The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-12-07
OKLAHOMA'S POPULATION
It Consists Largely Of Negroes
and Indians.
Property Holdings and Prominence OF
the Blacks Rapid Improvement In
Land So Recently Wild
and Barren.

The growth OF OklanOInd mas DeeH
one of the most remarlla bic In the his
tory Of American territories. A few
years ago it was 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
it's size and population in the union out
side the southern states. From figures
furnished the New York Sun by Mr..
Peter Flynn Oliver, reputable lawyer
of Ell Reno, who went to Oklahoma
from South Carolina a few years ago,
it is learned that the Afro American
population mum bers $4,000, there being
sos in Blaine county, $4,000 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, 1853, 3s6, divided as
follows: $5,4s9, 100 represented by 548,
$40 acres of farm land $37. 400 repre-
sented by town property, and SS37.756
1C CoChCCo w pC1 oOil1-ACy- CoiAAihCiIC
ing on these figures, Mr.. Oliver says:
THE land in Oklahoma is largely
raw, and the price l place upon it is
extremely low. Settlers have hardly
begun to build deliberately, 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-struclS at
the metamorphosis. The dugout. the
sod house and the shock are being rap
idly replaced by beautiful and com
Portable homes for man and beast.
The estimates 1 have given you are
for Oklahoma. excluding other portions
OF the old Indian territory. There is
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
than Indian blood in their veins, and
Gov. Brown, of the Creeks, shows his
African more than his Indian blood.
He is a man of education and wealth.
The Kicl1apoo, the Kiowa, the Co
manche and the Apache lands are
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 4. 7. McCaDe, VINO was once auditor
of Kansas, man of great resource and
energy. The streets, avenues and
boulevards of Langston City are named
in honor of prominent Afro Americans
1t supports a weekly newspaper called
the Herald. Mr.. McCabe projected an
other town, but it has not prospered as
well as Langston City.
Most of the Afro-Americans in Okla
hOma went there from the southern
states, Tennessee furnishing 4 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 adj
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 thcT have
shown that the courage and determine
ton which carried them into the ter
rltory and enabled them to secure
homes IN the wilderness were sufficient
to protect them and their property.