OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH OF 1889 The Arrival of the First Train at Guthrie "We're done for," said a town-site speculator, in dismay. "Some one has gone in ahead of us and laid out the town." "Never mind that," shouted another town-site speculator, "but make a rush and get what you can." Hardly had the train slackened its speed when the impatient boomers began to leap from the cars and run up the slope. Men jumped from the roofs of the moving cars at the risk of their lives. Some were so stunned by the fall that they could not get up for some minutes. The coaches were so crowded that many men were compelled to squeeze through the windows in order to get a fair start at the head of the crowd. Almost before the train had come to a standstill the cars were emptied. In their haste and eagerness, men fell over each other in heaps, others stumbled and fell headlong, while many ran forward so blindly and impetuously that it was not until they had passed the best of the town lots that they came to a realization of their actions.

I ran with the first of the crowd to get a good point of view from which to see the rush. When I had time to look about me I found that I was standing beside a tent, near which a man was leisurely chopping holes in the sod with a new axe. "Where did you come from, that you have already pitched your tent?" I asked. "Oh, I was here," said he. "How was that?" "Why, I was a deputy United States marshal." "Did you resign?" "No; I'm a deputy still." "But it is not legal for a deputy United States marshal, or any one in the employ of the government, to take up a town lot in this manner." "That may all be, stranger; but I've got two lots here, just the same; and about fifty other deputies have got lots in the same way. In fact, the deputy-marshals laid out the town." The Head of the Line Outside of the Guthrie Land-Office on the Opening Day at intervals of fifteen minutes, other trains came from the north loaded down with home-seekers and town-site speculators.

As each succeeding crowd rushed up the slope and found that government officers had taken possession of the best part of the town, indignation became hot and outspoken; yet the marshals held to their lots and refused to move. Bloodshed was prevented only by the belief of the home-seekers that the government would set the matter right. This course of the deputy United States marshals was one of the most outrageous pieces of imposition upon honest home-seekers ever practiced in the settlement of a new country. That fifty men could, through influence, get themselves appointed as deputy United States marshals for the sole purpose of taking advantage of their positions in this way is creditable neither to them nor to the man who made their appointment possible. This illegal seizure thus became the first matter of public discussion in the city of Guthrie. When the passengers from the first train reached the spot where the deputy-marshals had ceased laying out lots, they seized the line of the embryo street and ran it eastward as far as their numbers would permit. The second train load of people took it where the first left off, and ran it entirely out of sight behind a swell of ground at least two miles from the station.

The following car of home-seekers went north and south, so that by the time that all were in for the day a city large enough in area to hold 100,000 inhabitants had been staked off, with more or less geometrical accuracy. A few women and children were in the rush, but they had to take their chances with the rest. Disputes over the ownership of lots grew incessant, for the reason that when a man went to the river for a drink of water, or tried to get his baggage at the railway station, another man would take possession of his lot, notwithstanding the obvious presence of the first man's stakes and sometimes part of his wearing apparel. Owing to the uncertainty concerning the lines of the streets, two and sometimes more lots were staked out on the same ground, each claimant hoping that the official survey would give him the preference. Contrary to all expectations, there was no bloodshed over the disputed lots. This may be accounted for by the fact that no intoxicating liquors of any kind were allowed to be sold in Oklahoma. It is a matter of common comment among the people that the peaceful way in which Oklahoma was settled was due entirely to its compulsory prohibition.

Had whiskey been plentiful in Guthrie the disputed lots might have been watered in blood, for every man went armed with some sort of deadly weapon. If there could be a more striking temperance lesson than this, I certainly should like to see it. When Congress gives Oklahoma some sort of government the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquor should be the first and foremost of her laws. It is estimated that between six and seven thousand persons reached Guthrie by train from the north that first afternoon, and that fully three thousand came in by wagon from the north and east, and by train from Purcell on the south, thus making a total population for the first day of about ten thousand. By taking thought in the matter, three-fourths of these people had provided themselves with tents and blankets, so that even on the first night they had ample shelter from the weather. The rest of them slept the first night as best they could, with only the red earth for a pillow and the starry arch of heaven for a blanket. At dawn of Tuesday the unrefreshed home-seekers and town-site speculators arose, and began anew the location of disputed claims.

The tents multiplied like mushrooms in a rain that day, and by night the building of frame houses had been begun in earnest in the new streets. The buildings were by no means elaborate, yet they were as good as the average frontier structure, and they served their purpose, which was all that was required. On that day the trains going north were filled with returning boomers, disgusted beyond expression with the dismal outlook of the new country. Their places were taken by others who came in to see the fun, and perhaps to pick up a bargain in the way of town lots of commercial speculation. By Wednesday the retreat from Guthrie was at its height. Two persons went home to each one that came in, yet the town seemed to be as lively and as populous as ever. The north-bound boomers asserted that there was nothing in or about Guthrie to support a city; that only a limited number of quarter sections of land on the river bottom were worth settling upon, and that the upland country was nothing but worthless red sand coated over with a film of green grass. To bear out their assertions, these disgusted men pointed to the city of Guthrie, where the red dust was ankle-deep in the main street.

The red dust was an argument that could not be contradicted. It rose in clouds and hovered above the feverish city until the air was like fog at sunrise; it sifted through the provision boxes in the tents, it crept into blankets and clothing, and it stuck like wax to the faces and beards of the unhappy citizens. The heat and the dust and the phenomenal lack of food during the first three days created a burning thirst, which seemingly could not be quenched. This thirst was intensified tenfold by the knowledge that water was scarce, hard to get, and sometimes unfit to drink. The yellow Cimarron and the lukewarm Cottonwood were the only streams where water could be obtained, and on the third day he was very thirsty indeed who would drink from either. Boomers who were not engaged in holding down town lots peddled water in pails to their thirsty neighbors at five and ten cents a cupful. Once, when compelled to moisten my parched throat from one of these pails, I noticed that the water was unusually yellow and thick.

