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 27
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And, whereas, in pursuance of said act of Congress, ratifying the agreement last named, allotments of land in severalty have been regularly made to each member of said Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes of Indians; the lands occupied by religious societies or other organizations for religious or educational work among the Indians have been regularly allotted and confirmed to such societies and organizations, respectively; and the secretary of the Interior, out of the lands ceded by the agreement last named, has regularly selected and set aside for the use in common for said Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes of Indians four hundred and eighty thou- sand acres of grazing lands ;
And, whereas, in the act of Congress ratifying the said Wichita agreement it is provided :
That whenever any of the land acquired by this agreement shall by operation of law or proclamation of the President of the United States, be open to settlement they shall be disposed of under the general provisions of the homestead and townsite laws of the United States: Provided, That in addition to the land office fees, pre- scribed by Statutes for such entries, the entryman shall pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for the land entered at the time of submitting his final proof: And Provided further, That in all homestead entries where the entryman has resided upon and improved the land entered in good faith for the period of fourteen
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months, he may commute his entry to cash upon the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; And Provided Further, That the rights of honorably discharged union soldiers and sailors of the late civil war, as defined and described in sections twenty- three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes, shall not be abridged; And Provided further, That any qualified entryman, having lands joining the lands herein ceded, whose original entry embraced less than one hundred and sixty acres, may take sufficient lands from said reservation to make homestead entry not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres in all, said land to be taken upon the same conditions as required of other entrymen; Provided, That said lands shall be opened to settlement within one year after said allotments are made to the Indians.
That the laws relating to the mineral lands of the United States are hereby extended over the lands ceded by the foregoing agree- ment.
And, whereas, in the act of Congress ratifying the said Comanche, Kiowa and Apache agreement, it is provided :
That the lands acquired by this agreement shall be opened to settlement by proclamation of the President within six months after allotments are made and be disposed of under the general provisions of the homestead and townsite laws of the United States ; Provided, That in addition to the land office fees prescribed by statutes for such entries, the entryman shall pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for the land entered at the time of submitting his final proof: And Provided further, That in all homestead entries, where the entryman has resided upon and im- proved the land entered in good faith for the period of fourteen months he may commute his entry to cash upon the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; Provided Further, That the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors of the late civil war, as defined and described in section twenty-three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes shall not be abridged; And Provided Further, That any person who having attempted to, but for any cause failed to secure a title in fee to a homestead under existing laws or who made entry under what is known as the commuted provision of the homestead law, shall be qualified to make a homestead entry upon said lands ; And Provided Further, That any qualified entryman having lands adjoining the lands herein ceded, whose original entry embraces
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less than one hundred and sixty acres in all shall have the right to enter so much of the lands by this agreement ceded lying contiguous to his said entry as shall, with the land already entered, make in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres, said land to be taken upon the same conditions as are required of other entrymen; And Pro- vided Further, That the settlers who located on that part of said lands, known as the "neutral strip" shall have preference right for thirty days on the lands upon which they have located and improved.
That should any of said lands allotted to said Indians, or opened to settlement under this Act, contain valuable mineral deposits, such mineral deposits shall be open to location and entry, under the exist- ing mining laws of the United States, upon the passage of this Act, and the mineral laws of the United States are hereby extended over said lands.
And whereas, by the Act of Congress approved January 4, 1901. (31 Stat. 727), The Secretary of the Interior was authorized to extend for a period not exceeding eight months from December 6, 1900, the time for making allotments to the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache Indians and opening to settlement the lands so ceded by them :
And whereas, in pursuance of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1901 (31 Stat. 1093), the Secretary of the Interior has regularly subdivided the lands as aforesaid respectively ceded to the United States by the Wichita and affiliated bands of Indians and the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes of Indians into coun- ties, attaching portions thereof to adjoining counties in the Terri- tory of Oklahoma, has regularly set aside and reserved at such county seat land for a townsite to be disposed of in the manner provided by the. Act of Congress last named, and has regularly caused to be surveyed, subdivided, and platted, the lands so set aside and reserved for disposition as such townsites ;
And whereas, by the Act of Congress last named, it is provided :
The lands to be opened to settlement and entry upon the Acts of Congress ratifying said agreement respectively, shall be opened by the proclamation of the President, and to avoid the contests and conflicting claims which have heretofore resulted from opening similar public lands to settlement and entry, the President's procla- mation shall prescribe the manner in which these lands may be settled upon, occupied and entered by persons entitled thereto under the Acts ratifying said agreements, respectively; and no
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person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy or enter any of said lands except as prescribed in such proclamation until after the expiration of sixty days from the time when the same are opened to settlement and entry.
