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CHAPTER XXIX
OKLAHOMA'S HERITAGE
November 16, 1907, the
long story of the evolution of a state was completed.
Oklahoma was a state. Its internal development subsequent
to that event, and its position and influence in the
union of states, are subjects that must be left for
consideration until the present can be viewed through
the perspective of years. It remains to account for
the resources of material wealth and the sum of civic
and moral advancement which Oklahoma possessed when
the goal of statehood was reached.
In a material sense, Oklahoma has often
been called "The Land of Now." It is in
many ways a land of opportunity. When its lands were
first thrown open to settlement, thousands rushed
in who had failed of success in other states, hoping
to find here the golden gain that misdirected energy
or misfortune had denied elsewhere. It would be interesting
to know how many realized their expectaions.1
As a reading of the careers of many of the individuals
whose personal sketches appear in the second volume
will show, there are numerous examples of the "pioneers,"
not only "89'ers," but "Cherokee Strippers"
and settlers on other reservations, who stuck to their
posts, outlived the storm and stress period of Oklahoma's
history,2 and are
[Footnotes]
1An editorial in an eastern
paper in April, 1889, indicates one point of view
in regard to the first Oklahoma settlers. It was a
true statement of the situation in the main. It follows:
"A large number of persons who
are preparing to rush into Oklahoma as soon as it
is opened to settlement will be badly disappointed
and before long will return to their old homes in
disgust. Oklahoma is not a paradise, and even the
settlers who get there in time to receive choice pieces
of land and avoid controversy with claim-jumpers will
have no easy time before them. They must go to Oklahoma
provided with means of subsistence for the summer
and to carry them along at least until their first
crops can be sent to market. Not one in a hundred
of the city-bred men who are arranging to take claims
in Oklahoma will remain there long enough to perfect
their titles. They should understand that the prospect
before them is one of hard work, plain living, economy
and self-denial. They must be prepared to abandon
wholly the dissipations and the amusements to which
they have been accustomed, and accept the frugal living
and hard toil of the pioneer farmers . . . .
"Still there is opportunity for
hard-working, self-denying poor men to become land
owners and make themselves independent farmers in
Oklahoma. They will not have to submit to any such
hardships as bore on the successive generations of
pioneers who led the advance of civilization from
Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Missouri river. They
will have no struggle with Indians or wild beasts.
They will not have to hew and grub farms out of heavy
forests. They will not find themselves with unsalable
produce on their hands and compelled to burn corn
for fuel. The railroads will go with them, carrying
all the supplies they are able to buy and furnishing
quick transportation of products to market. Towns
will be built in a few days, and in a year the country
will be thickly settled. The old pioneers of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois and Iowa might claim that the Oklahoma
settlers will in fact experience little of the hardships
of life in fact experience little of the hardships
of life in a new country, and will have no right to
be styled frontiersmen.
2The proclamation for the
opening of Oklahoma did not come in time to permit
the majority of the settlers to grow crops in 1889.
The following year was an unusually dry one, not only
in Oklahoma, but in many of the older states. The
crops failed in part or wholly, and these two successive
years of meager production, coupled with the fact
that many of the settlers had experienced
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today prospered and contented citizens
of the land which they developed. Yet there can be
no doubt that the dominant class in business affairs
today consist largely of those who came later, after
the excitement and confusion of the first years had
subsided, and conditions had attained the sober pulse
and custom that prevailed in other states.
It is a matter of history that ten years
wrought a great change in Oklahoma territory. The
composition of the population in 1890 and at the beginning
of the twentieth century was essentially different,
due not alone to increased numbers but to a change
in character as well. Crop failures and a prolonged
financial panic were retarding conditions that prevailed
throughout the first decade of Oklahoma's existence.
Yet the progress of the territory continued at a rate
that is nothing less than remarkable. During this
period Oklahoma not only expanded territorially and
in material development, but also evolved a new people.3
It was merely a bit of rhetoric to call
[Footnotes]
drought in Kansas and Texas before coming to Oklahoma,
caused great destitution and suffering. An appeal
went to Congress, which appropriated generously, and
the two principal railroads through the territory
furnished seed wheat to the settlers in the spring
of 1891 at actual cost and waited payment without
interest until the abundant harvests of 1891 enabled
the settlers to pay most of their obligations.
In his special message to Congress of
August 8, 1890, President Harrison reviewed
conditions in the territory as follows:
"I have received, under date of
July 29 ultimo, a communication from Hon. George
W. Steele, governor of the territory of Oklahoma,
in which among other things he says:
" 'A delegation from township 16,
range 1, in this county, has just left me, who came
to represent that there are at this time twenty-eight
families in that township who are in actual need of
the necessaries of life, and they give it as their
opinion that their township is not an exception, and
that in the very near future a large proportion of
the settlers of this territory will have to have assistance.
