Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1903-03-12
"KATY'S' CLAIM.
TWENTY-MILE PATCH THROUGH
THE INDIAN TEsRIToRY.
IT RECALLS A RACE OF RAILROADS.
Railway Company Make Formal De.
mand on the Government for
Alternate Sections of Land
in Cherokee Nation.

Vinita, I. 1.-THE people of the
Cherokee nation declare that if the
claim Of the Missouri, Kansas e.
Texas railroad, just made, for alter
nate sections ten miles back on each
side of its right of way through the
Indian Territory is just the federal
government at Washington should
pay the value of the claims and that
the Cherokee people and their lands
should not be held responsible for the
| governments generosity to the rail.
road This is what Chief Burlington,
elective head of the Cherokee nation.
said Tuesday morning. The road runs
through Cherokee land alone for more
than fifty miles and so it's claim in
this nation is for more than 500
square miles, or 1000 fine farms of
$50 acres each. 1t bases its demand
on an act of congress July %, 1866.
Just after the Civil war the West
ern country demanded railway out
let to the Gulf of Mexico and congress
offered the land grant to the Kansas
& Neosho Valley Railroad company,
and later the Kansas City, Fort Scott
G. Memphis, in case it should have
reached the northern boundary of the
Indian Territory first. In case either
the Brownville, Lawrence C Fort
Gibson railway, the Union Pacific's
southern branch, now the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas, should reach the
point on the territory line ahead of
the Neosho Valley line, then the
Neosho Valley line should lose the
grant and the land should go to the
road whose rails touched Indian Ter
ritory's north line first. 1t was a rail-
road building race, 'fostered by con-
gress, with thousands of miles of land
as a prize. The Neosho Valley road
was looked upon as the winner until
its construction was held up in the
neutral strip, now the southern tier of
counties in Kansas. 1t was nearly in
sight of the promised land. 1t was
tied up and forced to see the Union
Pacifc's southern branch touch the
territory line and win the prize or
promise of a prize. The Union Paci-
fics southern branch became the Mis-
souri,, Kansas & Texas. The Neosho
Valley road abandoned its purpose to
so to Galveston and turned eastward
to Memphis. Then it became the
Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis
The Cherokees say that all the fed
eral government offered as a grant
was land that belonged to Others II
had been given to the Cherokees in
exchange for other more valuable land
in the East. 1t was land, in fact,
bought and paid for by the Cherokees.
The notice served to the Dawes
commission and to the chief of the
Cherokee nation by the Missouri, Kan
sas & Texas railway follows in part:
You and each Of you are hereby noti-
fed that the Missouri Kansas &
Texas Railway company claims every
alternate section of land, or parts
thereof, designated by odd numbers,
to the extent of ten sections per mile
on each side of the line Of railroad
through the Cherokee nation, within
twenty miles from the line of said
road, and in case that 1t shall appear
that the United States had at the
time when the line of said road was
definitely located sold any of said sec
tons, or any part thereof, or that
right of presumption or homestead set
Element had attached to the same, or
that the same had been reserved by
the United States for any purpose
whatever, then the Missouri, Kansas
& Texas Railway company claims
from the lands nearest to the sections
above specified so much land as shall
be equal to the amount of such lands
as the United States has sold, re-
served or otherwise appropriated, or
to which the right OF homestead set
Element or presumption had attacked.
and that said claim is based upon an
act Of congress entitled IAN act grant
ing lands to the state of Kansas to
aid in the construction of the Kansas
G. Neosho Valley railroad and its ex-
tension to Red river" approved July
25, 1866.
No More Bars at the Capitol.
washington.-By the passage Of the