USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 9
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In his first ammual report to Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith, Governor Renfrow included some detailed statistics relative to Oklahoma County. These showed that in 1890 the population of the county was 12,794; in 1892. 21,000; and in 1893, 25,363. Taxable property in 1892 had a valuation of $2,661,000 and in 1893 of $3,084,000. The seholastie popula- tion in 1891 was 4,263 and in 1893, 5,367.
William M. Stone, who had twice been governor of Iowa and, under the administration of President Harrison, commis- sioner of the general land office, died at his home near Okla- homa City on July 18. Governor Stone had bought a tract of land near the city and erected upon it what was then known as a very fine home and had entered upon the prac- tice of law.
Among charters granted by the Secretary of the Territory during the year was one to the Press-Gazette Printing Com- pany, that had a capital stock of $10,000 and of which W. J. Donovan, T. M. Upshaw, L. G. Pitman, C. A. Galbraith and J. L. Harralson were incorporators.
New members of the city council elected this year were
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F. M. Riley, C. E. Dunn, J. R. Mellvane, who defeated C. G. Jones, and II. F. Butler. Oscar G. Lee, who in the previous year had been appointed city marshal, resigned on April 12 and E. F. Cochran was appointed as his successor. An ordi- nance was passed providing that members of the police force should wear a uniform. The council this year applied to the District Court for permission to fund a city indebtedness of about $30.000. Another of its acts was a resolution addressed to the Secretary of the Interior asking that the Kickapoo Indian reservation be opened to settlement. Bonds were voted this year for installation of the original system of sanitary sewers.
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FRANK MeMASTER
1894-THE ACTIVE TEN THOUSAND
While the annals of this year contain numerous echoes of outlawry, which existed before the opening, and was en- livened and intensified with the increase in population and the careless and indifferent character of a large percentage of the population, they portray some of the important begin- nings of permaneney. An active interest in agriculture and minerals was manifest. Social life achieved first-page space in newspapers. An industrious commercial club, boasting that the city had 10,000 population, entered vigorously into pro- gressive enterprises.
A right of way from Oklahoma City to a terminus of the Choctaw Railroad to the East was being secured and the city was on the eve of getting its second trunk line, the Santa Fe having been laid through the Territory several years before the opening. This gave zest to the town's ambitions to be- come a commercial center and metropolis. Being at the border of the big western prairie, the matter of fuel demanded attention if ambitions were to be realized.
Some geological work had been done in the new country, both by private and probably adventurous "rock hounds" and, in a limited way, by the United States Geological Sur- vey. A collection of reports came into possession of the Com- mercial Club and these brought about the first organized move- ment to explore for gas. The club called an outdoors mass meeting to discuss the suggestion that a well be drilled. It was attended by several hundred men and women and so enthusiastic did they become, after speeches, that several hun- dred dollars was subscribed to a drilling fund. A committee to solicit funds and make other preparations for furthering the project was appointed by Henry Will, president of the club. It consisted of F. M. Riley, W. M. Pyles, C. G. Jones, Henry Overholser, Henry Will. T. M. Richardson and B. F. Burwell.
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More geologists were attracted to the Territory by virtue of the publicity given this enterprise and the community soon was infected by a genuine case of oil fever, the first it had had and the first in the Territory of Oklahoma. New surveys were made and at a later meeting of the Commercial Club the leaders were urged to arrange for a well to be drilled in every township of Oklahoma County. Interest was intensified by geological reports from other sections of the Territory and adventurers began to investigate the possibilities of asphalt to the south and rumors about gold and copper in the Wichita Mountains.
Eventually the oil and gas committee created the Okla- homa City Oil, Coal & Gas Company, of which Henry Over- holser was elected president. It had a capital stock of $50,000 and the board of directors consisted of Mr. Overholser, Henry Will, F. M. Riley, Edward 11. Cooke, O. A. Mitscher, W. M. Pyles and T. H. Group. The company erected what was then a modern derrick on Military Hill, a tract of land situated north of the Choctaw right of way and east of the Santa Fe.