" 'This I have looked for, but
have hoped to bridge over until after the legislature
meets, when I though some arrangements might be made
for taking care of these needy people; but with little
taxable property in the territory, and very many necessary
demands to be made and met, I doubt if the legislature
will be able to make such provision until a crop is
raised next year as will be adequate to the demands.
" 'Now I know whereof I speak,
and I say there are a great many people in this territory
who have not the necessary means of providing meals
for a day to come and are being helped by their very
poor neighbors. No one regrets more than I do the
necessity of making the foregoing statement, and I
have hoped to bridge the matter over, as I have said
before, until the legislature would meet and see if
some provisions could be made.
" 'I now see the utter hopelessness
of such a course, and I beg of you to call the attention
of Congress to the condition of our people, with the
earnest hope that provision may be made whereby great
suffering may be relieved; and I assure you that so
far as I am able to prevent it not one ounce of provisions
or a cent of money contributed to the above need shall
be improperly used.'
"Information received by me from
other sources leads me to believe that Governor Steele
is altogether right in his impression that there
will be, unless relief is afforded either by public
appropriation or by organized individual effort, wide-spread
suffering among the settlers in Oklahoma. Many of
these people expended in travel and in providing shelter
for their families all of their accumulated means.
The crop prospects for this year are by reason of
drought quite unfavorable, and the ability of the
territory itself to provide relief must be inadequate
during this year."
3A writer in the Forum
in 1898 says: "Most of Oklahoma's population
is composed of people whose families, pushed westward
from the Atlantic coast by advancing civilization,
have lived on the border for generations. The instinct
to seek out new homes and fresh adventures is inborn.
Other people mingling with these acquire the same
restlessness." Writing in 1900 in the Atlantic
Monthly, the same observer finds it necessary
to revise many of the opinions expressed in the first
article. "While during the four or five years
after the rush the territory was in ill repute, and
harbored many who sought temporary residence there
for sinister motives, a great change has since come
about. One must make over his ideas concerning Oklahoma."
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Oklahoma "a place where civilization's
failures are made conspicuous successes," but
in the wealth of material resources with which the
new state is endowed it seems that here is a land
where both the weak and the strong may share in the
riches that a kindly nature lavishes upon the possessors
of a new country in America.
With an area of 70,000 square miles,
which would mean approximately a quarter section for
every one of a quarter of a million inhabitants, Oklahoma
has agricultural possibilities that are unsurpassed
in variety of products. From the Choctaw country in
the extreme southeast to Beaver county in the northwest,
the variation of rainfall is greater than in any states
of the Union except California, Texas, Washington
and Oregon. The altitude, variety of the soil, and
diversity of natural resources are correspondingly
great.
In Oklahoma, American corn, or maize,
grows from Kansas to the Red river. In Oklahoma territory
it was for some years considered an unsafe and unprofitable
crop, but in 1905 the crop in this territory was sixty
million bushels, and was increasing annually. In adjoining
fields, in practically every county of the state,
cotton produces an average yield of about half a bale
to the acre. In the south half of the state are found
the most favorable conditions for this crop. According
to the report of the secretary of the territorial
board of agriculture for 1906, Oklahoma stood at the
head of the list of states in point of yield of cotton
per acre. Cotton is an old crop in southern Indiana
Territory, Indian planters, with slave labor, having
engaged in growing it since the tribes were removed
to the west. In the newly opened counties of western
Oklahoma and in what was once No Man's Land, broom
corn is a staple crop, and in total production is
said to be the largest crop of its kind in the world.
Oklahoma is now often called "the
alfalfa state." Some years ago the hay crop was
confined almost exclusively to the native prairie
grasses. Clover and timothy were not grown satisfactorily.
But now, especially along the fertile river valleys,
the luxuriant alfalfa produces four or five crops
a year, and pays high profit on the care and initial
expense necessary to start this kind of grass. In
both eastern and western Oklahoma, the rugged hills
in spring and summer present a scene of verdure that
is the more attractive because it affords pasturage
to thousands of cattle. Prairie hay made Oklahoma
and Indian Territory favorite grazing ground for the
cattlemen before the era of white settlement.
In recent years the territories now
combined in statehood have become noted for their
horticultural products. Peaches, melons, and small
fruits of all kinds are almost in a native element
here, and both in quantity and quality are considered
unsurpassed. The early explorers noted the presence
of wild-plum groves and other wild fruits, and with
the advent of white enterprise the orchards have become
a large factor in the total value of agriculture.4
[Footnotes]
4Secretary C. A. McNabb,
of the Oklahoma board of agriculture, in his report
for 1906 said:
"I believe I am perfectly
safe in saying that on April 22, 1889, there were
not one dozen fruit trees that had been planted by
the hand of man in all Oklahoma. There were, however,
a few orchards on Indian reservations to the east,
south and west of it, the planting of which had been
induced by Indian agents and army officers. These
had proved remarkably productive notwithstanding they
had been somewhat neglected or at least had not received
the careful consideration they probably would have
received at the hands of professional horticulturists.
