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CHAPTER XXIII
EXPANSION OF OKLAHOMA TERRITORY;
CESSION AND OPENING OF
INDIAN RESERVATIONS
The Oklahoma country opened
to settlement on April 22, 1889, contained approximately
1,800,000 acres. The area embraced within the limits
of Oklahoma territory as defined and organized by
the act of May 2, 1890, (including the then disputed
Greer county), contained 38,830 square miles or nearly
twenty-five million acres. By the inclusion of No
Man's land, which was public domain, (containing about
3, 700,000 acres), the total area open to occupation
by settlers at the beginning of Oklahoma's territorial
existence was about five and a half million acres.
Thus only a fifth of the territory was under complete
territorial jurisdiction; the remainder was still
held by the Indian tribes as reservations, from which
white settlers were excluded.
Another reference to the distinction
between the original Oklahoma lands and the rest of
the region included in Oklahoma territory will assist
to a clear understanding of what follows. At the time
of the opening and for some time previously, the Oklahoma
country was unoccupied by its Indian possessors. These
lands had been ceded in 1866 by the Creeks to be used
as reservations for other friendly tribes. But they
had never been diverted for that purpose, and hence,
as soon as the contract for their sale to the government
was concluded, they were at once open to settlement.
The same was not true of the other Indian lands in
Oklahoma territory. The Kickapoo, Pottawatomies, Cheyennes,
Comanches and other tribes actually resided on their
reservations, and their rights to homesteads had to
be safeguarded before the residue of their lands could
be brought within the operation of the general land
laws regulating the settlement of public domain. For
this reason the opening of the other lands of Oklahoma
territory was subject to delays and was effected piecemeal.
Over seventeen years elapsed between
the original opening and the sale and settlement of
the Big Pasture, which was the last of the reservations.
In this time, the extension of settlement over Oklahoma
proceeded by eight stages, requiring eight presidential
proclamations for the opening of as many additions
to the public domain. These openings were as follows:
September 22, 1891, the Iowa, Sac and
Fox, and Pottawatomie reservations, lying east of
the original Oklahoma, from which Lincoln and Pottawatomie
counties were created.
April 19, 1892, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
reserves, lying west of the original Oklahoma, from
which the modern counties of Blaine, Custer, Dewey,
Roger Mills, Washia were created.
September 16, 1893, the Cherokee strip,
comprising the present counties of Pawnee, Noble,
Kay, Grant, Garfield, Woods and Woodward.
May 23, 1895, the Kickapoo reserve,
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these lands lying in the counties already
organized as Lincoln and Pottawatomie.
March 16, 1896, when, by the decision
of the United States supreme court, Greer county was
finally given to Oklahoma. (This was not an "opening"
in the regular sense.)
August 6, 1901, the Kiowa, Comanche and
Apache, and Wichita reservations, making the counties
of Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo (the limits of which
were changed by statehood.)
In 1904, the Otoe, Ponca, Missouria and
Kaw reserves, lying in Kay, Noble and Pawnee counties.
December 6, 1906, the Big Pasture, comprising
half a million acres in the southwest part of Oklahoma
territory.
Before entering upon a detailed description
of these various extensions of Oklahoma's settled
area, it will be necessary to consider the methods
provided by Congress for the assignment of homesteads
to the Indian residents and the division of the surplus
lands in each reservation among other settlers, thus
anticipating in part the discussion in the following
chapter. By an act approved February 8, 1887, Congress
had enacted a general allotment law, the chief provisions
of which had a direct bearing on the opening of the
Oklahoma reservations, an object which was no doubt
intended by the promoters of the bill. Under this
legislation the president was given the authority
to cause and Indian reservation to be surveyed and
its lands allotted in severalty to its Indian residents.
It is to be noted that the provisions of this act
were distinctly declared not to apply to the five
civilized tribes, nor to the Osages and several minor
tribes in Indian Territory. The allotted lands were
to be patented to the Indians without privilege of
alienation within a period of twenty-five years. After
the allotments had been made, or even sooner if the
president saw fit, the secretary of interior might
negotiate for the sale of the surplus lands, and all
agricultural lands thus released to the United States
were to be disposed of to bona fide settlers in quarter-section
tracts.1
By this bill were provided the means
by
[Footnotes]
1In the report of the commissioner
of Indian affairs for 1887 is an abstract of the allotment
law "An act to provide for the allotment of land
in severalty to Indians on the various reservations,
etc.," approved February 8, 1887. It follows:
The president may, in his discretion,
have any Indian reservation or any part thereof surveyed
or resurveyed, and the lands of such reservation allotted
in severalty to any Indian located thereon.
The size of the allotments shall be:
to each head of a family, one-quarter of a section;
to each single person over eighteen and each orphan
under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section;
to each other single person born prior to the date
of the presidential order directing an allotment of
lands upon the reserve, one-sixteenth of a section.
(By act of February 28, 1891, Congress changed this
inequitable allotment, and secured a fair division
of tribal property, each member of the tribe having
an equal share.)
If the reserve is too small to allow
the giving of allotments as above, the size of allotments
shall be reduced pro rata. If any treaty or act has
provided for larger allotments on any reservation,
the provisions of such treaty or act shall be observed.
If the lands allotted are valuable only for grazing,
the size of the allotments shall be doubled. If irrigation
is necessary, the secretary of the interior may prescribe
rules for a just distribution among the Indians of
the water supply.
Selections of allotments shall be made
by Indians, heads of families selecting for their
minor children, but agents shall select for orphans.
The lands selected shall embrace the improvements
made theron by the respective Indians.
If on one legal subdivision of land two
or more Indians have made improvements the tract may
be divided between them and a further assignment of
lands be made to them to complete the amount to which
each is entitled.
If within four years after the president
shall have directed allotments on a reservation any
Indian belonging thereto shall have failed to make
his selection, the agent, or if there is none a
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which the government might proceed the
settlement of the problems of Indian land ownership,
and gradually accomplish the ends for which certain
organized interests had been striving both in and
out of Congress for years. When the objects proposed
by this law were attained, practically half of the
Indian Territory would be dedicated to occupation
by the whites. Along these lines the efforts of the
government were henceforth directed until, one after
another, the Indian reservations were merged into
civilized country, and the tribes themselves brought
to the conditions of individual citizenship.
In 1890 negotiations were completed with
four tribes in Oklahoma for the allotment of their
lands. These were the Sac
[Footnotes]
special agent, may make the selection for such Indian,
and the tract so selected shall be allotted to him.
Allotments shall be made by the agents
in charge of the respective reservations, and also
by special agents appointed by the president for the
purpose, according to rules which the secretary of
the interior may prescribe, and the allotments shall
be certified by the agents in duplicate, one copy
for the Indian and one for the land office files.
Any Indian not residing on a reservation,
or for whose tribe no reservation has been provided,
may settle upon unappropriated government land and
have the same allotted and patented to him and his
children, in quantity and manner above set forth,
and entry fees therefor shall be paid by the United
States.
When the secretary of the interior shall
have approved the allotments made, then patents for
such lands, recorded in the general land office, shall
be issued to the respective allottees, declaring that
the United States will hold said lands in trust for
their sole use and benefit for twenty-five years,
and at the end of that time will convey them, without
charge, to said allottees or their heirs, in fee and
free of all incumbrance [encumbrance]; the president,
however, may in his discretion extend the period beyond
twenty-five years.
