CHAPTER XIX
NO MAN'S LAND AND "CIMARRON TERRITORY"

   As an episode in the general agitation for the opening of Oklahoma, the settlement of "No Man's Land" and the attempt to organize a territorial government for that country form an interesting phase of Oklahoma's history. In Chapter III the origin of the anomalous pieces of territory known as "No Man's Land" was described, and it was stated that the contention of the Cherokees that this land was part of the Outlet was denied by the United States courts. This left it open to settlement as a part of the public domain, and it happened that in the general movement of population into the southwest during the eighties these vacant lands were occupied, and their fortunes thus involved in the Oklahoma question.
   The story is best told in the following account published in the Daily Oklahoman (May 7, 1905):
   In 1880, settlers from Kansas and other states looking for new homes, went to "No Man's Land" and the first settlement was established at Beaver City, now the seat of Beaver country. The population increased rapidly, farms were cultivated and towns established. In the absence of law, even by the federal government, the people by common consent made certain agreements for the protection of property, which, to their credit, were observed almost as faithfully as if enforced by regular courts. By the spring of 1886 the population had reached 3,000. The people determined to organize a government of their own, and the Respective Claim board, an organization of citizens to protect landlords, divided "No Man's Land" into three council and six representative districts. An election was held and the legislature met at Beaver City, March 4, 1887. Dr. O. G. Chase was president of the council and Merritt Magan secretary. A bill was passed creating the provisional government of Cimarron Territory, and the legislature ordered an election to be held the first Monday in November, 1887, to elect a delegate to Congress, a governor, a secretary, nine councilmen and fourteen representatives. Dr. Chase was elected delegate, J. R. Linley governor, and Thomas P. Braidwood secretary. John Dale, a rival candidate for delegate, contested Chase's election, but Chase got the certificate and went to Washington in December, 1887. He was introduced on the floor of the house by William M. Springer, of Illinois. Chase was not recognized, nor was Dale's contest. On March 3, 1887, a bill attaching "No Man's Land" to Kansas, for judicial purposes, passed both houses of Congress, but President Cleveland was induced by Sidney Clarke, then living in Kansas, not to sign it, as the change might be detrimental to the opening of Oklahoma.
   The commissioner of the land office, in a letter January 29, 1886, had recommended the abolition of the anomalous condition of the strip by the passage of the house bill

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then in committee "to extend the laws of the United States over certain unorganized territory south of Kansas."
   In February, 1888, when the senate committee (Sen. Doc. No. 353, 1st Sess., 50th Cong.) recommended the passage of a bill "to extend the southern and western boundaries of the state of Kansas and for other purposes," it supported its recommendation by the following report of the conditions in the affected territory: "Within the past few years there has been a large immigration to this section, and its lands, which are fertile, have been largely occupied. Flourishing towns have also grown up. This portion of the public domain is without laws, except such as have been enacted by the settlers; and while the great majority of the settlers are industrious, thrifty and moral, many criminals and outlaws have taken up their abode there, and made frequent predatory excursions into the states of Kansas and Texas." Concluding with the recommendation that, of all the plans proposed for the organization of the country, the most meritorious to be that of attaching this unorganized part of the public domain of Kansas. The meridian and township lines of the strip were surveyed previous to 1886, pursuant to an act of Congress March 3, 1881. In his report for 1884 the commissioner of the land office says: "Exterior surveys of the public land strip west of the Indian Territory have been made, and the district is rapidly filling up with settlers and stockmen, between whom conflicts have occurred for the possession of the country. A considerable portion of the land is reported illegally fenced. I have recommended the attachment of this strip to the adjoining district of Kansas, and it is desirable that early action be taken in order that the lands may be opened to legal entry."
   The Cimarron delegate, Chase, returned home after the adjournment of Congress, and the legislature of Cimarron Territory in the spring of that year enacted a number of laws which proved inoperative for lack of funds and power to enforce them. An attempt to collect taxes levied on herds belonging to cattlemen was met with Winchesters, and the significant invitation "Go ahead and try to get the money if you dare." Chase went to Washington again in the winter of 1888-9 in hopes that he might be seated and draw his salary, but he failed in both. Then he began lobbying for the passage of the bill opening Oklahoma for settlement.
   The first municipal government in what is now Oklahoma was organized in Beaver City, in the election of town officers in October, 1887. The officers were: J. Thomas, mayor; W. B. Ogden, clerk; Merritt Magan, attorney; Addison Mundell, marshal; John H. Alley, Thomas P. Braidwood, John Garvey and J. A. Overstreet, councilmen.
   The status of "No Man's Land" in 1889, and the attitude of many of its citizens toward the proposition to include their country under the same territorial government with Oklahoma, are described in the report of the commissioner of the general land office for 1889.
   "The opening of Oklahoma has increased the anxiety of the inhabitants of the narrow strip of public land just west of the Indian Territory, and commonly known as 'No Man's Land,' for some legislation in their behalf. I am in receipt of numerous petitions and memorials on the subject, and I desire to urge as strongly as I can the importance of calling the attention of Congress to this matter.
   "The following petition, signed by Thomas P. Braidwood, and eighty-nine others and addressed to the president,

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states the condition of that part of the country so clearly that I submit it, with my full indorsement [endorsement].

