The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1914-04-22
OLD-TlMER GRAPHICALLY
DEPICTS THAT DAY
IN '89"
HOW OKLAHOMA WAS
OPENED TO SETTLEMENT
Breezy Review Of Scenes and
Incidents Of Twenty-Five
Years Ago

DO you remember February in 1889
that bleak, cold winter, when yol
were confined 10 the house much oi
the tune, in your northern Ohio home
anh how feyerishly you watched tho
actions of congress and their lack ol
action as well, hoping against aope,
that the bill for the opening of Ok
lahnma might pass at that session,
asks James * Hastings of saltwater.
You remember how the cattlemen
fought the bill. and how you mad
gwen ~ all hope that it NoGld pass,
long hcfora the session ended But
you have not forgotten and never
will. your JOY when you learned that
the friends of the bill had attached II
ms a rider to one of the appropriation
bills and that 1t had slipped through
with its mount at the last moments
Of the session
President Benjamin Harrison on as
stming office issued at once his proc
lamation opening the land for set
tlement on Monday, April %, at II
o'clock noon, and you remember that
ior many years your copy of that proc
iamation was one of your cherished
keepsakes
Next came the letters to your
friends Or the border. and your hnr-
riel preparations to be there and
READY on the opening day. for as sure
as the sun rose and net you were
going down there to live out of doors
all the year round and get well and
stay we'll
You remember how you left home
on the Sth day Of April, thirteen days
before the opening. when the ground
was pretty wei covered with snow
and gentle spring was a long ways
off yet When you had reached Gin
cinnat and turned west along the
Ohio river, q southwest wind sprane
up that gave a hint of spring, and ii
WAS followed by some wintry looking
peach blooms before you had reached
Egypt and st Louis.
On the long slant to the southwest
across old Missouri from the atter
pace, You were amused at the great
number of the natives that turned
out to see the train 60 by and who
very generously propped up the small
depot buildings TO keep them from
tumbling over on the train. Two 0,
three days later you were the prouo
possessor Of a bay pony that you
had purchased in Springfield and
with your friends from there. were
in the saddle on III elast lap of the
journey to the promised land Then
you successfully passed by the big
commercial apple orchards the reg
ion Of the homes and farms of the
POOR people in the rOueher part OF
the Ozarks, and later the lead and
zinc mines about Joplin. and soon af
ter fording some pretty wild streamt
YOU were at Baxter Springs. Kan
There YOU turned due west along the
state line road This was sort oi
a kings highway. with Indian Teori
tooy and its great cattle ranches on
one side and Kansas, with its farms
on the other. Here you had more
OF fording streams that were pretty
swift and where the water came vel
mp on your ponys side. and you stop
ped at night in the little towns or ai
farm houses along the way You
we're passing through a country that
Is today rich beyond the dreams Of
ayarice from its deposits Of oil and
gas. all unknown then. but discover
- and developed since
Hardly home did You pass that
did not have one or more of its num-
Der in the race for claim on ahea.
and though the date for the opening
Vas still several days off. you spurred
On. 50 as 10 be there in plenty OF
time, for you realized that already
there were more men in the crowd
petting down to the border than
there were homsteads TO be taken.
Arkansas City was a tough looking
' lllage when you reached there, yeti
most Of the crowd and the United
siates cavalry had moved on a few