After patents have been delivered the
laws of descent and partition of the state or territory
in which the lands are located shall apply to said
lands; the laws of Kansas applying to lands allotted
in the Indian Territory.
After lands have been allotted to all
Indians of a tribe (or sooner if the president thinks
best), the secretary of the interior may negotiate
with that tribe for the sale of any of their unallotted
lands, such negotiations to be subject to ratification
by Congress.
In case lands are thus sold, the purchase
money to the paid therefor by the United States shall
be held in the United States treasury, in trust for
that tribe, at 3 per cent interest, which interest
shall be subject to appropriation by Congress for
the civilization of said tribe.
Any religious society or other organizations
now occupying, for religious or educational work among
Indians, any lands to which this act applies, may
be confirmed by the secretary of the interior in the
occupation of such lands, in quantity not exceeding
160 acres in any one tract, on such terms as he shall
deem just, and so long as the above organization occupies
the land for the above-named purposes; but this does
not alter any right heretofore granted by law to any
such organization.
All lands adapted to agriculture released
to the United States by Indian tribes shall be disposed
of only to bona fide settlers, in tracts not exceeding
160 acres (subject to grants which Congress may make
in aid of education), and no patents shall issue to
any such settler or his heirs for such lands until
after five years' continuous occupancy thereof as
a homestead, and any conveyance of or lien on said
land prior to the issuance of patent thereto shall
be null and void.
After receiving his patent every allottee
shall have the benefit of and be subject to the civil
and criminal laws of the state or territory in which
he may reside; and no territory shall deny any Indian
equal protection of law; and every Indian born in
the United States who has received an allotment under
this or any other law or treaty, or who has taken
up residence separate from a tribe and adopted the
habits of civilized life, is declared a citizen of
the United States, but citizenship shall not impair
any rights he may have in tribal property.
The provisions of this act shall not
extend to the five civilized tribes, nor the Osages,
Miamis, Peorias, and Sac and Fox in the Indian Territories.
For necessary surveys or resurveys of
reservations $100,000 is appropriated, to be repaid
to the United States treasury from proceeds of sales
of such lands as my be acquired from Indians under
the provisions of this act.
The power of Congress to grant right
of way to railroads, other highways, or telegraph
lines through Indian reservations is not impaired
by this act.
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and Fox, the Iowa, the Citizen Pottawatomie,
and the Absentee Shawnee. The Sac and Fox agreement
was made June 12, 1890. By its terms, each citizen
was to be allotted 160 acres, eighty acres to be held
in trust for twenty-five years and eighty acres to
be held in trust five years before patents were issued
and restrictions removed from free disposition by
Indians. Also sections 16 and 36 in each township
were reserved for schools.
The Iowa reserve was ceded May 20, 1890.
(Its limits were those described in executive order
August 15, 1883, elsewhere given.) Each member of
tribe was to be allotted eighty acres, besides the
ten acres at the Iowa village.
The citizen Pottawatomies ceded their
lands on June 25, 1890.2
The Absentee Shawnee on June 26, 1890,
had ceded their titles to the lands comprised within
the reserve of the Citizen Pottawatomies.
The work of allotting the lands of these
reservations was undertaken in the spring of 1891.
Some of the Indians manifested suspicion and a degree
of actual hostility to the work of the agents and
surveyors, but the opposition was usually overcome
by quiet persuasion. In the Sac and Fox reserve, 549
allotments were made, consuming 87,840 acres, and
leaving a residue of about 385,000 acres to be opened
to settlement. Among the Iowa 111 allotments were
made, amounting to 8,880 acres, leaving a surplus
of about 216,000 acres. The Shawnees were divided
into two parties, the Upper, under the leadership
of Big Jim, and the Lower, with White Turkey as chief.
The former stubbornly refused to deal with the allotting
agents, and the selection of homesteads for the 196
members of this faction devolved upon the agents.
The Lower party readily accepted the allotment plan,
and to the number of 368 selected their own homes.
The Citizen band of Pottawatomies were the first Indians
of Indian Territory among whom the scheme of allotment
was attempted, and it was from this fact that they
derived their distinguishing name. The act under which
their allotments were sought to be made was dated
May 23, 1872, but as the plan was new most of them
did not take individual homes until after the agreement
above mentioned. Only 106 received allotments under
the old law, and 1,363 under the law of 1887, making
a total of 1,469 to receive land on their reservation.
The homes of the Absentee Shawnee were also located
on this reservation whose area was 575,000 acres,
so that the residue left for settlement was about
275,000 acres.
There thus remained, after the members
of these tribes had been given homesteads, a little
less than 900,000 acres, which, by law, should be
sold to settlers. The act of February 30, 1891, ratifying
the Sac and Fox and Iowa cessions, provided:
"That whenever any of the lands
acquired
[Footnotes]
2Their cession was bounded
as follows:
Beginning at a point on the right bank
of the North Fork of the Canadian river, in section
twenty-one, on Township Eleven North, Range Five East,
where the western boundary line of the Seminole Reservation
strikes said river; thence south with said boundary
line to the left bank of the Canadian river; thence
up said river along the left bank thereof, to a point
on said left bank, in the northeast quarter of section
thirty-six, Township Six North, Range One West, thirty-nine
chains and eighty-two links (by the meanders of the
river west), from the point where the Indian Meridian
intersects said river, or thirty-eight chains and
fifty-two links due west from said Indian meridian;
thence north as run by O. T. Morrill, under
his contract of September third, eighteen hundred
and seventy-two, to a point on the right bank of the
North Fork of the Canadian river; thence down said
river along the right bank thereof, to the place of
beginning.
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by the agreements in this act ratified
and confirmed, shall by operation of law or proclamation
of the president of the United States, be open to
settlement, they shall be disposed of to actual settlers
only, under the provisions of the homestead laws,
except section twenty-three hundred and one, which
shall not apply: Provided, however, that each settler,
under and in accordance with the provisions of said
homestead laws, shall, before receiving a patent for
his homestead, pay to the United States for the land,
so taken by him, in addition to the fees provided
by law, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents
for each acre thereof, and such person having complied
with all the laws relating to such homestead settlement,
may at his option receive a patent therefor at the
expiration of twelve months from date of settlement
upon said homestead, and any person otherwise qualified
who has 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 any of said lands."
In the case of the Pottawatomie and
Shawnee surplus lands, the same provisions applied
except that the settlers were to pay $1.50 per acre,
one-half to be paid in two years.
The provisions of the agreements with
the four tribes having been carried out during the
summer of 1891, President Harrison on the 18th
of September issued his proclamation "that all
of the lands acquired from the Sac and Fox Nation
of Indians, the Iowa tribe of Indians, the Citizen
Band of Pottawatomie Indians, and the Absentee Shawnee
Indians, by the four several agreements aforesaid,
saving and excepting the lands allotted to the Indians
are in said agreements provided, or otherwise reserved
in pursuance of the provisions of said agreements
and the said acts of Congress ratifying the same,
and other, the laws relating thereto, will, at and
after the hour of twelve o'clock noon (central standard
time), Tuesday, the twenty-second day of this, the
present month of September, and not before, be opened
to settlement, under the terms of and subject to all
the conditions, limitations, reservations, and restrictions
contained in said agreements, the statutes above specified,
and the laws of the United States applicable thereto."