Beaver, Public Land Strip
Indian Territory, May 22, 1889

To His Excellency Hon. Benj. Harrison, President
      United States of America, Washington, D. C.
   We, the undersigned citizens of the Public Land Strip, commonly called "No Man's Land," being that portion of land lying between the Indian Territory on the east, New Mexico on the west, Kansas and Colorado on the north, and Texas on the south, and containing about 3,600,00 acres, would respectfully state:
   That we have a population of about 15,000, [?] the most of whom are law-loving and law-abiding people. That we have villages and towns building up, schools and churches in operation, and farmers tilling the soil and creating homes for themselves and their posterity, but it is all done under "squatters' rights" only, and we labor at great disadvantages. The money appropriated by Congress a few years ago to survey the country was exhausted before the survey was completed, and we are without land laws. We should be placed on at least an equal footing with other portions of the public domain under the law. Oklahoma, as an instance, containing 1,800,00 acres, only half our size, was recently opened up with these benefits. We stand in urgent need of the extension of the land laws over our land, and land offices established, so that we may begin title to our homes. We only ask what is our right and justly due us as American citizens.
   Therefore we earnestly request that in your call for an extra session in Congress, if you should in your wisdom call one, you embody our necessities as a part of the reasons for the extra session, so that these points will be considered. If there should be no extra session of Congress, we pray that in your message to the next regular session you call attention to and impress upon that body the urgent need we have of the survey being completed, and land district established, and land offices located, for all of which we shall be profoundly grateful.

   "This petition is indorsed [endorsed] by Hon. P. B. Plumb, chairman of the senate committee of public lands, as follows:

   These people should have the laws extended over their country. This would have been done long since, but for the actions of those who represented them at Washington, who said nothing was desired except in connection with Oklahoma.

   "I call attention to the fact that before these lands can be opened to entry the survey must be completed. The township and range lines have almost all been run, and they are marked by substantial iron posts placed every two miles, but the section lines have not been established. Certainly a tract of agricultural land on which there are 15,000 settlers should be surveyed. A careful estimate of the cost of completing the survey of this strip shows that $50,000 will amply suffice. I have therefore submitted an estimate for a special appropriation of that sum for this purpose, to be immediately available, and not to be included in the general appropriation for surveying public lands, as this work was not taken into consideration in making the estimate for such general appropriation."
   The outcome of the agitation was that in 1890 the public land strip was included in the territory of Oklahoma, and thenceforth the political interests of the country have been those of Oklahoma.

INDIAN TERRITORY, 1875

CHAPTER XX
OPENING OF OKLAHOMA

   The years of agitation in Congress and the public press, the constant and increasing pressure of white settlement on all sides, and the frequent invasions of organized bands of boomers, finally brought about the opening of Oklahoma to settlement in the early part of 1889.
   In the closing days of the fiftieth Congress, on March 1st, 1889, Congress ratified and accepted the cession and agreement made with the Creek Nation in the preceding January,¹ by which all the western half of the territory originally granted to this nation was ceded to the United States. By the same act, these lands were declared a part of the public domain, and to be opened to entry in quantities not exceeding 160 acres to each homestead claimant. Congress was to fix a date upon which these lands would be open to settlement, an no entry before that time should be permitted.
   The day following the ratification of the Creek agreement, in the appropriation bill

[Footnotes]
   ¹The cession of these lands was concluded at Washington, the Creek delegates being Pleasant Porter, David M. Hodge, and Esparheeher, and the secretary of the interior, William F. Vilas, representing the United States. The cession was approved by the national council on January 31st. The principal provisions of this cession are given in the act of March 1, 1889 (this act is entitled, "An act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," 25 Stat., 757), namely:
   Art. 1.    That the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation, in consideration of the sum of money hereinafter mentioned, hereby absolutely cedes and grants to the United States, without reservation or condition, full and complete title to the entire western half of the domain of the said Muscogee (or Creek) Nation lying west of the division line surveyed and established under the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and also grants and releases to the United States all and every claim, estate, right, or interest of any and every description in or to any and all land and territory whatever, except so much of the said former domain of the said Muscogee (or Creek) Nation as lies east of said line of division, surveyed and established as aforesaid, and is now held and occupied as the home of said nation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