"See here," said I to the Frenchman who held the pail; "you have washed your face in this water." "No, monsieur," he said, with grotesque earnestness; "I do not wash my face for four days!" I did not doubt it. His face had become so thickly encrusted with red dust and perspiration that he would not have recognized himself had he chanced to look in a mirror. In this respect he was not worse off than his neighbors, most of whom had not thought of washing their faces since entering Oklahoma. This was not due to any personal negligence, but entirely to the scarcity of water. When men spent their whole time, night and day, in the work of keeping possession of town lots, they could not be expected to go half a mile or a mile for such a trifling diversion as washing their faces. During the first three days food was nearly as hard to get as water. Dusty ham sandwiches sold on the streets as high as twenty-five cents each, while in the restaurants a plate of pork and beans was valued at seventy-five cents. Few men were well enough provided with funds to buy themselves a hearty meal.

One disgusted home-seeker estimated that if he ate as much as he was accustomed to eat back in Missouri his board would cost him $7.75 per day. Not being able to spend that amount of money every day, he contented himself with such stray sandwiches as were within his means. In this manner he contrived to subsist until Wednesday afternoon, when he was forced to return to civilization in southern Kansas in order to keep from starving to death. A newspaper correspondent from Wichita, Kansas, who had never before known the feeling of hunger, was so far gone in the first stages of starvation that upon his return home on Friday he was hardly able to assimilate food. In appearance he was a walking spectre of famine. The only men in Guthrie who made money during the first week were the restaurant-keepers and the water-peddlers. After the first rush had subsided, however, there was no lack of food, and by the sinking of a number of wells there was a plentiful supply of water, so that the city of Guthrie in the matter of food and drink was no worse off than the ordinary frontier town.

When the first well was dug, the home-seekers had an excellent opportunity of learning the exact character of the soil. The well-digger went through several feet of red sand after the sod had been cut through, and then found layers of gray and white sand so loose that the spade would sink into it upon very slight downward pressure. Believing that all of the Oklahoma country consisted of this red, gray, and white sand, thousands of home-seekers took the earliest trains back into Kansas, more than ever contented with the fertile soil of the homes that they had left in the first rush to Oklahoma. By the end of the week the crowd of returning home-seekers had lessened, so that Guthrie had what might be called a permanent population with which to being the serious business of life. Just how long this population will remain, or what size Guthrie will be in another year, is a matter of some uncertainty, for the reason that nothing definite can be decided upon until a thorough test has been made of the farming country round about. Aside from its temporary importance as a land-office centre, the size of Guthrie will be determined, not by the speculative value of town lots, but by the agricultural capacity of the surrounding country.

The city has already begun business upon a larger scale than the extent and fertility of the tributary country seems to justify. It has allowed itself the luxury of two mayors and two sets of municipal officers, one set being accredited to Guthrie proper and the other to the outlying district known as East Guthrie. I fancy that when business cools down to a substantial basis it will be found that one set of municipal officers will be enough for both towns. The first Sunday in Guthrie showed that the new citizens had determined to begin life in the right way. Instead of spending the Sabbath in gambling, drinking, and other riotous ways of living, they held religious services in different parts of the town. If the present spirit of law and order and respectable conduct is continued, as it doubtless will be, the people of Guthrie need never be ashamed of the reputation of their town. The Guthrie Post-Office The rush of home-seekers into Oklahoma from the southern border was more picturesque than that from the north, although in numbers it was by no means as great.

The intending settlers had been gathered at Purcell, in the Chickasaw Nation, for several months, waiting for the signal to cross the Canadian River and take possession of the coveted land. As the opening day drew near, many of the boomers provided themselves with fleet saddle-horses, and made careful observations of the half-dozen fords leading across the river, their intention being to dash into the river at noon on April 22d, and ride rapidly to their chosen claims. For this purpose the very best of horses were brought into use. Just before noon on the appointed day, hundreds of the horsemen gathered at the entrance to the fords waiting for the signal. Lieutenant Adair, of Troop "L," fifth Cavalry, was stationed on the sands on the opposite side of the river. He had arranged that at noon he should order his bugler to blow the recall, while riding a white horse around in a circle. By this means those who were too far away to hear the bugle could get the signal from the circling of the white horse. The lieutenant had caused all the boomers' watches to be set by his own, in order that there might be no false start.

Just as the second hand of his watch touched the hour of twelve he gave the signal, and before the stirring notes of the bugle had found an echo against the walls of Purcell, the foremost horsemen had dashed into the fords. Spurred on by yelling and wildly excited riders, the horses made a furious dash through the water, throwing sand and spray on all sides like a sudden gust of rain and hail. Laying Out Town Lots in Guthrie Twenty Minutes after the Arrival of the First Train The First Bank of Guthrie Oklahoma City After the horsemen came the wagons, as thick as they could crowd together. The Canadian River is so treacherous, even at the fords, that horses and wagons must keep moving or run a great risk of being lost in the quicksands. The fear of the quicksands, added to the desire to reach the chosen lands, made the crossing on that quiet noonday particularly lively and stirring. The leaders ran a gallant race, but one by one they fell into deep holes in the river-bed, and for a time floundered about at imminent risk of drowning.

A young woman, who pluckily held her place in the lead half-way across the river, went into a pool with a mighty splash. Even in the midst of his excitement the nearest boomer, who was racing with her, checked his horse and assisted her out to dry land, thus losing his place among the leaders. A big bay horse held the lead three-quarters of the way across the river, each furious jump giving him more and more of a lead over the others. In an unlucky moment he went into a deep pool head-first, and threw his rider half stunned upon the yellow sand. While the rider was gathering himself together in a half-dazed condition, the bit horse stood and looked at him a moment, and then started on again. He soon took his place at the lead of the race, and kept it there until the whole cavalcade had passed out of sight. Lieutenant Adair, who had watched this episode with quickening pulse, galloped up to the wet and discomfited rider.

"See here," said he, "I haven't much money about me, but if you'll take $250 for that horse, here's your money." "No, lieutenant," said the man, with a weary smile; "you needn't make me an offer, because you haven't got money enough to buy him." Most of the boomers who crossed the river at Purcell took up quarter sections of land that they had selected many weeks before; a few tried to organize a town on the flats opposite Purcell, while the others went on to Oklahoma City and Guthrie. Hundreds of boomers came into the southern part of Oklahoma from the Pottawotamie Indian country on the east and from the lands of the wild tribes on the west. As these portions of the border are not protected by soldiers, most of the boomers crossed the line long before the appointed time, and hid in the woods until Monday forenoon, when they emerged from their hiding-places and boldly took up their claims. The best lots in Oklahoma City, like the valuable locations in Guthrie, were seized by the deputy United States marshals. The actual home-seekers were compelled to take what was left.