The territory opened by this proclamation
lay, by a general description of boundaries, east
of the Indian meridian, between the Cimarron river
on the north, and extended east to the Creek and Seminole
nations of Indian Territory; excepting, however, the
Kickapoo reserve which was not opened until May 25,
1895.
A recurrence of townsite troubles took
place in the opening of these reserves. Governor Steele,
in his first annual report, says: "At the recent
opening of Tecumseh and Chandler there were at least
five thousand people at each place waiting for the
signal to be given for entering said townsites containing
twenty-four hundred lots, good and bad. A very large
proportion of those intending to enter the sites were
anxious to go in on foot, to avoid the danger incident
to riding in on horseback, or in wagons and vehicles
of various kinds; but there is no law to compel them
to do so . . . one man was killed by his own horse
falling on him; others were more or less injured.
. . . but the real settlers are in too many instances
deterred from attempting to get a lot or a home from
the very fact that horsemen are allowed to ride in.
Every man (and
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woman, for that matter) who can be at
these openings and enjoy the excitement is there,
hoping in the mad rush he or she may get a lot, or
a block of lots, and sell to some party really intending
to settle."
The 900,000 acres opened to settlement
on September 22, 1891, was occupied as quickly as
the Oklahoma country had been, and the towns of Tecumseh
and Chandler and other sprang up in a day. Part of
the lands thus settled were in the south half of Payne
county, and the rest was divided into two counties,
as first designated county A (Lincoln) and county
B (Pottawatomie.)
In October, 1890, the Cheyenne
and Arapahoe tribes had agreed to the allotment and
cession of their lands. But this work was marked by
difficulties and delays. Says Governor Steele
in his report of October, 1891: "On account of
a great many of the Indians refusing to take their
allotments, much delay has been caused in the allotting
of lands to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and I am
informed that the appropriation for making these allotments
is practically exhausted. Unless it is possible to
make other arrangements to throw these lands open
to settlement early next spring so that settlers may
raise a crop next year, it will mean great hardship.
. . among the hundreds of settlers who have been along
the borders for weeks, and in many instances months,
waiting for homes; they are being joined by more,
who have been waiting around the borders of the lands
on the east recently opened for settlement . . . but
on account of there not being nearly as many quarter
sections as there were settlers, they were disappointed.
On account of treaties having been made and published
to the country, these settlers had a right to expect
they might settle new homes in the territory this
fall."
Notwithstanding the need of haste presented
in this description by the governor, the lands of
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were not opened until
late in the spring of 1892, too late for the cultivation
of a full crop. The surplus lands after allotment
were over four million acres, which were offered as
homesteads by the president's proclamation of April
12, 1892.
"Now, therefore, I, Benjamin
Harrison, President of the United States, do hereby
declare and make known that all of said lands hereinbefore
described, acquired from the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
Indians by the agreement aforesaid, saving and excepting
the lands allotted to the Indians as in agreement
provided; excepting also the lands hereinbefore described
as occupied and claimed by the Wichita and affiliated
bands of Indians, or otherwise reserved in pursuance
of the provisions of said agreement and the said act
of Congress ratifying the same, and other the laws
relating thereto, will at the hours of twelve o'clock
noon (central time) Tuesday, the nineteenth day of
the present month of April, and not before, be opened
to settlement under the terms of and subject to all
the conditions, limitations, reservations, and restrictions
contained in said agreement, the statutes above specified,
and the laws of the United States applicable thereto."
The opening of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
country was not attended with the same rush of settlers
for homes as the two previous openings had been. In
the eastern part of the reservation the quarter sections
were quickly taken up. But there was a prejudice against
the western lands, based largely on the experience
of settlers with western Kansas lands. As a result
the settlement of the counties bordering on the Texas
Panhandle went on slowly for
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many years, and in fact the greater
part of the population of the present counties of
Ellis, Dewey, Roger Mills has come within the past
six or seven years.
The Cherokee commission, authorized by
the law of March 2, 1889, was organized on June 29th
following, and consisted of Lucius Fairchild
of Wisconsin, Warren G. Sayre of Indiana (appointed
vice ex-Governor Hartranft of Pennsylvania,
deceased) and Alfred M. Wilson of Arkansas.
The commission was appointed to "negotiate
with the Cherokee Indians,and with all other Indians
owning or claiming lands lying west of the 96th degree
of longitude in Indian Territory, for the cession
to the United States of all their title, claim or
interest of every kind and character in to said lands."
In August, 1889, the commission made a proposition
to Chief J. B. Mayes for the cession of all
the Cherokee lands thus described, being that portion
known as the Cherokee Outlet or Strip. The proposition
was declined on the ground that the Cherokee constitution
forbade its consideration.3
Other tribes were approached for
a similar purpose, and the work of this commission,
continued for several years, brought about the cession
from other tribes which finally threw open to settlement
the greater portion of the country included within
the lines of the original Oklahoma territory.
A very strong influence was brought
to bear upon the Cherokees to force the cession of
the Outlet. The attorney general had rendered a decision
denying the right of Indian tribes to lease their
lands without permission of the government. President
Harrison, by his proclamation of February 17,
1890, ordered all cattlemen to vacate the strip, and
thus summarily cut off the income to the Cherokees,
amounting, it
[Footnotes]
3That the cattle syndicate
was the principal obstructing cause in preventing
the success of the negotiations between the Cherokee
commission and the Indians was stated by President
Harrison in his message in December, 1889.
He said: "The cattle syndicate now occupying
the lands for grazing purposes is clearly one of the
agencies responsible for the obstruction of our negotiations
with the Cherokees. The large body of agricultural
lands known as the 'Cherokee Outlet' ought not to
be, and, indeed, cannot long be, held for grazing
and the advantage of a few against the public interests
and the best advantages of the Indians themselves.
The United States has now under the treaties certain
rights in these lands. These will not be used oppressively,
but it cannot be allowed that those who by sufferance
occupy these lands shall interpose to defeat the wise
and beneficent purposes of the government. I cannot
but believe that the advantageous character of the
offer made by the United States to the Cherokee Nation
for a full release of these lands as compared with
other suggestions now made to them will yet obtain
for it favorable consideration."
4WHEREAS, That portion of
the Indian Territory, commonly known as the Cherokee
Strip or Outlet, has been for some years in the occupancy
of an association, or associations, of white persons
under certain contracts, said to have been made with
the Cherokee Nation in the nature of a lease or leases
for grazing purposes; and
WHEREAS, An opinion has been give to
me by the attorney general, concurring with the opinion
given to my predecessor by the late attorney general,
that whatever the right or title of said Cherokee
Nation or of the United States to or in said lands
may be, no right exists in said Cherokee Nation under
the statutes of the United States to make such leases
or grazing contracts, and that such contracts are
wholly illegal and void; and . . . . .
First. That no cattle or live
stock shall hereafter be brought upon said lands for
herding or grazing thereon;
Second. That all
cattle and other live stock now on said Outlet must
be removed therefrom not later than October 1, 1889,
and so much sooner as said lands or any of them may
be or become lawfully open to settlement by citizens
of the United States; and that all persons connected
with said cattle companies or associations must, not
later than the time above indicated, depart from said
lands.
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is said, to $150,000 a year. This measure,
together with the urgent demands made by the would-be
settlers then encamped on the borders of the strip,
forced the Cherokees to terms, and a second proposition
for the cession of the strip was finally accepted
by the national council on January 4, 1892. The consideration
was nearly $8,600,000, or about $1.25 an acre.
