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 18
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The newspapers published in the Indian Territory during this period carried columns of advertising from ranchmen who thus made known their respective cattle brands. The news items con- tained in the local columns reflected faithfully the life of the
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period. Editorially, they were outspoken and frank without excep- tion, especially in the denunciation of policies and practices which did not meet with their approval in the conduct of national and tribal affairs. The lack of a spirit of fraternity between the editors of the papers then published in the territory was also strikingly apparent, sarcasm being cultivated, seemingly, as a fine art, while in some instances at least a propensity for resorting to the use of epithet was freely indulged. Argumentative corre- spondents were numerous, usually contributing their communica- tions over a nom-de-plume, though, instead of "Veritas," "Pro Bono Publico" and "Vox Populi," the pen names adopted were such as "Red Bird," "Raven," "Black Fox," "Woodpecker," "Sapsucker," "Sleeping Rabbit," etc.
In the western part of the territory, at different times during the course of this period, there were newspapers published at no less than three places, namely, Darlington, Beaver and Mangum. The Cheyenne Transporter was originally established at the agency at Darlington as a school paper, but in time it became independent of the agency school and was published for a num- ber of years as a general newspaper and organ of the range cattle interests. The newspapers at Beaver and Mangum were the organs respectively of two of the unique "sooner" settlements of Oklahoma, namely, No-Mans-Land and the Greer County country. . The Oklahoma War Chief was also published at Rock Falls, in the Cherokee Outlet, for a few weeks in the summer of 1884, but, of course, lacked a permanent circulation within the limits of the territory as well as a permanent place of publication.
CHAPTER LXIII
THE OPENING OF OKLAHOMA
The appearance of the proclamation of the President,1 setting a date for the formal opening of Oklahoma to settlement under the homestead laws of the United States, was eagerly awaited by the prospective settlers in many places throughout the West, and especially along the borders of the adjoining states, where many of the former "boomers" were residing. Its publication in the daily papers, the day after it was issued, therefore sent a thrill through the frames of many people who had been awaiting for many years the privilege of entering the "promised land," as they were wont to call it. Indeed, intending settlers began to drift toward the border immediately after the passage and approval of the act authorizing the opening of the coveted lands to settlement. While there were many in Arkansas and Texas, the numbers were much greater along the Southern Kansas border. Hotel accommodations in the border towns were soon overtaxed, while thousands lived in camps or slept in their wagons, yet still the multitude increased.
Among the throngs of people who were thus assembled along the border were many of the former "boomers," who had fol- lowed Payne and Couch in their repeated efforts to settle the Oklahoma country. In some instances, at least, the sense of sat- isfaction in the ultimate triumph of the cause for which they had so long contended was clouded by a feeling of resentment because of the fact that they could expect no favors in the matter of being privileged to select choice quarter sections upon which to file their homestead claims. Indeed, they found themselves continually jostled and elbowed by the thousands who had known little and cared less of Oklahoma until the announcement of the date set for its opening to settlement by the presidential proclamation. Yet these were gathered, not only to contend on an even footing with the "boomers," who had spent time and money and energy in the seemingly hopeless agitation and struggle for the right to settle in Oklahoma, but also, without having risked or sacrificed aught
1 See text of President Harrison's proclamation in Appendix.
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themselves, some of them even affected to look with suspicion upon the "boomers" and to belittle and discredit the part that the latter had borne in pioneering the movement.
The assembled multitudes included people from practically every state in the Union, attracted thither by the novelty of the situation. There were people of all classes and conditions of life, farmers, mechanics, laborers and professional men, composing the principal elements, though there was an unduly large proportion of adventurers, gamblers and sharpers. Peace and good order generally prevailed, for most of the people were disposed to be civil and good natured. Although there were many who came to the border because of their curiosity, or who were actuated by a
BOOMER CAMP ON THE BORDER OF OKLAHOMA, APRIL, 1889
mercenary or speculative spirit, the vast majority were moved by an impulse to seek land and build homes. As the people who prepared to make the race for the privilege of filing on the most prized quarter sections of land had come from many different directions, so they also posted themselves on all sides of the unassigned lands. Many moved southward from the Kansas bor- der and posted themselves on the southern boundary of the Cherokee Outlet, on the north. Others gathered on the line of the Iowa, Kickapoo and Pottawatomie-Shawnee reservations, on the east, while still others took up their stations in the valley of the South Canadian, on the south, or on the line of Cheyenne and Arapaho country, on the west.
