Volume 10 , Issue 7

Greer County, Oklahoma

Greer County, pg. 724, Vol. 2, A Standard History of Oklahoma, by Joseph B. Thoburn.

The government exploring expedition of Captains Marcy and McClellan traversed Southwestern Oklahoma, in the spring and summer of 1852, it did some very effective work but a serious mistake was made in drawing the maps which accompanied its report. This blunder consisted in locating the 100th meridian (which then as now constituted the eastern boundary of the Texas Panhandle) just one degree too far east.

This made its intersection with the Red River at a point near the mouth of the north fork of the Red River; hence all the land lying between the Red River and the North fork apparently fell within the territorial dominions of the State of Texas.

Moreover, the marcy report habitually referred to the Red River above the mouth of the North Fork as the Ke-che-ah-que Hono, which, in the language of the Comanche Indians, meant "Prairie Dog Town River," while its principal tributary from the north in its upper course was always called the north fork of the Red River rather than by its Comanche name, which was Mobeeteh Hono, meaning "Walnut River." Now, by the terms of a treaty made with Spain in 1819, the 100th Meridian of Longitude West had been determined upon as the boundary between the United States and the Spanish dominions from the Arkansas River south to the Red River. Of course the accidental miscalculation as to the location of the 100th meridian on Marcy's maps could not affect the international boundary which in the course of time had come to be a boundary between the State of Texas and the Indian Territory, but the substitution of the name of Kecheaque Hono, or Prairie Dog Town River, for that of the Red River made it possible for the State of Texas to assert that the Meridian boundary line ended at its intersection with the channel of the North Fork. The authorities of that state therefore laid claim to all the lands lying between the Red River, proper, and the north fork of the Red River.

In assertion of this claim, the Legislature of the State of Texas created a county of the region embraced between the Red River, the North Fork and the 100th Meridian, which was named Greer, in honor of John A. Greer, who was once a lieutenant governor of Texas. But, though it was thus dignified by name and bounds, it was destined to remain for a score of years as a part of the wilderness of the Great Plains, the grazing ground of the buffalo herds and the hunting range of the untamed comanches and Kiowas. During the '70s, it was occasionally visited by white buffalo hunters from the Texas frontier, though that was a very hazardous field for such operations then, for the Indians were hostile to all white hunters the found in that region.

In 1880-1, the first cattlemen began to seek ranges for their stock in Greer County, establishing their ranches at places which were conveniently near a dependable water supply. Other settlers arrived and located in various parts of the county during the course of the next few years. In 1884, the Federal Government took cognizance of their presence, president Arthur issuing a proclamation warning them against trespass, and in 1885 troops were sent to expel the settlers as intruders.

They were merely warned to leave, however, and none of them paid any attention. practically all of the settlers were from Texas and they felt assured of the moral support of the authorities and people of that state, so the situation was scarcely analogous to that of the "boomers" in the Oklahoma country. The order for the expulsion of the settlers was afterward modified as the result of representations made the Texas authorities. A year later (August 1, 1886) Greer county was formally organized as a county of the State of Texas.

While the dispute between Texas and the Federal government as to the ownership of Greer County was of long standing, neither party to the controversy had been in haste to press for a settlement of the same. Bills were introduced into congress at various times to provide for the adjudication of the conflicting claims, but nothing ever came of such efforts. Finally, when the Organic Act was passed by congress, in the spring of 1890, one section made it mandatory that the attorney general of the United States should file in the Federal Supreme Court, a suit in equity to determine the long standing dispute. There followed several years of careful preparation for the trial of the issue.

The archives of mexico and Spain were searched; an elaborate set of copies of old maps was procured and depositions were taken in many places both in Texas and Oklahoma. Nearly six years had passed since the Organic Act had authorized and directed the beginning of the suit before the Supreme court of the United States rendered its decision in the Greer county case, March 16, 1896.

The court of the Forty-sixth Judicial District of texas was in session at Mangum, with the late Justice G. A. Brown, of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, then a resident of Vernon, Texas, presiding as district judge, and a trial was in progress when a mounted courier arrived from Quanah, Texas, with the announcement of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Greer County case, which had been handed down the day before.

Without the formality of adjourning the court, Judge Brown stated that he had no jurisdiction in Greer County and he returned forthwith to Texas. Within a few weeks congress had passed an act, approved may 4, 1896, providing for the organization of Greer County under the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma. The people of Greer County participated in Oklahoma elections for the first time in November following. By the terms of an act of congress approved January 18, 1897, the Greer County lands were declared to be open to entry under the homestead laws, and were constituted a new land district, the land office being at Mangum.

The area thus added to the settled and organized part of Oklahoma was larger than either of the States of Delaware or Rhode Island. In addition tot he present Greer county, it included all of the counties of Harmon and Jackson and also that part of Beckham County which is located south of the north fork of the Red River.
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