However, the success which had attained in them and
in the orchards of eastern Kansas served to spur the
set-[tler]
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Indian Territory brought
to the state a wealth of mineral resources that places
Oklahoma among the leading states in the production
of coal, oil and gas.5 Its deposits of
rock asphalt are but partially developed, but promise
in time to be one of the richest sources of supply
of that material in the world. In the old Cherokee
Nation are quarries of vari-colored marble. The most
conspicuous building in Oklahoma City has been constructed
of the white blocks from this source. Granite abounds
in various parts of the state, incalculable beds of
gypsum lie in the west, while in the Wichita mountains
and in the mountainous region of southern Oklahoma
deposits of iron, zinc and even gold and silver are
found, and may prove profitable in time.
The coal production of Oklahoma in 1907,
according to the report of the United States geological
survey, was valued at seven and a half million dollars.
The coal
[Footnotes]
[set]ler to prompt action, and the work of tree planting
was begun immediately after the opening. The ground
on which they were plated in many instances had not
been disturbed by the plow, holes being dug in the
virgin sod to receive the roots of the young trees.
It is needless to say to the experienced horticulturist
that fully 90 per cent of the trees thus planted soon
succumbed. Undismayed, the operation was repeated
as soon thereafter as ground could be broken and gotten
into fair condition, with more pleasing results.
"Early in the history of Oklahoma
the horticultural enthusiasts met and perfected the
organization of a Territorial Horticultural Society,
which has been maintained to the present time, embracing
in its membership many of the largest fruit growers
in the two territories. This organization, in coöperation
with the agricultural experiment station, has materially
influenced the planting of varieties suitable to the
climate and soil, encouraged the organization of local
fruit shipping clubs, preached the gospel of full
package of first-class fruit; and in many other ways
has it contributed to the high degree of success attained
in fruit culture. . . .
"Oklahoma thus early arose to distinction
and prominence as a peach country, which reputation
she has steadfastly maintained since that time.
"These conditions apply not alone
to Oklahoma but to the Indian Territory as well. The
writer has visited orchards in the Indian Territory
that are the equal of anything of the kind found anywhere;
peach trees set twenty-five feet apart each way, eight
to ten years ago, with branches now interlacing from
three to five feet, with a growth so dense as to shut
out from the earth all sunlight when the trees are
in foliage. There are found the oldest orchards of
the two territories, but the acreage devoted to fruit
in Oklahoma is considerably in excess of that in the
Indian Territory, which is due to several causes,
chief of which is the absence of the white man's farm
holdings. Until recent years the titles to all farm
lands were vested to the Indians, and although farmed
by the white man, in but few instances did he feel
justified in planting orchards on leased lands which
he had no assurance of controlling when the trees
were old enough to bear.
"The world-famous Elberta finds
in these territories its natural environments and
grows to it greatest perfection, and the major portion
of the peach trees now growing are of this valuable
variety. Individual specimens of fruit measuring ten
inches in circumference and weighing that many ounces
are not uncommon, and, too, grown on trees burdened
with all the fruit possible for them to bear. Orchards
of from ten to fifteen thousand trees of this variety
are becoming a common sight in Oklahoma.
5Says State Geologist C.
N. Gould:
"The new state of Oklahoma is very
rich in minerals, so rich that it is excelled in the
amount and variety of its minerals by very few states.
"Oklahoma has 6,000,000,000 tons
of unmined coal, produced last year 40,000,000 barrels
of oil, and has hundreds of gas wells, yielding all
the way up to 50,000,000 cubic feet daily. Neither
the coal fields nor the oil and gas fields have been
developed up to anything near their capacity. The
abundance of these fields insures power for many generations.
Besides there is a vast amount of undeveloped water
power.
"Among raw products Oklahoma has
100,000,000,000 tons of glass sand, 3,000,000,000
tons of rock asphalt, 125,000,000,000 tons of gypsum,
and salt water going to waste sufficient to make 2,000
tons of salt a day. The deposits of limestone, marble,
sandstone, granite, gabro, valuable clays and Portland
cement material are all practically inexhaustible
and are widely distributed in the state. There are
also deposits iron, lead, zinc, tripoli, novaculite
and volcanic ash, all undeveloped. With this array
of valuable material Oklahoma is manufacturing practically
nothing. Not one per cent of the mineral resources
is now developed."
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fields are a broad belt, running from
the north line of the state on both sides the Verdigris
river as far south as Atoka, lying in the former Cherokee,
Creek and Choctaw nations. The Choctaw fields are
the most extensive, and in the allotment to the Choctaws
and Cickasaws nearly half a million acres of coal
land were "segregated," that is, set apart
from the lands that could be assigned for individual
homesteads, and reserved for the benefit, under a
leasing system, of the entire citizenship of the tribes.
