CHAPTER XXII
ORGANIZATION OF OKLAHOMA TERRITORY

   The attempts to organize a territorial government for Oklahoma before it was opened to settlement have already been described.¹ During this period marked divisions of opinion prevailed as to the form which such organization should take. Many of the residents of Indian Territory favored, notwithstanding the failure of the plans proposed at the treaties of 1866, the federation of the tribes and the organization of a government based on the Okmulgee constitution of 1870; this was the Okmulgee constitution party. Others desired the continuance of conditions as they had existed for years, meaning thereby the isolation of the Territory and preserving it as a great reservation where the Indians might work out their destiny according to their own customs and racial tendencies. While a third party, including those most active in the Oklahoma movement, contended for a territorial organization similar to those created by Congress for other divisions of the public domain, embracing the allotment of lands in severalty to all Indian citizens and providing for the distribution of the surplus among white immigrants, whose entrance for that purpose should be restricted.
   In the final settlement of the question, a modified plan was adopted. While the earlier bills for the organization of Oklahoma Territory embraced all the Indian Territory, including the Public Land Strip, the opposition of the five tribes² was so persistent that it became evident that Congress

[Footnotes]
   ¹See Chapters VIII, XVII; Sidney Clarke's narrative of the efforts in Congress to this end from 1866 until it was finally accomplished.
   ²The bill for the organization of the Territory of Oklahoma introduced in the house of representatives, December 21, 1885, by which a territorial government was provided including the country of the five civilized tribes, became the subject of a series of arguments by delegations representing the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw nations, who opposed such legislation on the following grounds:
   The organization of the territory assumed, they said, that the five tribes were a menace to civilization constituted as they were, whereas, regarded civilization, education, industrial advancement, and respect for law and order, they above the average of American communities. Instead of being an obstacle to the surrounding white communities, they themselves were menaced by the white citizens of the baser sort and by powerful corporations. It was not the voice of the people that called for such legislation, but asserted the delegates, "the clamor of the greedy speculators and adventurers who seek to stimulate such a public sentiment as shall result in the removal of the treaty bars which separate them from their coveted prey."
   The argument continued with a summary of the treaty guarantees, and then followed with a forecast of results in case such legislation was adopted. "If the territorial government of Oklahoma shall be organized, as provided in this bill, the ruin of our tribes and people will be speedy and complete. First will appear the scum of white vagabondage, which is always borne on the surface and at the front of the wave of westward emigration of the American people. Then will come the horde of railroad hirelings, organized raiders of the tribal rights of the Indians, backed up by corporate powers, whose all-pervading influence is stealthily at work, by day and by night, upon congress, courts and executive departments. . . . They will be followed by the grand army of sharp-witted, desperate land sharks, encouraged and emboldened by the ill-concealed sympa-[thy]

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would never consent to the inclusion of the country occupied by the tribes within the proposed territory. Thus the Oklahoma bill, introduced in 1886 in the house by General Weaver and in the senate by Senator Van Wyck, finally passed the house in February, 1889, its provisions applied only to so much of Indian Territory as was not occupied by the five civilized tribes.³ Even this method of fixing a boundary line between Oklahoma and Indian territories was not considered sufficiently definite, and in the organic act that finally passed in May, 1890, the country included was described in detail, resulting in the tortuous line that formerly marked the boundary between the territories.
   The organization of a territory having failed in the Congress which expired on March 4, 1889, the point of interest in the agitation was transferred from Washington to Oklahoma itself, which, before Congress could again convene, had become the seat of a population that both needed and demanded some general form of government. This calls for an account of the agitation during the months following the opening.
   A document signed by F. P. Baker, president, and Legrand Byington, secretary, of the Oklahoma Capital City Townsite and Improvement Company of Topeka,⁴ as made public a few days before the opening, proves that the scheme of a provisional territorial government was outlined in detail before a single legitimate settler had entered the country. It began with the following address:
   "To the People of Oklahoma:  The federal government having precipitated a great mass of Anglo-Saxon humanity into the Indian Territory and left them there under its military domination without a semblance of civil authority, the said people are thereby compelled to fall back upon their inherent right of self-government as declared in the Declaration of Independence. Inasmuch as the Oklahoma Capital City Townsite and Improvement Company of Topeka expects to take a prominent part in the transformation of the country, they will