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As the waiting settlers increased in numbers in the camps scattered along the boundaries of the Oklahoma country, some of them became over anxious lest, in the rush, they might fail to secure desirable claims. Some, indeed, became so anxious that they disregarded the conditions set forth in the rules prescribed for the opening of the lands to settlement and, eluding the vigi- lance of the cordon of troops by which the bounds of the district were patrolled, slipped in and concealed themselves at points con- veniently near to the best lands so that they would not have far to go when the legal hour of opening arrived. Many of these people, who were called "sooners," from the circumstance of having entered the country too soon, were removed by the soldiers. However, it was found impossible to apprehend all of them, so there were many who succeeded in concealing themselves and thus eluding arrest and removal.2
Not all the intending settlers went as far as the immediate border of the Oklahoma country, however. The Southern Kansas towns nearest to the Oklahoma country, continued to be over- crowded until the morning of the opening day. There was but one line of railway in the Oklahoma country then-that of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, which passed through the center of the tract from north to south. Fifteen passenger trains left Arkansas City between daylight and 11 A. M., on the day of the opening. Fully 10,000 people wanted to board the first train out, a large part of them having been without lodging the night before. Standing room was at a premium in every coach, the platforms and steps being occupied (for there were no vestibuled coaches used), and many men rode on the roofs of the coaches. The first train ran to the northern boundary of the unassigned lands, where it stopped to await the noon hour. As the other trains came up successively, each was stopped as close as possible behind the one preceding.
The people who had encamped on the boundary of the prom- ised land prepared for the noonday race (for a race it was to be), some being in wagons while others were in buggies, buckboards or
2 Most of the "sooners" who succeeded in staying in the country and filing on claims, were later dispossessed as the result of contests before the land office authorities or the courts. A few are locally reputed to have held their claims, making final proof by perjury, but it is a noteworthy fact that these have not prospered. The word "sooner" seems to have taken its place as the official nickname of everything pertaining to Oklahoma.
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road carts, with many on horseback and not a few on foot. All these formed in line, extending along the boundary as far as the range of vision extended, both ways. Slowly the hands of the watch moved as the invading host awaited the sun's approach to the meridian. During those hours of weary waiting, strong men felt the grip of nervous tension such as they had never felt before-a sensation that has been not inaptly likened to the feel- ing of the soldier in his first battle. Even the horses seemed to tire of waiting as if a portion of the eagerness and impatience of driver or rider had been imparted to them Meanwhile the 1
VIEW IN GUTHRIE TWO DAYS AFTER THE OPENING
patrolling cavalrymen, who were posted at long intervals, patiently sat upon their steeds while waiting to give the signal which should start the race. Again and again men glanced at the ascending sun and, for a last time, small groups here and there consulted maps and charts, for some were better posted than others as to where the choicest lands might be found. At last, the fateful hour of noon approached; everyone took his place in line, and then a strange hush fell upon the waiting people as they fixed their gaze upon the trooper who was to give the signal.
