Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-12
BUCKSKIN JOE.
The Homestead Policy of Greer County De
fended-What the Bangum Meet
Ing Did Not Do.

OKLA UNION, wILBARGER COUNTY, TEX,
To the Gazette
oh. G. s. at Austin has thrown his
gauntlet into the ring against our home
stead policy and, as usual, against me in
dividually and talks of my arrogance, as
if had not done anything toward saving
Greer county for the settlers. If you win
give me room for this article in THE GA
ZETTE, viii try to prove TO your readers
who is arrogant, pretentious and in dan
ger of starving out, believing that ac-
tions are better proof than words.
To commence with: l recognize g H.
c. So as one who came into Greer as
agent for the Houston land sharks and
laid most of those unlawful certificate
claims which il took the supreme court OF
Texas to cancel. For that reason and
purpose give him credit OF being there
ahead of me. He SAYS the county
was organized and in prosperous
condition before ever saw it.
[ with committee from Dallas sent out
to hunt location for our colony went into
Greer at Doans about May l 1887. We
went through Mangum and through to
Collingsworth county. We found two
dugouts at Buttermilk station and be-
tween five and ten dug outs and shanties
at Mangum, and not another habitation
on the road, the entire distance of ninety
miles. This was prosperous condition
for the cowmen who held the territory.
H. C. s. says | should have stated that
the petition to Commissioner Hall ut
Mangum, August %, 1887, was for
homesteads in part only and part for 640-
acre school claims. II. c.. S. is entirely
mistaken, as the petition adopted was for
160-acre homesteads absolutely and
against re-survey and lease. In proof l
submit the report of the meeting in the
Emigrant Guide of September, 1887,
which was the only Greer paper then.
THE MANGUM MEETING.
Emigrant Guide, September, 1887.
Never in the history of Greer county
was there meeting OF such Intense in
terest as that at Mangum on August %,
1887, when Commissioned Hall met the
settlers of Greer county. RumOrs had
reached Greer that Mr.. Hall would re-
survey and lease Greer county, which
was all that he could do pending the set
Element of the title. When it was known
that re-survey would destroy every set
tier 8 homestead, and all men i'll Texas
understand what lease means, it is easy to
imagine the feelings of the settlers at the
meeting. The county judge opened the
meeting in his large office, but when the
room was literally packed with people
large crowd hung around the doors and
windows, eager TO catch every word.
Commissioner Eall explained the situa-
ton, and stated he could not put Greer
county land on the market without fur
{l,r HOY
asked for the wishes of settlers. Judge
Duke then offered resolutions, ask
ing the commissioners to recog-
nize homesteads on one-half of
Greer county land, the homesteader to
pay for surveying an equal amount of
school land. Attorneys Todd & Smith
headed the opposition, and asked that
the law of 1879 be enforced and all
Greer county land be surveyed and put
on the market. Nj. Todd offered reso-
lutions to that effect, and both Todd and
Smith made speeches in their behalf.
Buckskin Joe, a delegate from Navajoe,
then offered the following resolutions,
which had been unanimously adopted at
the Navajoe meeting August "a.
Resolved, That the delegates to Man
gum to meet Commissioner Hall be in
structed to ask at his hands, first, that the
lands of Greer county be not re-surveyed,
but accept of the government survey;
second, to recognize our homeSteads of
100 acres; third, TO not lease any land in
Greer until after January l +, 1888.
In few words he explained that all
homesteads were located by the old gov
eminent survey; that new survey would
destroy every man IS home in Greer. Re-
garding the lease he stated that around
Navajoe there had been started
the largest settlement ever made
in Texas in sixty days, and
there was yet 200 families largely
from other states, belonging to his colony
who would soon be here, and he believed
that by January l there would be a set
tier on every 100 acres of agricultural
land in Greer. Regarding the home
steads he said he would not ask an officer
to do what he could not consistently, but
he did ask Mr. Hall to accept of their
homestead applications and hold them
subject to the action of the legislature.
He was not afraid of the legislature of
Texas going back on the home
steads, neither was he afraid of
Uncle Sam dispossessing the actual
settler, but if the Todd resolutions
should carry, the homesteader aban-
doned his homestead right, and had to
wait at least one and One-half years be-
fore it could be settled, the result would
be that every settler would leave Greer
county, through rumOrs that would be
set afioat. He said that the settlers of
Greer did not want to turn Greer over to
the United States, but by complying with
the United States land system the
settlers could reasonably ask con-
gress to give up its claim on Greer,
and it was free homes of $50
acres that the people wanted in Greer,
and their taxes would be far more valu-
able to Texas than to sell one or four sec
tons at 81 per acre on forty years credit.
He was loudly cheered when he sat down,
and the county Judge then took a vote of
the people on the resolutions. The Nav
aloe resolutions were almost unanimously
adopted, only seven or eight voting in
the negative. A motion was then made
that Gov. Ross be petitioned to call the
legislature together to settle the Greer
question, and it was carried unan-