USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 5
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Well, at dusk the great crowd met again, at a point where a magnificent hotel now stands. Flaring torches and smoky lanterns produced a weird effect. The secretary of the com- mittee mounted a box and read the report. It seemed to please everybody, for a great hoarse shout of approval went up. And then pulling himself ont like a telescope, uprose from the rude stool upon which he had been sitting a Southern Methodist preacher, Shaw by name, long-haired and bearded like a prophet, six feet and seven inches tall, with a month like the crater of Vesuvius and a voice like the thunders of Sirai, and said. or rather roared, "Let us sing, . Praise God
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from Whom All Blessings Flow!' " And this writer has never before or since heard the old doxology sung with so great impressiveness.
Thus ended the first week in Oklahoma City, and this its first great trouble. In the year that followed, while it was governing itself with no law except self-made law, it had other troubles and other stirring and dramatie scenes ; but they do not belong to this story.
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PART II
THE SPREAD OF THE YEARS
ІІ ТЯАЯ THE BbKEYD OF THE ADVER
1889 -- THE LOT JUMPERS 1
Two temporary municipal goverments were set up when the tempest of the rush had subsided and men's thoughts shifted to enterprise of permanency. One of them attempted to direct public policies of the area originally platted and the other of an area adjoining it on the south. This latter the settlers called South Oklahoma. It consisted of 320 acres and Reno Avenue was its northern boundary. Apparently the rivalry between the two governments was not discordant.
Stories have been told by Dr. A. C. Scott and others whose experiences are related in another subdivision of this history of the earliest attempts at maintaining order and the estab- lishment of a government, of the controversy between the Seminoles and the Kickapoos and their conflicting methods and the overlapping of their boundaries, and of the lights and shadows of pioneer life.
Five days after the opening South Oklahoma, with a popu- lation of over two thousand, held an election, in which 500 votes were cast. G. W. Patrick was elected mayor, W. T. Bodine, recorder: Leslie P. Ross, attorney; N. C. Helburn, marshal: John Cochran, treasurer, and J. P. MeKinis, S. E. Steele, E. W. Sweeney, E. S. Hughes and W. L. Killibrew. members of the council. This administration appears to have been short lived, for within a few months a directory in the Daily Times showed the goverment to be in control of T. F. Fagan as mayor; J. M. Vance, recorder: J. H. Beatty, attor- ney; B. F. Waller, treasurer; R. A. Sullins, engineer: D. F. MeKay, marshal, and W. S. Barnes, W. A. Robertson, W. 1. Barker, T. J. Head, G. W. R. Chinn and H. F. Quin, mem- bers of the council. Marshal MeKay resigned shortly and was succeeded by W. J. Fuller. Mayor Fagan resigned on No- vember 27th and at a special election on December 7th, James Milton was elected to succeed him.
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Locations for business houses were in demand principally along California and Grand avenues and Main Street, and the tendency of business and residential sections was toward the north. It was toward uplands and the choice rangy hills and away from the bottoms and their skirting low levels along the Canadian River. South town, however, developed a busi- ness section of its own and spread its residential area down to the river bank. It developed a society peculiar unto itself and had its churches and schools and lodges, and real estate dealers verbally dressed it up with industrial possibilities. One of its chief social and intellectual diversions of the year was debating. This was carried on by what was misnamed the South Oklahoma Election Club-misnamed because of its frequent departure from a purpose indicated by the title. One of the most enthusiastic of these debates was on the sub- ject of a herd law for Oklahoma. The chief affirmative speaker, who advocated the adoption of such a law, was J. F. Winans, and the negative side was captained by S. E. Steel.
Political issues that developed during the summer in Okla- homa City proper centered upon a charter that had been pre- pared and presented for adoption on September 20th by a board chosen out of the Seminole group. It was defeated and out of the defeat the first regular campaign for mayor de- veloped, with Dr. A. J. Beale the nominee of the Kickapoos and Henry Overholser the choice of the Seminoles. While political alliances were little considered in the nominating conventions and political differences were of secondary im- portance in the campaign, ambitious politicians made capital of the fact that Doctor Beale was a democrat and Mr. Over- holser a republican. The election was held on November 27th and Beale was elected by a majority of fourteen. Less than seven hundred votes were cast.