In their haste to secure desirable lots, the town-site settlers failed to pay as much attention to the geometrical lines of the streets as they should have done, with the result that two, and in some cases three, different streets and blocks were laid out on the same ground. During the first week the discomforts of hunger and thirst were well-nigh forgotten in the anxiety of the people to get their town site properly laid out. The excitement was not at any time as great as that at Guthrie, for the reason that the population was not more than two thousand even at its highest point on Monday afternoon. Nearly the same state of affairs existed at Oklahoma City as at Guthrie, with the exception that the red dust was not so deep and water not as scarce. The new citizens, however, seem to have as much faith in the future of their town as their neighbors at Guthrie. This is probably due to the fact that Oklahoma City has the most desirable town site in Oklahoma, and also to the fact that the land round about is considered to be better than the land in the northern part of the district. The comparative wealth of the two parts will not be definitely known until a practical test of the soil is made next year.

Good judges of bad land declare that the country tributary to Oklahoma City will raise no better crops than the soil surrounding Guthrie. If this be true, the outlook for Oklahoma City is certainly not brilliant. A man who hid out in the brush all day Sunday and Sunday night, in order that he might be first on his claim Monday morning despite the disfranchising conditions in the opening proclamation, declared to me that after a search of three days he found no land in the southern part of Oklahoma that he would care to file a claim upon. The upland he found to be worthless red sand, and the river-bottoms to be composed of buffalo wallows and a short wiry grass, which indicated to him the presence of land similar to some of the worthless lands of Kansas. He returned to his farm in Kansas without attempting to make a new settlement. In this part of the country the poverty and wretched condition of some of the older boomers who have been waiting for years for the opening of Oklahoma were painfully apparent. Men with large families settled upon land with less than a dollar in money to keep them from starvation. How they expected to live until they could get a crop from their lands was a mystery which even they could not pretend to explain.

Like unreasoning children, they thought that could they but once reach the beautiful green slopes of the promised land, their poverty and trouble would be at an end. They are now awakening to the bitter realization that their real hardships have just begun. The original boomers who caused Oklahoma to be opened for settlement have much to be responsible for, not the last of which are the tears and cries of hungry children, who look about for bread and see only the red sand shimmering in the heated air. Could the disgusted home-seekers have laid hands upon the late Captain David L. Payne, the original Oklahoma boomer, the blood-thirsty despatches from Oklahoma in some of the daily newspapers would have had foundation in one instance at least. If the projected monument to Captain Payne is ever built, the expense of it will not be borne by the men who went into Oklahoma on the twenty-second day of April. The settlement of Kingfisher, in the western part of Oklahoma, differed little from the rush to Guthrie and Oklahoma City, except that the town was laid out about fifty-seven miles from the most available railroad.

At the time of the opening of Oklahoma the Rock Island Railroad had reached Pond Creek, in the Cherokee outlet, on its way through the Indian Territory and Texas. The Kingfisher people reached their new home from Pond Creek in wagons and stages. they were held at the Oklahoma line until noon on Monday, when they were allowed to go into the promised land as they pleased. When they arrived at Kingfisher they found that the town had already been laid out by a number of men who had ridden in on horseback from the west border of Oklahoma, only a mile and a half distant. As at guthrie, two town sites were located. the actual town of Kingfisher will not have a permanent location until the Rock Island road has designated the place for its station. Meanwhile the people are living in tents and in wagons, waiting for the time when they shall build what they expect to be the capital of the new Territory of Oklahoma. they may not get the new territory this year or next year,; yet it is safe to say that they will get in some time, for now that the heart of the Indian country has been opened to settlement, the rest of it must follow as a matter of necessity.

Already the Cherokee outlet has been invaded by boomers who failed to find desirable claims in Oklahoma, and although the soldiers in the Indian Territory have been instructed to drive them out, yet it is quite likely that they will remain on their new claims unmolested. With these people as a nucleus, the white population of the Cherokee outlet will grow steadily, and in time it will compel the Indians to sell out their interest in the lands and go elsewhere. Various small towns have been laid out in different parts of Oklahoma. In these places the speculative idea is of course uppermost, despite the fact that town-site speculation has already been over done in Guthrie, Oklahoma City, and Kingfisher. It is said that lots in these three towns have been sold for large sums,; yet I think that the reports lack confirmation. From personal observation I know that lots in guthrie have been offered for sale as low as fifty cents each. In one case a disheartened Wisconsin boomer sold two guthrie lots, a twelve-dollar tent, six dollars' worth of blankets, and a week's provisions for four dollars.

In Oklahoma City lots have probably not yet fallen that low in value, for the reason that fewer of them have been staked off, and also because the reaction there was not as great as at Guthrie. If Oklahoma is to be made a land of farms, it will need plenty of money and earnest determination. Many of the boomers who have not found a lodgement there will be compelled to relinquish their claims and go to older settled parts of the country, where money is more plentiful and where their labor is in demand. It is folly to expect that a man with a wife, six children, and forty cents in money will be able to do anything toward the development of the new region; and yet men of such circumstances came under my observation during a ride near Oklahoma City. In a few months, and perhaps in a few weeks, the relinquishments to very many claims in Oklahoma can be purchased for a purely nominal sum, and in some cases for nothing at all. A crop cannot be raised on the new land this year. The ultimate success of Oklahoma as an agricultural region depends as much upon the rainfall as upon the fertility of the soil; and those who plough the land in hope will have to wait in faith for the rains to come.

