USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 6
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"The people were suffering for water and appealed to me to remove Cole, saying if I did not do so they would hang him. Upon inquiry I found that Cole had no right to the pump or water, and at once removed him and placed a guard over the pump with orders to allow each person to have one bucket of water. My action in this case was at once reported to the commanding officer, Col. J. F. Wade, Fifth Cavalry, and ap- proved by him."
The first president of the Commercial Club was HI. Over- holser: JJames Geary, vice president : J. P. MeKinnis, second vice president ; W. HI. Ebey, secretary; T. M. Richardson, treasurer. The membership of the various committees were:
Excentivo-John A. Blackburn, O. H. Violet. B. N. Wood- son, W. L. Conch, C. W. Price. W. C. Wells.
Railroads- J. A. Blackburn, C. W. Price, W. H. Ebey. T. Vol. 1-7
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M. Richardson, Gen. JJ. B. Weaver, J. E. Jones, W. L. Couch, HI. Overholser, James Geary.
Manufacturing-C. P. Walker, John Wand, W. L. Kill- brew. W. L. Harvey, E. W. Sweeney, F. L. Bone.
Transportation and Freights-J. P. MeKinnis. A. L. Woodford, J. P. Darling, John Brogan, A. L. Frick, W. J. Pettec.
Advertising-O. H. Violet, R. Q. Blakeney, W. H. Ehey, H. W. Winn. J. W. Beard.
Legislation -- Gen. J. B. Weaver, O. H. Violet, Capt. A. B. Hammer, Ledru Guthrie, Sidney Clarke, W. L. Couch, A. C. Scott, B. N. Woodson, David A. Harvey.
Finance-James Geary, W. C. Wells, Ledru Guthrie, T. M. Richardson, Maj. W. A. Monroe.
Education-A. C. Scott, R. R. Connella, C. A. Galbraith, G. A. Beidler, W. W. Witten.
Emigration-Victor Sherman, G. W. Massey, W. H. Dar- rough, G. W. Adams, H. W. Sawyer.
Directors-O. H. Violet, C. P. Walker, James Geary, W. A. Monroe, C. A. Galbraith, J. A. Blackburn, A. C. Scott. W. L. Couch, Victor Sherman, A. L. Woodford, W. H. Ebey. J. W. Beard, B. N. Woodson, C. W. Price, W. J. Pettee, A. B. Hammer, W. MeGlinchey, J. L. Brown, W. L. Har- vey, E. W. Sweeney, J. P. MeKinis.
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1890-GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED
President Harrison on May 2d of this year approved what was known as the Organic Act, and the Territory, after being suspended for nearly a year in a state of insecurity, was in- vested with a local goverment. George W. Steele, who had been a member of Congress from Indiana, was appointed governor. Robert Martin of Wichita, Kansas, was named secretary. President Harrison selected Matt Reynolds of Missouri for attorney general but shortly before the names of appointees were sent to the Senate influences back of Horace Speed did their work effectively and Speed was nominated.
The first Territorial election was held on August 5th and at that time a Legislature was chosen. Fourteen republicans were elected to the House of Representatives, eight democrats and four of the alliance party. The council, or upper house. consisted of six republicans, five democrats and one of the alliance party. The second council district, which embraced Oklahoma County, elected James L. Brown of Oklahoma City, John W. Howard and Leander G. Pitman. Members of the lower house from the second legislative district were Moses Neal. C. G. Jones, Sanmel D. Pack, Daniel W. Peery and Hugh G. Trosper. Oklahoma County in that election cast about thirty-five hundred votes. The Legislature convened on August 29. In view of the ambition of Oklahoma City to be- come the capital of the Territory, that matter was made an issue at the outset of organization activities and the Oklahoma City delegates supported N. A. Daniels of El Reno, an alliance member, for speaker, presumably in return for a promise of at least fair consideration of Oklahoma City's claim. Coun- cilman Brown in September introduced in the upper house the first bill providing for removal of the capital to Oklahoma City. This was council bill No. 7. A complete history of the fight for the capital, written by the late Frederick S. Barde
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and appearing in another department of this history, contains details of early overtures and adventures in the fight.