The most sensational event of the year was the sentencing to jail of Frank MeMaster by District Judge Henry W. Scott. MeMaster was a lawyer, scholar, orator and editor. Probably he had no superiors at that time in Oklahoma in intellect and brilliance. It is certain that none surpassed him in sarcasm and invective. Physically unattractive, of slightly stooped shoulders, and wearing a rectangular and irregularly trimmed suit of whiskers, he belied first impressions. He was a pro- found student and a masterful speaker, and he was accus- tomed to speaking his thoughts irrespective of the occasion of the expectations of his auditors. This was more than once the cause of his mental and personal discomfiture.
MeMaster was angered by some statement or ruling of the district judge and proceeded to put into his characteristic English his opinion of that dignitary. Judge Scott had him brought into court and, in the absence of a retraction or apol- ogies, fined him $500 and sentenced him to serve six months in the county jail. MeMaster accepted the sentence stoically and was placed in jail. Some days later he repented and wrote a note of apology to Judge Scott. thereby procuring his release. It has been said that poison was found in his cell
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and that he contemplated ending his life. That he had such intention was denied by some of his friends. During his incarceration he was permitted once to leave the jail, under guard, that he might cast a vote in the city election.
The incarceration of McMaster produced a sensation in other towns of the Territory. He was one of the founders of the democratic party organization after the opening and he wielded an influence as great as any other man in Terri- torial polities. Sentiment in his favor was therefore colored considerably by polities. Resolutions condemning the action of Judge Scott were passed by political and other organiza- tions in all the principal towns and some of these were sent to President Cleveland who is said to have considered seri- ously calling for the resignation of the judge. MeMaster re- mained in Oklahoma City until the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche Indian country in 1901 when he established a law office in Lawton. There he died a few years later.
Statehood this year was receiving serious attention by . Congress, and the new Territory, already ambitious for self- government, maintained delegations in Washington to lobby for the passage of a bill. Leaders of political thought were not a unit in the matter, however, some demanding that a single state be created of the two Territories and others hold- ing fast to the two-state idea. Among those representing Ok- lahoma City in Washington that year were Sidney Clarke and Col. J. W. Johnson, but during the year the city sent a special delegation out on a statehood expedition. It consisted of C. G. Jones, O. A. Mitscher and Seymour Price. They were commis- sioned to represent the city at the Trans Mississippi Congress in St. Louis but the purpose principally was to acquaint men from other states with the desires of the Oklahomans. A spe- cial commissioner of the city to Washington this year was Ed- ward L. Dim.
Sidney Clarke, who was chairman of the Statchood Exec- utive Committee, reported near the end of the year that con- ditions in Indian Territory were an injury to the cause of single Statehood and that this was the big problem the Okla- homans had to deal with. Washington, he said, heard almost daily reports of banditry and paralyzed business conditions
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in Indian Territory and of scenes that were a disgrace to civilization and to the Government of the United States.
Sam W. Small, the well known brilliant platform speaker and evangelist of the South, early in the year became editor of The Daily Oklahoman. His editorials on current events created an original sort of snappy literature that was in per- feet accord with the ideals of the day, and his human-interest contributions touching on such subjects as battles with out- laws, murders and street brawls, sensational divorce cases and political conventions of the enemy were masterful in the same degree as his sermons on the feast of Belshazzar and the down- fall of the devil.
He was succeeded after a few months by Charles Barrett. who popularized the newspaper with long lists of personals and page-one resines of events in other towns of the Terri- tory, and who labored zealously to promote all legitimate in- terests of the city. Barrett was succeeded by R. Q. Blakeney. who already had earned his spurs as a cavalier for the demo- cratie party and who carried on valorously in defeat and out. Blakeney dignified social items by giving them a place on the first colunm of the first page. He filled his editorial columns with intelligently built and weighty paragraphs, maintained a correspondent in Washington, and gave the paper a dress suggestive of cosmopolitanism. Under his direction The Daily Oklahoman became a constructive and constructing en- terprise, and this year was in reality the beginning of its long period of usefulness as probably the most determinative factor in the erection of the metropolis of today.
In the municipal election this spring Nelson Button sue- ceeded O. A. Mitscher as mayor, and the ticket that Button captioned defeated one nominated by a citizens' committee and headed by D. C. Lewis.
