The Lamar register., 1914-05-27

of congress establishing the Bent
Land District and the location of the
land Office at Lamar beginning Janu-
ary /, 1887. This was the cause of
the big boom.
The KOen Bros. were already on the
ground constructing the south side
ditch when the town was started, and
they and others have kept this work
up ever since.
The division of Bent county and
the organization of Prowers county
and establishing of temporary coun-
ty seat at Lamar did not occur until
April, 1889. Hon. C. C. GoOdale was
head of the committee that secured
this most valuable addition to La
mars assets. The election for per-
manent county seat occurred in No
vember, 1889, and resulted in vic
tory for Lamar by SO majority over
Granada, Alliance and Carlton COM
bined.
Lamar's first celebration of its an
niversary, May "a, 1887, was the most
spectacular event of the early his
tory of the Arkansas valley, and the
most spectacular feature of the par
ade was the floats, band and citizens
of Boston, a town Of one thousand
inhabitants in what is now Baca coun-
ty, and which has now passed entire
ly out of existence.
The present Christian church was
the first church building in Lamar,
and the residence of X. C. GOOdale,
the first residence house. The first
business house was moved out Of
town years ago.
The Lamar Register was issued on
June 5, 1886, in a building without a
roof and during rain storm, but
nothing could stop the men Of that
day in what they started to do. 1t
has had more or less stormy exist
ence ever since, and several times
has felt as il both the roof and floor
were slipping away. The Lamar
Leader was the second paper and the
Sparks the third. Both were after
wards merged into the Sparks. The
first paper in the territory compris-
ing Prowers county was the Gra-
NADIA Exponent, which was finally
taken over by the Register.
The big rush Of settlers to this dis
trict in '86, 'S7 and 'S8 made Lamar
the Mecca of all homeseekers and the
liveliest town in all the west for sew
eral years. Real estate, restaurants,
and saloons were of course the lead
ing businesses, and at one time the
town had seventeen saloons. Our
present mayor, j. X. Doughty. as city
attorney secured the first conviction
for violation of the liquor laws.
w. J. Johnston opened a dry goods
store here in the summer of 1886 and
is the only merchant w.o has been
continuously in business since the
first months of the town. C. C. Hud-
dleston started about the same time
but had short spell few years lat
er when he had to be Showed" that
so he went to Missouri for little
over a year. Many of our citizens
have been over 81 years in the vicin-
ity, and some over 80, but no man or
woman has been % years a resident
of Lamar just yet awhile.
Geo. w. Hunter was foreman of the
Santa Fe section before the town
was started and Mrs. Hunter was the
first white woman in the town, but
they lived awhile on homestead rs
did practically all of the early set
tiers. Hardly one Of the first settlers
failed to gamble SIG with Uncle Sam
that they could stay six months On
claim and most of us had to give up
that Uncle had us beat.
We hope that some steps will soon
be taken to have a full and correct
history of those interesting first days
of Lamar properly written.