   WHEREAS, The Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians accepted, ratified and confirmed articles of cession and agreement by act of its national council, approved by the principal chief of said nation on the thirty-first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, wherein it is provided that the grant and cession of land and territory therein made shall take effect when the same shall be ratified and confirmed by the Congress of the United States of America, therefore:
   Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that said articles of cession and agreement are hereby accepted, ratified and confirmed.
   Sec. 2.    That the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain, but they shall only be disposed of in accordance with the laws regulating homestead entries, and to the persons qualified to make such homestead entries, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to one qualified claimant. And the provisions of section twenty-three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not apply to any lands acquired under said agreement. Any person who may enter upon any part of said lands in said agreement mentioned, prior to the time that the same are opened to settlement by act of Congress, shall not be permitted to occupy or to make entry of such lands or lay any claims thereto.

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for the Indian department, the sum of $1,912,942.02 was appropriated to pay the Seminole Nation of Indians in full for all right, title, interest, and claim in lands ceded by the Seminoles by the third article of the treaty of 1866.² The Seminole delegates, on March 16, 1889, executed a release of these lands. The lands thus released, with those ceded by the Creeks, formed what was known as the Oklahoma country."
   The act of March 2, with further reference to the Creek and Seminole cessions, contained all the directions that Congress provided for the opening and settlement of Oklahoma. In this respect, the deficiencies of the act caused some temporarily serious consequences, especially the failure to provide any form of civil government. The act provided for the reservation of sections 16 and 36 for public schools; that the land was to be occupied by actual settlers only, under the homestead laws; and that land not exceeding 320 acres might be entered for townsite purposes. These are all the essential provisions of the act which provided for the opening of Oklahoma.³
   Immediately that the passage of the act

[Footnotes]
   ²These were the lands that had been ceded to the Seminoles by the treaty of 1856 (which see), and in the treaty of 1866 had been granted to the United States for the settlement of other Indians. The portions of the act of March 2, 1889, pertaining to the Seminole lands, are as follows:
   (57) Sec. 12.    That the sum of one million nine hundred and twelve thousand, nine hundred and forty-two dollars and two cents be, and the same hereby is appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay in full the Seminole Indians for all the right, title, interest and claim which said nation of Indians may have in and to certain lands ceded by article three of the treaty between the United States and said nation of Indians, which was concluded June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and which land was then estimated to contain two million one hundred and sixty-nine thousand and eight acres, but which is now, after survey, ascertained to contain two million thirty-seven thousand four hundred and fourteen and sixty-two acres, said sum of money to be paid as follows: One million five hundred thousand dollars to remain in the treasury of the United States to the credit of said nation of Indians and to bear interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from July first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, said interest to be paid semi-annually to the treasurer of said nation, and the sum of four hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and forty-two dollars and twenty cents, to be paid to such person or persons as shall be duly authorized by the laws of said nation to receive the same, at such times and in such sums as shall be directed and required by the legislative authority of said nations, to be immediately available; this appropriation to become operative upon the execution by the duly appointed delegates of said nations, specially empowered to do so, of a release and conveyance to the United States of all the right, title, interest, and claim of said nation of Indians in and to said lands, in manner and form satisfactory to the President of the United States, and said release and conveyance when fully executed and delivered, shall operate to extinguish all claims of every kind and character of said Seminole Nation of Indians in and to the tract of country to which said release and conveyance shall apply, but such release and conveyance and extinguishment shall not inure to the benefit of or cause to invest in any railroad company any right, title, or interest whatever in or to any of said lands, and all laws and parts of laws so far as they conflict with the foregoing, are hereby repealed, and all grants or pretended grants of said lands and interest or right therein now existing in or on behalf of any railroad company except right of way and depot grounds, are hereby declared forever forfeited for breach of conditions.
   ³These provisions from the act are herewith quoted:
   Sec. 13.    That the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain, to be disposed on only as herein provided, and sections sixteen and thirty -six of each township, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, are hereby reserved for the use and benefit of the public schools, to be established within the limits of said lands under such conditions and regulations as may be hereafter enacted by Congress.
   That the lands acquired by conveyance from the Seminole Indians hereunder, except the six-[teenth]