Among early arrivals in Washington this year in behalf of an organized government for the Territory were Charles B. Stuart of Gainesville. Texas, and W. A. Ledbetter of Ard- more, the former interested in having a Federal court estab- lished at Ardmore as a consequence of an organie act and the latter seeking the designation of Ardmore as a Federal court seat. Washington, then supporting a republican administra- tion, heard the noisy elamor of democrats in Oklahoma and their convention, held in Oklahoma City on March 11th, and attended by 250 delegates, sent billows of thunder in dramatic English down Washington way.
Organization of the Territory easily could have been de- ferred too long. As a matter of fact, it doubtless was deferred too long. License was virtually unrestrained and the wonder is that life and safety were enjoyed in such considerable meas- ure. Everywhere it was believed that this small area would not long remain the area of the Territory of Oklahoma, that other Indian reservations soon would be opened to settlement. This belief produced mischief and mischief makers scouted freely about in large and growing mbers. Many of them were of the original boomer type. They demanded the open- ing of the Cherokee Strip, the Sac and Fox and Pottawotomie country and the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations. In their idleness and impatience and anger they out the wire fences of the cattlemen in the Cherokee Strip and became so notori- ously inimical that President Harrison sent troops under Gen- eral Merritt to protect property and preserve order. The establishment of a local government did not at once bring unrest and disorder to an end: it was not empowered to do that; but it had a salutary and stabilizing effect. In view of the probable opening of these reservations and of more and more insistent demands from Oklahoma City residents. a land office was established in Oklahoma City this year and that institution became a magnet in the path of the adventurer. The year probably would have been prosaic but for this, for development was retarded by uncertainty. The pioneers con- tinned to build homes, most of them inexpensive affairs, and new lines of business were established, and there was a mod-
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CAPTAIN A. B. HAMMER
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erate growth. Correspondents for newspapers of Kansas City, St. Louis and Dallas appraised news largely from the sensational viewpoint. They reveled in accounts of murders, the capture of outlaws, the chasing of train robbers and re- ported Indian uprisings.
Disregard for even the common law, not to speak of that of the Federal Government which necessarily was in force, was magnified by the extravagant freedom exercised by saloon keepers all over the Territory. This became so notorious and so productive of crime that the President ordered United States Marshal Walker of Kansas to raid them. Raids took place in Oklahoma City, Guthrie and Kingfisher but their effect was little more than momentary. Ten days later forty saloons were doing business as usual in Oklahoma City, where- upon the President ordered that all saloons be closed until the organie aet was in effect.
In the November election D. A. Harvey of Oklahoma City was elected as the Territory's first delegate to Congress. On December 13th Governor Steele issued a call for an election to be held December 30th, under an act of the Legislature, to create public school districts and establish schools. Women were allowed to vote in this election. Prior to this Governor Steele had had a poll taken of the qualified voters. This was the cause of many amusing incidents. Not a few adventurers refused to disclose their political affiliations and many others declared they belonged to no political party. A few demo- cratie politicians took advantage of the occasion to charge that the republicans were taking steps to build up a machine that would guarantee the control of the Legislature and prob- ably of the government of a majority of the counties.
Generally speaking crops were poor this year, so extremely poor, in fact, in some sections that homesteaders became desti- tute. They appealed to the President for assistance and the President sent Captain Burbank of the War Department here to make an investigation. He reported that conditions had been exaggerated but that he found a few cases of actual destitution. For these he recommended financial aid and also that the Government assist in the construction of roads and bridges and furnish seed. Appeals for aid went also to the railroads and these agreed to furnish seed to farmers at cost.
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In Oklahoma County cotton had been found to be a more dependable crop than the small grains and the yield this year was sufficient to warrant the erection of two cotton gins in Oklahoma City.
Negroes in such considerable number acquired homesteads in Logan and Oklahoma counties as to become a menace to society, in the opinion of whites whose sentiments were thus bent on the race question, and these whites organized a sort of anti-African ku klux klan. Whether their numbers were exaggerated is not known, although they probably were, lead- ers announced that in April the organization had 2,000 mem- bers in forty local organizations in the Territory. Negroes of the eastern part of Oklahoma County, where they lived in largest muubers, were thrown into consternation by a warning that they must desert their homesteads by April 22d or suffer the consequences. They gathered in Choctaw City for defen- sive organization, but forcible ejection never materialized. due probably to the departure of a few negroes and the suffi- cieney of the Government in protection measures.
