OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

    The Oklahoma Historical Society had its origin with a meeting of the editors of teh territory at Kingfisher, May 27, 1893. The following members of the association were present:
    Frank Greer, Guthrie State Capital; W. P. Thompson, Guthrie News; Frank Prouty, Guthrie Real Estate Exchange; John Golobie, Guthrie State Capital; E. E. Brown, Oklahoma City Times-Journal; Frank McMasters, Oklahoma City Gazette; Mr. Pitts, Guthrie Leader; J. B. Campbell, Hennessey Democrat; J. E. Quein, Edmond News; Mr. Owen, Edmond Sun; H. B. Gilstrap, Chandler News; Miss Effie Gilstrap, Chandler News; C. E. Hunter, Okarche Times; Mr. Hummer, Okarche Times; C. F. Cook, Cloud Chief Sentinel; J. L. Admire, Kingfisher Free Press; Frank Purcell, Kingfisher Times; W. P. Cambell of Kingfisher.

W. P. CAMBELL
  In the course of the proceedings W. P. Campbell stated that it had been his humble privilege to attend a meeting of Kansas editors at Manhatton on the 9th day of April, 1875, and aid in estabishing the society which had preserved the newspapers of that state; that he hoped this meeting would do something to perpetuate its memory for all time. He therefore moved that the editors of Oklahoma form a Historical Society for the purpose of collecting and preserving files of all publications of Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and such other matters that may be deemed worthy of preservation for the future historian. The motion prevailed, and Mr. Campbell was chosen custodian.
    Two days after the editors adjourned the following "Circular No. 1" was issued and sent broadcast, especially among the press:

KINGFISHER, OKLA., May 29, 1893.

    At their annual meeting in this city, May 27, the editors of Oklahoma created a department in connection with the association, to be called the Oklahoma Historical Society, of which the undersigned was selected as secretary and custodian to serve for the ensuing year.
    The object in establishing this department is the collection of newspapers, books and periodicals, productions of art, science and literature, matters of historic interest, etc. It is especially desired that publishers send regularly two copies of their publications, to be filed, and bound at the end of each year.
    While this is designed as an Oklahoma institution, anything of the nature suggested will be thankfully received from any source, and will be given a proper place among the exhibits.
    For the present, headquarters will be at Kingfisher, where a suitable building has been secured for the storage, safe care and proper exhibition of contributions.
    Those feeling an interest in laying the permanent foundation for one of the most important institutions of Oklahoma are requested to forward as early as possible and as often as they secure them any articles that may seemof historic interest, beautiful, instructive or curious. Address, prepaid,

W. P. CAMPBELL,
Historical Custodian,
Kingfisher, O. T.

    The first official recognition is contained in Governor Renfrow's message to the legislature of 1895, which reads:
    "During May, 1893, the Oklahoma Editorial Association established a bureau known as the Historical Department of the Oklahoma Press Association. The special object of this bureau is the collection and preservation of newspapers and other publications of the territory, views, reports

