'INTRODUCTORY xix

City governments were at once organized, and 'while these had no real authority, according to the strict letter of the law, yet they were obeyed and proved as useful 'and efficient a means of maintain­ ing order as were the wholly self-constituted governments of the New

.England Puritans. ' ) The Organic Act, legally establishing and pro­ viding a for;m of government became a law on May 2, 1890. Power was given the president to appoint the governor and the secretll.ry, and the jUQges of the supreme court, The governor was given the power to appoint all other executive officials. The legislature consisted of a council of thirteen members and a house of representatives of twerity- . six. The supreme court judges acted also as district judges, and as the territory grew in size and population, the number of these judges was increased from three to five and then to seven. ' Ueorge W. Steele of Indiana became the first territorial governor, May 22, 1890. Guthrie was designated as the temporary capital and remained so until June 11, 1911, when it was moved to by referendum vote of the citizens. The election was held invalid by the State Supreme Court on a defect in the bill, but Governor Haskell called a special session of the legislature, which body located the capital at Oklahoma City, December 29th by more than a two-thirds majority vote. After being in office a year and a half Governor Steele resigned and on October 18, 1891, Judge A. J. Seay, a supreme court judge of the territory was named to succeed him. President Cleveland appointed W. C. Renfrow to succeed Seay May 7, 1893. Renfrow serv­ ~d the hll four years and was succeeded by Cassius M. Barnes of Guthrie May 24, 1897. Governor Barnes also served a full term of four years' and 'William M. Jenkins, also of Guthrie, was named as'his suc­ cessor April 15, 1901. GOV}Jrnor Jenkins served but a little over seven months when. he was summarily removed by President Roose­ velt. Thompson P. Ferguson of 'Watonga was appointed to fill the vacancy on November 30, 1901. He held office for more than the full term of four years, remaining in office until 'January 5, 1906, when he was sUf'ceeded by Frank Frantz, a captain in Roosevelt's regiment of· . , during the Spanish·American War. He served as chief executive of the territory until November 16, 1907, when the territory was admitted with the as Oklahoma, the Firty·iSxth State. Treaties were made with the Iowa, the Sac and Fox, and the pot­ tawatomie and Shawnees by which those reservations were opened to settlement Sept. 22, 1891. The Cheyenne and Arapaho country was opened to settlement by like manner April 19, 1892. Finally the cattle kings of the were routed and this strip of surplus land of the Cherokee, was ceded back to the government by the In­ dians and then opened for settlement, Sept. 16, 1893. This' was a re­ petition of the former runs. "Sooner" and the pistol played an ,even more prominent part at this opening than at previouli runs." In May, 1895, the Kickapoo county, a small district lying between the reserva­ tions of the Iowa and Pottawatomies was opened to settlement. This was the last of the Indian lands to be opened with a "run." At the Kiowa-Comanche-Caddo opening August 6, 1901, the farms were dis­ tributed by means of a lottery. Greer county, a disputed portion of land claimed by Texas, was a warded to the jurisdictIon of Oklahoma by a decision of the Supreme Court in 1895. David A. Harvey was the first delegate' to represent Oklahoma at ' Washington. He was elected in November, 1890, under the terms of the Organic Act, but was allowed nO vote. Dennis T. Flynn was chos-' en in 1892 to succeed Harvey. He was re-elected in 1894, but was de­ feated in 1896 by .James Y. Callahan. In 1898 Flynn was again elected and remained in office until 1903 when he was succeeded by Bird S.