December 19, 1891, the Cherokees by
agreement with the United States commissioners, yielded
the cession of "that part of the Indian Territory
bounded on the west by the one hundredth degree (100°)
of west longitude; on the north by the state of Kansas;
on the east by the ninety-sixth (96°) of west
longitude; and on the south by the Creek Nation, the
Territory of Oklahoma and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
Reservation created or defined by executive order
dated August 10th, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine."
The agreement, as amended by Congress
March 3, 1893, was ratified by the council May 17,
1893. Reservation was provided for allotment of eighty
acres each to not more than seventy Cherokee citizens
who had been residents and had permanent improvements
on lands prior to November 1, 1891.
The Tonkawa Indians, whose reservation
consisted of four townships (Ts 25 and 26 N, R 1 W,
and Ts 25 and 26 N, R 2 W) that had been conveyed
by the Cherokees to the United States in trust for
the Nez Perces on June 14, 1883, made and agreement
October 21, 1891, for the cession of their lands after
the allotment to the members of the tribe.
By agreement November 23, 1892, the
Pawnee tribe relinquished their title and consented
to allotment n severalty of their reserve consisting
of 17 townships between the Cimarron and Arkansas
rivers (Ts 21, 22, 23, 23 N, R 4, Ts 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 23 N, R 5 E, and Ts 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
N, R 6 E).
These three cessions were to open at
the same time, with the regular provisions for reserved
lands for schools, military, etc.
The proclamation for opening, dated
August 19, 1893, was as follows:
"Now,therefore, I, Grover
Cleveland, president of the United States, by
the virtue of the power in me vested by the statutes
hereinbefore mentioned, and by other the laws of the
United States, and by said several agreements, do
hereby declare and make known that all the lands acquired
from the Cherokee Nation of Indians, the Tonkawa tribe
of Indians, and the Pawnee tribe of Indians, by the
three several agreements aforesaid,will at the hour
of twelve o'clock noon (central time) on Saturday,
the sixteenth day of the month of September, A. D.,
eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and not before,
be opened to settlement under the terms of and subject
to all the conditions, limitations, reservations,
and restrictions contained in said agreements, the
statutes above specified, the laws of the United States
applicable thereto and the conditions prescribed by
this proclamation, saving and excepting lands . .
. . ." (The excepted lands were the Osage reserve,
the Otoe and Missouria reserve, the Ponca reserve,
and eastern, middle and western Saline reserves.)5
[Footnotes]
5The Saline reserves were
withheld because of leases made by the Cherokee Nation
prior to March 3, 1893, but it later appeared that
the leases were never legally approved. July 27, 1898,
accordingly President McKinley restored the
reserves to the public domain to be disposed of according
to the policy of the government regarding Saline lands.
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The regulations for opening
were described by law as follows:
"A strip of land, one hundred feet
in width, around and immediately within the outer
boundaries of the entire tract of country, to be opened
to settlement under this proclamation, is hereby temporarily
set apart for the following purposes and uses, viz:
"Said strip, the inner-boundary
of which shall be one hundred feet from the exterior
boundary of the country known as the Cherokee Outlet,
shall be open to occupancy in advance of the day and
hour named for the opening of said country, by persons
expecting and intending to make settlement pursuant
to this proclamation. Such occupancy shall not be
regarded as trespass, or in violation under which
it is made; nor shall any settlement rights be gained
thereby.
"The commissioner of the general
land office shall, under the direction of the secretary
of the interior, establish on said one hundred foot
strip booths, to be located as follows: One in Tp.
29 N., R. 2 E.; one in Tp. 29 N., R.. 2 W.; one in
Tp. 29 N., R. 4 W.; one in Tp. 29 N., R. 8 W.; one
in Tp. 29 N., R. 12 W.; one in Tp. 20 N., R. 3 E.;
one in Tp. 20 N., R. 2 W.; one in Tp. 20 N., R. 7
W.; and one in Tp. 20 N., R. 26 W., and shall place
in charge thereof three officers to each booth, who
shall be detailed from the general land office. Said
booths shall be open for the transaction of business
on and after Monday the eleventh day of the month
of September, A. D., eighteen hundred and ninety-three,
from 7 a. m. to 12 m. and 1 p. m. to 6 p. m., each
business day, until the same shall be discontinued
by the secretary of the interior, who is hereby authorized
to discontinue the same at his discretion."
The intending settlers were required
to make declarations of qualifications in presence
of the booth officials. The declaration blanks having
been signed, a certificate was issued, being in the
nature of a permit to enter the lands at the time
fixed for the opening.
On Monday, September 11, the registration
booths were opened for the issue of registration certificates.
At the booths at Arkansas City men had waited in line
since the preceding Saturday. The weather was extremely
warm, there had been no rain for some days, and along
the narrow lane set apart for the booths and the waiting
crowds, the ground was trampled into fine dust that
rose in clouds and covered face and clothing until
men were unrecognizable. Holding their places in lines
a mile long, men suffered from thirst that was relieved
with water at 10 cents a cup, bought from vendors
who passed up and down. Weak lemonade and poor quality
of food was also furnished n like manner. There were
some in the lines who were without money to buy these
necessities, and several instances were reported where
persons were overcome and fell in their tracks. One
fact should be noted: In spite of all these inconveniences,
the sufferings of heat and thirst, and the extreme
physical fatigue, good nature and the usual chaffing
and easy wit of an American crowd prevailed over the
grumbling and complaints of the weary and ill-tempered.
Chivalrous conduct was often manifested, when men
readily yield their precedence to women further back
in line.
At Arkansas City the booth clerks issued
between 200 and 300 certificates an hour, but as the
crowd numbered thousands and was constantly increasing,
it seemed impossible to accommodate them, and many
with-[drew]
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[with]drew to other points. Similar
scenes were enacted at Hunnewell, Caldwell, Orlando,
Kiowa, and other places around the strip. The hardships
endured about the registration booths are described
n a dispatch sent to the interior department on the
13th by the newspaper correspondents at Arkansas City:
"In the name of the papers we represent
we respectfully request that you take immediate steps
to alleviate the suffering of the homeseekers who
are seeking registration at Booth 9, near this city.
The booth is situated on a dusty road, four miles
from water and shelter. The weather is extremely hot
and a regular Kansas hot wind is blowing. The suffering
is great. A large number of the homeseekers have been
stricken down, and some of them have died. Registration
is progressing so slowly that thousands of men are
compelled to stand in line for days, exposed to the
sun, dust and thirst. Can you not cause the booth
to be removed to this city and put on a larger force
of clerks, or abandon registration at once? For the
honor and welfare of the administration we beg you
to take immediate action." On the following day
additional clerks were employed and several other
booths were opened, but even so the crowd increased
too fast for the accommodations.
Throughout this week the work of registration
went on at all booths until certificates were issued
to over on hundred thousand persons. In the meantime,
the congestion at the different points of entry into
the strip had increased to the point of danger. Troops
of cavalry were patrolling the entire border, acting
as guards at the booths, or engaged in scouring the
interior in search of "sooners." Every day
or so a party of the latter would be brought out,
their personal descriptions taken, and then turned
loose, generally to return and try again to anticipate
the rush. Traffic in booth certificates was freely
charged, and no doubt practiced, many selling the
certificates and their chances for homesteads for
a sum that could hardly compensate for the hardships
endured to obtain them. Petty frauds and bribing were
also perpetrated in getting certificates. Some of
the guards had a system of password and signal, and
those who were on the "inside" of the system
were able to get certificates without the inconveniences
of delay, the cost of such favors running from fifty
cents to two dollars.