The development of Oklahoma will in this respect resemble the settlement of Kansas, where it was found that the real settlers were in many instances men with some means, who came to take up the claims of those whom drought and mortgages and hard times had driven to the wall. Hundreds of people who were starved out of Kansas were among the first to enter Oklahoma with the intention of retrieving their scattered fortunes; yet as they went into Oklahoma with no more resources they had carried into central and western Kansas, it is not unlikely that the ultimate result will be the same. Men who have gone into Oklahoma and obtained quarter sections of land on the fertile parts of the river-bottoms, with the intention of pasturing stock on the sandy uplands, which are adapted for nothing better than grazing, stand a fair chance of keeping the mortgage company from the door, as, from present indications, it is not probable that the uplands will be disturbed for many years to come. Selected, scanned, edited, provided with headnotes, and formatted as a web document by John W. Reps, Professor Emeritus, Department of City and Regional Planning, West Sibley Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

Tel: (607) 255-5391, Fax: (607) 255-6681, E-mail: jwr2@cornell.edu The Oklahoma land rush begins - Apr 22, 1889 - HISTORY.com The Oklahoma land rush begins Share this: The Oklahoma land rush begins Author The Oklahoma land rush begins URL Publisher A+E Networks At precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory to claim cheap land. The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of modern-day Oklahoma. Initially considered unsuitable for white colonization, Indian Territory was thought to be an ideal place to relocate Native Americans who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for white settlement. The relocations began in 1817, and by the 1880s, Indian Territory was a new home to a variety of tribes, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Cheyenne, Commanche, and Apache.

By the 1890s, improved agricultural and ranching techniques led some white Americans to realize that the Indian Territory land could be valuable, and they pressured the U.S. government to allow white settlement in the region. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison agreed, making the first of a long series of authorizations that eventually removed most of Indian Territory from Indian control. To begin the process of white settlement, Harrison chose to open a 1.9 million-acre section of Indian Territory that the government had never assigned to any specific tribe. However, subsequent openings of sections that were designated to specific tribes were achieved primarily through the Dawes Severalty Act (1887), which allowed whites to settle large swaths of land that had previously been designated to specific Indian tribes. On March 3, 1889, Harrison announced the government would open the 1.9 million-acre tract of Indian Territory for settlement precisely at noon on April 22. Anyone could join the race for the land, but no one was supposed to jump the gun. With only seven weeks to prepare, land-hungry Americans quickly began to gather around the borders of the irregular rectangle of territory.

Referred to as “Boomers,” by the appointed day more than 50,000 hopefuls were living in tent cities on all four sides of the territory. The events that day at Fort Reno on the western border were typical. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of Boomers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, and Guthrie sprang into being almost overnight. An extraordinary display of both the pioneer spirit and the American lust for land, the first Oklahoma land rush was also plagued by greed and fraud. Cases involving “Sooners”–people who had entered the territory before the legal date and time–overloaded courts for years to come.

The government attempted to operate subsequent runs with more controls, eventually adopting a lottery system to designate claims. By 1905, white Americans owned most of the land in Indian Territory. Two years later, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma. Related Videos The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893 The Great Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893 Printer Friendly Version >>> At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon's boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw. Carried by all kinds of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot - an estimated 100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory - but this was the big one. The Great Land Rush Begins In 1828 Congress designated the land that would become Oklahoma as Indian Territory. White settlers were required to leave, and a number of tribes from the East and South were forcibly moved into the area from their ancestral lands.

Chief among these were the Five Civilized Tribes - the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole - who allied themselves with the South during the Civil War. Following the war, the US government looked upon these tribes as defeated enemies. This animosity combined with increasing pressure to open up the Indian Territory to white settlement prompted the first land rush in 1885, a second followed in 1889. By the time of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893, America was in the grip of the worst economic depression it had ever experienced. This was one of the factors that swelled the number of expectant land-seekers that day. Many would be disappointed. There were only 42,000 parcels of land available - far too few to satisfy the hopes of all those who raced for land that day. Additionally, many of the "Boomers" - those who had waited for the cannon's boom before rushing into the land claim - found that a number of the choice plots had already been claimed by "Sooners" who had snuck into the land claim area before the race began. The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight.

"...the rifles snapped and the line broke with a huge, crackling roar." Choosing to ride their bicycles, Seth Humphrey and his brother joined the mad rush that day - not to race for land, but just for fun. We join his story in the moments just before the starting guns unleash a mad dash for land: "At last the eventful morning broke, a day exactly like all the rest, hot and dry, a south wind rising with the sun dead ahead, and a hard proposition for bicyclists. We had stayed overnight in the little hotel of a town within a mile of the border, several of us in one room; but at least we two of the bicycle corps did not have to mix up with the jam of horses about the place. And we had another decided advantage in not having horses to look after in a hot prairie wilderness where there was not a well, scarcely a stream not gone to a dry bed, and only an occasional water tank on the one railroad running south to Texas. This water would be of service only to the comparative few who could locate near by. ADVERTISMENT ...A quarter to twelve. The line stiffened and became more quiet with the tension of waiting.

Out in front a hundred yards and twice as far apart were soldiers, resting easily on their rifles, contemplating the line. I casually wondered how they would manage to dodge the onrush; perhaps they were wondering that too. The engine, a few hundred feet away, coughed gently at the starting line; its tender and the tops of its ten cattle cars trailing back into the state of Kansas, were alive with men. Inside the cars the boomers were packed standing, their arms sticking out where horns ought to be... Five minutes. Three minutes. The soldiers now stood with rifles pointing upward, waiting for the first sound of firing to come along their line from the east. A cannon at its eastern end was to give the first signal; this the rifles were to take up and carryon as fast as sound could travel the length of the Cherokee Strip. All set! At one minute before twelve o'clock my brother and I, noticing that the soldier out in front was squinting upward along his rifle barrel and intent on the coming signal, slipped out fifty feet in front of the line, along the railroad embankment. It was the best possible place from which to view the start.

It has been estimated that there were somewhere around one hundred thousand men in line on the Kansas border. Within the two-mile range of vision that we had from our point of vantage there were at least five thousand and probably nearly eight. Viewed from out in front the waiting line was a breath-taking sight. We had seen it only from within the crowd or from the rear. The back of the line was ragged, incoherent; the front was even, smooth, solid. It looked like the line-up that it was. I thought I had sensed the immensity of the spectacle, but that one moment out in front gave me the unmatched thrill of an impending race with six thousand starters in sight. First in the line was a solid bank of horses; some had riders, some were hitched to gigs, buckboards, carts, and wagons, but to the eye there were only the two miles of tossing heads, shiny chests, and restless front legs of horses. With the train in the background, waggoners rush from the start line. While we stood, numb with looking, the rifles snapped and the line broke with a huge, crackling roar.

