Volume 15 , Issue 7

1895 Waterworks Bond Election - Alva, O.T.

It was back on 3 September 1899, Sunday, in northwest Oklahoma, that The Wichita Daily Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, page 9, reported a "Waterworks Bond Election called to be held in Alva, Oklahoma Territory, Monday, 2 October 1899."

Guthrie, O.T., Sept. 2, 1899 -- The call for the coming election to vote bonds for waterworks at Alva read as follows: "An election of the qualified voters of the town of Alva, Oklahoma Territory, is hereby called and will be held in said town on Monday, October 2, 1899, for the purpose of voting on the proposition of issuing the bonds of the town of Alva, Oklahoma Territory, in the sum of sixteen thousand dollars for the purpose of putting in a system of waterworks in said town, to be owned and operated by the town. Said bonds to bear interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, payable semi-annually. Said bonds to run for a period of thirty years, payable at any time after ten years at the option of the town of Alva. No person shall be entitled to vote at said election unless he be in all respects a qualified elector and the owner of real or personal property subject to taxation within the town of Alva."

Time For Proving Up

On that same page of the Kansas newspaper was another article concerning "The time for proving up becomes matter for Controversy in Oklahoma." Held to be ten years. In a former news dispatch, but this is now disputed.

Guthrie, O.T., Sept. 2, 1899 -- "It was recently stated in the eagle that the authorities at Washington had held that the entry man had ten years to make final proof and payment. The statement was taken from a letter to the editor of the Manchester Journal, and was accompanied with an assertion from him that the ruling or opinion applied to the entry men in the Cherokee Strip. In his letter Mr. W. A. Richards, acting commissioner, said: "As proof and payment must be made at the same time, and as extension of payments have been given, extensions were correspondingly given on time in which to make proof. Therefore, where the entry was made prior to July 26, 1894, the entryman has ten years form date of entry to make final proof and payment if the entry is for ceded Indian lands, and eight years if for other lands."

The interpretation put upon this by the Manchester Journal is disputed at the Alva land office and the Alva Courier explains the matter at length in this way:

"On July 26, 1894, congress passed an act extending time for making final proof and payment for all lands located under the homestead laws of the United States for the period of one year. from the time of proof and payment would become due under existing laws. At the time of the passage of said act the time provided by congress in which proof and payment should be made under the homestead laws was seven years format he date of entry or filing. And the act extending the time one year, made the time of proof and payment required of all who had filed prior to July 26, 1894, including said day, eight years from date of filing. All others, that is, those who filed since July 26, 1894, will have seven years from date of filing in which to make proof and payment. The letter from Assistant Commissioner Hon. W. A. Richards, does not and was evidently not intended to cover or refer to the lands in the Cherokee Outlet which were purchased by the government of the Cherokee Indians.

"Other acts of congress extending time of payments, as the act of October 20, 1893, and of March 2, 1895, and of June 10, 1896, June 7, 1897 and July 1, 1898, were all special in their provisions and applied to lands ceded by the various Indian tribes located in Oklahoma, and which were always named in the act. As for example, the act of October 20, 1893, after the enacting clause reads as follows: That the homestead settlers on the 'Absentee Shawnee, Pottawatomie and Cheyenne and Arapahoe lands in Oklahoma Territory be, etc.,' and the act of March 2, 1895, used identically the same language. And the act of July 1, 1898, provides 'that the settlers who purchased with the condition annexed of actual settlement on all ceded Indian reservations be, etc.'

"in a word, the only act of a general character extending the time of proof and payment, is the act of July 26, 1894, above referred to, and is the only act, in our judgment, with a reference to the time in which proof and payment must be made that is applicable to the Cherokee Outlet. Now, section 2291, revised statutes United States, provides that an entry man must make proof within seven years. But as the settler must reimburse the government for the sums he paid for this land, and as proof and payment must be simultaneous, or made at the same time, and as the act of July 26, 1894, extended the time for making final proof and payment one year, therefore all those who filed prior to July 26, 1894, have eight years, and all others seven years, from date of filing in which to make proof and payment . It all really depends on the meaning of the word ceded. The Cherokee Outlet was gotten by direct purchase and sale and was not ceded by the Indians as a result of treaty stipulations. Webster defines ceded to mean: 'To yield or surrender; to give up; to resign; as, cede a fortress, a province, or country, to another nation, by treaty.' As the Outlet was not gotten in this manner it does not come under the head of ceded lands."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---