When Saturday, the 16th, came, over
a hundred thousand people were ready to join in the
run. It was a repetition of the Oklahoma rush, only
intensified, and with new features that came from
the previous experience. Hundreds of exciting tales
were sent out by the correspondents to the press of
the country, each description being varied by the
writer's individual observations. Much that was said
was true, much was overdrawn or only half disclosed,
and though much severe criticism was indulged in,
the confusion and excitement of the day involved the
evil in a cloud of obscurity from which neither the
inquisition of courts nor the inquiring mind of history
can with certainty bring forth the facts. The evils
of "soonerism" were as apparent here as
in the Oklahoma opening, and there were charges that
the townsites were occupied by sooners, acting in
collusion with certain town companies, and that the
soldiers favored this occupation. There can be no
doubt that the promises of speculation in the townsites
attracted the larger number of those participating
in the run. It is not disclaimed that the real homesteaders
were in the minority in this and other open-[ings.]
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[open]ings. The thousands were here
to get something which could be disposed of quickly
at a profit to someone else. The old pioneer spirit,
willing to sacrifice and endure long years of toil
in making the land productive, was an actuating motive
to only a comparatively small number of these boomers,
and yet that small number remained to grow up with
the country, while the thousands whom a speculative
desire had brought here soon departed for other fields
of enterprise or returned to their former homes.
September 16, 1893, was the date at
which the history of several of Oklahoma's most thriving
towns begin. Contrary to the haphazard method followed
in the settlement of townsites in the Oklahoma country,
the secretary of the interior had divided the strip
into seven counties, and designated the places at
which the county seats should be located. In advance
of the opening, three trustees (no two of whom were
from the same political party) were appointed for
each of the county seat towns, and ample regulations
were adopted for the proper entry of townsites. Naturally,
the county seats were the centers of attraction for
the majority of those seeking town lots, and as a
result the cities of Perry, county seat of Noble county,
Enid, county seat of Grant county, Alva, of Woods
county, Woodward, of Woodward county, Pond Creek,
of Garfield, and the county seats of "K"
(Kay) and "Q" (Pawnee) counties, were settled
on the same day, with populations varying from seven
or eight thousand down to a thousand. Besides these
towns, others were entered. One townsite was planned
to be occupied entirely by negroes, while some socialistic
and religious colonies were reported to be planning
towns of their own.
It should be remembered that the Cherokee
country was opened at a period of profound and financial
and industrial depression throughout the nation. As
a consequence, many of those who took part in the
rush were actuated by hopes of finding here a county
of free gifts and bounteous plenty where their distress
would be quickly relieved. In the line that day in
September were persons who had been thrown out of
regular employment by the panic in other states. Many
were entirely ignorant of the conditions that confronted
them, had no conception of the hardships of a new
country, were inexperienced as farmers, and without
means to support themselves through the pioneer period.
It is not surprising, therefore, that after the boom
and brief period of hope and exhilaration that followed
the rush, many hundred yielded to their disappointment
and left the country. The results were well stated
by Mr. Thomas Doyle, of Perry, some ten years
later, in his testimony on the statehood question.
He said:
"Under the provisions of the Cherokee
Outlet laws every quarter section was given to homesteaders,
and today in Noble county that land has been settled
on where a man with a family could not make a living;
but men will struggle on. Today in Noble county, which
is a fair sample, being an eastern county, most of
our homesteaders have purchased claims, from one to
six, . . . . Those people are there to stay. Under
the provisions of that homestead law, after a man
gets a title he sells it. The rural population is
less today than at any time since the country was
opened in 1893."
In accepting the allotment system and
its attendant conditions of individual citizenship,
no tribe in Oklahoma territory proved more stubborn
and unyielding than
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the Kickapoos. It was the desire of
the government that they should take homesteads and
their surplus lands be opened at the same time with
the lands of the adjacent Pottawatomies and other
small tribes. But they could not be induced to relinquish
their common lands until September 9, 1891, and the
work of allotment proceeded slowly, one band of the
tribe, refusing to submit to the new conditions and
being induced by favorable promises, emigrating to
Mexico where they found refuge from encroaching settlers.6
Finally, on March 3, 1893, Congress
ratified the Kickapoo agreement, providing for the
allotment of eighty acres to each member of the tribe.
Two years passed before the work of the allotting
agents was complete, and the surplus lands ready for
settlement. The proclamation for opening was issued
May 18, 1895:
"Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland,
president of the United States, by virtue of the power
in me vested by the statutes hereinbefore mentioned,
and by other laws of the United States, and by the
said
[Footnotes]
6In the report of the commissioner
of Indian affairs for 1906 is found the following
account of this emigration:
Some years ago, Martin J. Bentley,
who had formerly been United States Indian agent in
charge of the Kickapoo Indians in Oklahoma, took charge
of an exodus of a considerable number of these Indians
from the United States into Mexico. The Indians who
migrated were dissatisfied with the course of the
Government in placing them upon their allotments and
insisting that they should earn their living there;
and their object in going to Mexico, as far as the
facts have thus far been disclosed, was to seek a
place where they could escape the conventional usages
of our civilization and live more after their own
fashions as Indians. Many efforts were made by the
Government to induce them to return and live on their
allotments in Oklahoma, but without effect. According
to Mr. Bentley's statement the Indians preferred
him to the Government of the United States as a custodian
and Mexico to the United States as a dwelling place.
The money which came to them from time to time for
lands leased or sold at their own home they placed
in his hands for safe-keeping, he tells me, without
interest and with no date set for its repayment. His
representation of the case is that he uses this money
for the purchase of land or water rights and other
beneficial purposes for the Indians under his care.
After exhausting its resources of persuasion
to induce the return of the Indians the office set
afoot an investigation with the purpose of discovering
what money was actually received for their lands by
those allottees who had obtained by special legislation,
in disregard of the wishes of the Department, the
right to sell their allotments in Oklahoma. This investigation
resulted in a report containing so serious allegations
against the good faith of most of the parties concerned
in procuring the legislation and conducting the sales
that the Department felt justified in refusing to
act upon the legislation authorizing the sales until
the whole matter had been laid before the Congress
for its consideration, with a recommendation that
the legislation unadvisedly enacted be rescinded.
No action was taken by the Congress, however, on this
recommendation, but I was informally directed to proceed
with the execution of the law as it stood. The full
report of the results of the investigation, which
to this office looked so damaging to the parties involved,
was sent to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
for its information, but without producing any change
of view there. Mr. Bentley and some other persons
identified with his interest appeared before the committee
and made an impression more favorable that the Indian
Office had succeeded in making, and then the question
arose why the office persisted in obstructing the
free pursuit by the emigrant Kickapoos of their own
preference as to residence and mode of life. At a
session of the committee at which this matter came
to a direct issue I answered that, as far as I personally
was concerned, I thought that the Office had done
all that duty demanded in the way of trying to keep
these Indians in the general path of civilization,
and that my only wish now was that if they were resolved
beyond any possibility of a change of mind to stay
in Mexico each Indian should be required to conform
his conduct to such a purpose, take all that the United
States owed him, cut loose forever from the control
of an allegiance to our Government, and sign off forever
all individual claim thereon. In other words, if they
were to be United States Indians they should live
in the United States, and if they were bound to live
in Mexico they should become Mexican Indians and absolve
their original sovereign from any further obligation
toward them.