The September charter election was the more exciting of the two. As has been related elsewhere, it was a serions question who was entitled to vote, and the paramount de- batable issue of the day-who were entitled to retain town lots-was ineradicable. Capt. D. F. Stiles, commanding offi- cer of Government troops that were stationed east of the Santa Fe tracks, had instructions to interfere in election dis- turbances. His interference resulted in the arrest of Judge
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OKLAHOMA CITY IN 1889 BEFORE THE RUN
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OKLAHOMA CITY ON APRIL 24. 199
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Brown, Capt. A. B. Hammer, R. Glasgow, M. L. Bixler, H. W. Sawyer, J. B. George, L. W. Stewart, J. IL. Barry and W. L. Pendleton, who were charged with obstructing the military in enforcement of orders. The bond of each was fixed at $1,000 and some of the men, failing to make bond, were sent to jail. It appears that at least one deputy United States marshal, George E. Thornton, was in sympathy with the de- fendants and others of their elan, for he was accused by Captain Stiles of "unwarranted interference with myself and the United States commissioners and is the cause of much trouble." Captain Stiles made complaint against Thornton to Thomas B. Needles, United States marshal, at Muskogee. and R. L. Walker, United States marshal, at Topeka, Kansas.
"The presence here of Deputy United States Marshal George E. Thornton cannot be tolerated any longer," said the Stiles complaint. "I have had to put one of his possemen out of town as a thug and another was arrested Saturday after an election riot and is now under bond. Thornton's conduet today is unaccountable. I refer you to Commissioners Sommer, Harney and Cramer and to Deputy Marshals Bick- ford and East. He sides with the disturbing element in this city and should be removed at once."
An order of removal came in dne time from Marshal Walker at Topeka. It was a mere brief sentence that was preceded and superseded by praise of Thornton's service in general in which his "honesty and integrity were not ques- tioned" and in which he was "counted a good and efficient officer." It seems not to have been definitely determined whether a government marshal in Oklahoma was under juris- dietion of the district of Indian Territory or the district of Kansas, which accounts for Captain Stiles sending his com- plaint to the marshal of each district. Probably the records show that Marshal Needles at Muskogee also issued an order of dismissal of Thornton.
During the Beale-Overholser campaign a petition was cir- eulated and liberally signed asking the Goverment to keep the troops here until a Territorial goverment had been set up. It appears that the language of the petition contained an endorsement, openly or by inference, of the administration of Captain Stiles. Whether this was true or not. a belief that
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it was true caused a few signers to demand that their names be erased from the instrument, and this was made an issue in the mayoralty campaign. Opponents of Overholser called Captain Stiles the "autoerat of the Seminoles," and strong charges were made against Sidney Clarke of the Seminole Townsite Company and Captain Couch who had on Novem- ber 12th resigned as mayor, both of whom were ardent Over- holser supporters. The Gazette, a daily newspaper edited by Doctor Scott, was the editorial mouthpiece of the Overholser organization.
Doctor Beale was endorsed on November 13th by what was called the Kickapoo couneil, the call for which was issued by D. M. Ross, chairman of a Territorial executive committee. Among requests made by the candidate was that the nomi- nating convention should be held in the day time.
"I will never call the military down upon our people to bayonet them in the streets," he said in his speech of accep- tance. He pledged himself to protect the interests of lot hold- ers and to discourage and prevent lot jumping. He opposed a second attempt to adopt the charter that had been defeated. "I know neither Seminole nor Kickapoo as such, " he said dramatically, "but with an eye to justice and the right. and quailing before no wrong however well supported, I will be mayor if elected."
Officials of the Choctaw Railway Company looked the town over this summer with a view of selecting an objective on the Santa Fe railroad for a western outlet. As a consequence the first railroad mass meeting was held on September 7th. It was called jointly by Mayor W. L. Couch and Mayor T. J. Fagan of south town. It was presided over by Mayor Fagan. and J. K. Fisher was secretary. Right of way and terminal facilities in the city were demanded principally by the Choc- taw officials, and a committee was appointed to confer with these officials to get more definite information. This commit- tee consisted of Doctor Beale, JJ. H. Woods, A. B. Hammer, W. L. Couch and T. J. Fagan.
