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Midweek 6 Rerritory Folks Tmarching, Stumbling Toward Statehood by VIRGIL GAITHER Territorial Legislature

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Midweek 6 Rerritory Folks Tmarching, Stumbling Toward Statehood by VIRGIL GAITHER Territorial Legislature ;Midweek 6 rerritory folks tMarching, stumbling toward statehood By VIRGIL GAITHER territorial Legislature. That body was directed to hold its first meeting at Guthrie, but was authorized to HE BOOTED cavalryman, flag in one band and name the seat of government after that time. T bugle in the other, rode his mount to a higb point wliere he could be seen for miles by the thousands of U it could have foreseen the quarreling, bickering, h~ful settlers gathered for the occasion. politic.al infighting and raiDed political careen that At exactly 12 noon on that bright, clear day, the followed, perhaps Congress would have directed that trooper raised the bugle and sounded a long blast, at the capital remain in Guthrie untU statehood. the same time waving and dipping the flag. The Republican Party had an edge among Oklahoma . It was ApriL 22, 1889, the birth of Oklahoma settlers at that time because of its liberal land legisla­ Territory and the beginning of the end of the tion and because many were Union Army veterans. Indian nations. The Democratic Party had an image of opposing territorial expansion and generally resisting Union It signaled a victory for the railroads, bankers and veteran beneflts. buSinessmen who wanted these lands developed, and a bitter defeat for the cattlemen who had leased them HUS, WHEN Republican George Washington Steele, and,, . the Indians who had owned them. T the territory's first governor, arrived in Guthrie in As the trooper sounded his bugle, a roar arose from May 1890, he was given a hero's welcome complete from his own party and, in one case, expulsion from of~ with bands and riding groups, in spite of the fact that Commission - to negotiate with the tribes for pur­ the settlers who had gathered around the borden of the chase of their surplus lands for settlement. ~~ I 2-mUlion-acre "Unassigned Lands" bi central Okla­ those who wanted an Oklahoman selected for the post On Sept. 22, 1891, the surplus lands of the Sac and ltoma. The land rush was on! considered him an "outsider" or "carpetbagger." Seay's term was brief. Democrat Grover Cleveland Steele, a former Indiana congressman, had reluc­ Fox, Potawatomi, Shawnee and Iowa tribes - about was elected president in 1892 and Democratic appoin­ · They raced into the area on horses, in buggies tantly taken the post when pressed to do so by 900,000 acres - were opened, again by land run. Two tees replaced Republican officeholders in the spring of and wagons, by train and even on foot. Their ranks President Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Hoosier. new counties, Lincoln and Pottawatom1e, were created 1893. Appointed governor was William Carey Renfrow, · ·th.iDned mile by mile as men jumped from their horses and Payne, Logan and Cleveland counties were en­ a Confederate veteran, Norman banker and strong Disgusted by the bickering over the state capital larged. OJ' ~agons to plant their flags or stakes. issue and by the "carpetbagger" label, Steele would not Cleveland supporter. He would be the only Democrat to .. By nightfall, nearly every homestead claim and town remain long, but would leave his imprint. The following spring the Cheyenne-Arapaho surplus serve as territorial governor. lot (townsites included Guthrie, Kingfisher, Oklahoma lands, amounting to about 3.5 million acres, were City and Norman) had been taken. Tents, dugouts Among his first duties were the appointment of opened to settlement, and in September 1893 about 6 URING his four years in office, Renfrow signed ·and crude cabins dotted the plains. county officers and 1be commission of a census needed million acres in the Cherokee Outlet were opened, both bills establishing the Agricultural Normal Univer-4 ' D ,, to determine legislative districts. It showed a territor­ by land runs, followed in 1895 by the opening of the sity at Langston and the Northwest~rn Normal Sch~l Overnight, the area's economy switched from ial population of nearly 60,000, and Steele ordered the Kickapoo surplus land, the latter a small amount. at Alva. He also signed the first uniform textbook b1H ca.t'tle to farming. first legislative election be held Aug. 5, 1890. and obtained legislative approval of a contract with a It had been a novel experiment. Previously, there Also among his first actions was a successful appeal HE NEXT addition to Oklahoma Territory was by sanitarium at Norman for the care of the mentally ill] P..a9 been an abundance of homestea d land in the to Congress for $47,000 to purchase food rations for T an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision which held who were then being housed in an J?.linois asyl~z:rt· . · American West. But by the time of the Oklahoma needy settlers. He convinced two railroads to