The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-29
OKLAHOMA NEXT.
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Portland Me-, Sept. 2S.-General Har
~ C. Thomas, U. S. A. retired, form
erly of this city, but now leading cit
izen of Oklahoma. is visiting his father
Hon. William W. Thomas, Sr., and is
also east in the interests OF single state.
hood for Oklahoma.
He has had several interviews with
Hon Thomas 3. Reed and other leading
Eastern men. presumably regarding the
admission of Oklahoma a state.Gen-
eral Thomas was asked TO give his
views regarding the coming state, and
replied:
There is one story about Oklahoma
that certainly is unfamiliar 10 the gen.
eral public-the way, what there is of
Il, came into existence, and the actual
facts regarding the rest Of what should
be a single state.
There is a tract of country 1000 feet
above the sea level. mostly rolling
prairie, well watered and timbered for
the west, but not for New England. be-
tween Texas and Kansas, nearly twice
the size Of Ohio, which, as the semi
civilized tribes Of the east were
pushed back and back and back from
the Atlantic seaboard, was granted to
them and on which they settled.
IneSe CrlDeS cOElpflStu the 1DeTO-
KEGS. Shawnees, Seminoles, kickapoos.
Choctaws. and other smaller tribes too
numerous to mention. Each well de-
fined tribe had a part Of this 10000 odd
square miles Of territory, Irregular in
shape bounded by rivers and other ma
tural bounds, for hunting grounds. zig
gag boundaries for hunting rounds, but
entirely unsuitable for state or terrific
rial lines.
"One tribe after another has been
bought out by congress. 1t has coded
fits lands in general terms to the United
States, and has received allotments to
heads of families in severalty and annu
tiles reaching we'll forward and a
lump sum down to be divided among
the tribes.
The simple fact that the Indians
owned the lands and that the white
men could not tresspass thereon made
the whole section a veritable Ell Dorado
to the eyes of tn unsettled and rowing
white men; consequently the pressure
on congress to open the territory to the
so-called boomers was very great, and
there followed the crude and unsatis-
factory method of throwing it open at
the sound of the gun, and this generally
IN the fall. after the poor people had
ruined themselves by waiting all sum-
ner without labor, and all the priva-
ton and hardship attendant thereon.
THE people of the United States are
fairly well familiar with the romance
and hardship of the first opening. which
threw a tract of country half as large
as the New England states into the
eager hands of the so-called boomers,
with Captain Crouch, who died recent
~, a their head.
The wild races for town lots and
farms. the legend of Miss Summers and
her black thoroughbred horse flying
with mounted men, all eager to secure
desirable claims, the violence, the sta
t.oning soldiers at Oklahoma City
End Guthrie to preserve the peace. the
dispensing Of mobs and populist ora
tors at the point of the bayonet, the RI
val contests of different bodies of citi-
gems under the rallying cry of 'Kicka- F,
poos' and 'Seminoles.' the jealousies,
the hand-to-hand conflicts and contests
Still far from being decided, have all
passed into the literature of the day.
The fourth. but second great OPEN
ing. which opened the Cherokee Strip, |
north Of the original opening. a tract !
almost identical in shape and size with
the state of Massachusetts. with all !,
the wretched mistakes Of the earlier |
openings. sthe necessary employment |
of troops, the shooting of men, who tri-
ed to get in in advance of the firing
of the cannon, the holding Of an ex-