One of the chief obstacles to progress the early settlers had to overcome was a quite widely current belief that the Territory was out of the rainfall belt and that it was similar elementally to the then unprofitable Panhandle of Texas.
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This belief no doubt was responsible for an uncommonly large percentage of speculative driftwood in the towns and a small percentage of actual farmers on the homesteads. The serious- minded and determined few who came to stay permanently therefore sought opportunities to tell the world the truth about the new country. A great opportunity was afforded in Sep- tember when a party of congressmen, who were scouting for ideas and wild meats, spent a day here. Undeniably it was a day they should not forget and if they were mindful of the hospitality of their hosts to a degree commensurate with that hospitality, they became deliberate and prolific Oklahoma propagandists. They had a barbecue at midday, a banquet at evening, and none was better trained to manage the former than M. R. Glasgow. And at the banquet Sidney Clarke pre- sided-a former congressman who was acquainted with the little frills and niceties and figures of speech of a social re- public. Between the hour of the barbecue and the hour of the banquet there were hours and hours of space and the con- gressmen occupied much of it at speech making.
The leading member of this party was Representative William M. Springer of Illinois whose influence was a big factor in the passage of the act opening the Territory to set- tlement. His was the leading speech of the afternoon and it was complimentary and prophetie and the hundreds who listened gave it vigorous applause. Other members of the party were Allen of Mississippi. Baker of New York. Mansur of Missouri and Perkins and Peters of Kansas. Nearly every member of the party found here former constituents.
It may be said with approximate certainty that the men who made arrangements for the reception and entertainment of these visitors constituted the first organized band of Okla- homa City boosters. They conceived and first gave publie ex- pression to a spirit, which their successors inherited and so admirably employed, that advertised to the world the resources and opportunities of Oklahoma and made of this city the metropolis of the future state. Words, they said among them- selves in the early meetings, would be insufficiently impressive when the visitors came, and the board buildings and the board walks and the modest homes and the flapping dirty tents cer- tainly would be no proof that the settlers could or would do
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better than this. There must be evidence of possibilities and opportunities. There must be proof that carly impressions relative to agricultural possibilities were incorrect. That proof must be indisputable and the congressmen, if they were disposed to reciprocity, certainly would put some advertising for the city into the Congressional Record! More than that, these people before long would be asking for statehood, and the influence of the visitors, who know, might pass an enabling act.
So they resolved to gather up and display the widest pos- sible variety of field and pasture products. The settlement date was seasonable for the planting of nearly all erops suit- able to this climate and hundreds of homesteaders who had brought their teams and plows with them in the run pitched right into erop making. Rainfall and sunshine had been well proportioned and by September even the most sanguine of the ambitious ones marveled in the presence of the bounteous har- vest. Col. Samuel Crocker was chairman of the committee appointed to assemble the products. S. Countryman, M. F. Waller, S. F. Cramer, G. W. Patrick and A. D. Marble were the other members of the committee. They were instructed by the club to collect "specimens of ores, minerals, fossils and natural curiosities and samples of grasses, grains, fruits, vegetables, et cetera." J. E. Sawyer was delegated to super- intend the placing of exhibits. Having heard of this enter- prise and fearing that the committee would be unable to make a creditable showing, some representative men of Purcell, an Indian Territory town situated in a region that had been cultivated for a number of years, offered to send up some of the best of their farm products to supplement the exhibit. The offer was not accepted, but to this day there are eighty- niners who are not certain that some Indian Territory prod- uets were not surreptitiously placed in the exhibit hall. Colonel Crocker brought in melons and pumpkins of his own, some of which weighed sixty pounds. A former Iowan de- posited a beet that was twenty-eight inches long. An onion was thirteen inches in circumference. A bean vine was 200 feet long. Some corn stalks were nine feet high and had been produced without cultivation. There was a tumble weed six feet tall and forty feet in circumference and a sunflower plant
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twelve feet high, which made the Kansas congressmen feel thoroughly at home. A Kentnekian, who had been experi- menting with tobacco, brought in a sample of the long leaf variety of exceptionally fine fibre.
