22 April 1889, The Gates of the Oklahoma Country
The Gates of the Oklahoma country were swung open precisely at noon 22 April 1889, and the inpatient Boomers were allowed to enter. General Merritt issued an order to disarm the settlers to prevent trouble. In other words, they took away their guns. The excitement would be intense.
Found on Newspapers.com
This 1889 story was pulled from Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, Monday morning, April 22, 1889, front page headlines read: "The Gates of the Oklahoma Country."
Kansas City, Mo., April 21 (1889) -- A Times Arkansas City special said that it was reported there that General Merritt had issued orders to the troops to take possession of all guns and pistols carried by the "boomers." They were not to be confiscated, but the idea was to hold them until the excitement was over as a precautionary measure against bloodshed. it was also said that liquor would be rigidly excluded.
21 April 1889, the Union depot was thronged with as motley a crowd as was ever assembled in it. The Santa Fe, in addition to its two regular trains (which were jammed), sent out a special of eleven coaches, which represented nearly every line entering the city. The Roc Island also sent out an immense train. Innumerable cases of pocket picking had occurred during the past week, both in the depot and on trains. It was ascertained that three or four sharpers had been working a very smooth game. They would board an Oklahoma train, gain the confidence of a carload of boomers and finally suggested the organization of a colony. The sharpers would produce their pocket books and suggest a common fund and the settlers would follow suit. The common fund idea invariably failed of consummation, but the pickpockets improved the opportunity by noting the size of each man' purse and its place of concealment. The sharpers would ride out a hundred miles or more and by that time would have succeeded in reaping a harvest. No arrests had been made.
The Chicago Times correspondent at Purcell sent his paper a dispatch, telling of the last day int he Indian Territory prior to the final invasion of Oklahoma. He said: "Final preparations were made today for the exodus which will begin tomorrow."
Wagons were overhauled, supplies purchased and guns and tools given careful inspection. The supreme moment was so near at hand that the thousands who had spent weary months in waiting could hardly contain themselves.
At 8 o'clock that morning the public square contained a large assemblage and by 10 o'clock the throne had swelled to such an extent that the passage was exceedingly difficult. Several prominent men were induced to mount the platform and harangue the crowd on the great issue of the day.
A Graphic Description
The New York Herald correspondent had written a graphic description of the new country, from which the following brief extract was taken:
"Out in the heart of the Oklahoma country it is very much easier to appreciate the intense desire to possess the land which acetates the man who has once been there than it is for the average man, whose knowledge of the country is obtained wholly from he perusal of newspaper articles. The country is beautiful and the situation is romantic.
From a hilltop, the original site of the town of Ewing, where Captain Payne was captured by the soldiers, I saw a country as fair as eye could wish to rest on. The beautiful valley of the North Canadian River stretches for miles on either side of the stream, being especially broad on the south side, before, by gradual ascent, the uplands are reached, whence the gently rolling prairies stretch into boundless space."
A Garden Plot
The North Canadian Valley was the garden spot of the Oklahoma country - the Canaan of the boomers.Soil of the upmost fertility, water in abundance - rivers, springs, lakes - timber on the river banks and here and there over the prairies, giving the entire scene a park-like appearance, and a climate that knew not extremes, all combine to enhance the beauty of the country, and to assure in the future a land flowing with "milk and honey."
The trip from Wichita to Oklahoma City was a succession of surprises and revelations. Every mile or two after leaving the metropolis of Southwest Kansas trains of covered wagons were seen winding their way toward the Kansas line.
There was no mistaking the jumping off place into the Indian Territory. On the one side were the cultivated fields of Kansas, on the other the vast expanse of rolling prairie known as the Cherokee Strip. The first stop made was at Willow Springs. Soon after leaving this point we entered the Ponca reservation, situated near the confluence of the Salt Ford. There was plenty of timber surrounding this little gathering of dwellings.
From Ponca to Mendota, a station near the Black Bear Creek, the country grows more rolling and better timbered in the vicinity of the waterways.
A Pleasing View
The more rugged country in the neighborhood of Black Bear Creek soon gives way to the fertile valleys of the Oklahoma country, and by the time the fine trestle bridge across the Cimarron was reached the view from he train was one of great beauty and presented an immense tract of valley land of glorious fertility and as favored int he way of natural drainage, timber and water as perhaps any other lands within the domain of the United States. Soon we ran into Oklahoma City nd out again int the darkness, and it was during the run from here to Purcell that, for perhaps twenty miles, we paralleled a blazing wall of fire said to have been started by the boomers to starve out the cattle men.
The frontier tow Purcell stands on a lofty bluff overlooking the South Canadian River, and to the east a part of the Oklahoma country. A number of very primitive looking frame structures, tents, holes in the ground covered with canvas and every conceivable from of habitation that would serve for temporary protection were perched on the hillside, but as on passed these and reached the bluff there loomed up a gathering of more pretentious buildings which formed the business portion of the town, but which were evidently constructed with a view to their easy removal should it be deemed advisable to transfer the town to any point that might appear more suitable, the only structures of any permanency being the Catholic mission school and the church and school buildings of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic denominations.
To the south of Purcell lie the Chickasaw and Pottawatomie countries, which may well be counted among the richest and most productive lands in the Union.
Unparalleled Fertility
Paul's Valley was one immense farm stretching for miles without sign of fence. A failure of corps was an unheard of things and corn often yielded a hundred bushels to the acre and sold for twenty cents a bushel in Purcell. Cotton was said to go a bale to the acre.
The South Canadian below Purcell is almost dry, and presented a broad channel, whose dangerous quicksands had buried many a traveler and hidden many a murder.
Boomers in numbers were camped among the jack ohs fringing the banks, but as soon as the line was crossed into Oklahoma proper they're hard to find, not because there were none, because they were hidden in the breaks and in the belts of timber, fearful east they shall be seen by soldiers. The country here was broken and did not improve very much until, at Norman, the divide between the North and South Canadians was passed. Here the country grew more level until Oklahoma City. The buildings here were few and of the most unpretentious character.
Further up the river we crossed and struck the old Arbuckle trail, over which in days gone by much of the wealth of the Texas cattle rangers mounted the hilltop, the site of the town of Ewing, whence we viewed the magnificent North Canadian Valley in all its richness.
Oklahoma Harry Hill's ranch, which he staked out during the Payne raid, was near by and blow us in the woods, though we could not see them, we knew that hundreds of "boomers" were camped. Later became across several of them and found that entire section had been laid out in claims and that already much fighting had resulted bfs ownership.
| View or Add Comments (0 Comments)
| Receive
updates ( subscribers) |
Unsubscribe