each that the 1.4 million acres between the North Fork of the Meanwhile, the settlers were turrung the pra1r1e m~ l'~fritory openin~, there were many more prospective . provide $10,000 in wheat seed to destitute farmers, to Red River and the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red farms with special sod plows designed to cut and turn settlers than ava1lable homesteads, so a lanp run was be repaid after the first harvest. belonged to Oklahoma, not Texas, as was earlier be­ the deep-rooted, thick buffalo grass. Churches were ,decided upon to give everyone an equal chance. In the legislative election, 14 Republicans, eight lieved. Surveyors had mistaken the North Fork as the going up and new towns being established. , • However, many claims were staked by people whose Democrats and four from the People's Party Alliance main stream of the river dividing the two. One of the wildest of the new towns was Woodward, np.~s looked amazingly well r ested. 'I'hey had eluded (Populists) were selected for the House and six Repub­ Then, in 1901, the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Wichi­ which sprang up after the Run of 1893. It was a cattle licans, five Democrats and two People's Party Alliance ta and Caddo surplus lands, consisting of more than shipping point, and its hitching posts were lined with cowboys' horses. It had restaurants, a Chinese laundry. •· ••.... Territorial governors, page 2B members were elected to the Council. 2 million acres, were opened to settlement. To thwart ... Although the Republicans were in the majority, the the Sooners (some officials charged that by the time of two banks and 23 saloons. " Populists won the top post in each chamber. In No­ the Kickapoo opening, up to half the available claims the military guards stationed along the borders, Woodward's first town ordinance reportedly warned vember, David A. Harvey, a Republican, was elected bad been taken Ulegally) a lottery instead of a land run residents, "If you must shoot, shoot straight up." Sneaked in early, picked out choice claims and hidden Oklahoma's first territortal delegate to Congress. was used. until the opening. In 1904, Congress dissolved and added to Oklahoma Outlaw bands also roamed the territory, including · These cheats were called "Sooners," and they URING its fiM!t session, the Legislature passed laws Territory the relatively small Ponca, Otoe, Missouri the Bill Doolin gang, Red Buck Waightman's riders and setting up a public school system and authorizing we~:en ' t much thought of at the time, especially by D and Kaw reservations, with the Indians receiving title the Dalton gang. Also on "dead or alive" posters were people who bad played the game fair and square. Dynamite Dick Clifton, Zip Wyatt, Tul~ Jack Blake, Bitter Creek Newcomb, L1ttle Dick West, Black-face ~: 'The 89ers, as they would later be called, included Charley Bryant and Arkansas Tom Jones. •, opportunists seeking claims to sell at a profit, farmers, businessmen, physicians,'lawyers, teachers and politi­ "A t times, no train, stagecoach or bank was safe. c)~hs looking for opportunities in the confusion of OKLAHOMA::·· from the darin g raids of these plunderers," notes ~blishing a new government. ·historian Gibson. "Sheriffs, their deputies, and cit­ izen posses did their best to hold the outlaw gangs HEY CAME from all over the United States, black in check, but the most effectiv e work was done btl and white. Mostly they were of English and Irish ·The Early Years U. S. deputy marshals. , although there were many immigrant and first "Evett D. Nix, a respected citizen and fearless offi­ or Second-generation eastern Europeans. cer, was assigned as U.S. marshal with headquarters at Some came to what David L . Payne and his Guthrie. His best-known deputy marshals were Frank "Boomers" called "The Promised Land," "Beulah Part 3: Territorial days Canton, Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen and Bill Til~ Wnd" or "the beautiful land" with enough money to man. These federal officers matched their outlaw ad. carry them through, but many were destitute. For versaries ln bravery, and by the turn of the century bad them, survival meant setting enough to eat, and kaffir fairly well purged the territory of brigandage." . CO'rn (a grain sorghum) and wild game were staples. ' A'nother problem was lawlessness. In its haste to EPUBLICAN William McKinley won the presiden­ open the Unassigned Lands (following the Civil War, three institutions of higher learning - a university (the to the land. In 1906 the Big Pasture Reserve, consisting University of Oklahoma), an agricultural and mechani­ of 480,000 acres in Comanche and Tillman counties, R cy in 1896, and the GOP thus regained control of the United States had obtained the western land hold­ the territory's appointive offices. ings of the Five Civilized Tribes for resettlement of cal college (Oklahoma State University) and a normal was sold by sealed bids, and that same year Congress other tribes.
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