The republicans were victorious in the autumn elections, both in Oklahoma County and the Territory, and Dennis Flynn, afterward a lawyer in Oklahoma City and Washing- ton, but formerly postmaster at Guthrie, was elected Delegate to Congress. Henry Overholser was elected County Commis- sioner and made chairman of the board. Other county officers cleeted were W. P. Harper, judge: G. A. Beidler, register of deeds : S. IL. Miller, clerk : C. H. DeFord, sheriff : J. L. Brown,
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attorney ; John Carson, treasurer, and F. H. Umholtz, super- intendent of public instruction.
During that year Samuel Murphy resigned as Territorial Treasurer and Governor Renfrow filled the vacancy by ap- pointing M. L. Turner, then an official of the Capital National Bank of Guthrie, and who later moved to Oklahoma City and founded the Western National Bank and was for twenty years one of the city's leading citizens. He died in 1921.
Among enterprises set going that year by the Commercial Club was an effort to secure title for the city to the southwest quarter of section 34-12n-3w. Part of the tract was claimed by Ben Miller who was classed as a Sooner, and that cognomen was given him by the club in a memorial sent to Congress asking for legislation making transfer of the tract. The me- morial was signed by Henry Will, president, and Walter Jehnison, secretary.
In 1894 George Sohlberg came down from Kansas and organized the Acme Milling Company which erected in Okla- homa City the first large manufactory of flour, an enterprise that was frequently lauded by the newspapers and received encouragement of the commercial club.
That year John A. Flattery was appointed postmaster and Dr. Delos Walker was elected president of the Territorial Medical Association.
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1895-CHOCTAW RAILROAD ENTERS
Perhaps the most important event of the year 1895 was the completion of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad into Oklahoma City. Later this road was extended westward to Amarillo, Texas. Its eastern terminus was Memphis, Tenn. Later it became known officially as a trunk line of the Rock Island System. It put the new city in direct communication with the principal coal district of Indian Territory and with the wheat and grazing districts of Western Oklahoma and the Panhandle of Texas.
Selection of the route of this road into Oklahoma City from the East was attended by not a few ordinary difficulties and some of major importance. A fight developed among towns in the former Pottawotamie and Kickapoo reservations, with Tecumseh as a point around which rotated many heated controversies. Tecumseh went so far as to employ an attor- ney, Horace Speed of Guthrie, who afterwards was United States District Attorney. His employment was one of the incidents of those early years that tended to develop a flame of modest hatred out of a small fire of commercial and social rivalry between Oklahoma City and Guthrie. Speed was credited with being a strong Guthrie partisan and Okla- . homa City citizens interpreted his employment by Tecumseh as an effort on the part of the capital to divert the Choctaw road from the original survey to a diagonal route to Guthrie.
The route controversy terminated temporarily in the United States Court which granted an injunction against the road being laid across the Kickapoo Indian reservation. The dismissal of this injunction after a few months was the last determining factor in the choice of routes and soon rails were being laid to Oklahoma City, and from Shawnee rather than from Teenmsch. Oklahoma City then proceeded in an effort to have this city made general headquarters of the railroad company and shops established here. In this it was miste-
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cessful, but the decision to locate the shops at Shawnee left no bitterness and the city builders of the metropolis, now assured of rail facilities that would attract manufacturers and wholesalers, turned their attention to other industrial en- terprises.
But the spirit of railroad building, present in all ambi- tious communities of the Territory was kept alive. It was evident that the Frisco had in mind an extension from Sa- pulpa into the new country. That Oklahoma City should be its southwestern objective was the ambition of all citizens. The first step toward seenring the extension was taken when the Oklahoma Central Railway Company was formed here. Of this company C. G. Jones was elected president, O. A. Mitscher, vice president : S. A. Steward, secretary, and Henry Overholser, treasurer. "We'll have this road completed into Oklahoma City within eighteen months," President Jones told citizens in a mass meeting.