At last the faint notes of a distant bugle come drifting up the line and then the trooper out in front fires his carbine. Then arose a mighty shout, which has been likened unto that which was heard when the walls of Jericho fell, and the great race was on in all of its intensity. Neither tongue nor pen have ever been Vol. 11-13
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able to fully portray the scene which followed. Fleet race horses which had been groomed and trained for days; slow-moving, heavy-gaited plow horses in whose plebeian veins flowed no drop of racing blood; wiry bronchos, whose trim hoofs were at home on the prairie turf-all straining to do their best that day which was eventful in the lives of horses as well as of men. On the railroad, fifteen long trains of passenger coaches, each literally freighted with cheering humanity, with whistles shrieking and funnels belching smoke and cinders as, one after another, they raced down the line, toward the Cimarron, past Orlando and Alfred (Mulhall) to Guthrie. And other trains were coming northward from Purcell, past Noble and Norman, to Oklahoma City and Edmond and Guthrie. At every station there were some who alighted to take their chances in or near some of the smaller towns, though by far the greater part of those who entered the country by rail were destined to land either at Guthrie or Okla- homa City.
There were many laughable incidents and some accidents that gave a tragic cast to the day. There were, of course, many cases wherein two men found that they had landed on the same quarter section. Sometimes such a contingency led to extended litigation ; in others, the matter was amicably adjusted; in a few cases, it led to personal altercations and violence. Some, who had paid a good price to secure authentic information concerning the location of the choicest lands, and who provided themselves with swift race horses for the run, covered the ground in record time, only to find the coveted land in possession of a "sooner" who had sneaked out of his hiding place in the brush near by in plenty of time to fore- stall anyone who had abided in good faith by the rules prescribed. Later it developed that these "sooners" had gone into the country in groups and parties with the express understanding that they would protect each other in their efforts at deception.
As an instance of some of the feats performed that day, the following may be quoted : 3
"A novel way of determining a witness' credibility was devel- oped at the land office yesterday, establishing a precedent which commends itself to the serious consideration of other official bodies. A contest for the northeast quarter of section 32, town- ship 12, north, range 3 west, which corners on the military reserva- tion, and to which Charles F. Ashinger is a claimant, has occupied the attention of the land office for the past ten days. In support
3 Oklahoma City Times, November 15, 1890.
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of his claim, Mr. Ashinger testified that he arrived in Oklahoma from Purcell upon the train at 2:10 in the afternoon of April 22d, 1889, and about three and a half minutes thereafter he was upon the contested tract, which is about three-fourths of a mile from the depot. Attorney Stanley, who is attending to the interests of Miss Katie Woodruff, another claimant, ridiculed Mr. Ashinger's statement until the latter proposed to demonstrate by a practical test the truthfulness of his assertion and, as an extra incentive, a wager of ten dollars a side was made between the incredulous attorney and the determined and plucky witness, and about six o'clock last evening, attorneys, witnesses, contestants and court officials, together with about a hundred spectators, repaired to the depot, where the start was made. The sequel proves that Mr. Ashinger is an experienced pedestrian. Running like a deer, he accomplished the feat in three minutes and twenty seconds. Mr. Ashinger, besides being a sprinter of almost world-wide fame, is a gentleman of the highest social standing and business ability. His many friends will be glad to hear of his success in this instance."
Among the other notable incidents that might be enumerated were the following:
One man being attracted by the appearance of the land along the way, jumped through a car window while the train was rush- ing southward at full speed between Mulhall and Guthrie, after having instructed someone else in the coach to throw off his hand baggage in case he was seen to land without apparent accident, as he did.
A young woman left Guthrie on a southbound train, riding on the pilot of the locomotive and, at an agreed signal, the train slowed down and she jumped off and took possession of a quarter section adjoining the right-of-way.
It was estimated that 100,000 people entered Oklahoma on the day of the opening. Fifteen thousand were said to have spent the first night in Guthrie and fully 10,000 at Oklahoma City, and others of the new cities and towns were peopled in like proportion. Nothing in the history of American pioneering-not even Cali- fornia in '49, nor the Pike's Peak country in '59-equalled or even remotely resembled the rush into Oklahoma on that April day. In the morning, a solitude and a wilderness, as it had been through all the ages; at midday, a surging tide of eager, earnest, excited humanity; in the evening, a land of many people, with here and there a tented townsite and thousands of campfires send-
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ing up the incense of peace! Though they came in disorder, like the rout of a defeated and retreating army, their conquest was more complete and their mastery more lasting than that of Roman or Saxon, of Goth or Hun.