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allowing the opening of the Oklahoma country was made known, the boomer organizations on the borders increased their activity, and the press throughout the country, by descriptions of the wonderful country that now lay as a gift to home-seekers, focused the attention of thousands in this direction. The president was importuned from all sides to issue his proclamation for the opening. Congress had adjourned after passing the act of March 2, and President Harrison, after his inauguration, had to pursue one of two courses: either delay the opening until Congress should meet and remedy the defects of the legislation enacted by the preceding Congress, or yield to the insistent demands of the boomers and trust to the good sense and self-restraint of the settlers in regulating their own affairs until Congress could come to their aid. The latter course was the one he adopted, though with reluctance.⁴
    The proclamation for the opening of the Oklahoma lands was issued on March 23, providing that at noon on April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma lands, containing 1,887,800 acres, would be open for settlement. The proclamation is a document of more than ordinary interest in Oklahoma history, marking, as it does, the culmination of years of aggression against the integrity of the Indian Territory, and also the beginning of that period of history which closes with the extension of white man's govern-[ment]

[Footnotes]
[six]teenth and thirty-sixth sections, shall be disposed of to actual settlers under the homestead laws only, except as herein otherwise provided (except that section two thousand three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes shall not apply):   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 law, 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 the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors in 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 each entry shall be in square from as nearly as practicable, and no person be permitted to enter more than one-quarter section thereof, but until said lands are opened for settlement by proclamation by the President, no person shall be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any right thereto.
   The Secretary of the Interior may, after said proclamation and not before, permit entry of said lands for town-sites, under sections twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven and twenty-three hundred and eighty-eight of the Revised Statutes, but no such entry shall embrace more than one-half section of land.
   That all the foregoing provisions with reference to lands be acquired from the Seminole Indians, including the provisions pertaining to forfeiture shall apply to and regulate the disposal of the lands acquired from the Muscogee or Creek Indians by article of cession and agreement made and concluded at the city of Washington on the nineteenth day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eighty-nine.

   ⁴Harrison's message in December, 1889, referring to the Oklahoma opening the previous April, said:  "Congress had provided no civil government for the people who were to be invited by my proclamation to settle upon these lands, except as the new court which had been established at Muscogee or the United States courts in some of the adjoining States had power to enforce the general laws of the United States.
   "In this condition of things I was quite reluctant to open the lands to settlement; but in view of the fact that several thousand persons, many of the with their families, had gathered upon the borders of the Indian Territory with a view to securing homesteads on the ceded lands, and that delay would involve them in much loss and suffering, I did on the 23d day of March last issue a proclamation declaring that the lands therein described would be open to settlement under the provisions of the law on the 22d day of April following at 12 o'clock noon. Two land districts had been established and the offices were opened for the transaction of business when the appointed time arrived."

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[govern]ment over all the Indian country and the admission of Oklahoma to the Union.

   Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by said Act of Congress, approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine aforesaid, do hereby declare and make known, that so much of the lands, as aforesaid, acquired from or conveyed by the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians, and from or by the Seminole Nation of Indians, respectively, as is contained with the following described boundaries, viz.:
   Beginning at a point where the degree of longitude ninety-eight west from Greenwich, as surveyed in the years eighteen hundred and fifty-eight and eighteen hundred and seventy-one, intersects the Canadian river; thence up said river, along the right bank thereof, to a point where the same is intersected by the south line of what is known as the Cherokee lands lying west of the Arkansas river or as the "Cherokee Outlet," said line being the north line of the lands ceded by the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians to the United States by the treaty of June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six; thence, east along said line to a point where the same intersects the west line of the lands set apart as a reservation for the Pawnee Indians by act of Congress approved April tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, being the range line between ranges four and five east of the Indian meridian; thence, south on said line to a point where the same intersects the middle of the main channel of the Cimarron river; thence, up said river, along the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point where the same intersects the range line between range one east and range one west (being the Indian meridian), which line forms the western boundary of the reservations set apart respectively for the Iowa and Kickapoo Indians, by executive orders, dated, respectively, August fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three; thence, south along said line or meridian to a point where the same intersects the right bank of the North Fork of the Canadian river; thence, up said river, along the right bank thereof, to a point where the same is intersected by the west line of the reservation occupied by the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie, and the Absentee Shawnee Indians, set apart under the provisions of the treaty of February twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, between the United States and the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, and referred to in the act of Congress approved May twenty-three, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, thence, south along the said west line of the aforesaid reservation to a point where the same intersects the middle of the main channel of the Canadian river; thence, up the said river, along the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point opposite to the place of beginning; and thence north to the place of beginning (saving and excepting one acre of land in square form in the northwest corner of section nine, in township sixteen north, range two west, of the Indian meridian in Indian Territory, and also one acre of land in the southeast corner of the northwest quarter of section fifteen, township sixteen north, range seven west, of the Indian meridian in the Indian Territory; which last described two acres are hereby reserved for Government use and control), will, at and after the hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April, next, and not before, be open for settlement, under the terms of, and subject to, all the conditions, limitations and restrictions contained in said act of Congress, approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the laws of the United States applicable thereto.
   And it is hereby expressly declared and made known, that no other parts or portions of the lands embraced within the Indian Territory than those herein specifically described, and declared to be open to settlement at the time above named and fixed, are to be considered open to settlement under this proclamation or the Act of March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, aforesaid; and Warning is hereby again expressly given, that no person entering upon and occupying said lands before said hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, hereinbefore fixed, will ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any rights thereto; and that the officers of the United States will be required to strictly enforce the provisions of the act of Congress to the above effect.
   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 Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirteenth.
   (Seal)
By the President:
   JAMES G. BLAINE
      Secretary of State.⁵

BENJ. HARRISON.