Besides this segregated area, it is estimated that
an equal amount of coal underlies individual allotments,
and the state geologist believes the amount of coal
available in Oklahoma to be six billion tons.
The working of the oil and gas deposits
in northeaster Oklahoma has produced nothing less
than a stupendous transformation of that country within
the past ten years. Nowhere can the power, and one
might also say grandeur, of man's industry be better
realized that among the forest of derricks that cover
the landscape from Sapulpa to Bartlesville. In the
western part of the state, the waving grain fields,
the herds of cattle, and the broad prospect of agricultural
prosperity cause delight and even surprise in the
beholder who sees the results of civilization in producing
such marvels of wealth. But the same observer, viewing
the effects of a giant industry in the oil and gas
fields, is possessed of awe and a reverence before
the great mysteries of nature which man has unraveled.
Here men have unlocked the pent-up forces of the earth,
and have captured and turned in to the channels of
commerce a fluid wealth greater than the value of
all the mines of gold in the dreams of the avaricious
Coronado as he marched through this land nearly four
centuries ago. The mere statement that the "mid-continent"
oil fields of Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Kansas
in 1906 produced 22,250,000 barrels of oil, more than
the total product of an other state or any two states
except California, gives no idea of what those figures
really mean. In 1902 the same fields produced less
than 200,000 barrels, but that marked practically
the beginning of production in Indian Territory. The
most convincing manner in which to compare the development
of the oil industry is in noting the marvelous advance
of the oil country in other ways. Ten years ago, Tulsa
was a village. Today, located in the hear of the oil
region, it is the metropolis of northeastern Oklahoma
with ten thousand inhabitants. The atmosphere of the
city fairly pulsates with the energy and enthusiasm
of its enterprising people, and though everywhere
are the evidences of freshness and newness, the improvements
of the municipality and the commercial activities
rival those of any city of its size in the southwest.
Oklahoma's inheritance
from the past consists of more than lands and the
riches underneath. The state government was organized
on the basis of a million and a half population. Over
three-fourths of this population had entered since
the opening of '89. The development of Oklahoma's
social community has taken place within the last twenty
years. However, it would be impossible to say that
the history recorded in Indian Territory during the
half century before the coming of the whites left
no results upon the people of today. Oklahoma has
many disadvantages of the past to outgrow. The amalgamation
of the Indian tribes with American civilization presents
insignificant problems compared with the conditions
that grew out of the existence of this alien community
for
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many years surrounded the states. In
the surging of settlement westward, a vicious element
has always been borne on the crest of the wave. Kansas
had her reign of outlawry. The meeting of American
and Spanish civilizations in Texas produced conditions
favorable to crime, and border ruffianism for many
years infested that state. New Mexico, Colorado and
Montana all experienced the evils of frontier existence.
And California was the most conspicuous example of
all.
But while the frontier, under the rapid
expansion during the middle of the century, receded
to the Pacific, and one state after another disposed
of its dissolute and open corruption, the Indian Territory
remained—a stagnant pool in the midst of the
bustling, self-purifying activity of American life.
For years the Indian Territory offered the securest
refuge for the outlawed of the nation, so that one
of the strongest arguments offered for extending state
lines around Indian Territory was based upon the necessity
of changing the "state of semi-chaos and the
farce of government" that existed in the Territory
under the ineffectual federal control. "I have
good reason to suspect," wrote Governor Fishback
of Arkansas to President Cleveland, "that
a very large percentage of the bank and train robberies
which take place west of the Alleghanies and east
of the Rock mountains are organized or originate in
the Indian Territory. Let me add that the refuge which
this sparsely settled rendezvous of outlaws affords
to criminals is a constant temptation to crime in
all the country around. . . . Those criminals who
find a refuge in this Territory are rapidly converting
the Indian country into a school of crime."
The State of Oklahoma is even now engaged
in purging itself of this vicious inheritance from
the past. With the aid of efficient local governments,
the era of unrestrained and open iniquity is passing,
but an occasional outburst of crime of the type that
has so long been associated with the southwest, serves
to remind the new state of a past that is still bearing
fruit.
The spectacular criminal class has but
short shrift under present conditions. But a more
insidious and deeply rooted evil was given life and
flourishing existence under the old regime. The peculiar
relations sustained by this country to the general
government and the nation at large fostered a degree
of moral laxity that can still be observed. Although
it was a crime subject to heavy penalty since the
intercourse act of 1834, the illicit introduction
of liquor within Indian Territory flourished for the
greater part of the century, and "bootlegging"
became a real industry. The "bootleggers"
even now, though regarded with contempt by society
in general, has a recognized place in the "lower
world," and his offense is too often tolerated
if not condoned. Constant familiarity with this kind
of violation of the statutes has produced, with contempt,
a neglect of swift and sure punishment. This is but
an instance. For years the Indian Territory was under
restrictions that, in theory, made it a "forbidden
country." But those who dared the violation of
the laws entered and shared with little difficulty
in the riches of the Indians possessions. The attitude
of the government itself savored of hypocrisy and
induced contempt for law. The solemn treaties with
the Indians at the beginning of the century were only
made to be broken, and when, one after another, they
were set aside, both Indians and whites came to regard
federal law as little better than hollowness. It came
to be observed that selfish interests profited here
and were
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strong enough to defeat the quiet enterprise
that claimed the protection of regular law and government.
