St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-05-18
The Story Of Oklahoma,


why are they so eager to get into Okla
homa2 These are questions which many
newspaper readers are asking, and the
facts necessary for intelligent answers to
these questions make an interesting story.
Oklahoma, in the language of the Chicka-
saw Indians, signifies beautiful land. :"
1t was the name given by the Indians to a
tract of country containing almost two
million acres, and situated nearly in the
centre of the Indian Territory. Some of
the land is poor, but the larger part of it
is the richest and most productive known
in the world. 1t is also believed to contain
valuable mineral deposits. 1t was orr
ginally a part of the Louisiana purchase,
and was included in the tract assigned by
congress in 1880 to be divided up among
various Indian tribes, to be theirs forever.
Oklahoma, under this act of congress, be-
came the property of the Creek tribe. and
remained in their undisputed possession
It'll 1855. In that year they made treaty
with the Seminoles by which the two
tribes held the country jointly til 1866,
when the two consented to a sale of it to
the United States for about fifteen cents an
acre. A few months after this sale was
completed, bill was rushed through con-
gress granting to the Atlantic and Pacific
railway right-of-way through the terri
tory thus purchased, together with grant
of alternate sections of land for forty miles
on each side of the railway. 1t was then
generally believed that the purchase of
Oklahoma had been advocated and &C
complished with view to giving the rail
way company this valuable grant. The
company made survey for the proposed
line, but never built it. 1t was decided
by the courts that the land was not yet
open to settlement, and would not be so
thrown open except by proclamation from
the President of the United States. 1t was
expressly provided in the railway charter
that it should be forfeited if the officials of
the company in any way aided or abetted
any movement for the opening of the In
dian Territory for settlement. fthey built
the road without settlers, it would be
losing venture if they attempted to get
settlers along it's line, they would lose
their charter. What should be done under
these conditions?
Here we get glimpse of what is gen.
orally believed to be the first cause of the
boomers They were men hired secretly
by the railway company to break into
Oklahoma, in defiance of the United States
government, and found settlements This
is denied by the railway authorities, and
can, of course, never be proved. There
were undoubtedly other causes, the chief
of which was the richness of the coveted
lands, and the desire of men of rowing and
adventurous spirit to get possession of
them. The first band of boomers started
under the leadership of an Indiana adven-
turer named Payne, who, having served
through the war and got into politics, first
heard of the Oklahoma country while
serving as assistant doorkeeper in the
house of representatives at Washington.
He went to Kansas in the fall of 1878, and
began to harangue the people on the sub
iect of invasion and possession. In com
pany with other men of similar character
istics, he organized land company with
an alleged capital of 100000, called the
Oklahoma Town Company" and sold
shares at five dollars each. They also or
ganized the Southwest Colony Company"
with capital of $1,000,00O, and sold
shares in that at two dollars each. After
vigorous agitating they succeeded in get
ting together, in the spring of 1880, about
twenty five men who were willing to begin
the invasion.
After lodging the United States troops
for several days, they at last reached
suitable point in Oklahoma, and chose q
site for their town. They called it Ewing"
after Gen. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, gave
it an area of six square miles, built log
house, and began to cut down tr.es and
lay out town lots. They got on famously
for.,,.oout three weeks, when squad of
gnited States troops, consisting of twelve
men and accompanied by twelve Indian
scouts, appeared and took away the en-
tire population to prison. After two weeks
Imprisonment, Payne and his companions
were discharged. They found themselves
heroes, for the West looked upon them as
sufferers from the despotic power of the
government. Payne soon discovered that
he could now obtain all the followers he
desired, and in the fall of 1880 he had
new expedition of 200 men in camp on
the Kansas border, eager for fresh in
vasion. The troops were watching them,
however, and there were thus organized
two hostile camps near the border, which
were the beginnings of the remarkable
boomer settlements which exist there to-
day.
From the autumn of 1880 til that of
1884 there were invasions at pretty regu-
lar intervals Squads of boomers would
slip by the troops, invade Oklahoma, To-
cate lands, be discovered by the troops
and elected, only to start again. The
largest expedition ever organized by Payne
was in May, 1884, when he got into Okla
homa with colony of 900 men, women
and children, and founded the town of
Rock Falls. He opened 'sdrug store,
with license to sell liquor, had pro-
vision store, school house, a printing
office, and a newspaper, and established
regular religious services, there being
parson among the colonists. This colony
was so large that it required time to get
together sufficient expelling force, and
it was not It'll August following that
Payne was again arrested and his town
broken up. He was kept in prison only a
short time, and was busily at work or
ganizing fresh expedition when death
overlook him. Other leaders followed him,
however, and the business of invading
Oklahoma has gone on, with constantly in
creasing force, until the present time,
where there is upon the border line a
series of towns, containing at least 10, 1000
"boomers, all waiting for the time to
come when they can rush in and take
poss ession of the coveted land.
They can take possession legally on the
22d of the present month, when, under
the recent proclamation of the President,
the new Territory of Oklahoma will
be thrown open for settlement. This
is in accordance with an act of con-
gress creating the new Territory out
Of certain lands which the Government
has acquired by purchase from the Indians.
The Territory transformed contains much
more than the original tract of Oklahoma,
which embraced less than 2 600, 900 acres.
It extends from the Canadian river to the
Kansas line, and northwesterly as far as
No Mans Land and its total area is esti-