403

and general matter which may prove of information and historic interest. Mr. W. P. Campbell, the custodian, reports quite successful results from the work thus inaugurated. He has now, practically, files of all territorial publications, including those which have been suspended or been merged. The importance of collecting and preserving inviolate this great source from which the future history of Oklahoma may be read and written, is a subject which ought to demand the attention of the legislature to secure the permanency of such a bureau."
    The next official recognition was through a concurrent resolution of the legislature of 1895 ordering a sufficient number of public documents of the territory to enable the custodian to make exchange with the various states and territories for like documents, and under this resolution the documents for that year were furnished. Up to this time, and subsequently until moved to Norman, the collection was furnished a room in the Kingfisher county court house, through the kindness of J. B. Campbell, then register of deeds of that county, and the work of making the collection and caring for it, including expenses, was met by the custodian.
    A meeting of the editors of the territory had been called at Perry for February 13, 1895, with a view of procuring a charter and going before the legislature for aid in prosecuting the work of the society and maintaining its collection. However, on January 16th preceding this meeting, members of the faculty and students of the University at Norman, and citizens of that town, organized "The Oklahoma Historical Society," with a like purpose as that of the Press Association Society, and January 21st procured a charter. The Norman people went at once before the legislature asking recognition, with Norman as the seat of their society. Under an agreement that the society should be maintained forever without aid from the territory, a bill passed the upper house, but before it passed the lower house the editorial meeting at Perry came off. At this meeting the collection was assigned to the custodian and he was placed at liberty to take such action as he deemed necessary under the premises. A compromise was thereafter effected whereby the collection was to be moved to Norman, and an appropriation asked with which to maintain it the next two years, and the editors should forever have a controlling membership on the board. Under this compromise a bill passed both houses of the legislature and became a law, creating the Oklahoma Historical Society as the trustee of the territory, and carrying with it an appropriation of $2,000. The collection was at once shipped to Norman and formed the nucleus of the present day collection.
    The statute creating the society as trustee of the territory was approved by Governor Renfrow, February 21, 1895, and provides that the society shall be the trustee of the territory, with a board of directors to consist of as many members as the society shall determine.
     July 10th, after the collection had been moved to Norman, Mr. Campbell retired as custodian, succeeded by W. T. Little, who, as a member of the legislature, had been influential in securing the appropriation. Among the many valuable accessions during Mr. Little's custodianship were documents pretaining [pertaining?] to Cimarron Territory.
    The crowded condition of the university building at Norman made new quarters for the collection necessary. The legislature of 1901 provided for the removal of the col-[lection]

404

[sel]lection from the university at Norman. In accordance with this enactment the board, at its annual meeting in June, 1901, authorized the executive committee to accept an offer made by the board of directors of the Carnegie Library building at Oklahoma City. On the first of January, 1902, the collection was moved to the Carnegie Library building, in fire-proof rooms. For the first eight months after the removal Sidney Clarke acted as custodian of the society.
    On the retirement of Mr. Clarke, April 1, 1903, Mrs. Marion Rock, Carnegie librarian at Oklahoma City, was appointed custodian and served until June 1, 1904, when, after an absence of nine years from connection with the society, W. P. Campbell was appointed custodian, and is still serving.
    The Historical Society, which at this writing has temporary quarters, will on the completion of the remodeled Carnegie Library, be assigned a room on the ground floor of the new building. The society, being now under the auspices of the new state, has a future of large usefulness before it. Because of its various removals, the lack of systematic co-operation from the territory and state, and other patent causes, the progress of the society has been interrupted and it is now only fairly started upon the work which it will perform for the benefit of the state. Owing to the diligence of the custodian, the collections of newspapers are fairly representative of the press history of the state and territory. As a working reference library, the collection of books and pamphlets is far from complete, a condition that can be excused when the difficulties under which the society has labored are understood. A good beginning has been made in gathering archeological data and material for local history, a field that has rich possibilities especially in the eastern half of the state. With the rapid advance of white men's civilization over the old Indian country, it would seem that the personal representatives of the old aboriginal stock will decrease in number, and the records of their civilization and life will be lost unless care is exercised to preserve such material during the next few years. While the collection of newspapers and other contemporary documents insures a complete record of the present history of the state, it remains a duty of the state, through this society, to direct the work which will search out the records of the past.
    Mr. W. P. Campbell, who deserves the principal credit for the collection and maintenance of the materials belonging to the Historical Society, became an Oklahoman with the opening of the Strip in 1893. For a number of years he was engaged in newspaper work, and has held a few official positions, including register of deeds of Pottawatomie county, Kansas, 1884-49, and deputy register of deeds of Kingfisher county, Oklahoma, 1892-94. Mr. Campbell is a native of St. Joseph, Mo.

EARLY CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA CITY

    To a letter, dated November 6, 1889, commending the military administration in the city, are signed a number of names that are of interest as indicating a considerable part of the business population of the early town and also the then dominant element in control of the city government, since the majority of the signers evidently were "Seminoles." The list follows:

      James Richardson, wholesale lumber.
        Davidson & Case, wholesale lumber.
        Union Lumber Mills Co., wholesale lumber.
        Ft. Scott Lumber Co., wholesale lumber.
        Carey Lombard Lumber Co., wholesale lumber.
        Oklahoma Bank, T. M. Richardson, vice-president.

