The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1910-04-19

tlement and Oklahoma territory came
into existence. On account of the
fact that 1t is the twenty-frst ami
versary of the opening. the celebra-
tions in the various towns will be
more numerous and elaborate than
usual this year, generally taking the
form of showing of the progress which
has been made in twenty-one years
time.
On the opening day, all of the larger
towns sprang into being full-fedged
The only think they lacked was build
ings. Many lines of business we're
represented, as at the present time
and in some cases the population was
nearly as large, but all Of the busi-
mess was conducted in tents and peo-
lple who carried on the business slept
and ate in tents, if indeed they were
so fortunate as to find place to sleep
land eat at all.
i uC uCW WCpdHCA QuC4hC00 Wab ACPA u
sented in the forefront. Frank H.
Greer Of the Guthrie State Capital,
u has always contended that his was
the first paper issued in the territory.
| 1t was dated at Guthrie April %, 1889,
but the first issue was printed at Win
field, Kans., and brought down on the
first train. Probably the first paper
really issued on the Guthrie townsite
or in the territory after it's opening
was the Guthrie Getup, which issued
Its first edition on the evening Of
April 2S, 1889.
While the Beaver Herald, started
when Beaver county was in No
Mans Land" and the Mangum Star,
printed at Mangum when Greer coun-
| ty was in Texas have both laid claim
| to being the oldest newspaper printed
| in Oklahoma territory. AS the terri
tory in which they were published
was afterward incorporated in that
TERRITORY there seems to be no ques-
tion that David Il. Paynes War
Chief, /" issued by his Oklahoma colony
at Rock Falls, was the first real Okla
homa paper or that Payne was the
pioneer in the newspaper business in
Oklahoma as well as in advocating the
opening of the territory for settle-
ment.
| Payne has been dead for number
of years, but Grant Harris one Of the
men who helped him to get out that
paper is still living in Oklahoma and
publishing the Lahoma Sun 1t was
in 1884 that he entered Payne's EN-
ploy He had been working in Cald-
well but was attracted to Payne's
camp, located four miles south of
Hunnewell, by the reports OF high
wages. He found posted on the door
of the printing Office, which was the
only frame building in the town, a
proclamation from the secretary of
the interior, stating that any one who
assisted in publishing paper in the
Cherokee strip was liable to both fine
land Imprisonment. That fact did not
daunt him, however, and he stayed
with Payne and the printing Office
until Uncle Sans soldiers confiscated
the office.
A large number of the members
of Paynes boomer colonies are now
located in various parts of the state.
I'm fact practically all of them got
back in Oklahoma eventually. When
they were deported by the soldiers,
some of them went to mo Mans
Land" still more settled in southern
Kansas along the Oklahoma border,
lbut all were merely waiting for an
other chance to enter the promised
land and get a home here as they
had planned when they first came in
with Captain Payne.
Lon Whorton, until recently editor
of the Perry Sentinel accompanied
Payne part way on his first expedition
Into Oklahoma in 1882 He and a
Iparty of friends had started from Win.
field, Kans., for a hunting trip on the
Cimarron river. and when only lit
Tie way down into the territory they
iran across another party, with whom
they Travelled III company for some
time without learning their identity
or their purposes. After it was learn
ed that the Winfield men were mem
bers of the boomer colony although
they had never met its chief the lead
er OF the newcomers introduced him
self as Captain Payne, and stated that
his was surveying party on the
way to the Canadian river to lay out
a townsite for the prospective colony
He urged Whorton and his friends
to join his party and they concluded
to accompany him for the purpose OF
having look at the country where
his townsite was to be located, doing