The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-25
Phenomenal Story Of the Set
tlement of Oklahoma and It's
Amazing Development From
a State Of Chaos.
GROWS BY LEAPS AND
BOUNDS EVERY YEAR
Is Yet in It's Infancy, but Is
Destined to Be One of the
Most Prosperous States in the
American Union.
BY THE HON. f. w. MOTT.
Special Correspondence.

r-I Special Correspondence.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-. Sept. 20.-Rushing in
to Oklahoma at forty miles an hour by a
Frisco train is fast travelling, but 1t is
only in the same scale that everything
else is done in that wonderful land
Oklahoma lies, as 1t were, upon the
eastern slope of the Rockies" spread
ing out into plains to the east for three
hundred and sixtyfive miles. From the
Texas line north it is two hundred and
ten miles. $50,
The story of the settlement of Okla
homa has been printed a hundred times,
but at this moment it will only emphasize
the fact that David L. Payne, the Indiana
farmer boy and Oklahoma Sooner" was
another American who did the right
thing at the right time. For more than
ten years the stalwart fellow agitated
and in every way declared for the open
ing of Oklahoma for settlement. For
doing this he was often imprisoned, suf-
fered a thousand privations, and-died.
But the government had yielded, and on
the night of the 21st and the morning of
April %, 1889, tens Of thousands of people
were in line on Oklahoma's border for
race for home. At noon Of April % the
firing Of a pistol gave leave for and then
began the most wonderful race ever re-
corded. BY sunset there was hardly
lot in any of the plated town sites or a.
quarter section of land in all Oklahoma
but that had from one to ten claimants.
Order Out of Chaos. = I.
Only intelligent Americans could bring
out of this miracle, this chaos, order, a
great community, a great people, that
must in a few short months be a sister
great state, or commonwealth, whose
star in this great union of states'will be
among the most brilliant of all, because
| it will represent the most typical Amer
| lean people, people Intelligent, school
and church makers, true citizens, home
| owners and possessors, well-to-do, carry
| ing in their hearts the doctrine of Abra-
| ham Lincoln, and performing their daily
duties with Rooseveltian strenuousness.
A part of Oklahoma's record shows
that her farm Land in 1900 was not quite
$37 900, 900. The town property was about
$9,O0O,0OO in 1900, but in 1905 almost
| $20,00O,000. The railroads had values Of
! 100000 in 1900 and in 1905 nearly $751;
| 000,0 900. No other thermometer shows
Oklahoma's growth and condolences bet
| ter than the railroad building of the past
five years, for nearly all of the more than
! 5000 miles Of steel rails Of Oklahoma
have been laid In that time.
Conservative estimates place the pop
! ulation of Oklahoma at nearly 100000
people, a wonderful growth in sixteen
years. Seventy-tWo per cent is en-
gagged in agriculture. III
The wide range of products of the Okla
homa farms is phenomenal. Corn, wheat,
and cotton grow side by side, and the
wheat crop Of this young territory is
approaching hundred million bushels
annually, while the cotton crop is com.
paratively as abundant and of such quail
ity that even the far away Osakans Of
Japan have found out it's values and this
year are buyers thereof.
Corn Harvest, 7O,OOO,OOO Bush els.
An annual harvest of nearly or quite
seventy million bushels of corn is {
record that no other sixteen-year ole
community of large or small numbers
can produce, yet this is what Oklahoma
is doing. True, the farmer harvest.
| sixty bushels of corn from an acre, ant
while this accounts for the large tota
yield, it is record that no other stat,
or locality that is a cotton and corr
state, a territory of so large diversity o
crops, can produce. Few Of the real corr
states and localities can duplicate thi
record.
The potato industry Of Oklahoma CAV
to the markets of the world in 1904 abou
three and half million bushels. Thes
| yielded the farmer at the cars about q
cents per bushel net profits, after allow
, ing the farmer 20 cents per bushel TO-
raising and marketing the same. -
Oklahoma is in the great fruit. bel
of northern Arkansas and southern
Missouri. One of the first things a set
tier does is to make selection of tn
, Arkansas Black, the Shannon, Willo,
, Twig, Ben Davis, Jonathan, Wine SaI
,, Missouri Pippin, in apples; the Elberts
Indian, and other varieties of peaches
with pears, plums, berries, etc., an
,, | plant them. Thus the sixteen years hav
) | dotted the territory with orchards. Al
,, ready large surplus OF fruits is bein
= shipped to market at good profit eac
year. q.
Oklahoma people quoted to me as
fact that it is no uncommon thing to Sc
=. three strawberries for pint; you TAX
I. your choice of the three strawberrie
or a measured pint; to grow peache
that weigh pound, and that the chi
d1en use the shells of the squashes fc
p playhouses-aIl of which sat down
+, doubt until immigration Agent Hughe
: showed me in his office in st. Louis
: watermelon raised and presented to hi
4 by an Oklahoma friend. The melo
r weighs 76 pounds. The same farmt
s furnishes the President 86-pound wate
melons. snail never question or doul
: any statement made by an Oklahoma
T again, or that Of a Frisco railroad ma
: even if he tells me fairy tale.
e What the Hen Is Doing.
II But there is the Oklahoma hen. 81
= supplied the home market and The
s shipped $780, 900 worth of chickens al
e eggs to other peoples markets last yea
d Oklahoma has nearly 100000 horses. &C
e 600 mules, 100000 cattle, $4,000 shee
~ and 200, 900 hogs, all fed from the grass
l. and grains of it's own fields, Of alfalf
1t timothy, and clover, and fattened upt
s it's kaff1r corn, corn and oats.
Is OF its nearly 100000 population lie
l. than 40, 900 cannot read and write, We
l. substantial proof of an educated peopl
About per cent are foreign boz
le hence the intense Americanism of Okl
ii homa's citizenship.
n: Manufactures, of course, are in their
al fancy, but the infant industry is plant
/ in Oklahoma, and her great cotton or
SIS of 100000 bales this year demands go
g. cotton factories that this product M
&c be manufactured on the ground dire
from the field The great dairy tndust
- springing tp will bring its own butt
and cheese factories. The great colt
seed oil mill at Hobart, the largest
the South, is model for many other ia
tories.
Industries That Are Needed.
/ think that Industrial people engag
in agricultural implement plants, BAN
$ beet sugar factories, box factories, bre
hrio min nj on