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agreement, do hereby declare and make
known that all of said lands hereinbefore described,
acquired from the Kickapoo Indians by the agreement,
aforesaid, will, at and after the hour of twelve o'clock,
noon (central standard time), Thursday, the twenty-third
day of the month of May, A. D., eighteen hundred and
ninety-five, and not before, be open to settlement
under the terms of and subject to all the conditions,
limitations, reservations, and restrictions contained
in the said agreement, the statutes above specified,
and the laws of the United States applicable thereto,
saving and excepting such tracts as have been allotted,
reserved or selected under the laws herein referred
to, and such tracts as may be properly selected by
the territory of Oklahoma under and in accordance
with the provisions of the act of March second, eighteen
hundred and ninety-five, hereinbefore quoted, prior
to the time herein fixed for the opening of said lands
to settlement."
Prior to 1896 the land lying between
the north and south forks of the Red river adjoining
Texas on the west was an organized county, settled
by farmers and stockmen, having a county seat town,
and on a parity in material development with the adjacent
counties in North Texas. The people paid taxes for
the support of the Texas government, and it is related
that on the very day when the decision of the federal
supreme court announced that this county henceforth
belonged to Oklahoma, a Texas judge was holding court
at Mangum and trying cases under Texas laws. The grounds
of the contention between the United States and Texas
were a question of boundaries, and reference has been
made to the subject in Chapter III, in discussing
the boundaries of Oklahoma. The inclusion of this
territory was not in the nature of an opening, and
did not precipitate a rush of settlers to take up
the unoccupied lands. The citizens of Greer county
merely changed from one allegiance to another, and
instead of living under a state government and voting
in national elections, were content to endure the
condition of territorial existence until Oklahoma
statehood again restored their former privileges of
citizenship.7
What is known as the Greer county case
was a suit in equity by the United States against
the state of Texas to determine the boundary between
the territory of the United States and Texas and to
have it judicially determined whether the tract of
land known as Greer county was within the territory
of the United States or within the state of Texas.
The case was argued before the United
States supreme court at the October term of 1895,
and the decision, giving Greer county to Oklahoma,
was announced March 16, 1896. The syllabus of the
opinion is here quoted:
1. In fixing the
boundary between the territory of the United States
and Texas,the treaty of 1819 between the United States
and Spain controls; and the entire instrument must
be examined to ascertain the real intention of the
contracting parties, and the Melish map referred to
therein is to be given the same effect as if it had
been expressly made a part of the treaty.
2. The Melish map of 1818,
referred to in the treaty of 1819 between the United
States and Spain as showing the 100th meridian, with
other lines named in describing the boundary fixed
by the treaty, was taken as a general basis for fixing
the boundary, but was not intended to control the
location of that meridian as against its true position
astronomically located and differing from that
[Footnotes]
7The annexation of Greer county
to Oklahoma was a disturbing factor in the "free
homes" movement then being agitated before Congress.
This phase of the Greer county matter will be found
discussed in the sketch of Dennis Flynn, elsewhere
in this work.
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on the map, but the treaty
itself provided for fixing the boundary line with
more precision by surveying and marking it.
3. The convention or contract
between the United States and Texas, as embraced in
their respective enactments of 1850, together with
the subsequent acts of the two governments, adopts
the true or actual 100th meridian, and not its false
position on the Melish map, as the true boundary of
Texas.
4. The Red river, or Rio
Roxo, which by the treaty of 1819 between the United
States and Spain was to be followed westward to the
100th meridian of longitude, must be taken to be the
south, or Priairie Dog Town fork, which most nearly
answers to the description of the Red river as shown
on the early maps, including that of Melish referred
to in the treaty, instead of the north fork, the course
of which would make the line run north and northwestwardly.
5. The inclusion of Greer county,
Texas, among the counties named in the act of Congress
of 1879 as constituting the northern judicial district
in Texas, merely placed the territory claimed to constitute
that county, but which the United States had claimed
as part of the Indian Territory, in that district
for judicial purposes such as were competent to the
United States courts, and was not intended to express
the purpose of the United States to surrender its
jurisdiction, and does not admit the right of Texas
to that territory.
6. The designation for
a short time of a postoffice as in Greer county, Texas,
on petition of persons describing themselves as residents
of such county, before the authorities of the postoffice
department discovered that it was located in the territory
which was in dispute between the United States and
Texas,—does not strengthen the claim of Texas
to such territory.
7. The location of
the line established by the treaty is to be determined
by the course of rivers, and degrees of latitude and
longitude, rather than by routes, trails or roads,
the extent and character of which cannot be certainly
known at this day, and over which, at the date of
the treaty and prior thereto, travel by traders and
trappers could have been only occasional and limited.
8. The territory
east of the 100th meridian of longitude, west and
south of the north fork of Red river, and north of
a line following westward, as prescribed by the treaty
of 1819, between the United States and Spain, along
the south bank both of Red river and of the Prairie
Dog Town fork or south fork of Red river until such
line meets the 100th meridian of longitude, which
territory is sometimes called Greer county,—constitutes
no part of Texas, but is subject to the exclusive
jurisdiction of the United States.8
In August, 1901, the immense
domain of the Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche and Apache
Indians, comprising the greater part of what is now
known as Southwestern Oklahoma, was given to the occupation
and industry of white men. Here, again, were repeated
many of the scenes that marked the settlement of Oklahoma
in 1889, though there was no "rush." The
homesteads were rapidly taken, and at the county seats
of the three principal counties formed from the reservations,
three cities came into existence in a day, Lawton
at once taking rank as the metropolis of the new
[Footnotes]
8Following the decision of the
supreme court in the Greer county case, President
Cleveland issued a proclamation (date March 16, 1896)
declaring:
"WHEREAS, The Choctaw Nation claims
that the title of these lands passed to said nation
by virtue of treaties with the United States, and
that the title of said nation to said lands has not
been extinguished, but that said Choctaw Nation has
a right and interest therein; and
"WHEREAS, It is claimed that divers
persons settled upon said lands prior to the thirtieth
day of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
acting in good faith, upon the belief that the same
belonged and were subject to the jurisdiction of the
State of Texas, and that Congress will be asked to
extend to all such settlers suitable relief;
"Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland,
president of the United States, by virtue of the authority
in me vested, not admitting in any wise the validity
of such claim on behalf of the Choctaw Nation, but
for the purpose of preserving the status of said lands
intact until such time as said claim of the Choctaw
Nation thereto may be duly determined, and that the
settlers hereinbefore referred to shall not be disturbed
until Congress shall have fully considered their claims
for relief, do hereby withdraw said lands from disposition
under the public land laws of the United States, and
declare the same to be in a state of reservation,
until such time as this order of withdrawal may be
revoked; and I do further warn and admonish all persons
against entering upon said lands with a view of occupying
the same, or settling thereon under the public land
laws, during the existence of this order."
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country, with Hobart and Anadarko not
far behind.