And whereas, by the Act of Congress last named the President was authorized to establish two additional United States land dis- tricts and land offices in the Territory of Oklahoma to include the lands so ceded as aforesaid, which land and land offices have been established by an order of even date herewith.
And whereas all of the conditions required by law to be per- formed prior to the opening of said tracts of land to settlement and entry have been, as I hereby declare, duly performed.
Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power vested in me by law, do hereby declare, and make known that all of the lands so as afore- said ceded by the Wichita and affiliated bands of Indians, and the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes of Indians, respectively, saving and excepting sections sixteen and thirty-six, thirteen and thirty-three in each township, and all lands educational lands, and saving and excepting all lands allotted in severalty to individual Indians, and saving and excepting all lands allotted and confirmed to religious societies and other organizations, and saving and ex- cepting the lands selected and set aside as grazing lands for the use in common for said Comanche, Kiowa and Apache tribes of Indians, and saving and excepting the lands set aside and reserved at each of said county seats for dispositions as townsites, and saving and excepting the lands now used, occupied, or set aside for mili- tary, agency, school, school farm, religious, Indian cemetery, wood reserve, or other public uses, will, on the 6th day of August, 1901, at 9 o'clock A. M., in the manner herein prescribed, and not other- wise, be opened to entry and settlement, and to disposition under the general provisions of the homestead and townsite laws of the United States.
Commencing at 9 o'clock A. M., Wednesday, July tenth, nine- teen hundred and one, and ending at 6 o'clock P. M. Friday, July twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and one, a registration will be had at the United States land offices at El Reno and Lawton, in the Territory of Oklahoma (the office at Lawton, to occupy provisional quarters in the immediate vicinity of Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, until suitable quarters can be provided at Lawton) for the purpose of ascertaining what persons desire to enter, settle upon, and acquire title to any of said lands under the homestead law and of
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ascertaining their qualifications to do so. The registration at each office will be for both land districts, but at the time of registration each applicant will be required to elect and state in which district he desires to make entry. To obtain registration each applicant will be required to show himself duly qualified to make homestead entry of these lands under existing laws and to give the registering officer such appropriate matters of description and identity as will protect the applicant and the government against any attempted impersonation. Registration cannot be effected through the use of the mails or thic employment of an agent, excepting that hororably discharged soldiers and sailors, entitled to the benefits of section twenty-three hundred and four of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended by the Act of Congress approved March one, nineteen hundred and one (31 Statutes, 847), may present their application for registration and due proofs of their qualifications through an agent of their own selection, but no person will be permitted to act as agent for more than one such soldier or sailor. No person will be permitted to register more than once any other than his true name. Each applicant who shows himself duly quali- fied will be registered and given a non-transferable certificate to that effect, which will entitle him to go upon and examine the lands to be opened hercunder in the land district in which he may go upon and examine said lands is that of enabling him later on, as herein provided, to understandingly select the lands for which he will make entry. No one will be permitted to make settlement upon any of said lands in advance of the opening herein provided for, and during the first sixty days following said opening no one but registered applicants will be permitted to make homestead settle- ment upon any of said lands, and then only in pursuance of a home- stead entry duly allowed by the local land officers or of a soldier's declaratory statement duly accepted by such officer.
The order in which, during the first sixty days following the opening, the registered applicants will be permitted to make home- stead entry of the lands opened hereunder will be determined by drawings for both the El Reno and Lawton Districts publicly held at the United States land office at El Reno, Oklahoma, commencing at 9 o'clock A. M. Monday, July 29, 1901, and continuing for such period as may be necessary to complete the same. The drawings will be had under the supervision and immediate observation of a committee of three persons whose integrity is such as to make their control of the drawing a guaranty of its fairness. The members of this committee will be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior,
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who will prescribe suitable compensation for their services. Pre- paratory to these drawings, the registration officers will, at the time of registering each applicant who shows himself duly qualified, make out a card, which must be signed by the applicant, stating the land district in which he desires to make homestead entry, and giving such a description of the applicant as will enable the local land officers to thereafter identify him. This card will be at once sealed in a separate envelope, which will bear no other distinguish- ing label or mark than such as may be necessary to show that it is to go into the drawing for the land district in which the applicant desires to make entry. These envelopes will be separated according to land districts and will be carefully preserved and remain sealed until opened in the course of the drawing as hereinprovided.