And the result of it all was a moral lesion, and undue
exaggeration of the power of the individual over the
guaranteed rights and privileges of the social order.
The freedom to exploit the resources of a new country
was carried to the point of license in obtaining all
that the law of competition would allow.
Within recent years a reaction has set
in against this laxity. Statehood came just at the
time when this current of purification was strongest,
and the result is seen in the constitution of the
new state, which has been called radical and even
socialistic. The spirit of reform is abroad in Oklahoma,
and though, in endeavoring to correct the abuses of
the past, it may bear fruit in some impractical legislation,
there is no reason to assume that the final equilibrium
of social and civil tendencies may not result in a
splendid justice to all and license to none.
Education
Of educational facilities,
of the means of culture, and of religion, both as
manifested in institutions and spiritual influence,
Oklahoma entered the Union with an inheritance that
in many respects equalled [equaled] that of older
states.
In Indian Territory was the greatest
lack of educational facilities for the whole people.
This was due to the peculiar conditions that attended
the settlement of that country by white people. Since
the location of the five tribes in the Indian Territory,
the Indians have not been without means of intellectual
culture. Some of the Indian schools were models of
the kind. The girls' seminary at Tahlequah has long
been a source of pride to the Cherokee Nation, and
is a splendidly equipped institution, both as to its
buildings and quality of instruction.
The wishes of the American government
for the education and improvement of the Indians were
expressed during the Revolution. The first treaty
including an educational provision was that of December
2, 1794, with the loyal Indians, for whom one or two
persons were to be employed three years to instruct
in the arts of miller and sawyer. Training of a literary
character is first intended by the government in a
provision of August 13, 1803, when a Roman Catholic
priest among the Kaskaskias was promised the annual
sum of one hundred dollars "to instruct as many
of the children as possible in the rudiments of literature."6
This combined the support of the general government
with the aid which had for many years been given by
various church bodies and associations to the cause
of civilization and improvement among the Indian people.
January 22, 1818, the house committee
on Indian affairs reported: "We are induced to
believe that nothing which it is in the power of the
government to do would have a more direct tendency
to produce this desirable object [civilization] than
the establishment of schools at convenient and safe
places amongst those tribes friendly to us."
Soon afterward, on March 3, 1819, followed the appropriation
by Congress of ten thousand dollars as an annual sum
"for the purpose of providing against the further
decline and final extinction of the Indian tribes.
. . . and introducing among them the habits and arts
of civilization," to which end persons of good
moral
[Footnotes]
6Sen. Ex. Doc. 48th Cong.
Special report of the Bureau of Education, "Indian
Education and Civilization." Alice C. Fletcher.
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character should be employed "to
instruct them in the mode of agriculture suited to
their situation, and for teaching their children in
reading, writing and arithmetic."
The policy adopted in applying this
fund was, instead of establishing separate government
schools, to assist the agencies already organized
for educating the Indians. The two principal organizations
that were working for the education of the southern
tribes at that time were the American Board of Foreign
Missions and the Baptist General Convention, each
of which thereafter for some years received a share
of the fund disbursed by the general government for
Indian education.
It is interesting that the need of manual
education was so early recognized by the teachers
and missionaries who labored among the Indians. Many
reports, almost from the time of the establishment
of the Indians in the Indian country, contain recommendations
for the founding of manual labor schools, as the means
by which the highest objects of Indian education would
be promoted. The Indian's skill in mechanical occupations
was early noted. In 1848 sixteen manual labor schools
were in operation among the various Indian tribes.
By that time the annual appropriation of ten thousand
dollars from the government had become a very small
part of the total expended by the Indians themselves
for educational purposes.
Among the southern Indians the Choctaws
took the lead in education. The provisions of the
early treaty by which the government was to educate
each year a number of Choctaw boys has been mentioned
elsewhere. But in 1845 the Choctaws voluntarily devoted
$18,000 of their annuities for the establishment of
schools, in addition to the amount set aside for that
purpose by their national laws. In 1846 the Choctaw
Nation was supporting three academies, besides some
boys' schools and five female seminaries, the management
of the schools being entrusted to denominational religious
societies.
For many years the church denominational
schools were the chief centers of educational influence.
Such schools as Dwight Mission have a place among
the permanent influences for uplift among the Indians
during their tribal existence. The Presbyterians,
Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics were early in
the field as missionaries not only of religion but
of practical education. Until statehood brought with
the promise of public education, these denominational
schools afforded advantages to both Indians and whites.7
Originally they were for the education of Indian children.