The Wichita and affiliated bands had
agreed to cession and allotment of their lands at
Anadarko June 4, 1891, the treaty being confirmed
by act of Congress, March 2, 1895. The limits of their
reserve were "Commencing at a point in the middle
of the main channel of the Washita river where the
ninety-eighth meridian of west longitude crosses the
same, thence up the middle of the main channel of
said river to the line of 98° 40´West
longitude, thence on said line of 98° 40´due
north to the middle of the channel of the main Canadian
river, thence down the middle of the said main Canadian
river to where it crosses the ninety-eighth meridian,
thence due south to the place of beginning."
The agreement for cession and allotment
of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache reserve was effected
at Ft. Sill, October 21, 1892, and was ratified by
Congress June 6, 1900. (Boundaries given elsewhere.)
Out of the reserve individual allotments and school
lands, etc., and 480,000 acres of grazing lands were
set apart for common use of the three tribes.
Other important conditions precedent
to the opening are recited in the proclamation for
opening, dated July 4, 1901.
"And, whereas, in pursuance of
the act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, (31 Stat.,
1093), subdivided the lands so as aforesaid respectively
ceded to the United States by the Wichita and affiliated
bands of Indians and the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache
tribes of Indians into counties, attaching portions
thereof to adjoining counties in the territory of
Oklahoma, has regularly designated the place for the
county seat of each new county, has regularly set
aside and reserved at such county seat land for a
townsite to be disposed of in the manner provided
by the act of Congress last named, and has regularly
caused to be surveyed, subdivided, and platted the
lands so set aside and reserved for disposition as
such townsites:
"And, whereas, by the act of Congress
last named, it is provided: 'The lands to be opened
to settlement and entry under the acts of Congress
ratifying said agreements respectively shall be so
opened by proclamation of the president, and to avoid
the contests and conflicting claims which have heretofore
resulted from opening similar public lands to settlement
and entry, the president's proclamation shall prescribe
the manner in which these lands may be settled upon,
occupied and entered by persons entitled thereto under
the acts ratifying said agreements, respectively;
and no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy
or enter any of said lands except as prescribed in
such proclamation until after the expiration of sixty
days from the time when the same are opened to settlement
and entry. . . ."
"Now, therefore, I, William
McKinley, president of the United States of America,
by virtue of the power vested in me by law, do hereby
declare and make known that all of the lands so as
aforesaid ceded by the Wichita and affiliated lands
of Indians, and the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes
of Indians, respectively, saving and excepting sections
sixteen, thirty-six thirteen and thirty-three in each
township, and all lands located or selected by the
territory of Oklahoma as indemnity school or educational
lands, and saving and excepting all lands allotted
in severalty to individual Indians, and saving and
excepting all lands allotted and confirmed to religious
so-[cieties,]
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[so]cieties and other organizations,
and saving and excepting the lands selected and set
aside as grazing lands for the use in common for said
Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes of Indians, and
saving and excepting the lands set aside and reserved
at each of said county seats for disposition as townsites,
and saving and excepting the lands now used, occupied,
or set apart for military, agency, school, school
farm, religious Indian cemetery, wood reserve, forest
reserve, or other public uses, will, on the 6th day
of August, 1901, at 9 o'clock a. m., in the manner
herein prescribed, and not otherwise, be opened to
entry and settlement and to disposition under the
general provisions of the homestead and townsite laws
of the United States."
The lands of the reservations opened
in August, 1901, were divided into three new counties
and, in part, attached to existing counties. This
was done by order of Secretary Hitchcock, June
24, 1901. The counties thus created were Caddo, Comanche
and Kiowa, with the limits which they had during the
rest of Oklahoma's territorial history. A part of
the new territory was attached to Roger Mills, Washita
and Canadian counties, the boundaries of which were
thereby changed and increased.
Endeavoring to profit by its experience
in former openings, the government devised a new plan
for opening the Kiowa-Comanche country to settlement.
The plan as outlined in the president's proclamation
of July 6 required:
1st. That all properly qualified
applicants for homesteads should register, at either
the land office at Lawton or at El Reno, during the
period from July 10 to 26, 1901. Having registered
and obtained a non-transferable certificate to that
effect, the applicant was at liberty to examine the
lands of the reservation with a view of selection
at time of entry, but was not permitted to make any
settlement.
2d. A card of identification
for each applicant was made out at the time of registration
and placed in a plain envelope. At the close of the
registration, the committee in charge of the drawings
proceeded "to draw out and open the separate
envelopes and give to each enclosed card a number
in the order in which the envelope" was drawn.
3d. Notice of the drawings, giving
name and number of applicants, was posted each day.
At each land office commencing Tuesday, August 6,
1901, the applications numbered 1 to 125, inclusive,
were to be presented and considered, and that number
were to be considered each day until lists were exhausted
or the lands disposed of.
Concerning the lottery method used
in this opening, Governor Jenkins said: "The
inauguration of methods of procedure so entirely new
and novel to all former openings of land to settlement
of course met with more or less disfavor and criticism,
but upon the whole the system of registration and
drawing proved generally satisfactory, and all agree
that there was perfect fairness with no favor or advantage
to any in the whole procedure, while most of the hardships
of other openings and the subsequent contests and
bloodshed seem to have been done away with.
"The plan of opening has so far
proved to be a very great success, and the officers
charged with the work deserve great credit for their
able management of the work in hand. During the ten
days allowed for registration, 165,000 people registered
for claims in the reservation, 87,000 for the Lawton
district and 78,000 for the El Reno district, of whom
13,000 drew numbers en-[titling]
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[en]titling them to claims and the others
returned quietly to their homes or sought locations
in the new county seats and other townsites or elsewhere
in the territory.
"When the day for the sale of lots
in the county seats arrived, great crowds congregated
at Lawton, Anadarko and Hobart. Although Lawton was
a considerable distance from any railway connection
at the time, much the largest crowd was there, and
the demand for lots was greater than in either of
the other towns. The sale of lots progressed quietly
and orderly, the price ranging much higher all through
the sale than had been anticipated. The total amount
received for sale of lots was as follows:
"Lawton..........................................$414,845
"Hobart.............................................188,595
"Anadarko........................................132,593"
The secretary of interior was instructed
by law to use the proceeds of townsite sales in the
county seats for the building of a court house at
a not greater cost than ten thousand dollars and in
the construction of other public improvements such
as roads and bridges. The proceeds were so large,
as it turned out, that the secretary found it difficult
to apply the funds equitably under the limitations
of the law.
On December 6, 1906, occurred the last
great opening of Oklahoma lands to settlement. The
lands at this opening, however, did not go to the
man first on the ground or to the one who was lucky
in drawing a certain number, but to the one who had
the most money to offer. The lands embraced in this
opening were what is known as the "Big Pasture,"
with an area of about 450,000 acres, in the southern
portion of the old Comanche county. Two Indian pastures
in Comanche county, and one in Kiowa county, the three
having an area of over 80,000 acres and the old Fort
Sill wood reserve, containing about 25,000 acres.
No bids were entertained under $5 an acre, and at
the close of the bidding but 126 quarter sections
remained unsold. The average price per quarter section
ranged from $1,200 to $1,800, the highest amount bid
for a single quarter section being $7,000. The total
amount received from the sale of lands approximated
$5,000,000, which was added to the funds set aside
for the benefit of the Indian tribes who formerly
owned the lands.