That one thundering moment of horseflesh by the mile quivering in its first leap forward was a gift of the gods, and its like will never come again. The next instant we were in a crash of vehicles whizzing past us like a calamity... The funniest of all the starters was the engine with its ten carloads of men. From our stand fifty feet directly in front of it I was contemplating it as the chief absurdity of the race when the rush began. The engine tooted incessantly and labored hard, but of course she could not get under way with anything like the quickness of the horses... Of course everybody on the train was mad with excitement, particularly since they were packed in without a chance to vent their emotions in any but some noise-making way. With the first toots of the engine came revolver shots from the crowds all along the tops of the cars, and at least a few from those penned up inside. The fusillade, which kept up all the while the train was pulling out past us, had a most exhilarating effect; my old gun, I suddenly noticed, was barking with the rest of them...

A little before midnight, we woke to a distant clatter of hoofs, shouting, and shooting. 'Number - section - township - range -. Keep off and get off!' Then crack! crack! went the rifles, after each call, from the pretty country we had been admiring at sundown... After a hearty breakfast we pumped up our sorry tires and packed up to start south for the town sites. Ever since daybreak boomers had been straggling northward, bound for Kansas and all points east. One young fellow who stopped for a moment while we were eating breakfast was a fair sample of this crowd... He had staked a claim in our nice little valley, along with a half dozen others on the same tract; and of course, as in such cases all over the Strip, nobody under heaven could know who had arrived first. But for him the delicate question had been settled by the gay horsemen in the pitch darkness of the night before. By the time they were through with him he felt assured that he must have arrived about a week late. 'I wouldn't live here next to such neighbors, anyway,' he told us with considerable heat.

At this safe distance and in the daylight his feelings had turned to indignation, but he was still trembling a little." References: This eyewitness account appears in Humphrey, Seth King, Following the Prairie Frontier (1931); Davis, William C., The American Frontier (1992). How To Cite This Article: "The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893," EyeWitness to History, (2006). The Oklahoma Land Rush: Property Rights on the American Frontier The Oklahoma Land Rush: Property Rights on the American Frontier The Oklahoma Land Rush: Property Rights on the American Frontier Lesson overview What would life be like if we could own things just by claiming them on a first-come-first-served basis? This simulation lets students consider that question by simulating the rationing of land in American history in that very manner – the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893. As student “Boomers” engage in the chaos and excitement of racing for land, they participate in a common experience they can analyze and evaluate afterwards. The debriefing helps them sort through the experience, highlighting the exorbitant – and largely unrecognized – costs of this much-storied method of rationing property rights in the American West.

Video Demonstration: Background on Property Rights Most American students never learn about property rights in their U.S. History or economics classes. Because we live in a country in which the fundamental rights of life, liberty and property are firmly grounded in the rule of law, we tend to take these rights for granted - especially our property rights. However, property rights and the role they play in American wealth and freedom bear thinking about. With the prevalence of slogans about “people, not property,” it is important to begin by recognizing that property rights are human rights. Economists define property rights as: the rights of human beings to use and transfer their possessions, including themselves. Property rights consist of the privileges and limitations of use, exclusion, and transfer. A useful metaphor for property rights is a “bundle of sticks.” Full property rights include the following “sticks:” Property rights are well-defined: privileges and limitations are clear to all. Property rights are exclusive: the owner may exclude others from the benefits. Property rights are transferable through voluntary agreements. Property rights are enforceable by self, community, or government, at low cost. Legal scholars divide property rights into 3 defined categories: private property, common property and collective (government-owned) property.

Each system creates different incentives and results in differing patterns of use, exclusion and transferability. While the details vary with circumstances, we can make some valid generalizations – backed by historical evidence – about the characteristics of the 3 ownership arrangements: Privately owned property tends to be maintained and improved because owners typically want to maximize its utility or profitability; Commonly owned property tends to experience the “tragedy of the commons, diminishing in value through overuse and/or lack of maintenance; and The value of collective (government owned) property is subject to dissipation and rent-seeking through the dynamics of the political process. In the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893, the U.S. government privatized about two million acres known as the "Cherokee Strip". Private citizens could acquire property rights to parcels of land in the Strip through a first-come-first-served process. Citizens literally raced from the starting line as the gun fired to claim their “free” land. From an economic point of view this race for resources was wasteful and inefficient; all the resources that went into maximizing speed could have been more profitably used in other ways.

From a political point of view, privatizing in this way made sense – politicians could take credit for "giving away" the land for "free." Historical Background The rush for the Cherokee Strip was the third in a series of land races staged the U.S. federal government in 1885, 1889 and 1893. By 1893 the pattern for these events was well established: at the announcement that more western lands would be available for settlement, the popular press would promote the event up and down the East coast. Railroad companies would provide special trains going directly to the “jumping off” sites, and real estate developers would plan out new towns and cities to spring up (literally overnight) in the newly opened lands. "Boomers" were those settlers who waited for the boom of the cannon before rushing into the opened lands to claim their parcels. "Sooners" snuck onto the land early, claiming it long before the Boomers arrived even though the U.S. Army patrolled the entrance points and did its best to police the area before the rush to settlement could begin.

At the appointed time, the cannon roared and tens of thousands of boomers literally raced into the territory determined to claim the best land available. The Land Rush of 1893 was different in one important way, however. Prior to the federal government opening the "Strip" to settlement, the Cherokee nation had leased the land to the members of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association. The first lease was signed in 1883 and under its terms the Cherokee were paid $100,000 per year for five years. [1] The terms of the lease show specified the privileges and limitations of the livestock association members: Members of the Association agreed that they would erect no permanent buildings on the Outlet and that all temporary improvements should go to the Cherokees upon the expiration of the lease. They would cut no timber except for fencing and temporary structures. [2] Both the Cherokee and the Association wanted to preserve the land for cattle grazing, and were unwilling to jeopardize it through development or logging. The first lease was successful for both parties, but in the autumn of 1888 the Cherokee wanted to renegotiate.