But with the intrusion of
[Footnotes]
7At the time of statehood
the principal denominational schools in Indian Territory,
as reported in the "Oklahoma Almanac," were
the following:
The Presbyterians have Henry Kendall
College at Tulsa, Wynnewood College at Wynnewood,
Cherokee Institute at Tahlequah, Dwight Mission in
the Cherokee Nation, Newyaka Mission in the Creek
Nation, Elm Springs Mission at Welling, Park Hill
Mission at Park Hill. The Baptist schools are Indian
University, usually known as Bacone, at Muskogee,
and the Cherokee Baptist Academy at Tahlequah. The
Methodist schools are Spaulding Female College at
Muskogee, Hargrove College at Ardmore and Willie Halsell
College at Vinita. The Catholic schools are St. Agnes
School at Antlers, Holy Name School at Chickasha,
a school at both Lehigh and Coalgate conducted by
the Benedictine Sisters, a school at Hartshorn and
one at Krebs conducted by the Sisters of Mercy; at
Muskogee are the Nazareth College and the Nazareth
Academy, the former conducted by the Brothers of the
Sacred Heart and the latter by the Sisters of St.
Joseph; St. Elizabeth's Convent at Purcell, St. Mary
of the Quapaws in the Quapaw agency, St. Theresa School
at Tulsa, Sacred Heart Institute at Vinita.
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the whites, whose children were largely
without free schools, they were so conducted that
white children were given the opportunity to share
in their advantages. Besides the church schools, and
the schools established by and maintained for the
tribes, the government in time established schools
for the training of the Indians in the arts of industrial
education. The Chilocco Indian Agricultural school
is the most notable of these. A reservation of nearly
nine thousand acres, near the Kansas line, in what
is now Kay county, was set aside for this purpose.
The school was opened in 1884, and was conducted for
the benefit of Indians without regard to locality,
some forty different tribes from various parts of
the United States being represented among its seven
hundred scholars.
For many years the white residents of
Indian Territory had no school facilities, except
those mentioned above, and the schools that were supported
in towns by private subscription. The Curtis act of
1898, in providing for the incorporation of towns
in the Indian Territory, also afforded means for the
citizens of these towns to establish schools and maintain
them by taxation.
During the agitation for statehood,
one of the strongest arguments employed against uniting
Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one state was, that
while Oklahoma had been provided with a generous school
fund through the reserving of sections of land in
every township and large grants for special institutions,
Indian Territory had no fund nor source of income
for a public school system, and there was no authority
to require and appropriation of Indian lands or funds
for this purpose. When the enabling act was passed
this inequality between the two territories was relieved.
The sum of five million dollars was appropriated as
a dower for Indian Territory in the absence of any
other school fund. This sum, though paid to the general
school fund of the state, was understood as a contribution
in behalf of Indian Territory.
Concerning the educational equipment
of Oklahoma territory up to the time of statehood,
an article written by David R. Boyd, former
president of the University of Oklahoma, describes
the principal features of education on that side of
the state. His article follows:
"A very large percentage of those
who came to take claims at the first settlement of
Oklahoma, April 22, 1889, came from the disasters
and disappointment of 'boom' conditions in other parts
of the country to make a final effort to secure permanent
homes. These people were generally intelligent and
animated with the best ideals of American life. The
first corollary of this condition of mind and material
was that there should be some provision made for public
education, and after mere shelter was provided for
the family, consideration was given to what provision
could be made for educating their children.
"So, before the legislature was
convened or had provided a school law, almost every
neighborhood had a school organization. Many of them
had erected temporary structures for schools and had
employed teachers with private funds. In a number
of cases, the obligations incurred by these schools
were formed with the intention that when the districts
were formally organized, theses obligations would
become the debt of the districts and should be paid
by them under the provisions of law, to be enacted
later. Teacher's wages, cost of temporary structures,
cost of furniture and appliances were all made claims
against the district, and in every case, so far as
I know, were
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assumed and paid. I was in conversation
some time since with the head of a large firm who
had sold most of the school furniture to the old districts,
in which he said that there was not a single case
of these obligations, though having no legal standing
and binding only as a moral obligation, being repudiated.
"This spirit was so strongly marked
that the first legislature established by law the
Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater,
the Normal School at Edmond and the university at
Norman, on the condition that these localities furnish
the site and bond themselves for sums of money—in
the case of the university at Norman, amounting to
$10,000. The people of Cleveland county voted favorably
upon these bonds when there was perhaps not $25,000
worth of taxable property in the county.
