Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-09-23
TIE CHEROKEE STRIP.


ers Are Already Returning Disgusted.
| ARKANSAS CITY, Kan, Sept. 1S.-The
mystery which through so many long
| years of anxious waiting shrouded the
real character of the Cherokee strip, |
the gauzy veil through which ex-
| pectant homeseellers thought they |
saw Canaan, has been swept away. |
The Cherokee strip is now reality, |
and very grim reality at that, There
is no Canaan about it, either. 1t was a |
promised land, but it has not kept its |
promise. 1t may do so year from
now, but at present the strip is about
the most uninviting quarter on the
face of the earth. Water is obtainable
in only few places. Food is so
scarce that loaf of bread costs fifty
cents and pound of smoked ham is
worth one dollar. The weather is suffo-
eating and another hot wind is blowing
from the south that would parch all
vegetation if there was any to parch.
At noon Saturday the signal was
given announcing the passing of the
title of the land from the United States
government to the boomers, and a race
such as was never witnessed before and
will probably neverbe seen again was
various border towns the boomers had
gathered in great numbers. AS far
as the eye could reach in either direc-
tion could be seen men mounted and in
wagons and on foot closely packed to-
gether, making solid column 200 feet
or more wide in the middle and taper
ing away to mere streak of black
in the distance. The scene when the
| 1. IL -, oF
signal gun and each individual entered
the contest for common prize can be
imagined better than described. Con-
fusion reigned everywhere. So closely
were the contestants packed to-
gether that the start was a haz-
ardous one. Horsemen were unseated,
wagons overthrown and pedestrians
Frustrated in the mad rush. The
cries of angered men mingled with the
neighing of panic-stricken horses, the
shouts of the racers, the Gathering of
hoofs, the rattling of wagons and the
shrieking of locomotives combined in a
5 roar similar to that accompanying the
2 progress of tornado.
f In the race many men were injured
= and some killed. OF the latter some
1 met death by accident and two We're
murdered. The dead bodies, one
stabbed and the other shot through the
head, tell the manner of death. Many
: dead horses have been found on the
! prairie. Some died of overeXertion,
4 some were killed by falling in the race
5 and others receiving broken limbs in
the rough prairie were shot by their
owners The names of some of the vic
q tins are as follows:
S Mrs. Charles II. Barnes, of Eldorado, Kan,
n run over and killed. william Browning, OF
s Texas, fatally crushed under his horse; Carl
t Byers of Atchison Kan, thrown from his
horse and killed; Harvey Cheney killed by rid
It ing over BLUM; Mrs. Sarah Hughes fatally
, crushed while getting on train; Harry
q Matthews killed by riding over blum.
l. Near BlaclSbear, northeast of here, the dead
l, body of James Reardon, of Milford, Mass, was
s. found on the prairie after the rush He had
r been stabbed TO death, and the weapon with
n which the crime had been committed was
n falnd sticking in his breast Further north
d the dead body of w. D. Blake sup
@ posed to be from Gainesville Tex, was
e found. He had been shot through the heart
h | II is not known whether he was murdered ol
/ shot by accident The dead body of Madeline
o Granger, of Terre Haute, Ind, was also found
Il on the prairie. There were no marks o.
IS violence upon her body and it is believed she
lie died from natural causes .-... .....
o. Mrs. Sallie Freeman, of Louisville, KY, les
N broken; George Gillett, foot crushed by train
Thomas Mcbride, of Oklahoma City, skull
If crushed by stake in quarrel over lot
7, Henry Pointer of Ohio, skull crushed by fall
Is ing from his horse Jesse Strong, cut in heat
K and face in q quarrel over a pony; John Wheat
1t ley, shot in the leg by accidental discharge o
i'd his own pistol. Many riderless horses are com
c. ing in and it is feared other persons are badl,
injured ''''.'
e Unfortunate occurrences were th
~ ~ shooting down of "sooners'' near Still
5, water, .. T., and Arkansas City, Kan
y Judge Wollack, special agent of tn
m land office, has advices showing tn
~ =, number of people who made the ruI
of into the Cherokee strip far exceeds al
in expectations. The land Office ha
e- counted on $4,000 to make the run
n. Fully 100000 started in the race
nv and estimating the families of the maj
he ried men at one to each certiticat
he bearer, the Cherokee strip has popr
sa sn lation of 100000. The advices to Judg
no Wollach show the racers were divide
ng about as follows among the borde
as towns: Arkansas City, 10000; Orlando
m M 25, 900; Caldwell, Is, 900; Hennessy, 10, ,00t
IL. Saltwater, 10000; Kiowa, 5000; HUI
ID newell, 5000; other points, 1000.
lr- KANSAS CITY, Mo-, Sept 1S.-Ovt
N n 1000 ex-boomers passed through KaI
he sas City Sunday en- route to the
TX, homes in all parts of the country frol
the Cherokee strip, A more tire
lP and disgusted lot of men wei
of never seen together. They ha
ell gone to the opening unprepared fc
lit such tremendous rush as occurre
1g; and were mainly those who had d
,Te pended on the trains to take them int
ee, the strip, but the trains We're distance
lid by the horsemen and wheelmen an
'as they got to the heart of the promise
%, land only to find every claim pr
nal empted and every town lot gone
of ORLANDO, o. r., Sept. 1s.-Thousan'
ere of persons who left their homes
,e ,ed Oklahoma to seek new homes in Il
m. Cherokee strip are returning. The
'by thought they were in hard luck
IN Oklahoma, but are now convinced the