Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1940-02-15
The Land Of
The Red Men
Ada, Oklahoma,
20 n n

Jan. 4CS A01V.
This is the Indian name, Okla
homa, translated. Our 46th state ts
larger than all New England: To
get the Seminoles out of Florida,
this tract was promised in 1882 to
be theirs forever. Many other tribes
were placed there including IN the the Flve Fnr
ernment break it's promise? The
west had become we'll settled, and
settlers looked with greed upon the
sparsely inhabited territory. Ihey
pastured sheep and cattle within It's
limits. Herdsmen were raising trou--
BILE with the Indians. They occupied
lated the laws. The Indians were
becoming desperate. Men actually
took the land which belonged to the
Indians and built homes thereon:
These were called boomers,
,.squatters,' and later .sooneTs; .arSo
Sooner State.'
The situation demanded some So
luton. Men in Congress favored
the white men. The movement was
strongly opposed by the Indians and
all who sought justice for them.
One bill after another was defeated.
Meanwhile settlers became more
determined, and readily broke the
laws to occupy the land. In the ear
lier days of Harrisons administra-
ton, Congress took the safer way,
and bought a tract from the Indians
for millions of dollars, and in 1889
it became Oklahoma Territory
April %, 1889 at noon the land was
to be opened for white settlement
and children gathered for ''The
Run Nearly half of them were
from Kansas, which state was to-
lose heavily by the emigration.
Many were from Colorado, and 9TH
er states.
Mules, mustangs, horses, wagons
and tools were assembled for the
rush. Some wished to go on horse
back, some could go only on foot.
This was the first of five such en-
tries, at five separate times. In
fantry and cavalry were there to-
preserve order, and were stationed
all along the line to fire guns at the
appointed hour: Some say a bugle
was blown. The railroad train was
crowded by men, some clinging to
the windows. AS the train was COM
PEELED to slow up with the rest Of
the crowd, men jumped and ran
to stake claim.
The land had been carefully sur
veyed and marked in quarter sec
tons. Each claimant selected his
own spot. drove a stake, and "dug
in" Amid yells flying dust and dirt,
huts were made of sod or trees.
Guthrie had 10000 population that
first night, Oklahoma City, 5000,
mostly in tents. There was little
suits. The last opening was in
1901. 1t was great event as Edna
Ferber tells us in ''Cimarron
Gods first command was "Be
fruitful. multiply. replenish tho
and honors the biologic. the migrat-
ing the scientific urges commanded
mountains would never have been
occupied without them. They would
Stlll be vacant without these mighty
stimuli. Abraham migrated to
Canaan. The Aryans to india. The
Gro -Magnons were first in Europe,
Gaels, Greeks, Romans, Tentons,
Slave and many others, of Asiatic
strain.
The greatest of all migrations no
doubt, in numbers and sequence,
was that of our ancestors from Eur
ope. the parents of 130, 100000 peo-
pie. Mine came from Scotch-Irish
homes to live in Ohio. Never again
will there be. such movement of
population of such like dimensions,
for many years million each year,
for the reason that all portions Of
the world are settled now
Simon Kenton We are told GIN
the making of the West" by Roose-
competitor, invited M him n ''upu to the the
woods and pounded him, as he
thought, to death. He mistakenly
thought he had killed him, filed to-
Kentucky, later to Ohio, to help to
make Ohio history Kenton is nam
ed for him. Maybe when Europe has
pounded itself into soma kind of
peace, it may allow it's more popu-
lous states to colonize the rest Of
Africa and even the Sahara.-How-
ard TT Scott