[Footnotes]
   ⁵It is said that the proclamation for opening the Oklahoma country, as originally prepared in the interior department and sent to the President

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   The act of Congress of March 2d was the signal for a rapid concentration of home-seekers on all the borders surrounding the Oklahoma lands, and with each day the number increased until the little band of faithful who for years had followed the leadership of Payne and Couch had swelled into an army even before the president's proclamation and the day of the opening, the waiting multitude was reinforced by additions from ever portion of the country. Those who came to participate in the rush were not only the original boomers, nor confined to those actually desirous of finding homesteads, but comprised a great host of the curious, the speculative, and the adventurous element, who gravitated naturally to this scene of border excitement, and whose presence would continue only so long as the incidents of the opening would satisfy their craving for the free and unrestrained life of a new country.
   From one phase of the Oklahoma opening was coined a new word for the English language, and its slangy significance had a vogue through the country for several years afterward. The regulations, prescribed by Congress, that none should endeavor to enter the country as homesteaders until the hour of opening, under penalty of forfeiting all right to homesteads, were difficult to enforce against a body of eager land claimants, many of whom had for years schemed and hoped for possession in this magnificent country, and who now, finding that the prize was to be presented to all the world on terms of equal opportunity, resented this invasion of what they believed to be their prior rights. To anticipate the rush, and to make sure of the claims they had selected during previous residence or while passing through the country, was a temptation that hundreds could not resist, and that drove them to every sort of evasion, and even to armed resistance, in circumventing the guards and establishing their locations before the day set for the opening. Hence arose the term "sooners" in referring to that class. And though "sooner" was generally a term of reproach, that later was applied loosely in a significance far from it original meaning, the cause of the "sooners" was one that, in some of its aspects at least, deserved sympathy and was not without argument to support its departure from strict legality. They were, as a class, the vanguard of Oklahomans, men who had planned homes in this country long before the great mass of settlers ever considered locating here. Some of them had been in more or less interrupted occupation, though illegally, of land in the Oklahoma country for a year or more, deeming themselves as well justified in living there as the cattlemen whose herds were all around them. After enduring so much for the sake of living in a forbidden land, it was perhaps natural that they regarded with hostility the approach of thousands of newcomers who would have equal chance with themselves in entering this

[Footnotes]
Harrison for his signature, fixed the day of opening on Saturday. The president, who was quite precise and scrupulous, after looking the document over, turned to his secretary and asked: "On what day of the week does the 20th fall?"
"The 20th is on Saturday, Mr. President."
"Why, this will never do," said the president, suddenly manifesting great concern. "If that country is opened on Saturday, the people will spend all day Sunday in working to build their homes and getting settled."
In the interest of proper Sabbath observance, and to allow the boomers a day of Sunday calm before the rush, the president had the proclamation returned to the department and the date changed so that it would fall on Monday.