Captain Stiles' soldiers performed many a duty. The memoirs of any one of them would make a chapter of frontier history more interesting than the fiction of Zane Grey. A new duty devolved upon them one April day of this year: they were called upon to prevent the robbery of the Citizens Bank. The Dalton band of outlaws had been operating for some time in the Territories. It consisted of fearless desperadoes who were reputed to have frightened off their trails all Govern- ment and Indian tribe officials save a few who drove them often into seclusion. From an unidentified source came a rumor that the Daltons or some other band had planned to rob the bank at noon on April 7th. It was dispatched to the military headquarters and a detail of soldiers was assigned to guard the bank. The news traveled quickly over the city and the countryside. The excited populace never questioned the authenticity of the rumor. That was seldom done in these days when anything was likely to happen. Some of them went into seclusion, others behind makeshift breastworks and others into the open bearing arms. Promptly at noon a stranger of suspicious appearance riding a horse and leading two others dismounted near the bank. He made a hasty visual
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survey of the surroundings, then remounted and rode away. Who the stranger was, where he came from and whither he went nobody seemed bent on ascertaining.
Governor Steele on June 7th appointed temporary officers in each of the counties. Those for "Second" (Oklahoma) County were inducted into office on June 17th. A. B. Ham- mer, the probate judge, having been given the oath of office by the Territorial secretary, administered the oath to the other county officials. The other officials were: John M. Martin, clerk : H. H. Howard, attorney; C. H. DeFord, sheriff ; Levi Bixler, treasurer; M. D. Rust, surveyor ; and W. T. Higgins (who was elected chairman), Franklin Springer and J. A. Hartzell, commissioners. During the first session of the Commissioners' Court bids for furnishing a building for a temporary county courthouse were submitted by W. J. Pettee and Henry Overholser, the former offering a building at Main and Broadway and the latter a building at Grand and Robinson. The contract was awarded to Mr. Overholser.
J. H. Woods and others on July 1st filed with the commis- sioners an application for an order incorporating the village of Oklahoma City. Owing to contests on some of the traets having been filed in the land office, the commissioners declined to take action. At a meeting on July 12th they reconsidered that action but deferred further consideration of the matter. Meantime, D. C. Lewis and others filed a petition asking that a tract of land described as the southwest quarter of section 33, township 12 north, range 3 west, be stricken from the list of tracts mentioned in the Woods' petition. At a subsequent meeting the board took judicial notice of George E. Thorn- ton's having secured from the District Court an order re- straining the commissioners from including in any corpora- tion the northeast quarter of section 4, township 11 north. range 3 west. This order a few days later was dissolved and on July 15th the board promulgated its incorporation order, providing that the village of Oklahoma City should embrace the south half of the northeast quarter of section 33, the south- west quarter of section 33 and the northeast quarter of ser- tion 4.
In the same order the commissioners appointed a board of trustees for the town goverment, consisting of D. W.
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Gibbs, T. J. Watson, N. Button, Samuel Frost and Henry Overholser. Gibbs was elected president of the board and in that capacity exercised the duties of mayor. J. M. Martin, county clerk, administered the oath of office. Tazwell M. Up- shaw was chosen clerk. The first meeting was held on July 22d. The first communication read was from County Attor- ney H. H. Howard who asked permission to meet with the board to give advice as to procedure. The first resolution placed of record called for an election to be held in August to submit the matter of converting the village into a city of the second class and dividing it into four wards and electing officers. One of the first contracts entered into by the officials authorized the law firms of Blue & Douglas and Hammer & Woods to represent the town government in contests pending in the United States land office involving the entries of Louis O. Diek, James Murray and G. W. Patrick.