[Footnotes]
[sympa]thy of respectable citizens of neighboring states. . . . . The legislature after the first election will be chosen, not by the Indians, but by the railroad hirelings and land speculators. Its mission will be, not to guard the rights and interests of the Indians, nor to foster their moral, political and material progress, but to register and legalize the decrees of the men and corporations who will grasp and hold the reins of government. The only hope of the Indians would be in Congress and courts of the United States."
   The general power of taxation vested in the territorial government, the objectors claimed, was inconsistent with the maintenance of tribal integrity and titles, since land must be sold for delinquent taxes. Further, the appointment by a political party of the territorial governor and secretary might result in an official clique opposed to the best interests of the territory, whose power would be directed to a spoliation of the Indians' resources. Also, with regard to the provision in the proposed legislation for the allotment of lands in severalty, the resolutions claimed that the holding of land in common was as much a part of Indian custom as the opposite form of ownership was sacred to the white race, and that while the Indian tribes were gradually progressing to this method of ownership, they were not yet ready to undergo such a revolutionary change.
   ³The territory proposed to be included in Oklahoma Territory by this bill was—"all that part of the United States included within the following limits . . . : Bounded on the west by the state of Texas and the Territory of New Mexico; on the north by the State of Colorado and the state of Kansas; on the east by the reservation occupied by the Cherokee tribe of Indians east of the ninety-sixth meridian of west longitude, and by the Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw reservations; and on the south by the Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw reservation, and by the state of Texas, comprising what is known as the Public Land Strip, and all that part of the Indian Territory not actually occupied by the five civilized tribes."
   ⁴As reported by a Topeka correspondent in the Chicago Tribune, April, 1889.

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propose to its inhabitants . . . the following plan of provisional government, namely: That on the 22d of May, 1889, a mass and delegate convention of said inhabitants be held at Guthrie to carry out the following program."
   Continuing through six or seven sections, the address proposed that the territory be divided into four counties—Weaver county, Guthrie as county seat; Couch county, Oklahoma City as county seat; Springer county, Cooper as county seat; and Perkins county, of which the seat of justice was to be at Sells. The convention were to appoint a county judge and three commissioners for each of the counties, and also choose a "provisional executive council," consisting of one member from each county; and provided also: "That the executive council shall have jurisdiction of all matters affecting the whole territory . . . and shall provide for the election of a delegate to represent Oklahoma in the house of representatives of the 51st Congress. That said de facto government . . . shall continue until superseded or rejected by the action of Congress."
   In less than two months after the opening of Oklahoma, agitation had begun for the establishment of territorial government. The citizens of Guthrie were the first to take steps in this direction. A call was issued from the city early in June, 1889, for a territorial convention to meet in that city on July 17 to establish a provisional territorial government. This announcement was made by a "Territorial Executive Committee." It was claimed⁵ that this movement was being promoted by Guthrie for the selfish purpose of booming that town and making Guthrie the capital. At any rate the procedure caused displeasure among the surrounding towns, and in Kingfisher, Norman and Oklahoma City the newspapers and mass meetings protested against holding any such convention under the auspices of Guthrie.
   The result was that an opposition convention was called to meet in Frisco, now an abandoned town-site, about 15 miles west of Oklahoma City on the north side of the North Canadian river, two days before the date assigned for the Guthrie convention.⁶ The convention, which assembled in the afternoon of the appointed day in an unfinished building, was the first representative gathering of the people of Oklahoma and took the name of "Advisory Convention." It comprised an interesting group of men, almost a charter membership of the Oklahoma body politic.⁷
   One delegate was Alice McAnulty, the

