Vol. 35 No. 1 The Seal of Cimarron Territory by the Editor ------------------------------------------ 2 History of No-Man’s Land by Morris L. Wardell ------------------------------------- 11 Shade’s Well by Laura V. Hammer ------------------------------------------------------ 34 Memoirs of Oklahoma by Kittie M. Harvey ------------------------------------------- 41 Judge Albert C. Hunt by Judge N.B. Johnson ------------------------------------------- 53 The Butterfield Overland Mail One Hundred Years Ago By Muriel H. Wright --------------------------------------------------------------- 55 Dr. and Mrs. Richard Moore Crain by Carolyn Thomas Foreman ------------------- 72 Health Conditions in Indian Territory, 1830 to Civil War By Bernice Norman Crockett ---------------------------------------------------- 80 Notes and Documents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 91 Book Reviews ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 110 Minutes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 118 THE SEAL OF CIMARRON TERRITORY The original Seal of Cimarron Territory, reproduced1 on the front cover of this number of The Chronicles was lost more than fifty years ago, leaving its existence only a tradition in Oklahoma history: The last paper bearing an impression of the Seal, a perfect impress on gold leaf, is in the margin of a letter written under the heading, ' ' Off ice of Dyke Ballinger, County Attorney, Beaver, Oklahoma, ? ' as follows : Beaver, O.T., Aug. 30, 1899 Hon. B. F. Hegler Guthrie, 0. T. My Dear Sir: Thinking perhaps you would like to have an impreasion of the Cfmar- ron Territory Seal I enclose the same, hereto attached. Very Truly your friend, Dyke Ballinger This letter with two other old records bearing an impression of the Seal of Cimarron Territory were given by Judge Ballinger to B. F. Hegler, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory, all three now in the collections of the Oklahoma Historical Society.' Judge Ballinger soon after writing the above letter brought the original Seal itself to give to Mr. Hegler but lost it on the train enroute to Guthrie, and it was never seen again. The origin of the Seal of Cimarron Territory is a part of the fabulous story of No-Man %-Land. This Panhandle region in Okla- homa far northwest in the state has revealed fossil remains that make the history of the oldest nations on earth young compared to this part of Oklahoma. Here millions of years ago was a vast lake or sea, known to geologists as the Logan Lake, petrified trees of a giant 1 The colors &own in the reproduction of the Sd of Cimarron Temtory on the outside ftont cover of this number of The ChronicCcs were cbosen arbitrarily in the Editorial Office. a The three papers mentioned hem, all bearing an imprcse of the Seal of Cimuron Temtory are: (1) Certificate of Election, dated November 17, 1897, by Wm. B. Ogden, Secretay of the Provisional Territorial Council of Cimarron Teni- tory, certifying to the election of Thos. P. Braidwood as senator for the First Sena- torial Didct in said Territory; (2) htter of Dyke Ballinger, County Attorney of Beaver County, Okhhoma, dated August 30, 1899, quoted in text above; (3) Quit- claim deed on the form used in Cimarron Territory, beginnin "Cimafion Territory, Beaver City, r"--deed of R N. Carter to Thoa P. ~raid3These three papers are accompanied by 8 letter written b Benj. F. Hegler, dated Januuy 2, 1946 (of LW oftima of H+, GL~. and dearer, Wichiy K~W)transmitted to tbs Sacntulr of the Oklahoma Historical Society, by Jadm R L William on Febf~~vjr 17, I!J46, md filed in the Editorid Department with other notes on the bimq of Cimuron Territory. redwood forest and fossil bones of the Dinosaur and other prehistoric animals, evidences of that ancient period, having been found in recent years, in the western part of No-Man's-Land. This area is approximately 167 miles long, east to west, and 34% miles wide, north to south. It is bounded on the east by the 100th Meridian in Oklahoma. Colorado and Kansas are on the north; New Mexico is on the west, and Texas, on the south. This Panhandle is the region of high altitude in Oklahoma, the highest point in the state being the Black Mesa (4,978 feet) in the extreme northwestern corner where a monument was erected and dedicated on July 4, 1928. The Beaver River (originally Rw Nutrk) runs from west to east nearly the whole length of the area whence the name Beaver County given when it was attached to Oklahoma Territory on May 2, 1890. Since 1850, this strip of country had not been a part of any territory or state, Texas having relinquished all claims to land north of Parallel 36" 30', North Latitude, to the Federal Government. The claims made by many countries to No- Man's-Land, at different