Charles C . Carpenter Charles C . Carpenter ( " fl . " 19th century ) was a Boomer leader who organized and instigated the first unauthorized attempt to homestead the Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma Territory in May 1879 . Pre - Boomer life . According to official U . S . Civil War documents , Carpenter was born in Ohio , was a Jayhawker before the American Civil War , and had served as a scout and spy for Major General John C . Frémont during his command of the Army ' s Department of the West from May to November 1861 . Later in the war , he commanded the Jessie Scouts , an irregular organization named for Frémont ' s wife , Jessie Benton Frémont , daughter of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton . Of his service in the scouts , Union Army Capt . William McMichael in a letter to General Ulysses S . Grant dated January 10 , 1862 wrote that Carpenter was " admirably adapted for the dangerous services in which he engages . During the times that General Fremont was in command , he several times performed such services as clearly indicated that he adds great shrewdness to the reckless courage which he undoubtedly possesses . " He also represented himself at times to be an officer of the U . S . Detective Police force . All of his service claims cannot be proved , but certainly suggest he was a man of significant ability , if somewhat flamboyant in style . In 1876 , Carpenter had led an effort to settle Americans in the Black Hills of South Dakota , where settlement on Native American lands had also been forbidden by the federal government , an experience which may have influenced him to take up the Boomer cause . Boomer leader . During his leadership of the Boomer effort , Carpenter was described as a striking character who affected long Custer - like hair and fringed buckskin , and was partisanly characterized as either " a scalawag of the worst type , a burly , swaggering , reckless character " or as a Moses leading his people to the promised land , depending on whether the describer agreed with his politics , or not . In the media of the day , he was sometimes styled " Colonel " Carpenter and " General " Carpenter , but no source of a military rank other than his rank of Captain during his Civil War service has been documented . In late April 1879 , Carpenter and his wife traveled from Kansas City , Kansas to Independence , Kansas to set up a headquarters for organizing the potential settlers and soliciting donations from town merchants to support the effort . Carpenter issued a statement announcing that " All parties and colonists wishing to join my expedition to the Indian Territory will concentrate at Independence , Kansas , between May 5th and 7th , " from which location he instructed the Boomers to move into Oklahoma and rendezvous at his general headquarters at Carpenter ' s City , eighteen miles west of the Sac and Fox Nation Agency , " where the general headquarters of the Governor of the Territory will be established , " implying that he was to be the future governor . A poster printed advertising the rush advised parties accompanying Carpenter ' s colony to purchase their outfits at Independence , Kansas , adding that " parties will have no trouble in getting transportation at Independence for hauling their goods into the Territory . " When the Boomers set out for the Unassigned Lands , Carpenter remained in Montgomery County , Kansas , where Inspector John McNeil of the U . S . Indian Service was sent to order him to cease his activities . When confronted by McNeil , Carpenter ceased his support of the Boomers and left the border area , effectively ceding leadership of the Boomers to David L . Payne . Carpenter ' s Boomers established a nominal settlement called City of Oklahoma on Deep Fork River ( Deep Fork of the North Canadian River ) . The creek where they camped , in present Payne County , Oklahoma , was given the name " Boomer Creek . " Anticipating the Boomers ' move , U . S . President Rutherford B . Hayes had issued a proclamation on April 26 , 1879 forbidding homestead entry of the Oklahoma lands . U . S . Army troops from Fort Reno were sent to eject the Boomers and destroy their improvements , ending the first major Boomer episode .