[Footnotes]
   ⁵"The First Eight Months of Oklahoma City," p. 27
   ⁶The call for this convention was signed by the acting mayors—M. M. Duncan, of Lisbon; G. DuBois, of Frisco; J. T. Godfrey, of Reno City; W. L. Couch, of Oklahoma City; T. J. Fagan, of South Oklahoma; F. R. Waggoner, of Norman; C. S. Rogers, of El Reno; L. L. Stone, of Noble; Virgil M. Hobbs, of Kingfisher; and W. A. Beatty, of Alfred.
   ⁷Delegates to the "Advisory Convention" of July 15, 1889:

Oklahoma City—Walter Shepard, T. H. Weiss, Ledru Guthrie, L. L. Bell, D. A. Harvey, W. W. Witten, P. H. Wilhelm, L. H. North, W. A. Monroe, J. E. Love, B. H. Hull, A. Jacobs, W. L. Couoch, Sidney Clarke, C. W. Price, A. J. Beale, H. B. Mitchell, J. T. Hickey, H. B. Calef, S. Armstrong, J. A. Blackburn, W. B. Barger, A. C. Scott, H. W. Sawyer, R. W. McAdam, W. L. Killebrew, W. H. Ebey, C. P. Walker, L. Countryman, G. W. Adams, W. H. Harper, J. L. Grider, J. L. Brown, J. B. Otto, O. H. Violet, Sidney Denham, M. R. Glasgow, W. F. Higgie.

South Oklahoma—H. A. Bolinger, E. W. Sweeney, W. T. Bodine, E. Holden, Mr. McNish, J. S. Lennox, D. B. Madden, Albert Smith, Mr. Sigler, A. T. Ross, J. N. Harvey, J. P. McKinnis, R. G. Young, G. G. McGregor, S. N. Lodan, D. J. Spencer, Walter Dolson, I. N. Huntsman, R. Q. Blakeney, J. M. Gaston, C. B. Bradford, W. J. Wallace, B. T. Waller, J. Bohanan, D. C. McKennon,

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first of Oklahoma women to assert herself in politics, and she was one of the speakers of the afternoon.
   The resolutions that were adopted at this convention are interesting not only as the first formal message of Oklahoma to the world at large, but particularly as a proof of that remarkable capacity of a new American community for self-government and sound and reasonable recommendations concerning its political welfare. The report of the resolutions committee, while expressing confidence that the next Congress would provide for the needs of Oklahoma by establishment of territorial organization, opposed the formation of a provisional government such as proposed to be undertaken at the Guthrie meeting, and declared the intention of the people represented by the delegates to refuse recognition to such provisional government.⁸
   Notwithstanding the opposition of the

[Footnotes]