405

Bank of Oklahoma City, Wallace, vice-president.
Citizens' Bank, L. A. Gilbert, cashier.
Merchants' Bank, C. S. Warner, cashier.
Dowden, McGlinchey Mer. Co., wholesale grocers.
W. H. Harper, & Co., wholesale lime.
Adolph Newman, wholesale flour and feed.
Pimm & Banks, wholesale furniture.
Winningham Bros., wholesale hardware.
Wand, Aucker & Co., wholesale drugs.
G. A. Beidler, postmaster.
Palace Clothing House.
J. W. Johnson, attorney.
Brogan & Son, wholesale produce.
J. S. Richardson, M. D.
H. Overholser, president Board of Trade.
Oklahoma Journal.
A. W. Dunham, agent Santa Fe railroad.
Victor Sherman.
Gilpin & Frick, hardware.
Walker Bros. furniture.
C. Hart & Son, produce dealers.
O. A. Mitscher, dry goods.
I. C. Grater, boots and shoes.
J. M. Hobson & Co., drugs.
Pettyjohn & Co., dry goods, etc.
J. H. Wedemeyer & Co., dry goods, etc.
White & Wright, grocers.
G. A. Mitchell, dry goods.
W. J. Pettee & Co., hardware.
E. J. Holmes, hardware.
George W. Massey, coal.
Sidney Clarke, Jr., flour and feed.
H. S. Summers, flour and feed.
John A. Blackburn, city recorder.
Sidney Clarke, president city council.
Dr. L. W. Benesse, physician and surgeon.
Frank McMaster, editor Daily Gazette "(who claims to know the situation and know it well)."
J. E. Jones, city council.
Hulet, police judge.
Ledru Guthrie, city attorney.
W. C. Wells, city councilman.
D. A. Harvey, United States circuit court commissioner.
W. L. Couch, mayor.

    The Board of Trade was an influential organization of business men during the early months of Oklahoma City's history, and was among the first of the organized associations. It originated in the real estate office of Carter, Woodford and Beard, at the corner of Grand and Broadway, where a few promoters discussed the subject on the evening of May 15th, and issued a call for a general meeting to organize a board on the following Monday evening, May 20. Complete organization was not effected, however, for nearly two weeks. The first officers and the membership of the committees were a personnel very representative of the progressive business element of the city during its first year. The first president was H. Overholser, James Geary, vice president; J. P. McKinnis, second vice president; W. H. Ebey, secretary; T. M. Richardson, treasurer. The membership of the various committees were:
Executive-John A. Blackburn, O. H. Violet, B. N. Woodson, W. L. Couch, C. W. Price, W. C. Wells.
Railroads-J. A. Blackburn, C. W. Price, W. H. Ebey, T. M. Richardson, Gen. J. B. Weaver, J. E. Jones, W. L. Couch, H. Overholser, James Greary.
Manufacturing-C. P. Walker, John Wand, W. L. Killbrew, W. L. Harvey, E. W. Sweeney, F. L. Bone.
Transportation and Freights-J. P. McKinnis, A. L. Woodford, J. P. Darling, John Brogan, A. L. Frick, W. J. Pettee.
Advertising-O. H. Violet, R. Q. Blakeney, W. H. Ebey, H. W. Winn, J. W. Beard.
Legislation-Gen. J. B. Weaver, O. H. Violet, Capt. A. B. Hammer, Ledru Guthrie, Sidney Clarke, W. L. Couch, A. C. Scott, B. N. Woodson, David A. Harvey.
Finance-James Geary, W. C. Wells, Ledru Guthrie, T. M. Richardson, Maj. W. A. Monroe.
Education-A. C. Scott, R. R. Connella, C. A. Galbraith, G. A. Beidler, W. W. Witten.
Emigration-Victor Sherman, G. W. Massey, W. H. Darrough, G. W. Adams, H. W. Sawyer.
Directors-O. H. Violet, C. P. Walker