When the registration is completed all of these sealed envelopes will be brought together at the place of drawing and turned over to the committee in charge of the drawing, who, in such manner as in their judgment will be attended with entire fairness and equality of opportunity, shall proceed to draw out and open the separate envelopes and to give to each enclosed card a number in the order in which the envelope containing the same is drawn. While the drawing for the two districts will be separately conducted, they will occur as nearly at the same time as is practicable. The result of the drawing for each district will be certified by the committee to the officers of the district and will determine the order in which the applicants may make homestead entry of said lands and settle- ment thereon.
Notice of the drawings stating the name of each applicant and number assigned to him by the drawing will be posted each day at the place of drawing, and each applicant will be notified of his number by a postal card mailed to him at the address, if any, given by him at the time of registration. Each applicant should, how- ever, in his own behalf, employ such measures as will insure his obtaining prompt and accurate information of the order in which his application for homestead entry can be presented as fixed by the drawing. Applications for homestead entry of said lands dur- ing the first sixty days following the opening can be made only by registered applicants and in the order established by the drawing, At each land office, commencing Tuesday, August 6, 1901, at 9 o'clock A. M., the applications of those drawing numbers 1 to 125 inclusive for that district must be presented, and will be considered in their numerical order during the first day, and the applications of those drawing numbers 126 to 250, inclusive, must be presented
1
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and will be considered in their numerical order during the second day, and so on, at that rate until all of said lands subject to entry under the homestead law, and desired thereunder, have been entered. If any applicant fails to appear and present his applica- tion for entry when the number assigned him by the drawing is reached, his right to enter will be passed until after the other appli- cations assigned for that day have been disposed of, when he will be given another opportunity to make entry, failing in which he will be deemed to have abandoned his right to make entry under such drawing. To obtain the allowance of a homestead each appli- cant must personally present the certificate of registration thereto- fore issued to him, together with a regular homestead application and the necessary accompanying proofs, and with the. regular land office fees, but an honorably discharged soldier or sailor may file his declaratory statement through the agent representing him at the registration. The production of the certificate of registration will be dispensed with only upon satisfactory proof of its loss or destruction. If, at the time of considering his regular application for entry, it appears that any applicant is disqualified from making homestead entry of these lands, his application will be rejected, notwithstanding his prior registration, or in any other than his true name, or shall transfer his registration certificate, he will thereby lose all the benefits of the registration and drawing herein provided for, and will be precluded from entering or settling upon any of said lands during the first sixty days following said opening.
Because of the provision in the said Act of Congress approved June 6, 1900, "that the settlers who located on that part of said lands called and known as the 'neutral strip' shall have preference right for thirty days on the lands upon which they have located and improved," the said lands in the "neutral strip" shall, for the period of thirty days after said opening, be subject to homestead entry and townsite entry, only by those who have heretofore located upon and improved the same, and who are accorded a preference right of entry for thirty days as aforesaid. Persons entitled to make entry under this preference right will be permitted to do so at any time during said period of sixty days following the opening without previous registration and without regard to the drawing herein provided for, and at the expiration of that period the lands in said "neutral strip" for which no entry shall have been made will come under the general provisions of this proclamation.
The intended beneficiaries of the provision in the said acts of Congress approved, respectively, March 2, 1895, and June 6, 1900,
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which authorizes a qualified entryman having lands adjoining the ceded lands, whose original entry embraced less than 160 acres, may obtain such an extension of his existing entry without previous registration and without regard to the drawing herein provided for only by making appropriate application, accompanied by the necessary proofs, at the proper new land office at some time prior to the opening herein provided for.
Any person or persons desiring to found, or to suggest estab- lishing a townsite upon any of said ceded lands at any point not in the near vicinity of either of the county seats therein heretofore selected and designated as aforesaid, may, at any time before the opening herein provided for, file in the proper local land office a written application to that effect describing by legal subdivisions the lands intended to be affected, and stating fully and under oath the necessity or propriety of founding or establishing a town at that place. The local officers will forthwith transmit said petition to the Commissioner of the General Land Office with their recom- mendation in the premises. Such commissioner, if he believes the public interests will be served thereby, will, if the Secretary of the Interior approve thereof, issue an (?) withdrawing the lands described in such petition or any portion thereof from homestead entry and settlement and directing that the same be held for the time being for a town site settlement entry and disposition only. In such event the lands so withheld from homestead entry and set- tlement will, at the time of said opening, and not before, become subject to settlement, entry and disposition under the general town site laws of the United States. None of said ceded lands will be subject to settlement, entry or disposition under such general town site laws except in the manner herein prescribed until after the expiration of sixty days from the time of said opening.