In the August election W. J. Gault was elected mayor; T. M. Upshaw, clerk : W. W. Witten, police judge; M. S. Miller. treasurer ; and Dr. C. A. Peyton, J. R. Barrows, J. W. Boles. J. A. Ryan, John Rowick, F. V. Brandon, John Brogan and N. N. Miller, aldermen. Doctor Peyton was elected president of the council. Charles F. Coleord was appointed marshal and T. C. Smith, street commissioner. Necessary ordinances were enacted with rapidity. One of them made the state of intoxication a misdemeanor, another prohibited disturbance of the peace and another regulated the sale of intoxicating liquors. Another fixed the salary of the mayor at $250 a year and the salary of the marshal at $50 a month. On November 26th the council granted a franchise to the Oklahoma City Light & Power Company and this company installed the first electric lighting system. A franchise was granted to the Choctaw Coal & Railway Company which authorized the com- pany to use First Street as a right of way. It granted a water franchise to W. A. Calhou and JJ. H. Wheeler.
David A. Harvey was born at Stewiacke, Nova Scotia. March 20, 1845. His parents emigrated from Canada when he was six weeks old, settling in Ohio, At the age of sixteen. he enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and was discharged from the military service at the end of the war. after having served continuonsly for three and one-half years.
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After attending the sessions of Miami University for a time, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1869. Moving westward, he settled at Topeka, Kansas, where he engaged in the practice of law, served as city attorney and as probate judge. He became interested in the Oklahoma movement and was active in the agitation for the opening of the Oklahoma country to settlement. He was among the pioneers who came into the country on the day of the opening, locating at Okla- homa City, April 22, 1889. He was nominated for delegate to Congress by the Territorial republican convention, at Guthrie, October 18, 1890, and, on November 4th, he was elected to serve both the long and short terms, taking his seat when the Fifty-first Congress reconvened, in December, 1890, and serving until the final adjournment of the Fifty-second Congress, March 3, 1893. Mr. Harvey subsequently located at Wyandotte, where he died, May 23, 1916 .- Thoburn.
Latest developments in the contests touching three tracts occupied as a town are shown in this abstract of land office proceedings: Sections 3 and 4 of township 11 north, range 3 west, and the southeast quarter of section 33 and the south- west quarter of section 34, township 12 north, range 3 west, are bottom land, but the north half of sections 33 and 34 are rolling uplands, with a gradual slope to the south. The be- ginning of this elevation is about one thousand feet south of the south line of the north half of those sections. There is a small ravine on the line dividing sections 33 and 34, each see- tion having a gradual slope thereto.
Prior to noon, April 22. 1889, there had been constructed and was in operation a railroad, known as the Atchison, To- peka and Santa Fe, running in a southwesterly direction down the ravine, and on the line dividing the sections mentioned. At a point about 800 feet north of the point where the sections corner was located the station, freight and passenger depot, side tracks and water tank. Near the depot was the post office.
At noon on that day about thirty people were at the sta- tion and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty in that vicinity. At noon, Charles Chamberlain, a civil engineer and a resident of Great Bend, Kan., was at the station with a plat which he had previously made, of a proposed town to be known as Oklahoma City, to embrace the north half of the northeast
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quarter of section 4, the southeast quarter of section 33 and the south half of the northeast quarter of section 33. He was at the station to survey the ground into lots, blocks, streets and alleys at the instance of a private citizen, whose name he refused to disclose in this case. At two minutes past noon he, with six assistants, began the survey about 1,728 feet north of the south line of section 33, and ran the south line of Main Street west and at right angles with the railroad a distance of two blocks. He then returned and ran the east line of Broadway south from Main one block and a half. Then he ran the east line to the north line of the south half of the north- east quarter of section 33, this line being run at 1 o'clock, and small stakes one inch square were driven on the lines of the survey. Returning to Main Street he extended the south line to the west line of the east half of section 33. Broadway was located at right angles with Main Street about four hundred feet west of the east line of section 33.
At once, after the survey was begun, the people present began to stake lots on Main and Broadway, and on the com- mons on the southeast quarter of section 33. About one hun- dred and fifty people settled upon this southeast quarter be- fore 2 o'clock and 10 minutes P. M. of that day.
