The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1910-04-20
WHEN NEW
ST At |: IS
OF ACE:
REVIEW OF MANY STIR
RING EVENTS IN OLD
OKLAHOMA
ANNIVERSARY COMES
FRIDAY, APRIL 22
Early Boomer History Reads
Like Fairy Book
Tale
IL I%
tAsASaasNss'e e-.44.--.---,-. 4a,....--

| r Olu fOkldnOHnd VIII celebrate ltA
majority next Friday, April 22 Just
Itwenty-one years ago that day, April
%, 1889, Oklahoma was opened to
white settlement and Oklahoma ter
\ ritOry came into existence. On ac-
count of the fact that ii is the TWEEN
\ ty-iirst anniversary Of the opening,
the celebrations in the various towns
will be more numerous and elabor-
ate than usual this year, generally
taking the form OF showing Of the
kprogress which has been made III
Wenty-one years time.
On the opening day all OF the larg-
er towns sprang into being full
aedged The only thing they lacked
was buildings. Many lines OF busi-
ness were represented, as at the
present time and in some cases the
population was nearly as large, but
all of the business was conducted in
tents and people who carried on the
business slept and ate in tents, il in
deed they were SO fortunate as to
find place to sleep and eat at all.
The newspaper business was rep
resented in the forefront. Probab-
ly the first paper really issued on the
Guthrie townsite or the territory al
ter its opening was the Guthrie Get
up, which issued its first edition ON
the evening of April 2S, 1889.
The First Newspaper.
While the Beaver Herald, started
when Beaver county was In mo
Mans Land and the Mangum Star,
printed at Mangum when Greer
county was in Texas have both laid
claim to being the Oldest newspaper
printed in Oklahoma territory. As
the territory in which they were pub
! lished was afterward Incorporated in
that territory there seems TO be no
question that David l.. Payne's War
Chief issued by his Oklahoma col
ony at Rock Falls, was the first real
Oklahoma paper, or that payne was
| the pioneer i'm the newspaper busi-
ness in Oklahoma as well as in ad-
vocating the opening Of the territory
| for settlement.
| Payne has been dead for a number
OF years, but Grant Harris, one Of the
men who helped him to get out that
paper Is still living IN Oklahoma. It
was in 1884 that he entered Payne's
| employ. He had been working in
Caldwell, 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 secre-
tary Of the interior, stating mat any
one who assisted in publishing pa
per In the Cherokee strip was liable
TO both fine and imprisonment That
lact did not dauDt him, however, and
he stayed with Payne aud the print
ing Office until Uncle Sans soldiers
conliscated the Office.
Deported by Soldiers.
A large number Of the members
Of Payne's boomer colonies are now
located in various parts OF the state.
In 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
but all Were merely waiting for an
other chance to enter the promised
land and get home here as they
had planned when they first came in
with Captain Payne.
Lon Whorton, until recently editol
of the Perry Sentinel, accompanied
Payne part way on his first expedi
ton intn Oklahoma in 1882 He ans
party of friends had started from
Winfield, kas., for hunting tip OF
the Cmarron river and when only Z
little way down into the territor!
they ran across another party, viii
whom they Travelled In company fO
some time without learning thei
identity or their purposes. After !
was learned that the Winfield mel
were members OF the boomer colony
! although they had never met ~
chief, the leader Of the newcomer
introduced himself as Captain Payne
and stated that his was a suryeyinl
party on the way to the Canadial
river to lay out townsite for tn
prospective colony.
; Whor,on Joins Payne.
! He urged Whorton and his friend
} TO join his party. and they conclude
to accompany him for the purpos
of having a look at the country wher
, his townsite was to be located, Dc
ing their hunting on the way bach
: When about fifteen or twenty mile
y from the proposed townsite. whic
J was near the present site OF Okiahs
(Cnufinnad on Pare TWnl