406

James Geary, W. A. Monroe, C. A. Galbraith, J. A. Blackburn, A. C. Scott, W. L. Couch, Victor Sherman, A. L. Woodford, W. H. Ebey, J. W. Beard, B. N. Woodson, C. W. Price, W. J. Pettee, A. B. Hammer, W. McGlinchey, J. L. Brown, W. L. Harvey, E. W. Sweeney, J. P. McKinnis.
    Four months after the founding of the city, forty-five doctors, including two women, were located in Oklahoma City, and all of them ostensibly for the purpose of practicing their profession, though not a few were engaged in improving city lots and in the more material activities of the city. The active physicians saw fit to organize within two months after the opening, and a meeting on June 11, 1889, in Dr. Bradford's office, resulted in the organization of the Oklahoma Medical Society. The officers were: L. W. Benesse, president; DeLos Walker, vice president; W. M. Baird, secretary; H. C. Way, treasurer. "We, the physicians of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and vicinity, for the purpose of investigating, by discussions, lectures and essays, all that pertains to our profession, including our relations to our patients and to each other, do hereby organized ourselves into a medical society," is the preamble of the society.
    The establishment of the Oklahoma City Times was an instance of advanced newspaper enterprise. Hamlin Whitmore Sawyer is one of the most interesting figures of Oklahoma journalism. His associate in this undertaking was B. R. Harrington, who, being thoroughly familiar with the Oklahoma country, became local editor. In this case the local editor was the sole representative of the paper in Oklahoma, and really deserved the name of foreign correspondent. The first number of the Oklahoma City Times was issued at Wichita, Kansas, December 29, 1888, Mr. Herrington's copy being set up and all the mechanical work being done in Wichita. It is said that the novelty of the enterprise and the eagerness of people from all parts of the country to hear the news about Oklahoma gave the Times a very large circulation, very little of which, curious to say, was in Oklahoma. On February 10, 1889, Lieut. Malcomb, with a company of troops raided this section of Oklahoma and drove out all "sooners," including the Times, which was then being printed in this vicinity. The proprietors had to move their establishment to Purcell, and then back to Wichita, where the paper was issued as at first until the opening. On June 30, 1889, the first issue of the Oklahoma City Daily Times appeared.
    Two features of Oklahoma City during the first two months of its development are noted in a report sent by Captain Forbush to headquarters, on July 29:
    "I desire to be informed as to whether the city of Oklahoma have the right to extend the jurisdiction of their police beyond the city limits proper for sanitary purposes only. There are quite a number of dead cattle lying in the vicinity of the city, having been afflicted with Texas fever, and it is purposed [proposed] to have the decaying bodies disposed of by the city within the radius of five miles and require the owners of the cattle to dispose of the bodies themselves in case of future deaths." (The sanitary jurisdiction of the city was confirmed.)
    "On the night of the 28th inst., a young Englishman arrived in Oklahoma who was to join a settlement of his people between Oklahoma and Fort Reno. He was introduced to a gambling den by 'bunco-steerers,' and fleeced of about $540. The prevailing opinion among the better people seemed to be that the young fellow had