Attention is hereby especially called to the fact that under the special provisions of the said act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, the town sites selected and designated at the county seats of the new counties into which said lands has been formed can not be disposed of under the general town site laws of the United States, and can only be disposed of in the special manner provided in 'said act of Congress which declares :
"The lands so set apart and designated shall, in advance of the opening, be surveyed, subdivided and platted under the direc- tion of the Secretary of the Interior into appropriate lots, blocks, streets, alleys and sites for parks or public buildings, so as to make a town site thereof; Provided, That no person shall purchase more
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than one business and one residence lot. Such town lots shall be offered and sold at public auction to the highest bidder, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, at sales to be had at the opening and subsequent thereto."
All persons are especially admonished that under the said act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, it is provided that no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy or enter any of said ceded lands except in the manner prescribed in this proclamation until after the expiration of sixty days from the time when the same are opened to settlement and entry. After the expiration of said period of sixty days, but not before, any of said lands remaining undis- posed of may be settled upon, occupied and entered under the gen- eral provisions of the homestead and town site laws of the United States in like manner as if the manner of effecting such settlement, occupancy and entry had not been prescribed herein in obedience to law.
It appearing that there are fences around the pastures into which, for convenience, portions of the ceded lands have heretofore been divided, and that these fences are of considerable value and are still the property of the Indian tribes, ceding said land to the United States, all persons going upon, examining, entering or settling upon any of said lands are cautioned to respect such fences as the property of the Indians and not to destroy, appropriate or carry away the same, but to leave them undisturbed so that they may be seasonably removed and preserved for the benefit of the Indians.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prescribe all needful rules and regulations necessary to carry into full effect the opening herein provided for.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and one, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundredth and twenty- sixth.
[SEAL] By the President: WILLIAM M'KINLEY.
DAVID J. HILL, Acting Secretary of State.
CHAPTER LXXI
THE END OF THE STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD
After the passage of the Free Homes Bill, Delegate Flynn felt free to concentrate his efforts upon the passage of a bill to enable the people of Oklahoma to frame and adopt a constitution and apply for admission into the Federal Union as a state. Renewed interest in the subject of statehood, which had been quiescent for about four years, became apparent about the same time, although there had been bills pending in Congress during that interval. In May, 1900, Representative John A. Moon, of Tennessee, had intro- duced a measure for the organization of the Indian Territory under the name of the Territory of Jefferson. This measure was largely discussed locally but was never seriously considered in Congress.
A single statehood convention was held at McAlester (which was one of the centers for separate statehood sentiment at that time), December 1, 1900. A memorial to Congress was adopted and a delegation was chosen to visit Washington and urge upon the members of the national law-making bodies the importance of early action in the matter of statehood legislation. Three days later, among the first bills introduced in the last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress, was one, by Senator Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, to enable the people of Oklahoma and Indian terri- tories to form and adopt a state constitution and be admitted into the Union as a state. No action was taken in regard to any state- hood legislation at that session, however.
Another inter-territorial convention in the interest of single statehood was held at Muskogee, November 15, 1901. A memorial, addressed to Congress, was prepared and adopted and a delegation of able men representing both territories was selected to proceed to Washington in the interest of the movement at the opening of the Fifty-seventh Congress. Delegate Flynn introduced three bills early in the first session, all of which had a bearing, direct or indirect, on the statehood question. One of these (H. R. 152) proposed to enable the people of Oklahoma Territory to form and adopt a state constitution and to be admitted into the Union as a
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state on an equality with the other states. The other two bills had to do with the Indian Territory but indirectly each seemed to hint at ultimate joint statehood with Oklahoma. The first of these was designed to provide for the division of the Indian Territory into counties, defining the boundaries of the same and locating the county seats. The other provided for the organization of the County of Quapaw (to be composed of the reservations included under the Quapaw Agency in the northeastern part of the Indian Territory) and annexing it to the Territory of Oklahoma. These two measures, taken in conjunction with the introduction of the Flynn statehood bill, created much uneasiness in the Indian Terri- tory, for the passage of both the latter and the Quapaw County bill would have given the people of the new county a voice in the formulation and adoption of a state constitution which would have been thus denied to the people of the rest of the Indian Territory, whose several reservations would have been subject to annexation by piecemeal later.
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