"Later, when the second legislative
assembly met, in order to keep these three institutions
on their feet, it was necessary to incur the first
and only bonded indebtedness of the territory, namely,
an issue of $48,000 worth of bonds, $18,000 for the
university, $15,000 for the Normal School, and $15,000
for the Agricultural and Mechanical College. When
it became necessary to float these bonds, a citizen
of the territory bought them at a small premium—I
think of five or six hundred dollars—at a time
when the panic of 1893 had paralyzed financial institutions
all over the country and when it was impossible to
sell bonds of any kind on the open market. I mention
these facts to indicate the educational spirit of
the public mind at the time.
"The first legislature passed a
school law that provided for the usual system in the
main, providing for the organization of districts,
school officers, and revenue for the support of schools.
There were two unique features of this law. One was,
that the territorial board of education was to consist
of the territorial superintendent of public schools
and the county superintendents of the counties then
organized, which were Logan, Oklahoma, Kingfisher,
Canadian, Cleveland and Payne. This law remained in
force until the meeting of the legislative assembly
of 1893. In the meantime, the reservations of the
Pottawatamie, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho
were opened to settlement and eight additional counties
provided for. This made the territorial board of education
consist of the territorial superintendent and fourteen
county superintendents, which was a very unwieldy
body. It did good work, however, and was, in fact,
very favorable to the organization of the schools,
as it brought the person in authority of the school
system into close contact with the county superintendents
or those who had in direct charge the duty of organizing
districts.
"Another feature of the first territorial
school law was that it made the township the unit
of organization of education. The township was conceded
to be the congressional and not the municipal township.
This provided for four districts, three miles square
with the boundaries on the half section lines. The
law provided that there were to be five directors
elected at large from each township. It was found
therefore that one district had two representatives
while each of the others had but one and that the
district having two directors could combine with one
of the others districts and could control the board
of directors on any proposition. The building of school
houses and the buying of furniture and other questions
of organization were pressing, and the exercise of
this authority was not always salutary and caused
a great
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deal of complaint. In addition to this,
the school law did not provide for the issuing of
bonds or other means of raising revenue for erecting
buildings, so the people were obliged to erect the
first buildings by direct taxation or by subscription
or by both. Often school houses were erected by money,
labor and materials advanced by individuals, this
expenditure being afterwards recognized by the districts
provided by law and such obligations always included
in the bonded indebtedness and afterwards paid by
the district.
"The present school law was passed
by the legislature of 1893. This changed the board
of education to the present board, consisting of the
territorial superintendent, the president of the State
University, the president of the Central Normal School,
(ex officio members) with one city superintendent
of a city of the first class and one county superintendent
appointed by the governor. This board is charged with
the duty of passing on the qualifications of persons
who give instruction in any capacity in the territory.
They prepare the course of study for the county normal
institutes; they pass on the qualifications of instructors
for these institutes; they prepare the questions for
the examination of teachers for the city and rural
schools; they prepare a course of study for the rural
schools covering the work as high as the eighth grade,
and discharge other general duties provided for by
law.
"In 1896, Congress authorized the
territory to lease the lands reserved for educational
and eleemosynary purposes within the bounds of Oklahoma,
the money to go to the schools and purposes for which
they were reserved from settlement. This has bee a
source of great revenue for the schools, aggregating
for each pupil approximately more than one dollar
per year.
"The school system of Oklahoma
has been found very well adapted to the conditions
of the developing commonwealth. It is now apparent,
however, that in the near future, important modifications
must be made. Fully seventy-five and perhaps eighty
per cent of the children of the territory do not have
opportunities for carrying their education beyond
the so-called eighth grade, or the common schools.
There is therefore a break in the course of study
of four years. This is being rapidly met by the provisions
of the schools in the larger towns for giving this
work, and in many of the smaller towns two grades
beyond the eighth are being given. In two counties,
county high schools have been established and have
met this need.
"Experience has shown that the
township which was originally conceived of in the
original law of the territory is the logical and natural
unit for an educational system. This can now be easily
planned and be freed from the objections that were
made to it in the early days of the school organization
of the territory which permitted a board to control
the location and the development of schools in the
districts as the board does in our larger towns. It
would permit advancing the course of study from the
eighth grade as far as the educational needs of the
township would require. In many cases in the country,
township high schools could be established. This would
bring high school privileges nearer to the pupils
in their homes than in any other way that has been
devised. Transportation could be provided for pupils
in sparsely settled districts. This provision has
grown quite beyond the experimental stage in other
states and should be incorporated in the school laws
of the future state of Oklahoma.
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an extensive treatment of the institutions
of higher education established and maintained by
the territory. This would furnish material enough
for an extended article in itself. The territory supports
the university at Norman with a faculty of thirty-seven
instructors and an attendance of 500 pupils, an agricultural
and mechanical college with a strong faculty and a
large equipment provided for the future with an enrollment
of something like 500 pupils. There is also a preparatory
school at Tonkawa supported by the territory, which
has an enrollment of about 400 students, making preparations
for life and for advancing their education in the
higher institutions of learning. There is also a well
equipped school for the negroes located at Langston,
which has an attendance of about 300 students. These
institutions are maintained by legislative enactment
and appropriation. Appropriations for maintenance,
equipment and erection of buildings amounting to an
aggregate of $600,000 were passed at the last meeting
of the legislature.