407

been robbed, and they advised him to report the facts to the provost-marshal, Captain Stiles, Tenth Infantry, who at once in formed me about it, and at the same time telling me that a man had been 'sand-bagged' in the same place but a short time since, robbed, put on a train and sent to Texas.
    "There is no local law to prevent gambling, and the city authorities, as well as the United States marshals, fail to take cognizance of these cases.
    "In the interests of peace and good order, I directed Captain Stiles . . . to break this gambling den up an see to it personally that the occupant left the city. They have all departed." (This action was recommended.)
    The enterprising individual who took possession of the only pump in Oklahoma City at the opening and sold water at so much a drink until he was ousted from his profitable "graft" was the central figure of an incident that is related in a report of Captain Stiles to Inspector General Sanger:
    "I have the honor to report that on April 23, 1889, the day following the opening of Oklahoma, a gambler from Chicago named G. W. Cole took possession of the only pump in town and sold water at five cents a drink. The man sat near the pump, and was armed with a revolver, which he kept in his lap part of the time. He collected the money himself, and had a man pump the water. There were over 12,000 people camped on the site of Oklahoma at the time, and besides this pump there were only two other places where water could be had—one a well with a bucket where there was but little water, and the other at the railroad tank, and here the supply was limited.
    "The people were suffering for water and appealed to me to remove Cole, saying if I did not do so they would hang him. Upon inquiry I found that Cole had no right to the pump or water, and at once removed him and placed a guard over the pump with orders to allow each person to have one bucket of water. My action in this case was at once reported to the commanding officer, Col. J. F. Wade, Fifth Cavalry, and approved by him."
    It is a matter of some surprise to people of the older states, who possess no discriminating knowledge of early Oklahomans, to learn that religious institutions were established almost as soon as home shelters were built. Along with the army of gamblers who entered Oklahoma City at the beginning, also went some Christian workers. On the second Sunday in May, 1889, a meeting was held in the postoffice building which resulted in the organization of a local Y. M. C. A. Through the winter of 1889-90, while men were bending their energies to building a new town, occasional lectures were being given by this association, and the proceeds from these were applied to the establishment of a library and reading room. Gen. F. L. Cramer was the first president, and Henry DeWolfe, general secretary. These officers were succeeded after the first month by : A. C. Scott, president; Robert Young, vice president; Charles Richardson, secretary; T. H. Weiss, treasurer, and John M. Martin, general secretary of this city.
    The ringing of the first angelus from the tower of St. Joseph's church in Oklahoma City on the evening of August 2, 1889, was one of those impressive incidents of pioneer times that show how close to the beginning of organized society are the institutions of religion.
    Rev. N. F. Scallan, who had been Cath-[olic]

408

[Cath]olic missionary among the Indians of the territory, came to Oklahoma City, May 7, 1889, about two weeks after the founding of the town, and advertised a meeting of the Catholics for the next Sunday. A railroad accident delayed this first Catholic mass, and it was not performed until the Sunday of May 19,1 889. The old Indiana House, on Main street, between Robinson and Harvey, was the scene of this first Catholic service. A considerable number of first settlers were Catholic, as shown by the fact that fifty-five heads of families and forty-two young men enrolled as members to constitute the parish of St. Joseph's. The church was begun July 1, 1889, with Father Scallan as the architect.
    The Masonic order became active in Oklahoma City within less than a month after the opening. On Friday night of May 10th, forty-one Masons held an informal meeting in an unfinished room adjoining the postoffice on Main street. A temporary floor had been laid in the room, and it was with difficulty and some risk that the members made their way about, while the gusts of wind several times extinguished the light. In spite of these inconveniences a chairman was chosen (S. Linn Biedler of Illinois) and a secretary, (A. C. Scott of Kansas), and a committee of five appointed to secure dispensation for Masonic work, namely: S. Linn Biedler, J. M. Steade, J. A. Keys, D. W. Gibbs and H. B. Calef. Dispensation was granted September 23, 1889, though weekly meetings had been held in the meantime, and at the meeting of the grand lodge at Purcell a charter was granted North Canadian Lodge No. 36, on November 6th. The charter members numbered twenty-three, and the first officers, chosen December 13th, were: C. M. Keller, W. M.; Dr. C. F. Waldron, S. W.; Maj. W. A. Monroe, J. W.; David W. Gibbs, Treas.; Maj. J. E. Bell, Secy.; W. P. Stork, S. D.; Taylor Logan, J. D.; L. H. Graham, T.