Railroad promoters came from every direction. Their projects contemplated lines from Kansas, Missouri and Texas, and Oklahoma City and all other growing centers of the Ter- ritory were entertained with speeches of enterprising indus- trial adventurers. In after years only a small few of these enterprises materialized. Oklahoma City men themselves were not averse to such promotions. When the route of the Choctaw road had been determined and Tecumseh had lost its fight against Shawnee, there was formed in Oklahoma City the Tecumseh & Shawnee Railway Company. It had a capital stock of $150.000, it purposed to lay a line between those two towns, and its incorporators were J. T. Martin, F. M. Riley, J. S. Jenkins, C. A. MeNabb, D. C. Pryor and R. G. Hays.
Before the completion of the Choctaw road passengers were carried by stage between Oklahoma City and Shawnee. the latter having become the chief commercial place of the Pottawotamie and Kickapoo countries. For a long time this stage was operated by J. P. Atkisson, who kept his time table in the newspapers conspicuously before the public. Time tables in those days were far more essential than hotel or restaurant menus, for the nearly unlimited possibilities of the new country were attracting attention throughout the entire
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country. At the end of a blustery day in April, Atkisson drove a battered and top-shredded coach into the Oklahoma City terminal. "The wind upset her three times between here and Choctaw City," he announced to an inquisitive crowd that awaited his arrival. Nobody was injured, he said, and the crowd added laughter and jest to the reception babble.
Three mass meetings were held during the year to ad- vance the cause of Statehood. In the first of these a resolution was passed memorializing Delegate Dennis Flyim to sup- port the Sidney Clarke bill. This resolution was framed by D. D. Leach, Ledru Guthrie and B. Treadwell. The second was of the nature of a convention that was called to order by C. G. Jones and of which F. E. Gillette of El Reno was elected chairman, and L. N. Hornbeck, editor of the Minco Minstrel at Minco, I. T., secretary. The committee on reso- lutions consisted of C. H. Carswell of El Reno, J. W. Hooker of Purcell, Frank MeMaster of Oklahoma City, Frank H. Greer of Guthrie, Selwyn Douglas of Oklahoma City, W. E. Asher of Tecumseh and Amos Hays of the Chickasaw Nation. The resolution demanded an early passage of a Statehood bill and petitioned the opening to settlement of the reserva- tions of the Kickapoo and the Kiowa and Comanche Indians.
At the third meeting. held November 30, delegates were elected to attend a Statehood convention of the Territory to be held at Shawnee December 4. Resolutions adopted de- manded a single State of the two Territories. The delegates were Samuel Crocker, J. T. Griffith, C. G. Jones, C. H. De- Ford, R. Q. Blakeney and D. C. Lewis. At the Shawnee con- vention Sidney Clarke was reelected chairman of the State- hood Executive Committee. Blakeney was secretary of the convention. Before the convention adjourned it provided for the holding of another one in Oklahoma City on January 8. It was during this convention that the slogan "Let the People Rule" was first used, and singularly enough it was employed by individuals and editors of newspapers irrespee- tive of political party affiliation. The slogan was revived as part of a political creed some years later when Statehood had been achieved and the Democrats, long deprived of office, en- tered the first campaign for the election of state officials.
What became popularly known as the Scott-McMaster
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feud, which began the previous year when MeMaster was placed in jail for contempt of court, was revived, and a con- siderable portion of the population became partisan. Me- Master succeeded in getting the subject again before Presi- dent Cleveland, this time by a more direct route and with substantial political backing, but the President found no cause for dismissal of Judge Scott. That virtually terminated the bitterness and it gradually waned into insignificance. But the people were to hear more, much more, of MeMaster.
An event of this year that, at the time, had no relationship with affairs of this city but which later became an issue in the affairs of State, was the killing of Edward Jennings by Tem- ple Houston at Woodward. This resulted from an open street battle, October 9, with Jack Love and Temple Houston on one side and Edward and John Jennings on the other. John Jennings received a flesh wound in the arm. Temple Houston was a descendant of Gen. Sam Houston, hero of the Battle of San Jacinto. Jack Love, at statehood, was elected a member of the Corporation Commission and was its chairman until his death in Oklahoma City a few years later. John Jennings was an early resident of Oklahoma City and a political leader for some years. A brother, Al, who asserted in a record of his deeds twenty years later that he was driven to outlawry by the Woodward tragedy, lived here after his release from prison and was the democratie nominee for County Attor- ney in one biennial campaign and two years later made an unsuccessful campaign for the nomination for governor.
