Volume 18 , Issue 34

1893, September, Trains Will Run

Oklahoma Territory's Run of 1893 brought in trains, wagons and outsiders on horse and foot to enter the strip on opening day. Only those holding certificates from the government booths would be allowed on the train cars.

Found on Newspapers.com

According to The Guthrie Daily Leader, out of Guthrie, Oklahoma, 13 September 1893, Wednesday, on page 1, the headlines read: "Trains Will Run."

13 Sept. 1893 -- All doubts were allayed. Trains would run into the Cherokee strip next Saturday. Secretary Hoke Smith the day before issued an order governing the railroads on the strip.

This matter was one of mutual agreement between Secretary Smith and the railway managers, and was substantially in accordance with recommendations made by Governor Swineherd, general Inspector, who received late last evening the following official telegraphic communication with he accompanying order:

Washington, Sept. 12, 1893, A. P. Swineherd, Guthrie, Ok.: You will see that the accompanying order is given due publicity and property executed. Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior.

Order of Department of the Interior, Washington,September 11, 1893: In view of the proclamation issued by the president of the Untied States fixing twelve o'clock noon of September 16th, 1893, as the hour at which the Cherokee Outlet will be opened to settlement, and to the end that the rules and regulations heretofore prescribed for said opening may be the more effectually executed. I hereby direct that no railroad train be permitted to enter said outlet during the six hours before said time for opening. For three hours after said time of opening trains will be allowed to enter said outlet only under the following regulations:

1. They must be for general use, and not leased or chartered to any favored passenger or passengers.

2. The trains must be stationed at the edge of said land at least thirty minutes before the hour of opening, and shall not be entered by passengers earlier than thirty minutes before the hour of opening.

3. NO one shall enter either of said trains as a passenger unless he holds a certificate from one of the booths.

4. The trains may start upon said land anytime after the hour of opening.

5. Trains must stop at every station, and at intermediate points not more than five miles apart.

6. The trains will be limited in speed to 15 miles an hour. 7. The regular local rates of passenger charges shall not be exceeded. 8. No one shall be allowed to board said trains after they enter the strip. The United States officers in charge will give effect to this order.

Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior.
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