appears to be powerless to punish any one for open and premedi- tated violation of the laws, and the proclamation of the President of the United States based thereon.
"Naturally, every loafer or outlaw in all this region, as indeed every ordinary respectable citizen, can have but little belief in the power of the Government to protect the Indian Territory by pun- ishing this class of offenders against the law. Indeed, it is reason- ably plain that the only persons likely to be punished are the agents of the Government, military or civil, who are engaged under its orders in trying to prevent this violation of the laws and obliga- tions of the United States.
"In order to attempt at least to put a stop to the continued repetition of proceedings which bring the Government and the laws into contempt, I am compelled to ask further instructions as to the personal treatment of Payne if he be again arrested in the Indian Territory in the act of another violation of the law. The present modes of procedure-the only modes I am authorized to pursue- are manifestly ineffective, and have come to be considered a sort of a farce in this part of the country, and furnish the people a source of mirth rather than of warning to respect the laws of the United States and the orders and proclamations of the President.
"I sincerely trust that some law will be enacted to cover Payne's case at as early a date as possible. The only proceedings we can take against him have been taken, and manifestly without avail."
In the fall of 1881 Payne reorganized his colony in Northern Texas. Crossing the Red River into the Indian Territory in November, he encamped on Cache Creek. He was promptly expelled by troops of the regular army. At that time the Atlantic & Pacific (St. Louis & San Francisco) Railway Company was reported to be considering the extension of its line from the (then) terminus at Vinita, in the Cherokee Nation, westward to New Mexico.
Unable to secure any ruling from the Federal courts that would authoritatively determine the status of the lands of the unassigned district, Payne went to Washington, in July, 1882, to see the Secre- tary of the Interior. The secretary (Henry M. Teller of Colorado) gave Payne no satisfaction. Payne returned to the West, where he promptly organized a colony to move into the Oklahoma country. With his followers, he was arrested in the territory, early in Sep- tember, 1882, taken to Fort Reno and thence, by way of Henrietta,
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Texas, to Fort Smith, Arkansas. There he and several of his fol- lowers were served with summons to appear at the November term of the United States District Court. When they appeared for trial the case was continued, on motion of the district attorney. Payne returned to the Southern Kansas border and began to assem- ble his followers for another attempt to effect a settlement in Oklahoma.
During the earlier stages of the movement for the settlement of the unassigned lands the attitude of the press was that of interest only insofar as its novelty afforded readable news stories. When the cattlemen of the Cherokee Outlet realized that the settlement of the unassigned lands would seriously endanger the tenure of their leases, they organized to make a common cause with the ranchmen of the district thus desired by the "boomers" to be opened for settlement and, from that time on, the range cattle interests were openly arrayed against any change in the status of the lands of the Indian Territory. A liberal amount of advertising patronage was placed with the local papers which were published across the border in the southern tier of Kansas counties, and it could scarcely be counted a mere coincidence that, simultaneously, there developed a bitterly adverse editorial opinion on the part of such papers with regard to the proposed settlement of the Oklahoma country by the "boomers." Eventually this hostile press propaganda was extended much farther in an endeavor to influence popular opinion against Payne and his colonization proposition, some metropolitan journals which were published at points hundreds of miles distant manifest- ing a viciously partisan interest in their editorial opposition to the movement for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement.4 Up to this time Payne had been without newspaper support, though he had once taken a printing plant into the territory for the purpose of establishing such a journal, only to have the press, type and other material broken up and thrown into a river by the soldiers, who arrested and removed him and his followers as intruders. When his movement encountered the opposition of a subsidized press, however, it became apparent that it needed a journalistic organ of its own. This newspaper, which bore the name of the Oklahoma
4 The Globe-Democrat and Post-Dispatch, both of St. Louis, and the Topeka Commonwealth were among the larger and more influ- ential newspapers which were noted as being especially abusive of Payne and his movement for the settlement of Oklahoma. The Chicago Inter-Ocean also took a long-range interest in the matter, exhibiting a degree of partisan hostility that was suggestive of the operation of undue influence.
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War Chief, issued its first number at Caldwell, Kansas, January 12, 1883, with A. W. Harris as editor, and was avowedly the official organ of Payne's Oklahoma colony. This unique periodical experienced as many vicissitudes as did the organization and move- ment for the promotion of which it was established. Its publication office was changed at least half a dozen times from town to town along the border of the Indian Territory, in Southern Kansas, and its changes in editorial and business management were almost as numerous.5 It was issued more or less regularly until August 12, 1886, when it was finally suspended.
The beginning of the year 1883 found the Oklahoma movement stronger and better organized than ever before. Local camps or colonies were organized and maintained at a number of places, including Caldwell, Arkansas City, Elk City, Wichita, Emporia, Kansas City and Fort Smith. On February 1st, Payne started southward from the Kansas border at the head of what was perhaps the strongest expedition that had yet attempted to settle on the for- bidden lands in the Indian Territory. Six days later it arrived on the North Canadian River at or near the site of Oklahoma City. A party of 150 men came northward from Texas. Six wagons, filled with men from Arkansas, joined Payne on the North Canadian. A large party from Kansas City had reached the Cimarron when word was received that Payne and his followers had been arrested by a detachment of troops from Forts Reno and Sill, under the command of Capt. Henry Carroll of the Ninth United States Cavalry. Payne and his leaders were taken to Fort Reno, while the rest were escorted to the Kansas line. It was estimated that there were about 900
5 In the latter part of March, 1883, before the Oklahoma War Chief was three months old, its plant and publication office were moved to Geuda Springs. In April, 1884, it was moved to Arkan- sas City, with W. F. Gordon as editor. A few weeks later it was moved to Rock Falls, in the Cherokee Strip (four miles south of Hunnewell, Kansas), where it was published under the manage- ment of J. B. Cooper until August, when the colony was removed by the troops, the press and material being taken to Fort Smith. The members of the colony raised money and purchased another press and outfit, with which the paper was re-established at South Haven, with Charles Branscome as editor. After the death of Payne the paper was moved to Arkansas City again, its new owner changing the name to the Oklahoma Chief. June 11, 1885, Smith & Son purchased it and moved it to Caldwell, where it was rechris- tened the Oklahoma War Chief, with Samuel Crocker as its editor.
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