Seventeen persons contested the entries of the three men who laid claim to the land on which the city originally was established and a heated and somewhat technical controversy was warming up in land office circles by the end of the year. The land office records showed that Lonis O. Dick, on April 22d, filed application for entry on the southeast quarter and the south half of the northeast quarter of section 33, town- ship 12 north, range 3 west, and on the north half of the north- east quarter of section 4, township 11 north, range 3 west ; that on April 24th, James Murray filed application for entry upon the east half of section 33, township 12 north, range 3 west ; and that on May 2d, G. W. Patrick made application to enter upon the north half of section 4. township 11 north, range 3 west. The records showed proof that all tracts were embraced within the boundaries of Oklahoma City and appar- ently were being used for townsite purposes.
The contestants of the rights of these applicants were Samuel Crocker, F. M. Gault, Randall Fuller, Fred R. Fuller, Stephen Crocker, Henry C. Cowan, George E. Thornton, Ed- ward DeFar. Meshock Conch, Kate E. May, Thomas Wright, Frank S. Phillips, Edward Orne, Willis Peel, James Patter- son, Anson Wall and Eugene Fuller. The register and re- ceiver of the land office at Guthrie denied the prayer of the contestants that the applications for entry be rejected and the contestants appealed to the general land office. An impor- tant reason for the denial was an apparent overlapping of claims. The commissioner of the general land office said that undoubtedly the applicants meant to enter upon "different parts of the same town." Affidavits made by Dick and Pat- rick were in the record stating that the lands had been settled upon as towns and were actually occupied for the purpose of trade and business and not for agricultural purposes, that they were populated by bonafide inhabitants and were not in any reservation not subject to operation of the homestead laws. These affidavits made a favorable impression upon the commissioner but he reserved final judgment until further
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investigation should be made. He instructed the land office officials to determine whether there was more than one town on the traets, whether they were actually settled and occupied as towns of townsites, to ascertain the member of inhabitants and the character, value and location of all municipal improve- ments, and to determine whether the appellants had made settlements upon the tracts. That was the status of the con- troversy at the end of the year.
The position of United States commissioner was a rather lucrative one in the early years and appears not to have been affected by a strict code of ethics. At any rate, Commissioner F. L. Cramer advertised for clients. "Come to Cramer." read his ad in a daily paper. He bore the title of general and held the office of commissioner of deeds in Kansas.
"The editor goes to jail." announced H. W. Sawyer, editor of the Daily Times, and the records disclose that he was among the number arrested by Captain Stiles' men during election disturbances. Mr. Sawyer was a forceful writer with a goodly store of impressive adjectives. Perhaps explosive or dynamic would be a better word. Like a frontier peace officer he fired from the hip and always in the open. The wonder is that his inky epithets against the Seminoles did not involve him in more serious trouble than a brief incarceration in jail. His associate editor, Mort L. Bixler, was among the pioneer advo- cates of statehood and occasionally for want of a more useful employment of time he lapsed into intimacy with the muse and delivered a select bit of poetry through a few sticks of editorial space not devoted to Sawyer's scintillating para- graphs. Bixler was chairman of the first temporary organ- ization of members of the Knights of Pythias lodge and Taz- well M. Upshaw was secretary. The Oklahoma Lodge No. 1 was organized during the year with Bixler as chancellor com- mander and W. H. Donnough as vice chancellor. The first lodge of Odd Fellows also was organized during the year. The committee that applied for a charter from the grand lodge consisted of G. W. MeClelland, Doctor Higgins. E. J. Keller. Doctor Jordan, O. A. Mitscher and William Turner.
From ont of the Chickasaw Nation came a rumor that a Methodist preacher had been legally advised that under the laws governing the Territory a minister of the gospel was
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without authority to perform a marriage ceremony, and this preacher was suspected of having passed the word to other preachers of his conference. Whether he did or didn't is not vital, but it is certain that the Rev. A. G. Murray, pastor of the Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, entertained grave doubts. He was the marrying parson of the village. He had a pleasant manner of reassurance that appealed to contract- ing parties, his ceremony was orthodoxically and impressively beautiful, and he tied many a knot. The Chickasaw report blossomed into a street topic. It reached the ears of scores of newlyweds and these, in spite of assurances of sufficiency of the common law, doubled back upon the parson. He at length set at rest all uneasiness when he had published in the news- papers a letter from William Nelson, clerk of the United States Court at Muskogee, which said: "Send along your marriage certificates and your two dollars for each and they will be duly placed of record." Doubtless the Rev. W. S. Miller, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, also was relieved of a similar embarrassment.