CHAPTER LXIV
TAMING THE WILDERNESS
When the uncounted thousands who had slept on the ground- under sheltering tents or under starlit skies-awoke on the morning of April 23, 1889, the frolic of the race for claims was over and the more serious business of planting the institutions of civilization was demanding attention. There was congestion everywhere. There were too many claimants on the best lands and on the most valuable town lots. None of the townsites had been surveyed-a most lamentable evidence of official incompetency on the part of the Interior Department, which, even in the limited length of time at command after the issuance of the executive proclamation fixing the date of the opening, could have had the site of every town and village surveyed and platted, thus saving much if not most of the confusion and not a little of the disagree- ment and litigation which followed the haphazard settlement of the towns.
The one railroad then operating in the Oklahoma country was scarcely prepared for the rush of business which it had been so suddenly called upon to handle. Its depots were but mere box-like shacks and its side tracks, especially at Guthrie and Oklahoma City, were wholly inadequate to the necessities of the occasion. Baggage and freight covered every available inch of space on the depot platforms and were piled up in an indiscriminate heap that extended far beyond in either direction. Trunks, tents, camping outfits, merchandise of every sort and kind were so inextricably mixed that it was only with greatest patience and labor that each owner found his property and secured it and, slowly, out of the confusion, a semblance of order began to appear. The townsites were soon dotted with tents; then cars filled with lumber were unloaded and, as the carpenters found and secured their tool chests, the frames of the first buildings began to take form.
In the meantime the confusion and the disputes continued. Where and how wide were the streets ? How long were the blocks to be? From what initial point should the surveys be made ? Who
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was to be authorized to do the surveying, and how by whom was such authority to be conveyed ? These were some of the vexing ques- tions which no one scemed authorized to answer. The only sem- blance of legal authority was that embodied in a company or squad of United States soldiers, encamped near at hand for the purpose of preserving order, and the presence of a few deputy United States marshals, who were answerable to the new court at Muskogee, 150 or more miles away, and assuredly neither of these agencies were clothed with power to decide or act in regard to such matters. Probably no one in any of the cities and towns which had thus
VIEW IN OKLAHOMA CITY, THREE WEEKS AFTER THE OPENING
been peopled in a day had ever experienced anything of the kind before. Yet the ingenuity, the inventiveness and the splendid initiative of the typical American pioneer was there in plenty and was equal to the occasion. Probably few of the people thus thrown together-they could scarcely be called inhabitants or citizens as yet-knew aught of the old New England "town meeting," and fewer still of the ancient Anglo-Saxon "folk-mote," yet, uncon- sciously, they went back to first principles and called popular assemblages just such as the "folk-mote" and the "town meet- ing" were in their times respectively.
These popular assemblages were organized in an orderly man- ner by the election of the usual officers-a chairman and a secre- tary. . The object of the gathering was then stated, namely, that it was necessary to find some means by which order might be brought
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out of seeming chaos-that the townsite might be surveyed, the metes and bounds of its lots and blocks ascertained and the streets and alleys thereof duly established. For this purpose, committees were selected by popular viva voce vote.
At Oklahoma City, where there was probably more congestion and more dispute over the location of streets and the ownership of lots than in any other town, Angelo C. Scott was chosen chair- man of the meeting, which was held in an open space, with several thousand men in attendance. The chairman was hoisted on top a large goods box so that he might be in sight of all. When it came to the selection of the members of a standing committee to super- vise the survey of the townsite and the location of its streets and alleys, the people found that they were strangers to each other and, then, as now, there were men who did not wish to vote for a candidate whom they did not know, even by sight or reputation. So, when the first man was nominated, a voice called out: "Put him up and let us have a look at him," and instantly the demand became unanimous. Therefore, every man who was nominated for membership on the committee was required to be lifted up on the big box beside the chairman, where everybody could "look him over," and then they took an "aye" and "no" vote on his can- didacy without further ceremony. Nor was there any hesitancy about rejecting a nominee, for there were several who were dis- missed with a strong preponderance of "noes!" It is of interest in this connection to remark that, among the men thus named and required to face the crowd for inspection and then voted down, was one who had once been a nominee for president of the United States and who, later on, was one of the chief Congressional sponsors for the opening of Oklahoma-Gen. James B. Weaver, of Iowa.