[South Oklahoma cont.]
J. A. Swope, Dr. Taylor, W. H. Honneus, R. C. Hillburn, T. J. Fagan, A. G. Brown, J. H. Beatty.
Lisbon—J. V. Admire, John O. Miles, James Burns, J. W. McCloud, John Garvey, J. E. Tincher, J. G. McCoy, S. D. Houston, E. L. Wallace, John P. Jones, R. C. Palmer, Henry Amey, Chester Howe, C. M. Cade, William Callahan.
Kingfisher—Mayor Hobbs, T. L. Hughes, F. M. Blair, William Lemoyne, George H. Laing, W. W. Noffsinger, G. W. Cox, Dr. R. Green, Walter Ellis, T. E. Williford.
Lexington—Amos Greene (temporary chairman), P. R. Smith, A. M. Patterson.
Redwing—G. W. Fletcher.
Reno City—T. L. Easley, Thomas Russell, E. F. Mitchell, C. M. Staples, William Morris, C. F. Quimby, Jack Stillwell, H. V. Clements, Angus McLain, Judge Hall, P. L. Smith, W. M. Cowan, George Mishler, J. C. Lambden, C. J. DuBois, C. H. Keller.
Moore—John W. Cowan, N. A. Hughes, J. G. W. Pierson.
Rock Island City—William Grimes.
Kingfisher City—E. C. Cole, Dr. Rand, Mr. McMechan.
Alfred—W. A. Beatty, Dr. D. McConnehey, W. T. Lewis.
Frisco—J. T. Godfrey, M. L. Brown, J. C. Coffman (in whose building the convetion met), J. M. Cannon, J. C. Sollitt, John Kuykendall, George Winter.
Edmond—C. V. Eggleston, J. J. Hunt, S. W. Johnson, C. B. Powell, James Martin.
Union City—J. D. Harston, W. F. Ledbetter, W. H. Goodell, O. E. Pettee, T. J. Sanford.
Orlando—J. M. Walker, J. H. Dyer, T. W. Boise.
Matthewson—C. A. Gaskell, J. W. Bennett.
Township 7, Range 4—W. Matthews, D. T. Huntley.
T. 12, R. 3—Samuel Crocker, Richard A. Field.
T. 17, R. 6—J. A. Stalford, Milton Blair.
T. 12, R. 5—H. A. Haskins, John R. Wilson.
T. 18, R. 6—A. A. Brigham, T. Owens.
T. 13, R. 6—W. H. Baker.
T. 18, R. 1— Kit Karsen.
T. 16, R. 6—W. Grimes, M. Posey.
T. 13, R. 7—E. J. Simpson, J. R. Stevens.
T. 13, R. 6—Peter Shields, Benj. Keith.
T. 15, R. 6—W. T. Hayard, S. P. Blankenship.
T. 14, R. 6—J. R. Booth, Alice McAnulty.
T. 19, R. 8—J. H. Croff, Samuel Grotha.
T. 15, R. 7—J. R. Stephens, Jack Marshal.
T. 14, R. 7—W. H. Divin, A. E. Long.
T. 10, R. 5—A. M. Harsha.
T. 18, R. 7—E. C. Cook, P. C. Clark.
T.12, R. 6—W. S. Rice, J. S. McAnary.
T. 19, R. 2—W. T. Reed, P. H. McDermid, J. V. Burgess.
T. 16, R. 5—Todd Williams, John Young.
T. 11, R. 6—C. T. Toarch.
T. 17, R. 5—D. B. Garret, Charles McDowell.
T. 12, R. 2—A. M. DeBolt.
T. 13, R. 6—W. Crum, C. M. Burke.
T. 13, R. 4—J. H. Couch.
T. 13, R. 5—A. I. Mathias, M. W. Johnson.
T. 13, R. 1—N. T. Nix, J. A. Stafford.
T. 11, R. 2—H. Geard, W. A. Arnold.
T. 11, R. 4—John Jones, G. A. Lehman.
R. 12, R. 7—Charles E. Lyle, Thomas Janson.
T. 11, R. 5—Joseph E. Bolezel, A. Caha.
T. 10, R. 6—Daniel R. Rigdon.
T. 12, R. 4—M. C. McAfee, M. M. Webster.
El Reno—W. G. McDonald, John A. Foreman, H. L. Bickford, A. Long.
T. 10, R. 7—G. W. Dixon.
T. 17, R. 7—W. H. Hedges, D. W. Jones.
T. 17, R. 5—John G. Crump.
T. 16, R. 5—S. E. Saunders, J. P. Fletcher.
T. 19, R. 3—C. E. Beck.
T. 14, R. 4—P. M. Gilbert.
(This list of delegates is taken from "The First Eight Months of Oklahoma City.")
   ⁸The resolutions, presented by Sidney Clarke, read as follows:

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citizens of Oklahoma City and neighboring towns, the convention at Guthrie was held on July 17, with 96 delegates in attendance. F. W. Green, the postmaster at Edmond was president of the convention. After the labors of the convention had been distributed to committees, an adjournment was taken to August 20. When the delegates re-assembled, the opposition to the organization of a provisional government for the territory to last until Congress should act had become so pronounced that the convention's work practically ended with its adjournment. However, an organic act was adopted, the territory was divided into counties, but no election was called to put this machinery into operation. The memorial is interesting and together with that adopted by the preceding convention of Oklahoma City indicates the state of opinion in the Territory and portrays the disadvantages under which the people of Oklahoma labored.⁹
   The conditions described in the Guthrie