W. L. COUCH.*

[Click on image for larger photo]
    The 22d of April, 1890, the first anniversary of the opening of the Fair God land to civilization, was a day of mourning in Oklahoma City. One week before the brave and gallant Captain W. L. Couch had been cruelly shot down while defending his homestead. After lingering for a few days upon the borders of the great unknown, his heroic spirit burst the fetters that bound it and sailed away upon eternity's sea. He died on Monday, April 21, 1890, and was laid to rest the following day upon the beautiful homestead where he had hoped to pass his declining years, and for which he endured the hardships of pioneer life and braved the opposition of the United States government. An immense concourse of people attended the funeral of the dead hero. The Methodist church was filled to its utmost capacity with the grief-stricken friends and relatives. At the close of an impressive service the sorrowful audience repaired to the grounds adjacent to the church, where its numbers were augmented by fully five thousand people from both the city and the adjoining country. Here the Hon. Sidney Clarke, an intimate friend and co-worker of the martyred Couch, paid the following eloquent and pathetic tribute to his memory:
    "Death is an impenetrable mystery. Today we are in the bloom of health; tomorrow we step out into the great hereafter. Like the endless cycles of time, the generations of men march with measured tread from the cradle to the grave. But

*From the"Illustrated History of Oklahoma," by Marion Tuttle Rock, 1890.

409

a few days ago I clasped the warm hand of our dead friend in mine, and with mingled hopes and fears bade him good-bye. Yesterday I returned to find him in the embrace of death, and today I come to join with you in honoring his memory and watering with tears his new-made grave.
    "But, oh, my friends, how feeble is human language to express the anguish of this hour! Remembering the heroic spirit of him whose mortal frame we this day bury beneath the soil he loved so well, gladly would I say something to cheer the hearts that are bruised and bleeding with unutterable sorrow. But well I know that none but Him who holds in His keeping the mysteries of the universe can assuage the grief caused by this sad calamity.
    "Not only in the sacred circle of his family and friends—to us who knew him but to love him—but to millions throughout the country, the story of W. L. Couch—the story of the life now gone—will be a lesson, a poem, a tragedy. It speaks to us of bravery, of generosity, of charity, of integrity, of sincerity of purpose, of the royalty of truth, of the sanctity of friendship, of the nobility of manhood, of love and hope, of joy and sorrow, of triumph and of adversities. It tells us that a noble purpose in any life—unyielding for the right—will master the most difficult problems, and snatch the grandest victories for mankind from the jaws of defeat. It tells us of a man of undaunted courage, and who knew no fear, was generous to a fault, and that he gave up his own life rather than take in self-defense the life of another.
    "No man knew better than Captain Couch the dangerous character of his assailant; no man knew better than he the sacred right of self-defense in all civilized society; no man was more capable of defending his life, and yet so great was his magnanimity that he carefully evaded any act which would put in the position of the aggressor.
    "I cannot now speak in detail of the life of Captain Couch. Born in the state of North Carolina in 1850, he moved to Johnson county, Kansas, in 1866, and four years later settled at Douglas in Butler county. In 1880 he became fully identified with Payne's Oklahoma colony, and after the death of Captain Payne in 1884, he was elected president. Through all the years that followed, up to the spring of 1889, you know with what pertinacity, with what unwearied diligence, he led the advance guard of civilization against the craft and barbarism which had closed Oklahoma to settlement. To the world at large he was deemed the leader of a forlorn hope, but to him and to his associates it was the path of duty and the way to victory. He believed than and to the day of his death, as I believe now, that Oklahoma has been in every proper sense a part of the public domain since the treaties of 1866. But mindful of the interpretation of the law by the executive department of the government, in December, 1885, he went to Washington and commenced the great work before Congress which bore its fruit one year ago today in the opening of Oklahoma to settlement. Alas, that on this anniversary of that notable event, and on the day when the American Congress, aroused to action by the movement of which he was the conspicuous and trusted leader, has crowned this beautiful territory with the majesty of civil government, he is not here to witness the great event!
    "For more than five years I have been intimately associated with Captain Couch in the work he had in hand, and I know how great were his efforts and earnest his purpose to dedicate Oklahoma to free