There was also much confusion at the postoffices, especially at the larger centers, such as Guthrie, Kingfisher and Oklahoma City. The facilities for handling the mails, which had been arranged at the eleventh hour, were woefully inadequate. Of course, there were no boxes and nothing but general delivery of mail matter was possible. Consequently there was always a long line of men wait- ing, the line sometimes extending well out into the street.
In Guthrie, the small boys (of which there were a few almost from the first day) soon found that, by getting in line and grad- ually working their way up toward the delivery window, they could "sell" such a place in line to some busy man of affairs who could not afford to spend half an hour or an hour in line waiting
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his "turn" to inquire for his mail. Many a dime or quarter was thus earned before the postmaster put a stop to the practice.
The townsites were soon surveyed; disputes over the ownership of lots were settled or compromised; the tents gave way to shanties or cottages in the residential districts, while substantial frame buildings appeared on the business streets. Banks were opened for business, stocks of groceries, dry goods, hardware and other lines of merchandise were placed on sale. Still one thing was lacking- there was no semblance of municipal government, which seemed
POST OFFICE
FIRST POSTOFFICE IN OKLAHOMA CITY
to be desirable, especially in the larger towns, nor was there any law granting authority for the organization of the same. Again the people went back to first principles, convened popular assem- blages and voted to establish provisional municipal governments. Provision was made for holding regular elections, candidates for mayor and members of the city council were nominated and, on the day appointed, the election was held and the ballots duly counted and the results announced. The officers thus chosen promptly assumed charge of municipal affairs, selected police officers and, in general, though lacking in the matter of sanction by any organic law, exerted a very wholesome and beneficial influence.
Among the men who arrived on the first day there were gener- ally to be found in each town one or more ministers of the gospel. These busied themselves in selecting and securing building sites for houses of worship. As the opening day was Monday, when the seventh day came it was universally recognized as a day of rest,
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every business house and every place of amusement being closed, while practically the entire population attended church services, either in the open air or in a tabernacle tent.
Outside the towns there was also great activity on the part of the new settlers. The first efforts on the part of practically every homesteader were directed toward the breaking of at least a few acres of ground and the planting of corn, cane and vegetables on the sod with a view to the production of some sort of a crop the first season. Later, when lumber yards were opened up for business,
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BÀI LMIŞ
EJECTING THE LOT JUMPERS AT GUTHRIE, MAY 23, 1889
and building material became available, the building of shacks, shanties and farm homes followed in due course, but, in most instances at least, such improvements were left until the first plowing and planting could be done, the homesteader living in camp meanwhile. Where there was sufficient timber, some fencing was done and houses with walls of logs or stockade post were also built. The roads naturally followed the easiest grades and the shortest distances, regardless of cardinal points, section lines or property rights. There were no bridges or culverts, of course.
Many lines of business were overdone in the way of competition, especially in the larger towns. With but little that a lawyer could do save in the way of practice before the United States land offices, there was an oversupply of legal talent. Notwithstanding the fact that Oklahoma has never since liad cause to feel a deficiency in the supply of aspiring politicians, it is probable that there were more of that class in proportion to the population during the first year
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after the settlement than there ever was in any other part of the country, before or since. In fact, Oklahoma suddenly became the Mecca of the superfluous professional politicians of a dozen or more Western states, most of whom held on for a year or two and then drifted elsewhere when they found that there was nothing for them here. The names of many who took an active part in the public affairs of the first year never appeared again in the chron- icles of Oklahoma after the end of the first territorial legislative session. Comparatively few of the first mayors, councilmen, con- vention leaders, etc., remained as permanent citizens of the territory.
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