After hearing offers from other parties (one of whom wanted to buy the land outright for $18 million) the Cherokee agreed to renew the lease with the Association, this time for $200,000 per year for another five years. [3] While this was agreeable to both parties, political pressures were growing for an altogether different use for the Cherokee Strip: agricultural settlement. In 1888 the federal government stopped recognizing leases between the Cherokees and the ranchers. The next year Congress authorized purchasing the land for $1.25 an acre. [4] Fearing that the federal government might simply expropriate the land, the tribe agreed to sell. They received only $8.6 million, far less money than the ranchers had offered.5 The pressure to open the land to settlement was enormous, and soon rules for settlers to claim land were announced. The proclamation specified that the land must be entered from either the northern or the southern borders of the strip. It also provided for nine registration booths, four on the southern border and five on the northern border. These booths were necessary because potential claimants needed to obtain a certificate in order to enter the race.

After finding a claim, the individual was to report to a land office and register his or her claim and surrender the certificate. [5] The press was there as well, and soon the story was well known in the major population centers of the country. The result was that by Saturday, the 16th of September, 1893, between 100,000 and 150,000 boomers were ready to race for the 42,000 available parcels. [6] The encampments at the starting line had no fresh water or sewage facilities, and newspapers reported deaths in the camps due to sunstroke. [7] The race to claim the land was even more dangerous. The army was on hand to prevent Boomers from starting early; unfortunately, one deaf man who was shot dead because he thought the cannon had fired a few minutes early. When the cannon did finally boom, thousands of wagons took off over the rough terrain, and many quickly overturned or broke apart. People on foot were often trampled by horses that managed to make it through the initial melee.

One settler recalled that in the first mile and half in from the start, he saw 40 horses that had "collapsed and died from heat, thirst and over-exertion." [8] From an economic perspective, the Oklahoma Land Race of 1893 was a tragic waste of resources. It forces us to ask why so many people had to lose so much in order to get land. The answer lies with the role of property rights. Prior to 1888 the owners of the land, the Cherokee, had come to an agreement with a group of cattlemen to lease the land for an agreed upon sum. No cattlemen died of sun stroke waiting to bring their cattle in for grazing. No wagons were destroyed by overzealous cowboys wanting to be the first ones into the prime grazing lands. Instead the parties came to a voluntary agreement in which the Cherokee agreed to rent out the property rights to portions of their land. The federal government, by refusing to recognize the lease arrangements, redefined property rights in the area, making a wasteful race for resources the only rational course of action for hundreds of thousands of people. Well-defined property rights developed by people directly involved create economically efficient uses of the property.

Whenever property rights are created or developed by distant groups with different agendas, inefficiency and waste are highly probable. Sources: Anderson, Terry and Hill, Peter .J. The Not so Wild, Wild West. Stanford University Press, 2004. Anderson, Terry and McChesney, Fred editors. Property Rights, Cooperation, Conflict, and Law. Princeton University Press, 2003. Bethell, Tom. The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998. Walton, Gary M. and Rockoff, Hugh. History of the American Economy. Thomas Learning, 2002. Chronicles of Oklahoma, volume 9, No. 3, September 1931. This was found online at the following url: http:/digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v009/v009p268.html Smith, Vernon. "Human Nature: An Economic Perspective," Daedalus. Volume 133, Issue 4, Fall 2004, pp 67 - 76.

Opportunity cost of “racing for resources” Materials “Land plots” – desks, small tables, or chairs: 4-6 (several fewer than the number of “families”) Poker chips - 20 per family (4 students per family) “Land Deeds” – sticky notes - one each for the land plots Overhead transparencies of Scenario (p.9), Rules (p. 10), and Debriefing Questions (p.8) Candy - two bags of Hershey's Kisses or similar candy Classroom setup: Move classroom desks against the walls, leaving a large space in the center of the room. Place desks, tables or chairs in the empty space to simulate the land plots. (There must several fewer tables than family groups.) Leave a fair amount of space around each desk - two to three feet in every direction. Put a deed (sticky note) on each land plot. Number the deeds 1, 2 and 3 -- these numbers will be used to determine the reward for families which get the land. (Student families must collect a sticky note to claim a plot of land.) Tape a line on the floor in the back of the room where families must wait for the race to begin.

Procedures: Start a class discussion about what it means to own something. Guide this discussion to the idea of property rights listed above. Ownership means that society recognizes your right to use something, to exclude others from using it, and to transfer it if you want to. End the discussion by asking "when you own something, when it's yours, do you take care of it? Why or why not?" Elicit some responses from your students about the incentives of ownership, helping them to articulate that we generally take care of things we own because we want to preserve or increase their value. Announce that today the class will be doing a simulation of a famous episode in American history: the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893. Place the scenario overhead on the projector and read through it with the class. Be sure to emphasize that families brought everything they own in the world with them; all of their resources are packed into wagons. Divide the class into family groups of four. Designate any leftover students as race marshalls and managers for the simulation. Marshalls have a very important role: they make sure that families follow the rules before and during the race. Managers help in the distribution of game pieces and prizes.

Explain that in this activity there will be candy prizes for families that get plots of land in the “Cherokee Strip” in the center of the classroom. Land will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Families may claim plots of land by being the first to pick up the deed (sticky note), putting the resources and belongings they’ve carried to the plot, and sitting or standing around the boundaries of the plot they’re claiming. The more of their chips they can get to the desk, the larger their reward will be. Give each family 20 poker chips to represent the resources they are bringing with them to the property they hope to claim. Emphasize that their resources are valuable but remind the families that it is risky to commit them to this endeavor. Chips may not be left behind and they may be carried only on the back of the hand and top of the forearm. (Demonstrate: Bend arms at elbow; elbow against rib cage, palm of hand facing floor. Chips must sit on back of hand and forearm.) ALL members of the family must carry some of the chips. Chips that fall off become worthless when they hit the ground or another person or object, and may NOT be retrieved.

Move all families behind the tape line in the back of the room, and have the marshalls keep everyone behind the line. Instruct families to practice carrying chips while you rearrange the room for the activity. (Marshalls act as judges of “legal” chip carrying.) Arrange the classroom in the manner described above, if you haven't done so already. Explain to the class that these remaining desks are the Cherokee Strip - some of the most valuable land in Oklahoma. Review the rules on how to carry chips. Remind students that dropped chips cannot be retrieved. Finally, remind the marshals to help enforce these rules. Position yourself near the front of the room where you can see who gets to each desk first. Start the race: "on your marks, get set, GO!" When all desks are claimed (about 20-30 seconds), announce that the race is over. Direct those who have not made successful claims to “leave the Cherokee Strip” by returning to the back of the room behind the tape line. Enlist the marshalls to help settle any claim disputes. Award prizes to successful “Boomers” – bigger prizes to the families who got the most chips to their land and smaller prizes to those with few or no chips.

