Volume 10 , Issue 6

Organization of Territorial Government

After the approval of the Organic Act, President Harrison selected and appointed the first territorial officers: George W. Steele, of Indiana, was appointed governor of the territory; Judge Robert Martin, of El Reno, Oklahoma, was named as secretary of the territory; Horace Speed, of Guthrie, was chosen as United States Marshal; The members of the Territorial Supreme Court were: Edward B. Green of Illinois, Chief Justice; Abraham J. Seay, of Missouri, and John G. Clark, of Wisconsin.

Five of the seven appointees chosen were selected from outside the territory. This was a disappointment to the people of Oklahoma in general as well as to many of the aspiring politicians of the new territory.

Governor Steele arrived in the territory May 23, 1890, where he met with an ovation and, on the following day, a public reception was tendered to him and to the other newly appointed territorial officers who had arrived.

George Washington Steele was born in Fayette County, Indiana, December 13, 1839. Most of his early life was spent at Marion, Indiana, where he attended the public schools. He attended the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, and, at the age of twenty, began the study of law in his father's office. He was admitted to the bar just at the beginning of the Civil war. He entered the volunteer military service as a private, in April, 1861, he received a commission in the regular army, in the service of which successively in farming, pork packing and banking. He represented his district in Congress from 1881 to 1889. In 1895, he re-entered Congress, where he served three more terms. In recent years he had been governor of the National Soldiers' Home, in Indiana.

Federal census, taken in June, 1890, showed the population of Oklahoma (exclusive of the Indian reservations) to be 60,417, of which number, 3,300 were negroes, most of the latter being located in Kingfisher County. During the spring and summer of 1890 there was a determined effort made to colonize the new territory with negroes, the effort being inspired parly by partisan political zeal and partly by speculation in the interest of the promoters of the townsite of a proposed negro town (Langston) in Logan County.

July 8, 1890, Governor Steele issued a proclamation calling for the election of members of the Territorial Legislative Assembly to be held four weeks from that date (August 5th), and the Assembly was to be convened and organized two weeks later (August 19th). Three political parties placed legislative candidates in the field, namely, Republican, Democratic and Alliance. In the election, the farmers' alliance party secured four members of the House and one member of the Council; the democratic party elected eight members of the House and five members of the Council, and the republican party elected fourteen members of the House and six members of the council. There was also one member of the council who was classed as an independent.

Three days after the election (August 8th), representative elect, C. M. Burke, of Edmond, died, and the next day representative elect, Milton W. Reynolds died.

Milton W. Reynolds was born in Chemung, County, New York, May 23, 1833. Most of his earlier life was spent in Michigan, with his parents and moved when he was but three years old. He was educated at the University of Michigan. In 1857 he moved farther, west, settling at Omaha, Nebraska. He farmed, edited a newspaper and took an active part in politics, serving two terms in the Nebraska Legislative Assembly. He frequently had occasion to do special correspondence for eastern newspapers and it was on such a mission that he had occasion to visit the peace council at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in September, 1865, and also the peace councils with the wild tribes which were held on the Medicine Lodge River in the autumn of 1867.

His interest in the Oklahoma country thus dated from a comparatively early period. In 1865 he moved from Nebraska to Kansas, settling at Lawrence and, six years later, at Parsons, at both of which places he was engaged in the newspaper business. He represented Labette county in the Kansas Legislature and also served one term as a regent of the University of Kansas. His interest in the Indian Territory was always active; as early as 1872, in a magazine article entitled "The Indian State," he outlined the future development of what is now the State of Oklahoma with remarkably prophetic vision.

He was said to have written more on the Oklahoma question prior to its final opening to homestead settlement than any other one writer, especially in his work as a member of the staff of the Kansas City Times, much of his writing appearing over the nom-de-plume of "Kicking Bird." (He assumed that pen name out of compliment to his friend, the Kiowa Chieftain of that name, with whom he became acquainted during the council at Medicine Lodge.) He came to Guthrie, April 22, 1889, where he aided in the publication of the Daily State Herald for a few weeks. In July following, he established the Edmond Sun and, a few weeks later, he selected a homestead near Edmond. He took an active part in the affairs of the new territory, was elected a representative August 5, 1890, and died four days later. He was buried at Edmond.

In the Organic Act, Guthrie was named as the temporary seat of the territorial government. Although both towns (Oklahoma City & Guthrie) were on the same line of railway, it was evident that, as between the two, Guthrie had the advantage of moral and political support and backing of the railway company (Santa Fe) which was reputed to be a power in such matters. Railroad influence may have been potent in the choice of a location for the land office and also in the determination of the location of the temporary seat of the territorial government.
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