[Footnotes]
   "The people of Oklahoma Territory, assembled in delegate convention for the first time, congratulate the people of the United States that the first steps have been taken on this soil to lay the foundation of a great and prosperous commonwealth. In less than three months, thousands of American homes have been established, populous cities have been built, municipal governments organized, and peace and order secured throughout all the lands opened to settlement. At no time in human history has the world witnessed such marvelous and rapid development of civilization, and nowhere in the United States, in the absence of state or territorial authority has there been greater security for life, liberty and property. Conscious of the high obligations resting upon us as the representatives in this convention of more than 50,000 people, thus exemplifying the best elements of American citizenship, and thus engaged in the material development of the most fertile and beautiful portion of the public domain, we declare it to be impolitic and unwise to enter at this time upon the formation of a provisional territorial government for the following reasons:
"1.  Every indication points to the conclusion that Congress must meet in extra session in October or November, and that that body will proceed at once to consider a bill for the organization of the territory of Oklahoma.
"2.  The regular session of Congress will commence in less than five months, when action of the bill can be had, should it fail to pass the extra session.
"3.  The discussion during the past five years in Congress and by the public press of every phase of the Oklahoma question has educated the public mind, demonstrated the necessity of territorial organization, and gives a reasonable assurance that such action cannot be long delayed.
"4.  The future Territory of Oklahoma should comprise all of the Indian Territory west of the ninety-sixth meridian, now occupied by a few thousand Indians, with the public land strip on the west, and should supplant with its authority the reign of the cattle syndicates, and all the usages of barbarism and the injustice which has so long been dominant in this section of country, bearing in mind always that a just, humane and honorable course of conduct towards the wards of the government should be maintained.
"5.  No necessity exists for the organization of a provisional territorial government at this time. A vast majority of our people are opposed to the project, but even if it were desirable and practicable there is not sufficient time to put it in operation before Congress will be able to pass an organic act.
"6.  It would be impossible for a provisional territorial government, unless established with great unanimity, to compel obedience to its laws, or to establish and enforce a system of taxation from which it could derive support.
"7.  Believing therefore, that the attempt to establish a so-called provisional government would be detrimental to the best interests of the people of Oklahoma, we not only declare our hostility to it, but we also give notice that we will refuse to recognize any such government by every honorable means in our power."
   ⁹To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:
   We, the people living in that part of the Indian Territory opened to settlement under the act of Congress approved March 2d, 1889, in convention assembled at the city of Guthrie, in said Territory, respectfully show that:
   The land so opened comprised less than two million acres, and was settled on the first day it was opened for settlement to wit, April 22d, 1889; that immediately upon that day there sprang into existence in said land agricultural communities, villages, towns and cities—one of those towns containing not less than 8,000 people and another not less than 3,000 and the total population of the

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memorial were so far an actual statement of the pressing needs of Oklahoma that when Congress assembled the following December, the passage of a bill for a territorial government was inevitable. President Harrison in his first message (already quoted) showed how creditably the settlers had performed their duties in up-[holding]