The government laid off five town sites
in the Big Pasture and one in the pasture in Kiowa
county, these towns being named "Randlett,"
"Escheti," "Quanah," "Isadore,"
"Ahpehatone" and "Koonkazachey."9
The majority of the lots in each of these
[Footnotes]
9The following newspaper
story, told two years after the opening, illustrates
some of the difficulties in the way of laying out
a townsite in advance, despite the government's supervision
in the matter:
In one of the most interesting townsite
fights in the development of the southwest—one
in which the federal government was matched against
a newly organized railway company, the Wichita Falls
& Northwestern—the railway company has in
effect emerged victorious and the one-time government
town, Escheti, one of the six opened to settlement
by town lot sales, is now a deserted village—more
so, in fact, than Goldsmith's municipality, since
not even ruins mark its former existence. By the effecting
of a "compromise" the railway people removed
a part of their town, Kell, got Escheti abandoned
entirely and established Granfield, probably the most
rapidly built town in the world, since from a bald
prairie one day it became a village of 500 inhabitants
the next with substantial buildings, both residence
and business.
When the first opening of towns in the
Big Pasture began, hundreds of people who had planned
to purchase lots in Escheti camped in the section
line awaiting the beginning of the sale. Before the
government sale began, however, many of them began
plans to stay, some of them even erecting temporary
wooden buildings, and when
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townsites were sold to the highest bidders
for the benefit of the Indian tribes. One business
lot in Randlett sold for $1,120; the highest lot in
Escheti sold for $660, and large numbers of business
lots sold from $200 to $250 in each of the townsites.
The residence lots in Randlett and Escheti sold at
an average of from $35 to $40; in other townsites
at about $20. The persons purchasing the farms in
these pastures were required under the law to pay
one-fifth cash, to take up their residence on the
land within six months, and to remain there five years,
paying the balance of the amount bid in five annual
installments.
The governor's report of September,
1907, from which the above is taken, said with reference
to the development that had
[Footnotes]
the sale began they refused to move. These were the
people who afterward became residents of Kell.
The lots in Escheti were sold and the
town was started. Then objection was raised to the
rival town, which was a town in reality, but without
name, and the government officials served notice upon
the people camped in the section line that they must
vacate their holdings.
Then the railroad, the Wichita Falls
& Northwestern, which was building from Wichita
Falls, Texas to Frederick, Oklahoma, stepped in and
offered the squatters a home on their right of way,
which had been condemned much wider than ordinary
for the declared purpose of erecting sidetracks and
watering tank. The offer was accepted. Five hundred
people moved in, stores were opened, a newspaper started
and banks, cotton gin and railway depot were shortly
in operation. The town of Kell was started, named
after the promoter of the railroad. It was erected
on the homestead of John Fields, chief engineer
of the railroad company.
Two miles away was the government town
of Escheti. It had stores, banks and various kinds
of business. It has some people, people who had paid
their money for town lots. But it had no railway station.
It had no cotton gins. And the farmers were doing
all their business at Kell.
Consequently a wail rose from Escheti
for protection of the property sold them in good faith.
The people of Kell were ordered out, but they didn't
get out. Attempt was made to secure injunction against
people and railroad, but not even the federal district
court would grant the injunction. Failing in this
attempt, when statehood came and the corporation commission
put up its shingle, Escheti asked that the railroad
company be compelled to erect a depot for them, alleging
that the action of the road was unjust discrimination.
This order was issued, but later a rehearing was granted
the railroad and the order withheld.
In the meantime, however, conditions
were changing so that both towns were anxious to give
up the fight which was ruining both. John Fields,
the owner of the site of Kell, had died and the litigation
which seemed necessary for final title t the land
urged removal. Escheti, disappointed in her fights
through the courts and corporation commission, and
losing in business to her railway neighbor, became
"sore" on the government because of the
neglect of its protégé.
Here the railroad company stepped in
in the role of peacemaker and, promising to the people
of Escheti value for value for their government town
lots, induced the two towns to agree to a compromise
by the abandonment of both old sites and the formation
of a new town, now called Granfield, in honor of the
second assistant postmaster general.
Government officials, however, took
an unfavorable view of the project, recalled all deeds
for property still held in escrow awaiting remaining
payments and secured an injunction from the federal
government preventing them from removing to the new
town.
These injunctions had to be served,
however, before they were effective, and citizens
of Escheti determined to "beat them to it"
by getting moved before the federal deputy arrived.
Twenty housemoving equipments, both steam and horse
power, were called into service, and working night
and day and over Sunday left nothing but bald prairie
to greet the arrival of the officer who had come to
serve the writs. The entire town had been removed
and deposited in the streets of Granfield.
The troubles of the new town, though
formed through compromise, have not ended, however.
The people wanted a postoffice. They applied to the
department for the removal from Escheti, but decision
was delayed. They became impatient. They had taken
the name of a postal official. They determined to
take the postoffice itself. During the night a band
of masked men visited the one-time site of Escheti,
placed wheels under the little building in which the
office was located and dragged it by force to the
new town. The department was notified, an investigation
started and the office ordered back to Escheti to
await further instructions. The office was taken back.
Granfield is awaiting instructions, but as yet they
have not come.
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taken place since the opening: "In
the seven months which have transpired since the opening
of these lands a wonderful change has taken place.
The settlers have taken up their residence on the
farms and in the towns, and where seven months ago
there was nothing but the waving grasses of the prairie
and a few scattered herds of cattle, there are now
comfortable homes, farms planted to crops, and growing
towns. Many fine homes, costing from $1,500 to $2,000,
are already to be found on the farms, and it is estimated
that cotton crop of the Big Pasture for the present
year will reach 25,000 bales."
In closing this chapter on the expansion
of the area of settlement over all of Oklahoma territory,
there remains one important result of it all to be
noted. It was foreseen as a prophecy when the original
Oklahoma was opened to settlement, and the words used
then will serve to indicate whither all the events
just described are tending.
Commenting editorially on the outcome
of the Oklahoma territory, there remains one important
result of it all to be noted. It was foreseen as a
prophecy when the original Oklahoma was opened to
settlement, and the words used then will serve to
indicate whither all the events just described are
tending.
Commenting editorially on the outcome
of the Oklahoma rush, the Chicago Tribune said
(April 24, 1889): "The real settlers who will
develop and civilize Oklahoma are not yet there. The
great wave of the rush will recede again, carrying
back a large proportion of those whom it swept in.
Probably not twenty-five per cent of those who went
in Monday will remain and become permanent homesteaders.
"The real significance of this remarkable
invasion of Oklahoma lies not so much in the eagerness
of the boomers to get new and free land as it does
in its being the first step towards the complete opening
of the Indian Territory to white civilization, and
towards the formation of a new state, which will be
knocking at the door of the Union before we are aware
of it. . . . It is only the beginning of a movement
which will ultimately and before long absorb the whole
of Indian Territory in the new State of Oklahoma.
It is the opening of a door which will not be closed
again until white industry and commerce have spread
all over that region. . . . The Indians living east
of Oklahoma. . . have already held one convention
in which there was developed a sentiment favorable
to taking up land in severlaty and selling off what
lands they do not want. Thus there is a movement all
along the line which will more speedily than is generally
imagined change the Indian Territory into a white-red
state, with the possibility that for the first time
a red man may find himself in Congress."
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