times, as well as the story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, are told elsewhere in this issue of The Chronicles. The Ute Indians from the Rocky Mountains came down to this wild country hunting buffalo, and the Kiowa and the Comanche roamed here when the fringe of the western frontier began spreading over this land during the period of the Civil War. The Baca brothers from New Mexico herded thousands of sheep on the range and fought off outlaws who hid out in "Robbers' Roost" in the mountainous region near the Cimarron River. Kit Carson established Fort Nichols in 1865, on the Santa Fe Trail about four miles east of the western boundary to furnish a guard for traffic and travel along the Trail through No-Man's-Land. After the Civil War, former soldiers in the Confederate Army from Texas took up the range cattle business, and before long there were many ranch headquarters and herds of stock grazing on the rich grasses far and wide over the country. Among these ranches were the original 101 Ranch near present Kenton, besides the S-Half Circle, the Anchor D and the CCC ranches. Soon after the Santa Fe Railroad built its tracks to Dodge City, Kansas, mule-drawn freighters' wagons loaded with supplies beat out a road called the "Jones and Plummer Trail " southwest to T~SCOSO,a "cow town" on the south side of the Canadian River in the cattle country of the Texas Panhandle. Half way between Dodge City and Tascoso, there was a well known camp ground on thk Trail, at the south side of Beaver River where there was plenty of water and rich grass. In 1880, Jim Lane, a freighter on the Jones and Plummer Trail, brought a load of merchandise with his family, and settled in the valley at the crossing on the Beaver. He erected a commodious sod house for that time, and opened a store in one of the rooms, which together with a big corral with high sod walls and a 4 Chronicles of Oklahoma long, sod shed for protection of stock in blizzards and storms fur- nished accomodations for travelers. Lane's place on the Beaver in No-Man's-Land became well known among freighters, up and down the Trail. Great interest was aroused in the possibility of free land for homestead settlement in this part of the West through the activities of Captain David L. Payne who was leading the "boomers" south out of Kansas to the Unassigned Lands in Central Indian Territory, beginning in 1880. About this time, the Cherokee Nation started taxing the cattlemen in No-Man's-Land for grazing privileges, claiming the country was not a free range but was a part of the Cherokee Outlet subject to the cattle tax in the Cherokee Nation. Then, followed a ruling in 1882, secured from the Secretary of the Interior that the region was not a part of the Cherokee Outlet but was Public Land. Star mail routes were crossing No-Man's-r~and, one north to south-Dodge City to Tascoso-, the other east to west- Camp Supply, Indian Territory to Springer, New Mexico. A post office, called "Beaver City," was established on April 1883, in a sod house near Lane's place, with Peter T. Reep as po~trnaster.~ Reep also had a small stock of goods for sale to freighters, but soon sold out his supplies and postmastership to Lane. Three years later Beaver City and its surrounding region was receiving notice in the newspapers of the Nation. Commissioner of the U. S. Land Office, A. J. Sparks, issued a statement on October 13, 1885, that the lands in No-Man's-Land known as the "Public Domain," sometimes referred to as the "Neutral Strip," mere sub- ject to squatters' rights. In February, 1886, Representative James N. Burnes of Missouri, introduced a bill in Congress to establish and organize this region as "the Territory of Cimarron, secure the public lands therein to actual settlers, removed ~~nlawfulinclosures, and for other purposes.'' This bill was never enacted into lam but the possibilities of the measure before Congress were exciting. Out of Wichita, the "boomingest of all boom towns" in Kansas, came E. R. Reiman, who had served as a surveyor with Payne's "boomers," and Will Waddle, who with others had organized the Beaver City Townsite Company, announcing that the "Neutral Strip" was subject to Homestead entry. They arrived at Beaver City out of Wichita on March 6, 1886, and proceeded to lap out a townsite, per- suading Jim Lane to give up his good 160-acre claim for a reserve of two blocks in the town. This mas marked "Lane's Reserve" on the survey plat. Business enterprises came to the new town, and some frame buildings and more sod houses were erected along the streets of the platted survey. There were Thomas Braidwood's hardware store, Hunter's boot and saddle shop, several stores, a drug store, lumber yards, saloon, grocery, and pride of the town, 3George H.