(Calculate the reward as #chips the family gets to the desk X the value of the deed. For example, twelve chips on a desk that has a 3 deed would be 36 pieces of candy). Rearrange the classroom and debrief. Debrief the activity, using the overhead transparency of the discussion questions. The Emphasize how wasteful this method of allocation was. The absence of clearly defined property rights created incentives that resulted in waste and inefficient use of resources. Some families lost all their chips and got no land; this also happened in the Oklahoma Land Rush. The best follow up to this activity involves showing the Land Rush Sequence from the 1992 film, Far and Away starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The sequence comes near the end of the film and lasts five to ten minutes. Director Ron Howard went to great lengths to include several historical details in this sequence. Debriefing Teacher Guide Prior to the race, who owned the land?The government owned it up to the point that the race began. The U.S. government purchased the land from the Cherokee tribe for the purpose of giving it away. Once the race began, who owned it?

For a short time, no one owned the land, so everyone thought he or she could claim it. After the race who owned the land? The successful families became the new owners of the land. In fact what once belonged to the government was "privatized"- turned over to those who got there first. How many families got land? Only six of the families got land because there were only six lots. The advertising for the actual Oklahoma land rush meant that over 150,000 people showed up to claim about 40,000 lots. Why did so few families get land? Many reasons, the most important is that the land rush was advertised up and down the Eastern Seaboard. People's expectations were that they could get land for free so over 150,000 people showed up for only 40,000 lots. For those families who got land: How many chips were you able to get there with you? "Not too many " is what the kids should answer. The jostling and bumping made it impossible to hold the chips properly, so people rushed for the land and lost control of their resources. Why did so few chips get to the desks?

Kids will talk about how crazy and chaotic it was - which is true. But why was it crazy and chaotic? Because this is the worst way to privatize land or pretty much anything else. This way encourages people to race, which encourages them not to be careful. For families that didn't get land: How many chips do you have left? Once again the answer will be not many. They raced and lost, but the costs of racing were still very high for them. Was the land really free after all? No. In order to get property rights to land the families had to invest in the maps, travel across the country and then dump resources in order to get to desirable land. In the end this was very expensive land for any family that got some. Is there another, less wasteful way the government could have privatized the land? What are some of the costs and benefits of doing this differently? Lottery, direct sales, as a reward to Civil War Veterans - kids should give many answers.

Oklahoma Land Rush History Browse: Home » Oklahoma Land Rush History Oklahoma Land Rush History · by Mary · in Oklahoma When Pete and I found out we’d be living in Oklahoma, the movie “Far and Away” with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise came to mind. In this movie, Nicole Kidman’s Irish character comes to America because she heard of the great Oklahoma Land Rush opportunity, where the United States government was “giving away land, as far as the eyes could see”. Now, having lived in Oklahoma for a few months, the significance of that land run has new meaning to me. Where I currently live (in Lawton, part of Comanche county) wasn’t part of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 , one of the largest land rushes in United States history. This land rush took place in the middle of the state, and included the area of present-day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, and Payne counties. (Note: There were actually seven land runs that took place in Oklahoma; the rush in 1889 was the first.) Roughly 50,000 people lined up at high noon to to claim up to two million acres of land.

Due to the Homestead Act of 1862 , signed by President Abraham Lincoln, legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres (0.65 km2) in size. Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the settler could then receive the title to the land. 1000+ images about land rush free land on Pinterest | Cherokee, September 16 and American history Indian territory land was given away in the Great American Land Rush when the area moved to U.S. Statehood (Oklahoma) See More Remembering the Oklahoma Land Rush - History in the Headlines Remembering the Oklahoma Land Rush April 22, 2014 By Christopher Klein Share this: Remembering the Oklahoma Land Rush Author Remembering the Oklahoma Land Rush URL Google At high noon on April 22, 1889, settlers furiously dashed across the Oklahoma plains to stake their claims to nearly two million acres put up for grabs by the U.S. government. On the anniversary of the Oklahoma Land Rush, look back at the estimated 50,000 “boomers” and “sooners” who engaged in what some have called the greatest horse race in American history.

As the sun approached its zenith on April 22, 1889, an anxious army of 50,000 land-hungry settlers awaited their signal. Then, as the minute hand slipped over the hour hand at noontime, cannons boomed, pistols fired and bugles blared across the dusty plains. Horseback riders kicked their mounts with their spurs and wagon drivers cracked their whips as they thundered across the prairie in a frenzied sprint. Exhilaration coursed through their veins and wind whipped through their hair as they charged ahead to stake their claims to what they hoped would be their new homesteads. The “boomers” participating in the Oklahoma Land Rush all thirsted for a piece of the cheap land that had been opened up for white settlement by the U.S. government. Unlike other portions of the Indian Territory, which was sandwiched between Kansas and Texas, that had been assigned to the nearly 40 Native American tribes forcibly relocated by the federal government in previous decades, these vast “Unassigned Lands” had not been designated to any particular tribe.

Due to improved agricultural and ranching techniques, even this arid, treeless landscape once thought worthless had become coveted by white farmers and ranchers seeking virgin territory. Responding to their wishes, President Benjamin Harrison declared on March 23, 1889, that the Unassigned Lands would be open for settlement beginning precisely at noon on April 22. First come, first served. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, settlers could claim 160 acres of public land and receive title to the property after five years if they lived on and improved the plot. Women, although legally prohibited from voting, were eligible to participate in the Land Rush, and there was no citizenship requirement either. Immigrants from Ireland, England, France and Scotland were among the tens of thousands of boomers who began to amass like an invading force along the region’s northern border with Kansas and the southern border along the Canadian River. Federal troops patrolled the region’s borders to prevent illegal incursions by settlers who violated the “sooner clause” of the Indian Appropriation Act by entering and occupying land prior to the time proclaimed by the president.

