The St. Johns herald., 1894-10-11
OKLAHOMA'S POPULATION
It Consists Largely of NegrOe s
 and Indians.
Property Holdings and Prominence of - the Blacks - Rapid Improvement iD Land Sc Recently Wild
 and Barren.

The growth of Oklahoma has been one of the most remarkable in the his tory of American territores. A few years ago it was a barren wilderness, inhabited only by savage Indians and iawless white men; to-day it is knock ing at the doors of congress for admis- sion to the union as a state. When it is admitted it will have larger Afro American population than any state of its size and population in the union out side the southern states. From figures furnished the New York Suu by Mr Peter Flynn Oliver, reputable lawyer of Fl Reno, who went to Oklahoma from South Carolina a few years ago, it is learned that the Afro American population numbers 66,000, there being s.566 in Blaine county, 14,OOO in King fisher county, s,400 in Lincoln county, 10000 in Logan county, the remainder being scattered in all the other. coun- ties. The total property holdings of these people is SC, 353, ,3a6, divided as follows: S5.4ss, 190 represented by 54s,- s19 acres of farm land S27, 400 repre- sented by town property, and SS37,736 represented by personality. Comment ing on these figures, MT. Oliver says:
 ''The land in Oklahoma is largely raw, and the price I place upon it is extremely low. Settlers have hardly begun to build elaborately, and the majority of the pioneers brought with them no personality worth mentioning save their teams when they first came; some came even teamless. The person ality valuation is, therefore, very low If you could have seen this barren country, however, April %, 1889, then gone away and dropped down upon us to-day, you would be wonder-struclE at the metamorphosis. The dugout, the sod house and the shock are being rap- idly replaced by beautiful and com fortable homes for man and beast.
 1.-The estimates have given you are for Oklahoma, excluding other portions of the old Indian territory. There is a large Afro-American population. in that portion of the territory, many of them worth their hundreds of thousands of dollars The Creek and Seminole nations have more African
 
 Gov. Brown, of the Creeks, shows his African more than his Indian blood. He is man of education and wealth.
 The Kickapoo, the Kiowa, the Co., manche and the Apache lands arc likely to come in soon for settle ment. The next move will then be upon the five civilized tribes, who own their lands in common. Then the whole Indian territory will have been swallowed by the white man. May lots of black men help in the swallowing"
 The Afro-Americans have settled in some parts almost to the exclusion of the whites. Langston City was founded by E. r. McCabe, who was once auditor of Kansas, a man of great resource and energy. The streets, avenues and boulevards of Langston City are named in honor of prominent Afro-Americans. It supports weekly newspaper called fhe Herald. Mir. McCabe projected an- other town, but it has not prospcred as well as Langston City.
 Most of the Afro-Americans in Okla homa went there from the southern states, Tennessee furnishing a very large number, and these are constantly drawing others after. them, as is natural and usual insuch cases, so that it is pos sible that when the territory is ad- mitted to the union it will have an Afro-American population of some 100000. In several instances when these men have been menaced by un- friendly Indians and whites they have shown that the courage and determina- tion which carried them into the ter ritory and enabled them to secure homes in the wilderness were sufficient to protect them and their property.