Volume 10 , Issue 7

Distribution of Homestead Privileges By Lot

Distribution of Homestead Privileges By Lot -- pg. 728, Vol. 2, A Standard History of Oklahoma, by Joseph B. Thoburn.

In order to prevent the disorders which had attended former land openings, the new rules drawn up by the Secretary of the Interior, and included in the executive proclamation, directed that all persons desiring to take up homesteads on the surplus lands of either reservation should be allowed to register; that the names of registered should be written on cards and enclosed in envelopes, which envelopes were to be thoroughly shuffled and then drawn out and numbered, the applicants to be permitted to file in turn on homestead claims at the district land offices in the order that their names were thus drawn. Thus, at last, it was hoped and believed that the "sooner" was effectually circumvented.

Two new land districts were created, with offices at El Reno and at lawton, and all registration had to be done at one or the other of these two places; though any person could register for either district or reservation at either land office, no one was permitted to register for a chance in both. The offices were opened for registration on July 9th and the drawing began August 6th.

The work of shuffling and drawing the envelopes was all done at El Reno. With about 16,000 quarter sections subject to homestead entry, there were ten times that many registrations, so interest was keyed up to a high pitch when the day arrived for the beginning of the great "land Lottery," as it was called.

In the meantime, El Reno had been about the busiest place in the whole county. Every incoming train was crowded. Several registration offices had to be provided. Numerous notaries did a thriving business in filling out and certifying to registration applications. The center of the principal business streets was leased out to booths, refreshment stands. Gamblers and sharpers plied their wiles and fleeced the unwary. Land office officials had a small army of clerks and assistants on hand. many were the expedients resorted to in order to make money. Certain self-appointed persons (doubtless with the connivance of land office clerks) charged the people 10 cents apiece for forming them in line at the registration offices and most people laughed as they paid it, even though they knew it was a species of petty extortion. While it has been asserted that there was some sleight of hand performance by which the sealed envelopes of several favored ones were slipped into the drawing for the first two or three days, there were no grounds for it beyond a vague suspicion and, on the whole, the system gave much less grounds for complaint than any had been tried before.
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