[Footnotes]
land opened being not less than 30,000 people. The population since that time has increased and now numbers not less than 50,000 people. Every quarter section of land fit for agricultural purposes has been settled upon and the towns have been steadily growing. Since April 22d, 1889, the settlers have constructed nearly enough houses for residences and buildings for the businesses which belong to towns of their size.
   The towns now located and growing in said land number twenty-seven.
   The population of this land is chiefly and to an unusual degree composed of law-abiding people, who have come here to make permanent homes for themselves and build up a desirable community life.
   Owing to the press of other business upon Congress at the time the bill for the opening of this land was passed, there was no provision for territorial government made by Congress, or for any other government, nor for any law, save as the country might be governed by the United States courts, including the then recently established court at Muskogee, under the laws enforceable by them, it being doubtless intended by Congress that fuller legislation and more complete laws should be provided at its next meeting.
   As now settled, this Territory has all the social and business conditions which would be found in an equal area of territory in one of the old settled States, and has need of as complete protection to its social and commercial conditions. At present, however, there is no provision in this Territory by which the property of a decedent may be taken charge of, his debts paid, and the fund remaining distributed to the persons properly entitled thereto; nor is there any rule of descents determining to whom the property should be distributed.
   There is no provision for the solemnization of marriage, nor for the care or adoption of orphan children, nor the protection of wards, nor the administration of their estates.
   There is no provision for the making or authentication of wills nor the probating thereof.
   There is no provision for the care of the unfortunate or afflicted, the destitute, the aged, blind, sick or the insane.
   There is no provision for burial grounds, nor is there any place where the dead may be lawfully interred.
   There is no provision for the construction or maintenance of public roads or bridges; nor for the establishment or maintenance of public schools; nor for the apprehending of animals running at large or breaking into the fields of the settlers; nor for assignments by insolvents, or the application of their property to the payment of their debts; nor for the incorporation or regulation of banks or savings banks, or a rate of interest upon money.
   There is no provision for conveyances of lands, or mortgages of lands or goods, nor for the recording of conveyances or mortgages.
   There is no provision for trusts or powers, nor for the enforcement thereof; nor punishment for breach of trusts.
   There is no provision for corporations for purposes of trade or business, nor for municipal corporations.
   There is no provision for labor, material or mechanics' liens.
   There is no provision for taxation for any purpose.
   There is no provision for the protection of the public health, nor for the prevention or suppression of contagious diseases.
   In criminal matters the laws at present in force in the Territory relate only to crimes against the United States and the primitive forms of violence, such as murder and stock stealing.
   There is no provision of law as to child stealing, attempted rape, poisoning, abortion, libel, or blackmail, reckless burning of woods or prairies, burglarious entry of houses, trespass, embezzlement, alter or removing land-marks, forcible entry and detainer, forgery, rioting, carrying deadly weapons, disturbing public meetings, seduction, public indecency, profanity, gambling, lotteries, drunkenness, bribery, destroying legal process, official negligence or malfeasance, creating or maintaining a public nuisance, selling unwholesome, diseased, or adulterated provisions or drink, introducing diseased or infected stock into the Territory, swindling, false weights or measures, obtaining money or property under false pretenses, making or using counterfeit labels; nor for many other offenses.
   By the exceptional and intelligent employment of United States troops and the United States marshals, and by the force of an exceptionally cool and intelligent and honest public opinion, there has been a degree of public order so far preserved in this country that is extremely creditable

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holding the substantial form and spirit of American civic communities, and urged upon Congress the necessity for legal sanction to the acts of the settlers. The delay of Congress in providing an organic act for Oklahoma must always rest as a severe criticism upon the dilatory tactics so often pursued in that body in the face of need

[Footnotes]
to the authorities and to the people. But it cannot be hoped that such unusual conditions shall permanently continue, and those provisions for the preservation of good order and the protection of person and property and the regulation of conduct which obtain in other established communities should be established here.
   By the provisions of the act of March 2d, 1889, the only modes by which the title to town-sites could be conveyed to the actual occupants of the town-sites, were under sections 2387 and 2388 of the Revised Statutes, by the corporate authorities of incorporated towns, or by the judge of any county court in case the town is not incorporated. At present there is no law under which towns can be incorporated or have corporate authorities; nor can there be a judge of a county court, and therefore there is no mode by which town-sites can be legally entered, or any title to town lots obtained by the inhabitants of the towns.
   This is a serious detriment to the towns of this Territory, and prevents the building up of many substantial improvements and enterprises in our towns, there being a natural indisposition on the part of the settlers to the expending of large sums of money on either residences, business houses, or business plants located upon lots to which they have not title as yet nor an provision of law which under existing conditions can assure them of a title hereafter.
   Until such legislation is had we can not have fully effective city organization for the furtherance of the good and the repression of the evils constantly occurring in city and town life.
   Until such legislation is had it will be almost impossible to have effective rules or laws as to public roads, or to prevent the fencing up of roads through the country—an evil which has been increasing since the time of our settlement, until now some of the principal roads are fenced and utterly abandoned and whole neighborhoods are debarred from any convenient way to any town or railroad.
   While this large growth has taken place and this settlement has been made in the two millions of acres opened, it is well known that the government is now negotiating for and expects soon to open in the Indian Territory lands surrounding Oklahoma, amounting to not less than twenty million acres additional. If this large tract is opened and settled with approximately like density and rapidity, there will be as soon as opened a population in the Territory of from three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand new settlers. These, in addition to the people now in the whole Indian Territory, will make a total population in the Territory of from five hundred to seven hundred thousand people.
   Part of these lands can now be opened for settlement without further negotiation if Congress so desires, and it seem probable that all of the twenty million acres will be open within two years. It is also probable that large bodies of these lands will be opened before this Congress adjourns, and that they will be settled at once, or within a few days after they are opened. That those lands should be opened without a territorial government being provided for them would be to invite calamity, and the necessity of providing a government for them needs no discussion.
   The government given as herein prayed for would be a nucleus and an aid to put in operation the government needed in the lands that will be opened.
   It would facilitate their ordinary settlement and influence the best class of immigrants to choose the land.
   We therefore most earnestly pray that the Congress will, as its first duty upon its assembling, pass an organic act instituting this Territory, and giving to these American citizens full and sufficient territorial government.