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land, and might outrace them at the opening and secure the very homestead around which the "sooners" had set their stakes and often had improved by the plow and with fences and dug-out homes. It is proper to give this point of view before censuring this class, and it may be said that the real "sooners" above described were entitled to more consideration than the other type of settlers who, while anticipating in an equal degree the opening hour, had taken no part in the long campaign for the opening and endured none of the hardships connected with a real "sooner" experience.⁶
   Long before the day of opening the country was filled with these settlers. The soldier guards patrolling the border of the country were powerless to prevent the entrance of individuals and small parties within the lines, and the most the officials could do was to raid the vicinities where the sooners had established themselves. In describing the opening of the Oklahoma country for the information of later generations, the general statement should be made that all those who took part in the memorable rush of April 22d were not lined up on the border around the territory before the signal gun was fired, nor was the race altogether to the swift who hurried over the prairies at the report of the pistol. One of the sooners who himself took part in the movement into the territory before the legal time said that on the night before the opening it was impossible to move along the gulches and among the bushes about the favored locations in the country without running into another sooner. Allowing for the exaggeration incident to such a relation, it is clear that hundreds were on the ground many hours before noon April 22.
   The removal, on different occasions before the opening, of bodies of these settlers was accompanied by the hardships which always go with eviction. In some cases the illegal tenants resisted the soldiers, and several deaths that followed became the subject of widespread comment on the part of the newspapers, those friendly to the boomers exaggerating the circumstances and by far-fetched comparisons exciting public sympathy for these honest and poor homesteaders thus shamefully driven from their lands by a cruel soldiery. Two quotations from the contemporary press will illustrate some phases of this matter. A Wichita correspondent of a Chicago paper of March 16th says:
   "Troop G of the Fifth Cavalry arrived at Oklahoma station today under Lieutenant John M. Carson. The boomers, having been advised of the expected arrival the night before, were in a demoralized state and fled to the woods and underbushes to conceal themselves. The scouts, however, managed to find over a hundred of them and rounding them up, drove before them men, women and children, with teams, on horseback and afoot. Those who resisted were taken with force. The dug-outs and tents were torn down, houses burned, and claim foundations and marks torn up and obliterated. The body thus gathered are now being taken north to the Kansas line. . . . . "
   The second dispatch is dated March 19, and is as follows:
   "There are at Fort Reno some six hundred regulars and in that neighborhood are 2,000 or 3,000 boomers. . . . The settlers have been going into the forbidden lands and blazing the claims they intended

[Footnotes]
⁶See views of Asa Jones on this subject, elsewhere in this work.

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to pre-empt when the territory opened. . . . Day by day they have been going out and marking the best homesteads along the streams, on the uplands and everywhere. When attacked by the troops they fled to the timber, and as they could outrun the soldiers it was simply a picnic for the boomers to dodge back and forth."
   The existence of organized bodies of boomers is declared in the following extract from the Chicago Tribune of April 13:
   "For a number of years regularly formed associations have been prospecting over Oklahoma. The country to-day is literally covered with stakes, indicating where members of the different 'colonies' have located their claims, and in many places even town lots are staked out. The ground has been thoroughly surveyed many times, especially the desirable portions. The members of these societies are combined to support and protect each other in their claims, and they will do it. . . . These bodies are ready to move in a rush, en masse, the instant the hour appointed strikes."
   A report became current some days before the opening that an attempt would be made by the boomers on April 21 to burn all the railroad bridges on the Santa Fe so that no trains would get in on the opening day. The object would be to allow the boomers to take possession of the claims they had staked out, before the arrival of the rush. A guard of military was placed at some of the bridges to prevent such attempt.
   Simultaneous with the opening proclamation was reported the formation in Topeka of an Oklahoma Townsite and Improvement Company, of resident capitalists. The charter set forth the purposes of the company to lease and plat, improve and sell townsites and lots thereon and additions in the public domain and elsewhere; also to open, build and operate roads, tramways, ferries, bridges in Oklahoma, and promote by lawful methods the rapid settlement and peaceful government, etc.
   This introduces another important movement connected with the opening and settlement of the original Oklahoma. The company above mentioned was only one of various townsite companies that were formed, especially in Kansas, for the purposes above outlined. The part taken by such companies in the first weeks of Oklahoma's history is portion of the permanent record in the history of nearly all the towns in the original Oklahoma. Like the settlers' associations just spoken of, these townsite companies were formed on the principle that in union and system there is strength and success. And as subsequent events proved, these organizations, by money, influence and systematic work, were enabled to gain a controlling power in the founding and in the early government of many of the towns, and in some instances successfully overcame the unorganized opposition and for several months kept complete control of the civil government. In part, their control, like that of all autocratic bodies, was oppressive and even tyrannical, and naturally excited the bitter hostility of those in the opposition. But on the other hand, remembering that Oklahoma was unprovided with civil government during the first year of its existence, the townsite companies and settlers' associations partially justified their existence in furnishing the backbone of law and order movements by which the government of the towns and cities was administered.
   In enforcing the regulations the presence of a large number of soldiers was necessary. On April 16, Brigadier General Merritt was directed to go in person to Oklahoma so as to be on the spot and give such