Several hundred of the thousands of people who had con- gregated at Purcell before the opening day had decided to loeate at Oklahoma station, and to establish a town to be known as Oklahoma City on the east half of section 33. The train on the Santa Fe left Purcell at noon, and before it ar- rived at Oklahoma station it was arranged that one of their number, Peter G. Burnes, a civil engineer, should survey the townsite. The train arrived at 2:10 P. M., and 2,000 of the people thereon left the train and went in various directions to locate lots, but the greater number went west and north of the depot and settled upon the southeast quarter of section 33. After the arrival of the train Peter G. Burnes made prepara- tions to survey the townsite and devoted the remainder of the day to finding the township line, from which he intended to start. He first surveyed Reno Avenue, located on the town- ship line, then California Avenue, then Grand Avenue. He was about three weeks doing this work. About the middle of May he began to survey the north half of the northeast
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GROCERIES AY WHOLE SARE,
PRESENT SITE OF CULBERTSON BUILDING, BROADWAY AND GRAND AVENUE
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quarter and was prevented from doing so by force. The dif- ferences between the Chamberlain and Burnes surveys were subsequently adjusted, which surveys locate Oklahoma City on the east half of section 33, but the north half of the north- east quarter was never surveyed.
The application for the townsite, filed by Louis O. Diek as trustee, on the opening day, named the south half of the north- east quarter and southeast quarter of section 33, and the north half of the northeast quarter of section 4.
At the time this case was tried in the land office, in the lat- ter half of 1890. the population located on the east half of section 33 numbered about two thousand three hundred and seventy-eight persons; most of the business district and the greater part of the population in the southeast quarter.
The contest which originated this suit in the land office was over the northeast quarter of section 33, which was in- «luded in the original townsite and was also sought as a home- stead. The following description found in the findings is a part of history :
Samuel Crocker, as a member of the Payne colony, was in Oklahoma in the year 1885. and at several times subsequent to that date, during which time he resided in Kansas. He came to Oklahoma station March 2, 1889, and established a residence at that place. Immediately after 12 o'clock noon, April 22, he settled upon the north half of the northeast quarter of section 33 and established a residence where he lived up to the date of this suit. Soon after he went upon the land he dug a hole in the ground, had some plowing done, and erected a tent in which to live. By the 26th of April he had three or four aeres broken, and subsequently had thirty- three aeres broken. He erected a frame house 12 by 16 feet in size, with one addition 16 by 24 feet in size, and another S by 16 feet. He erected a stable and dug a cistern and well and built a chicken house. He fenced six or seven aeres near the house and put up 350 rods of wire fence. He set ont an orchard of two acres, seventy-five shade trees, planted twp acres of watermelons and cantaloupes, one acre of buckwheat and two acres of turnips. On the 24th of April he made home- stead entry No. 33 of the north half of the northeast quarter.
All this happened, according to the findings of the land
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office, on land now covered by business and residence houses near the heart of Oklahoma City.
But at noon on April 22, Frank M. Gault, who had lived twelve miles east of the east line of Oklahoma Territory, started from that line and arrived at and settled upon the northeast quarter of section 33 at 1 o'clock and 10 minutes past noon. On the following day he had the land surveyed. and put up a tent, and later did some plowing and made in- provements of various kinds. When, on May 17, he made application to enter the tract for a homestead his application was rejected as being in conflict with the entry of Crocker on the north half of the quarter and with the townsite applica- tion of Dick.
Three men named Fuller had each made application for entry of this quarter for homestead purposes. Besides the claimants who contested for this particular quarter section as a homestead, a man named George E. Thornton, who had been a government freighter previous to the opening and resided in a house on the northeast quarter of section 4, laid claim to this quarter section for homestead purposes. In the findings is other evidence regarding the settlement of Edward DeTar, Meshack Couch and Thomas Wright, who had been in government service in the country prior to the opening and had located on lands immediately after noon of the opening dav.
Besides the matters of history involved in these findings, the register and receiver of the land office, in summing up the evidence, gave their decision on the rights of the homestead- er as against the townsite claimant, and that decision is an important review of this subject.
"At one o'clock and ten minutes p. m. of day Frank M. Gault, a qualified homesteader, settled upon the northeast quarter of said section as a homestead, and has since resided thereon and maintained his settlement rights, and that at the time of his said settlement no settlement had been made thereon for the purpose of trade and business.
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