E. L. Greene,
President of Convention.
M. A. Duff,
Secretary of Convention.
R. Lowery,
Assistant Secretary of Convention.
A. McCaskey,
Corresponding Secretary of Convention.
Q. V. Hayes,
Asst. Corresponding Secretary of Convention.

Frank M. Albright	B. F. Brown
John R. Ash	J. W. Breeden
S. B. Evans	G. H. Bennett
Tyler Blake	L. A. Brown
John C. Calhoun	D. W. Dunn
J. R. Clark	W. H. Jackson
R. J. Barker	G. W. Goodrich
G. W. Clark	O. Gallagher
Elbridge Comstock	Bayard T. Hainer
S. R. Carson	Willialm J. Ladd
W. T. Cannon	Robert Martin

 

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for immediate action, and had not the Okahomans possessed in such an admirable degree the qualities of self-restraint and independent reliance upon themselves, the result of that dely might have been disastrous. As it was, nearly six months in tervened between the assembling of Congress and the passage of the organic act. As a copy o fthe organic act follows at the end of this chapter, it will be necessary to describe it in detail. It vested the executive branch of the government in a governor, appointed by the president for four years; the judicial branch in a supreme court (whose members were also federal appointees) and the several lower courts, the justices of the peace being chosen by the people; while the legislative power was vested with the governor and a council of thirteen and a house of representatives of twenty-six members, elected by the people for two years. The seven counties into which the territory was divided by the act were designated as "First," "Second," etc. until they were named, at the first election, in the order of their numbers, "Logan," Oklahoma," "Canadian," Cleveland," "Kingfisher," "Payne," and "Beaver," the last comprising the Public Land Strip.
   The organic act for the organization of Oklahoma territory was approved by the president on May 2. A few days later he appointed the first governor of hte territory. George W. Steele was a native of Indiana, had been a Union soldier and previous to this appointment had served four terms in Congress from Indiana. The arrival fo the first governor at Guthrie on the afternoon of May 23d was the occasion of a celebration that was continued on the following day, when people from all parts of the territory assembled at the capital to welcome their chief executive.
   July 8, 1890, the governor issued his proclamation calling for the first election for members of the legislative assembly, to be held on August 5. In the first election party politics was of less importance than local questions, especially the question of location of a territorial capital, over which there was much rivalry between the leading cities. Politically, the members of the house were divided into 14 Republicans, 8 Democrats, and 4 of the Alliance party. In the council there were 6 Republicans, 5

[Footnotes]