410

homes and to a free people. I know there was no reserve in his friendship for me, and I know there was none in mine for him. If I ever looked into any man's heart; if I ever comprehended the value of courage, sincerity and integrity, in human character; if I ever correctly divined the motives and objects of a single human being, I did in the case of my dead friend. It is not too much to say that he was made of the material of which heroes are made. He looked into the future with the grasp of the most comprehensive statesman. He saw before other men saw the future state of Oklahoma, rich in all the attributes of wealth, civilization, and progress. He saw with prophetic eye the millions of happy homes that will dot this fair land in the years to come. He comprehended the transcendent results which, under the beneficent influence of our free institutions, will follow the founding here in the center of the continent of a new American state.
    "Its vast possibilities were as plain to his vision as the rays of a beautiful morning sun. He appreciated the majestic forces of Christian civilization marching on and on to the subjugation of a continent. He exemplified the spirit of Whittier's poem:

" 'Each rude and jostling fragment
Soon its fitting place shall find;
The raw material of a state,
Its muscle and its mind.
And westward still, the star that leads
The new world in its train
Has tipped with fire the icy spurs
Of many a mountain chain.'

    "The name and fame of Capt. W. L. Couch will be indissolubly connected with the history of Oklahoma. Only those who did not know the man will ever question the purity of his motives or the grandeur of his character. If there be those who would have deprived him and his family a home on Oklahoma soil after his long and weary struggle for the right, after his sacrifices and sufferings in behalf of the people of Oklahoma of to-day and of to-morrow, after his battle to the death with monopoly and fraud, let them be left to the universal execration of that portion of mankind who despise ingratitude and cover with immortal honor the unselfish heroes of the human race. . . .
    "In his last hours he had no word of reproach for the destroyer of his life. When the grim messenger of death held him in no uncertain grasp, he was as calm and fearless as when in the best of health. . . .
    "Brave, generous, heroic friend! Noble in life, true to duty and to humanity, what a sublime lesson you have left to us, and to those who come after us, in the presence of death! We enroll your name with the heroes of this age and of all the ages who have dared to suffer and to die for principle, for friends, for country, for the good of their fellow men."

_______________

Sidney Clarke
    Kansas and the original Oklahoma Territory stood in somewhat similar relations to each other as the old state of Virginia was related to Kentucky and Tennessee. From the Old Dominion not only its native sons, but its institutions and civic and social ideals, were transplanted to the western slopes of the Alleghenies, and there lived and were reproduced in the changed environment and times that characterized the early history of that region. The ideals and actions that gave the particular stamp to the history of Kansas survived in the men who gave vitality to the movement for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement, and the influence of the free-state movement and the type of men who became conspicuous under the title of "Kansans" were the strongest factors in the occupation of

411

Oklahoma. Oklahoma as a state and during the latter part of its existence as a territory has outgrown the Kansas influence as a predominating factor, but during the boomer days and for some time after the original opening Kansas men, and Kansas law, and Kansas ideas were controlling powers in Oklahoma affairs.
    This close association of Kansas and Oklahoma has nowhere a better illustration than in the life of the man whose career, more than that of any other individual, has been identified in a large political way with the affairs of both states throughout the greater period of their history. Sidney Clarke became a resident of the territory of Kansas in 1859. The climax of the free-state fight was over, but Kansas was still restless before the coming crisis of the Civil war. A young law student of twenty-four in the office of the free-state apostle, Jim Lane, could not fail to understand the principles and details of the political discussions of the time, and when, a little later, he became private secretary for Senator Lane, the first senator from the state of Kansas, he was at once thrown into immediate contact with the greatest personalities of the nation. In the first year of the war he was elected to the Kansas legislature, and the following year was made assistant adjutant general of volunteers, and assigned to duty at Leavenworth as provost marshal general for Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Dakota under what was known as the enrollment act. He superintended the volunteer recruiting service and was chief mustering and disbursing officer for his district.
    In the fall of 1864, Mr. Clarke was elected to Congress—being the third man to receive that honor and at that time the only representative Kansas had in the lower house. By reëlection he served in Congress until March 4, 1871. As congressman-elect he was in Washington during the last months of the war, was on the scene a few minutes after the assassination of Lincoln, assisted in the hasty reorganization of government after that catastrophe, and as a member of the funeral party witnessed all the final scenes in the earthly career of the great war President. From the beginning of the war until the close of his term of service in Congress, the experiences of Mr. Clarke and his associations with noted men were of such an intimate character that his reminiscences become a vivid portrayal of that important period of the nation's history.
    As one of the adopted sons whom Kansas chose to honor, he was thoroughly representative of the vital principles of politics and civics that Kansas had upheld during her formative period. Sidney Clarke was an expansionist in the sense that he believed in the unrestricted development of the national resources wherever they were found. Against the rights of the homesteader he recognized no sufficient adverse claims. Furthermore, he found in the changed conditions and exigencies of the time in which he lived a justification of any reversal and revision of the policies adopted in the past. Consequently, in the era of national development that followed immediately after the war, he gave his influence and active support to the extension of railroad lines into the undeveloped areas of the west. As a Kansan he was interested in the Indian land question, especially since immense tracts in Kansas still were vested in the control of the Indian department. During the last term he was in Congress he was chairman of the house committee on Indian affairs, and it may be said that in that capacity his influence was directed to the gradual reduction of the Indian domain,