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orders to the troops as any emergency might require. "General Merritt will make such disposition of his troops as will enable him promptly to enforce order when he may be directed by the president to the troops in the execution of the powers conferred by law on the president." On April 19 an additional order directed that "General Merritt act in conjunction with the marshals of the United States courts having jurisdiction in the country. . . . to preserve the peace, and will upon the requisition of such marshals . . . . use the troops under his command to aid them in executing warrants, making arrests and quelling any riots or breaches of peace that may occur. . . . He will also see that the laws relating to the introduction of ardent spirits into the Indian country are enforced."
   The troops in Oklahoma at the time of the opening were stationed as follows, as described by General Merritt about May 1st: Four companies of infantry at Oklahoma station, under Lieut.-Col. Snyder, 10th Infantry; two troops of cavalry under Major Baldwin, 7th Cavalry, on Main Canadian north of Purcell; four companies of infantry under Captain Auman, at Kingfisher; four companies of infantry under Captain McArthur, at Guthrie. Also, two troops of cavalry in Cherokee Strip on the line south of Arkansas City, one troop of cavalry to the north of Kingfisher, and one to the east of Oklahoma station—all to keep settlers from intruding on Indian Territory.
   In April the commanding officer in the Cherokee Strip reported that he was holding a large number of citizens at the Kansas line. These complained that they were at a disadvantage as compared with those waiting in the Chickasaw and Pottawatomie nations. Accordingly on April 11 the secretary of war sent the following instructions to Major General Crook: "General Merritt will instruct his officers to allow the intending settlers to move by regular marches. . . along the public highways, post or military roads, or. . . . cattle trails through the Cherokee Outlet. . . . The movement should not commence earlier than is necessary to give the settlers reasonable time to reach the Oklahoma border at noon on that day. . . . The Indians should be given to understand that by the passage through the Outlet there is no disposition to appropriate their lands, and that it will be continued no longer than is necessary after the first emigration to the Oklahoma country is over. After the passage of the emigrants the troops will scout the Cherokee Outlet and require all persons unlawful there to move on."
   Before the opening day people were massed on every side of the Oklahoma lands, on the west, on the north along the line of the Cherokee Strip, on the east in the Pottawatomie country, and all along the Main Canadian river on the south. During the days of waiting, the border towns were crowded with a population of restless, eager humanity comprising every class from the honest homeseeker to the faro gambler. Arkansas City, which had been the headquarters for the boomers for several years, was a typical case of the border town during the closing days of March and the first weeks of April. A correspondent writing from that town a few days before opening described some of the picturesque features:
   "Arkansas City to-day looks like Leadville in its first flush of prosperity. Besides the thousands of genuine Oklahoma boomers whose number is increasing every hour, the streets are filled with the hangers-on of

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every excitement. Every corner is occupied by a 'faker' of one sort or another; one is selling prize-package soap; another has a patent medicine; a third is setting forth the virtues of a patent bridle; and a fourth has cheaply gotten up maps of Oklahoma, professing to show the most desirable locations for intending settlers.
   "The brethren of the green cloth of course are present in full force. Every saloon has its faro and stud-poker game, while many more are run in tents by themselves. . . . The crowd increases every hour. The so-called hotels were filled to overflowing several days ago, and men slept in depots or in stores—anywhere place could be found to unroll the pair of blankets which everyone carries with him. Now they have invaded the saloons, and with the clink of glasses and rattle of chips is mingled the long-drawn snore of some boomer who has stretched out beneath a table or in a corner to snatch a few hours' rest."
   "A continuous string of prairie schooners," said a dispatch from Caldwell, April 12, "is wending its way toward the boomers' camp on Fall Creek just south of the city. . . . Within two or three days permission will be granted to cross the Cherokee Strip to the edge of Oklahoma, so that settlers from the north may have the same show that those do who are now at Purcell.^{7 The line from here as far east as Arkansas City is patrolled by soldiers, and every bridge and ford is guarded. No one can cross except those provided with a pass either from the Cherokee Strip Association or from the military. On the Santa Fe line no passenger is allowed to stop at any point in Oklahoma. There are guards at every station."
   Every day added variety to the excitement and numbers to the waiting multitude. A volume would hardly contain the incidents of the opening. Here was drawn a throng in which human nature was displayed at its best and at its worst, but all under the strain of intense and eager excitement. Land and home hunger, speculative enterprise, and longing for mere adventure were dominating impulses in the dramatic events of that day in April when the rush was made. The conditions were truly American: the event called for supreme qualities of activity and alertness, and satisfied men's passion for rivalry—it was a race, in which thousands joined, while the entire nation looked on and was thrilled with the unique spectacle. On that and the following days, people living hundreds of miles from the scene gathered in groups and discussed the "great run" with the same eager interest they would have felt in a national election or a great battle.
   On that day, as in all scenes where a multitude vies in action, both tragedy and comedy held the stage, and from the trumpet blast at noon till the sun set and the stars shone on the tented fields humanity played its parts with the abandon of those released from the measured routines of life and driven on by the impulses of novel experience. It was a terrific race—a contest for the prize of land—without handicaps and each participant on equal terms with his rivals. It was a game in which the chivalry of mutual helpfulness and coöperation had no part. Each individual being for himself, and the qualifica-[tions]}

[Footnotes]
   ⁷One boomer is said to have had the following legend on his covered wagon: "Chintz-bugged in Illinois, sicloned in Newbraska, whitecapped in Injianny, bald-nobbed in Missoury, prohibited in Kansas, Oklahomy or bust."