Some other events of the year were these: Maj. J. A. Pickler was sent here from Washington by Secretary Noble of the Interior Department for an investigation of conditions relating to land entries and contests; on October 15th D. F. MeKay resigned as city marshal of South Oklahoma, Mayor Fagan called a special election for November 2d to fill the vacaney and W. J. Fuller was elected; a committee of fifty was formed to make plans for appealing to Congress for governmental relief and this committee sent W. W. Witten, A. B. Hanmer and J. L. Brown to Guthrie for a conference with other representative men relative to a Territorial con- vention; the first Young Men's Christian Association was organized and the uneleus of its library was a history of Chi- cago in three volumes presented by Mrs. W. HI. Harper.
Miss Jessie Hammer appears to have been the first public stenographer in the city.
CALL FOR MASS CONVENTION
Oklahoma City, April 26, 1889.
We, citizens of the City of Oklahoma, request the meeting in mass convention of all citizens of the city for the purpose
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of nominating a temporary mayor and city recorder to hold their offices until such time as there may be elected by ballot their successors, which election shall be held within five days from and after the election of said temporary mayor and recorder. Such mass meeting to be held April 27, 1889, at the hour of 6:30 o'clock P. M., and every citizen of said city shall be entitled to a voice. The election of said temporary mayor and recorder shall be by the voice, and shall vest in them the power to appoint police to preserve the order of said city, and the power to call said election for permanent mayor, recorder and prescribe the manner of holding said election. Said mass meeting to be held at the corner of Main and Broad- way.
Signed: Ledru Guthrie, J. B. Weaver (not a citizen of the city but living near the same), John B. Banks, S. Lum Biedler, W. P. Easton, J. E. Carson, J. D. Drake. T. B. Riley, G. A. Biedler, p. m., O. H. Violet, Sidney Clarke, Bluford Wilson, D. A. Harvey, W. P. Shaw.
Captain Forbush on July 29th reported to headquarters: "I desire to be informed as to whether the city of Okla- homa have the right to extend the jurisdiction of their police beyond the city limits proper for sanitary purposes only. There are quite a number of dead cattle lying in the vicinity of the city, having been afflicted with Texas fever, and it is purposed to have the decaying bodies disposed of by the city within the radius of five miles and require the owners of the cattle to dispose of the bodies themselves in case of future deaths." (The sanitary jurisdiction of the city was con- firmed.)
"On the night of the 28th inst., a young Englishman ar- rived in Oklahoma who was to join a settlement of his people between Oklahoma and Fort Reno. He was introduced to a gambling den by 'buneo-steerers,' and fleeced of abont $540. The prevailing opinion among the better people seemed to be that the young fellow had been robbed, and they advised him to report the facts to the provost-marshal, Captain Stiles. Tenth Infantry, who at once informed me about it, and at the same time telling me that a man had been 'sand-bagged' in the same place but a short time since, robbed, put on the train and sent to Texas.
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"There is no local law to prevent gambling, and the city authorities, as well as the United States marshals, fail to take cognizance of these cases.
"In the interests of peace and good order, I directed Captain Stiles . . . to break this gambling den up and see to it personally that the occupant left the city. They have all departed." (This action was commended.)
The enterprising individual who took possession of the only pump in Oklahoma City at the opening and sold water at so much a drink until he was onsted from his profitable "graft" was the central figure of an incident that is related in a report of Captain Stiles to Inspector General Sanger:
"I have the honor to report that on April 23, 1889, the day following the opening of Oklahoma, a gambler from Chicago named G. W. Cole, took possession of the only pump in town and sold water at five cents a drink. The man sat near the pump, and was armed with a revolver, which he kept in his lap part of the time. He collected the money himself, and had a man pump the water. There were over 12,000 people camped on the site of Oklahoma at the time, and besides this pump there were only two other places where water could be had- one a well with a bucket where there was but little water. and the other at the railroad tank, and here the supply was limited.
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