The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-18
AS TO OKLAHOMA
ONE WRITER GIVES SOME FACTS
ABOUT ITS POPULATION.
Property Holdings .nd Prominence or
the Blacks Rapid improvement In
Land 80 Recently Wild
aud Barren

The growth OF Oklahoma has been
one 0f the iaost remarkable IN the his
tory c. american territories. \ few
years 2go 1t was barren wilderness
inhabited only b. savage Indians and
iawless white Izcn; to-J.2- il is knock
ing 1t the dCc-S O. congress TOR adrnis
son 70 the paiCn as a STATE When il
is admitted il Vii have = la--er Afro
American population thea anv state 81
its size and population II the union out
side the southern states. From figures
furnished the New NCgiz sun hv Mr.
Peter Flynn Oliver. . reputable LAWYER
Of Fl Reno, who went TO Oklahoma
from South Carolina a lew years AGO,
1t Is learned that the Af-o-Americau
population numbers &C. GO, there bcius:
s,56e IN Blaine county, 1890 in King.
Usher county. $500 IN Lincoln county,
10000 in Logan county, the remainder
being scattered in all the other coua-
ties The total property holdings Of
these people is S.. $50, 500. divided IS
follows: SiSS, 100 represented by SIS.
$40 acres OF farm land; $500 repro
sented by town property. all SS3., "a
represented by personality. Comment
ing on these figures, Mr. oliver saws:
The land IN Oklahoma is largely
raw, and the p-ice / place upon il il
extremely low. Settlers have hardly
begun 10 build deliberately, and the
majority of :he pioneers brought with
them no personality worth mentioning
save their teams when they first came,
some came even teamleSS. The person.
atty valuation is. therefore, very low.
II you could have seen this barren
country, however. April %, 1850. then
gone away and dropped down upon Us
to-day, You would De vondcr-struclx at
the metamorphosiS The dugout. the
sod house and the shock are being rap
idly replaced 10y beautiful and COM
Portable homes for man and beast
THE estimates have given Won arc
for Oklahoma, excluding other portions
Of the old Indian territory. There "a
a largo Afro-American population IT
that portion 81 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 hU
African more than his Indian blood.
he is a man Of education and wealth.
The Kickapoo. the Kiowa, the Co
nanche and the Apache lands are
likely 20 come In soon FOR settle
nent The next move viii then 10
uPOn the Eve civilized tribes, who own
Iheir lands Ia common. Then tho
whole Indian territory Will have been
swallowed by the white man May lots
OF black men help in the swallowing
The Afro-AmericsnS have settled In
some parts almost % the exclusion of
the whites. LAngston City was founded
By T. p. McCate, who was once auditor
OF Kansas, man OF great resource and
energy The streets avenues and
boulevards Of Langston City are named
I'm honor Of prominent Afro-Americans
1t supports q weekly newspaper called
the Herald Mr.. McCnbe projected an
other town, but It has not pruspered as
well as Langston City.
Most Of the Afro-Amerieans In Okla
homa went there from the southern
states, Tennessee furnishing "a very
large number, and these are constantly
drawing others after them, as Ia natural
and usual ins,ich cases, 50 that IL is pos
Sble that when the territory Is ah
Ditted 10 the union It viii have az
Afro-Amsrican population Of come
100. 900. In several instances when
these men have been mcnaoed by I'M
Indians and whites they have
shown that the courage and determiua-
ton which carried them into the ter
ritory and enabled them % secure
homes IA the wilderness were sufficient
10 protect them and their property.