412

but that all the lands thus acquired for the public domain should at once be opened for the benefit of the actual homesteaders, and not given in extravagant grants to corporations. His opposition to railroad control over Indian lands in Kansas is said to have cost him his reëlection in 1870 and his defeat for the United States senate in the legislature of 1871. His convictions as to the rights of homesteaders and his interpretation of treaty laws gave Mr. Clarke a prominent position in the settlement of these questions, and one of the natural results of this prominence was his connection with the lands in Indian Territory which had been ceded, for specified purposes, in the treaties of 1866. Thereafter for over a decade he led the fight in and before Congress for the opening to actual settlement of the western half of the Creek Nation, familiarly called "Oklahoma." His story of his associations with the opening of Oklahoma is given elsewhere.
    For forty years Mr. Clarke lived in the midst of the changing economic and political conditions of the west. An active contender on one side or the other in all the political movements of that time, his contemporaries and associates comprise the men who made the history of the last half century. Now living in retirement in Oklahoma City, this veteran campaigner, who was one of Jim Lane's lieutenants in the free-state days of Kansas, whose name and activity in early Kansas politics are still remembered there, who from the beginning of the Oklahoma agitation until the achievement of statehood was "boomer, " congressional lobbyist, delegate and speaker and worker at all times for the advancement of the movement—reviews the events of the past with the kindliness and freedom from animosity that characterize a military leader who has won and lost many battles. Without doubt Sidney Clarke is one of the most interesting historical characters of Oklahoma, possessed of an unsurpassed fund of knowledge about the development of Oklahoma, a fund that has been liberally drawn upon by the writer in the preparation of this history. He lives quietly in the city which he helped found, and in a metropolis that has grown so fast in recent years, probably only a small proportion of the citizens recognize in him the man who more than any other individual was responsible for the course which Oklahoma history has taken during the last twenty years.
    Mr. Clarke is of Scotch descent. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Massachusetts and were among the first to protest against the oppression of the British government. His grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary army and his father served in the War of 1812. His grandmother's brother, Daniel Clarke Sanders, was a distinguished Congregational clergyman, graduating at Harvard College soon after the Declaration of Independence, and for many years president of the State University at Burlington, Vermont. Mr. Clarke was married at Lawrence, Kansas, in 1860, to Miss Henrietta Ross, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters. Sidney Clarke, Jr., is a successful merchant at Shawnee, Oklahoma, and George Lincoln Clarke died in 1892. The daughters are both married—Mrs. Lulu Clarke Knowlton residing at Worcester, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Ella Clarke Goodwin at Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The mother died in 1873. In 1881 Mr. Clarke was married to Miss Dora Goulding, of Topeka, Kansas, by whom he has a son and a daughter. The son, Roscoe Conkling, is a student in the Oklahoma City high school, and the daughter,

413

Josephine, graduated at the State University at Norman in 1907, and is now at the head of the Latin department of the high school at Muskogee. Mrs. Clarke was prominent in the social and intellectual life of Oklahoma City from the first settlement, and her sudden death from pneumonia in 1904 was a sad blow to the family and friends.