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[qualifica]tions being equal, it followed that for the time every man was against his neighbor, and superior speed and shrewdness and even the display of threats and violence were considered legitimate means for reaching the goal. Riders of swift horses gave the dust to a widow driving a clumsy wagon in which were contained all her possessions. Those who knew the country and its ways hurried on to the coveted claims, leaving the ignorant to follow blindly in their wake. The timid had no recourse against the unscrupulous who enforced their demands at the point of a gun, and had to move on to less desirable lands. And yet it was all a part of the game, and those who suffered defeat for the most part accepted their fortune in that way, without the rankings of injustice. The race being run, men once more resumed the habits and practices of social life, and the bitter rivals of yesterday became the fellow citizens of to-day, working harmoniously in the American spirit to upbuild such communities and organized social institutions as they had lived under in their former homes.
   It would be impossible to describe in detail the rush of April 22.⁹ Every mile of the boundary line of Oklahoma restrained a crowd of intending settlers until noon. They

[Footnotes]
   ^{8A tribute to this disposition on the part of the settlers at once to settle down and observe the civil restraint characteristic of Americans, was paid in President Harrison's message in December, 1889, in which he discusses the status of the people and law and order in Oklahoma. He says: "It is much to the credit of the settlers that they very generally observed the limitation as to the time when they might enter the territory. Care will be taken that those who entered in violation of the law do not secure the advantage they unfairly sought. There was a good deal of apprehension that the strife for locations would result in much violence and bloodshed, but happily these anticipations were not realized. It is estimated that there are now in the territory about 60,000 people, and several considerable towns have sprung up, for which temporary municipal governments have been organized. Guthrie is said to have now a population of almost 8,000. Eleven schools and nine churches have been established, and three daily and five weekly newspapers are published in the city, whose charter and ordinances have only the sanction of the voluntary acquiescence of the people from day to day.
   "Oklahoma City has a population of about 5,000, and is proportionately as well provided as Guthrie with churches, schools, and newspapers. Other towns and villages having populations of from 100 to 1,000} are scattered over the territory.
   "In order to secure the peace of this new community in the absence of civil government, I directed General Merritt, commanding the Department of the Missouri, to act in conjunction with the marshals of the United States to preserve the peace, and upon their requisition to use the troops to aid them in executing warrants and in quieting any riots or breaches of the peace that might occur. He was further directed to use his influence to promote good order and to avoid any conflicts between or with settlers. Believing that the introduction and sale of liquors where no legal restraints or regulations existed would endanger the public peace, and in view of the fact that such liquors must first be introduced into the Indian reservations before reaching the white settlements, I further directed the general commanding to enforce the laws relating to the introduction of ardent spirits into the Indian country.
   "The presence of the troops has given a sense of security to the well-disposed citizens and has tended to restrain the lawless. In one instance the officer in immediate command of the troops went further than I deemed justifiable in supporting the de facto municipal government of Guthrie, and he was so informed, and directed to limit the interference of the military to the support of the marshals on the lines indicated in the original order. I very urgently recommended that Congress at once provide a territorial government for these people. Serious questions, which may at any time lead to violent outbreaks, are awaiting the institution of courts for their peaceful adjustment. The American genius for self-government has been well illustrated in Oklahoma; but it is neither safe nor wise to leave these people longer to the expedients which have temporarily served them."
   ⁹For much information on the events of the opening day the reader is referred to: narrative, in another chapter; to the more detailed history of the founding of Oklahoma City in the following chapter; and to the individual sketches of some of the 89'ers that appear in Volume II.

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came in from the Cherokee Strip on the north, from the Creek and Pottawatomie country on the east, the Indian reservations on the west held their share of excited Oklahomans, while all along the Main Canadian from Purcell westward the homeseekers stood in anticipation of the noon hour. Thousands came in over the Santa Fe Railroad, starting from Arkansas City or Purcell. The number that entered the territory on that day can never be known with accuracy, and the estimates made are largely in the nature of a guess, but it is true that hardly one of the nearly two million acres opened to settlement was without a claimant when darkness fell, not to mention the thousands who were congregated on the various half-sections taken up for townsite purposes. The number of claimants was much in excess of the claims, and for this reason most of the desirable quarter sections were found to be occupied by two or more settlers, each claiming priority, and ready to dispute his rivals with force or at law. From this situation was developed the long and bitter litigation which filled the federal and territorial courts with an interminable docket of land suits, some of which were contested for nearly twenty years, and in some instances were settled in the supreme court of the United States. This phase of Oklahoma settlement must be reserved for later discussion, while the more immediate events of the opening are described.