"Section 13 of each township was
reserved from settlement in the opening of the Cherokee
Outlet, Greer county, and the Kiowa-Comanche country
for university, normal school and agricultural and
mechanical college purposes. The aggregate amount
of lands is something like 280,000 acres, all of which
is leased; producing an annual income of between sixty
and seventy thousand dollars, which is devoted to
the institutions for which these reservations were
made."
The State University of Oklahoma was
founded by act of the territorial legislature, and
was established at Norman in 1892. The location of
the university, which is the head of the public school
system of the state, is the county seat of Cleveland
county, a town of four thousand inhabitants, situated
eighteen miles south of Oklahoma City, on the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, in approximately the
geographical center of the state. The university campus
consists of sixty acres, which has been planted chiefly
to elm and ash, and commands a beautiful view of the
valley of the South Canadian river. The sightly buildings
are constructed mainly of brick with stone trimmings,
and consist of University Hall, built in 1902-03,
at a cost of $70,000, and being the administration
building, as well as containing various society halls
and recitation rooms; Science Hall, the first building
on the campus, completed in 1894, burned in 1903 and
rebuilt in the following year; Carnegie Library, opened
in January, 1905; the gymnasium, completed in the
summer of 1903; the anatomical laboratory and the
shops, the latter being two frame buildings in which
are conducted engineering an manual training work
and mechanical tests. The city of Norman having given
to the territory the $10,000 and forty acres of land
required by legislative act, in the spring of 1893
work was begun on Science Hall, the school was organized
in the following summer under the presidency of Dr.
David R. Boyd and in September opened its doors.
During the first several years the school was a university
only in name—a large majority of the students
being drawn from the classes of the preparatory department.
In 1898 the first class was graduated from the College
of Arts and Sciences. Since then new schools have
been added, until they embrace the following: Applied
Sciences, Medicine, Mines, Fine Arts and Pharmacy.
The chemical and pharmaceutical labora-[tories]
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[labora]tories are in the basement of
Science Hall, the biological laboratories occupy the
first floor of the building and the geological laboratories
are on the upper floor, while the museum of natural
history is on the second floor.
The university, which is now attended
by about 500 students, is under the control of a board
of regents consisting of the governor of Oklahoma,
ex officio, and five members appointed by him. It
has an efficient faculty and is well equipped for
a university of such comparative youth. It is supported
partly from the general revenues, as determined by
the legislature, and from lands set aside by Congress
in what were known as the Cherokee Outlet and the
Kiowa, Comanche and Wichita reservations. The lands
so reserved and leased for the benefit of the university
bring an income of about $9,000 annually. In addition
to the above lands the statehood bill, approved June
16, 1906, granted to the university 200,000 acres
of land to be taken from any public tracts within
the territory remaining unfiled on as homesteads at
that date. The total value of lands belonging to the
university is estimated at $3,670,000. By a bill passed
during the second session of the fifty-ninth Congress
the university was granted an entire section in Cleveland
county, one mile west of the present campus, for the
purpose of enlarging the grounds. It is planned to
sell as much of this tract as possible in order to
buy land immediately adjoining the campus, and it
is predicted that, before many years the grounds of
the State University of Oklahoma will be among the
most imposing and attractive of any educational institution
in the west.
The territorial legislature of 1891
had passed a bill providing for the establishment
of a university, according to which the city of Norman
donated to the territorial government ten thousand
dollars and forty acres of land in 1892, and in the
following year it was fairly established and the main
building opened in the fall (1893). David Ross
Boyd was selected as the first president of the
university, and to him belongs the principal credit
for its organization. Under President Boyd's immediate
supervision the main building was completed and the
grounds surrounding it tastefully laid out, and both
curriculum and the departments broadened into real
university dimensions. Under his financial guidance
the university obtained not only land for an admirable
campus, but which promised to bring a valuable endowment.
He gathered about him a faculty of younger and energetic
young men and able educators, and obtained the cordial
support of both faculty and students.
In the founding and growth of Epworth
University is illustrated the special genius of Oklahoma.
As a denominational university of the Methodist church,
it represents both the northern and southern branches
of the church, which, for the first time in this instance,
have combined their support to maintain an institution
that is a credit to both the church and the public.
Epworth University has been so conducted that it has
won the support of men of means throughout the state,
and besides the regular income given by the church
has been the recipient of liberal contributions from
individuals. Oklahoma City has given this university
loyal support, and under its chancellor, Dr. George
H. Bradford, the institution is growing with the
same rapidity that characterizes all Oklahoma activities.
The professional schools include a medical college,
school of pharmacy, college of law and college of
dentistry. (See sketch of George H. Bradford
in Vol. II.)
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