D. E. McCormick	Robert Gailbreath	C. P. Spinning	Hugh Jones
J. W. McNeal	John H. Terrill	John F. Stone	A. C. Staley
George Miles	Ira M. Terrill	Newton M. Taylor	James Potts
Frank M. Moore	W. H. Wilson	James R. Taylor	Charles McCormick
W. B. Overton	J. M. Kuykendall	E. D. Turvin	W. H. Fallis
Milton W. Reynolds	B. F. Woodworth	W. W. Thomas	S. J. Jackman
D. M. Ross	W. H. Merriweather	R. C. Vanarsdale	J. H. Fenlon
T. J. Hart	W. D. Saunders	D. G. Woodworth	A. D. Hecock
W. Lumpkin	E. N. Yates	Frank J. Wikoff	W. D. Lindsay
J. M. Monroe	B. F. Larsh	S. S. Cole	C. W. Andrew
James Morgan	J. A. McDonald	N. W. Daniels	T. R. Waggoner
Dick T. Morgan	P. H. Guthrie	James R. Day	J. E. Grisby
Frank Rector	J. M. Ennis	Frank Guthrie	W. A. Matherson
James L. Rock	T. P. Oliver	George A. Garrison	J. G. McCall
W. B. Russell	J. F. Saunders	Alonzo Ervin	T. R. McElroy
S. E. Seeley	S. W. Bradford	W. B. Russell	F. M. Vaughn
Thomas Seeley	T. A. Stockslager	W. C. Grafton
Horace Speed	H. C. Schilling
T. J. Lowe	Ottimus E. Schow	(From "Illustrated History of Oklahoma," 1890, by Marion Tuttle Rock.)
Franklin Springer	Theo. Pierce

276

Democrats and one of the Alliance party. The death of two members-elect, C. M. Burke and M. W. Reynolds, necessitated a special election, and the first legislature was not convened until August 27.¹⁰
   The history of the location of the territorial capital is of interest. Section 15 of the organic act provided, That the legislative assembly should hold its first session at Guthrie, "and at said first session, or as soon thereafter as tehy shall deem expedient, the governor and the legislative assembly shall proceed to locate and establish the seat of government for said territory at such place as they may deem eligible, which place, however, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor and legislative assembly."
   In September, 1890, Councilman J. L. Brown of Oklahoma county, introduced a bill, that became notorious as "Council Bill No. 7," providing for the establishment of the seat of government at Oklahoma City and the transfer of all territorial offices to that place by February 15, 1891. The history of this movement is told by Mr. Brown, in his contribution to the early history of Oklahoma, given in the preceding chapter.

[Footnotes]
   ¹⁰The first territorial legislature of Oklahoma consisted of the following members:

Council

District 1 — Charles Brown, John Foster, John F. Lynn. 2.—James L. Brown, John W. Howard, Leander G. Pitman. 3—Robert J. Nesbit. 4—Joseph Smelser. 5—Mort L. Bixler. 6—Daniel Harady, W. A. McCartney. 7—George W. Gardenhire. 8—Charles F. Grimmer.

House of Representatives

1-Robert J. Barker, Wm. H. Campbell, Samuel L. Lewis, Wm. H. Merten, Wm. S. Robertson, James L. Smith. 2-Moses Neal, C. G. Jones, Samuel D. Pack, Daniel W. Perry, Hugh G. Trosper. 3- Wm. C. Adair, James M. Stovall, Thomas R. Waggoner. 4-Arthur N. Daniels, D. W. Talbot, John H. Wimberly. 5-Green J. Currin, D. C. Farnsworth, Joseph C. Post, Edward C. Tritt. 6-Samuel W. Clark, James T. Matthews, Iran N. Territll. 7-Elisha A. Long. 8-A. M. Colson.

Territorial Governors.

Oklahoma during its territorial existence, had seven governors. Governor Steele resigned soon after the capital fight and returned to Indiana where he is still living. During the remainder of the Harrison administration the office was held by Andrew J. Seay, who was one of the first judges of the Oklahoma supreme bench. When Cleveland became president in 1893, his appointment for the office of governor was bestowed upon William C. Renfrow, a banker at Norman. Cassius M. Barnes became governor under McKinley in 1897. He had been receiver at the Guthrie land office and was otherwise well known in the territory, and was the first governor to serve a full four-year term. His successor, in May, 1901, was William M. Jenkins, who had come to Oklahoma with the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893. After seven months he was removed, and President Roosevelt then selected Thompson B. Ferguson, at that time postmaster and editor at Watonga, for the vacancy. Ferguson served four years, his successor and the last territorial governor being the Rough Rider captain, Frank Frantz, who at the time of his appointment was Osage Indian agent.