Mayor Nelson Button's administration met with favor, in spite of the gradually widening breach of partisanship, and in the spring election the democrats elected all their candi- dates for aldermen but one. The one was Capt. F. S. Good- rich, a republican. F. S. Rhodes was elected from the first ward, Frank Menton from the second ward, Captain Good- rich from the third ward, and J. S. Lindsey from the fourth ward. Edward Cooke was elected treasurer of the school board. The city received from the Department of the Interior a grant to lots 40 and 41 of block 23, known as the Hill corner. How it gained possession of the property through strategy is to be related hereafter.
The anniversary of the establishment of the city was cele-
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brated modestly this year, Col. J. W. Johnson delivering an oration and Mrs. A. C. Scott directing a program of music. The ladies of the Presbyterian Church served meals.
A tragedy of the year was the death of Mrs. Harry C. St. John, who was killed by her husband, a prominent and learned young attorney, and a son of Gov. John P. St. John of Kansas. Public indignation almost superseded reason as details of the tragedy were unfolded and told and told again. Death on October 11, 1896, ran counter to the course of legal pro- ceedings and it quieted the ravings of a conscience-stricken brain that hastened the end.
There were churches and preachers and growing congre- gations, in contradistinction to saloons, tragedies and sensa- tional divorce proceedings. One could easily imagine the preachers were poorly paid, probably were engaged in a man- ner of missionary work with funds coming out of other treas- uries. Law enforcement, however, had now become a public policy and churches were fixed integrally. That the Rev. E. Huffaker, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. needed a new suit of clothes and some expense money before going to Conference may be easily imagined by one who read his urgent call of the stewards and trustees into special session the evening of November 20. The board consisted of Dr. J. R. Mellvain, Dr. C. B. Bradford, R. G. Blakeney, F. Car- ruthers, R. Woodbridge, W. S. Williams, R. J. Ray, G. F. Walker, M. O. Craigmoyle and W. A. Huddleston.
Nor were theatrical attractions lacking, though the best of them, which were but little better generally speaking, than the worst of them, came at very long intervals. Among the best of them was "The Black Crook." The press agent announced in choicest English that it was fresh from a successful run of twelve months in New York City. The costumes he described as being magnificent and made of the costliest of silks, satins and velvets, and they were tailored especially for this tour of the West. Their brilliant effects. he said, were simply dazzling and spread brilliance over the throng of dancers in various ballets, a brilliance enhanced "by countless colored electric lights." It was a spectacle such as is seldom seen outside of a metropolis.
Two battalions of the Oklahoma National Guard were
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organized at Guthrie during the year and among the ambitious young lieutenants who expected promotions soon was Edward Overholser, son of one of the city's first citizens and who after- ward was elected mayor.
Two large school buildings were completed and the en- rollment totalled 800. Plans were made for a building in the Maywood Addition and one on Military Hill.
Seymour Price was elected president of the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company. Gen. Henry G. Thomas was elected president of the Oklahoma Waterworks Company. Henry Will was elected president of the State National Bank. Capt. J. C. Delaney, who had been receiver of the United States Land Office, was, through the influence of his old-time friend, Senator Matt Quay, appointed superintendent of public prop- erty in the capital of Pennsylvania. Roy Hoffman of the Guthrie Leader was elected president of the Oklahoma Press Association. O. A. Mitscher was at the annual election of offi- cers of the Board of Trade again chosen president and other officers were re-elected. Fifty members attended the annual meeting and by-laws were adopted.
John Milligan was hanged for murder on March 13th, Sheriff DeFord and deputies officiating. DeFord afterward brought suit against the county for $165, the amount expended in preparation for the execution. Milligan brutally murdered Gabe and Hannah Clark and it was the second ghastly tragedy of the year. His exeention was one of the first to take place in the Territory.
Slow progress was made during the year in drilling a test well for oil or gas, by the Oklahoma City Oil, Coal & Gas Company. The hole reached a depth of 750 feet and red clay was still in evidence. This was discouraging, for the company had had a report that a well drilled to 1,500 feet at Gainesville, Texas, still was in a red-clay formation.
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