However, the cavalry simply could not stop all of the “sooners” who crossed the border and hid out in the brush and in ravines to get a jump on the competition. On the morning of April 22, tens of thousands of law-abiding boomers gathered at the border, and long lines of covered wagons snaked away from river crossings. All the settlers knew it was survival of the fastest. Horseback riders hoped they had the fleetest steeds beneath their saddles so that they could reach their desired plots before anyone else and await the arrival of the rest of their families and supplies on the cumbersome wagons that rattled over the rutted prairie. As many as a third of the settlers boarded “boomer trains” operated by the Santa Fe Railway through the heart of the Unassigned Lands, although the iron horses were prohibited from traveling faster than their equine counterparts, lest they gain an advantage. Once the cavalry troops signaled the arrival of noontime, the race was on. Throughout the region riders planted stakes into the ground to signal their new patches of land, while the sooners who had sneaked in ahead of time suddenly emerged from their hiding spots and took advantage of their head start.

Some of the “eighty-niners” immediately started to make improvements to the land—stringing barbed wire, digging wells and arranging the first logs of their cabins—before hurrying to land offices to register their claims. In the course of a single afternoon, new locales such as Oklahoma City suddenly emerged from the prairie. Guthrie had been transformed from a small railroad station to a tent city of 10,000 people in just hours. By nightfall, more than 11,000 agricultural homesteads had been claimed during the Oklahoma Land Rush. Not surprisingly, numerous disputes arose with multiple parties claiming the same plot of land. The Oklahoma Land Office recorded that by 1892, approximately 5,000 claims were being contested. Court battles between boomers and sooners took years to resolve, and some cases even ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Oklahoma Land Rush hastened the demise of the Indian Territory. Subsequent land rushes in the 1890s eventually removed most of the land from Native American control.

In 1890, the Unassigned Lands became the Oklahoma Territory, which united with the Indian Territory in 1907 to form the 46th state of the Union—Oklahoma, which has paid homage to its Land Rush heritage by adopting the nickname of the “Sooner State.” Tags Oklahoma Land Rush 1893 to 1919 Oklahoma Land Rush 1893 to 1919 At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon's boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw. Carried by all kinds of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot - an estimated 100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory - but this was the big one. In 1828 Congress designated the land that would become Oklahoma as Indian Territory. White settlers were required to leave, and a number of tribes from the East and South were forcibly moved into the area from their ancestral lands.

Chief among these were the Five Civilized Tribes - the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole - who allied themselves with the South during the Civil War. Following the war, the US government looked upon these tribes as defeated enemies. This animosity combined with increasing pressure to open up the Indian Territory to white settlement prompted the first land rush in 1885, a second followed in 1889. By the time of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893, America was in the grip of the worst economic depression it had ever experienced. This was one of the factors that swelled the number of expectant land-seekers that day. Many would be disappointed. There were only 42,000 parcels of land available--far too few to satisfy the hopes of all those who raced for land that day. Additionally, many of the "Boomers" -- those who had waited for the cannon's boom before rushing into the land claim - found that a number of the choice plots had already been claimed by "Sooners" who had snuck into the land claim area before the race began. The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight.

Father of Ruth Marie Yeoman The following article was written by my Aunt Monie (Ramona Yeoman Smith): Lee Yeoman was born April 27, 1886, near Greensburg, Kansas. His parents had married in Rensselaer, Indiana. Her parents gave them a team of horses and wagon and $1000.00 for a wedding gift, so the story goes, and they headed west. ï¿½Lee His buggy & team & Frankï¿½ Marcus Lee Yeoman (Grandmother Yeoman, Margaret Parkison, was the granddaughter, 3 generations removed of Simon Kenton [see Kenton genealogy section], a pioneer and scout of some renown.) They had gone to Colorado first but came back to Kansas before Lee was born. He told us of standing beside his father as he started the race in the Cherokee Strip Opening, when he was 7 years old. They moved to Oklahoma then, where his father homesteaded. They lived on the farm and his father ran a hardware store in town. Lee and his mother mostly ran the farm. He grew up in the north central area of Oklahoma. He went to school until he finished his Jr. year in high school.

He was an outstanding football player and was offered a scholarship to the college at Stillwater, Oklahoma. He got on his horse and was riding to Stillwater, when he came upon a guy who was wanting to sell a herd of cattle for what he thought was a good price, so he bought them and drove them back to the farm. He never got to college. On December 31, 1912 he married Gladys Krebs: Florence, Ruth, Christine, and Ramona... J Lew, Bob, Bill, Frank, and Lee In 1929 they moved to a ranch in Clark County, Kansas. It was a dream ranch for Lee, but not ideal for Gladys and inconvenient for the children to go to school. There were no roads into the place then and the house was not the most elegantï¿½ so they kept their home in Kaw City. Gladys and the children lived in town during the school months and Lee stayed on the ranch year around. The Old Ranch House It was always a great event for the children to move to the ranch in the summer time.

Later on, when the older children were ready for college, they sold the home in Kaw City and bought one in Alva, Oklahoma for the winter stays. It was much closer to the ranch. Until 1947-48, when rural electrification came about, the farms did not have electricity, nor actually any other modern conveniences. The lights were kerosene lamps for the most part, with one gas lamp. The gas lamp put out a brighter light but needed pumping up frequently to keep it burning. There was an outdoor privy, (the old backhouse), and a water pipe ran into the house from the windmill. It was fixed with a shut off and there was a 50 gallon barrel in the house to fill with water. The cook stove was a wood/coal stove, as was the heating stove. Old Privy Gas Light Old Cook Stove The oldest son, Frank, moved to the ranch permanently when he graduated from high school, and there were a least three hired hands who stayed there with Lee and him in the winter. It was during the depression years that Lee wrote most of his poetry. The evenings were long and he missed his family very much, especially Gladys.

Lee was an optimist, always thinking things were going to get better. He also had a great sense of humor, as you can tell from most of his poems. Lee was an excellent horseman, and always took good care of his horses. He liked to break his own horses and did a very good job. He practically lived on a horse in his younger days. He sometimes rode in the rodeos, and as any of his friends might tell you, but rarely him, he had never been ï¿½thrown.ï¿½ Many nights he slept on the prairie with his saddle for a pillow, when he was on a cattle buying trip. He tried many occupations along with his farming/ranching business, ï¿½to make it throughï¿½ the depression years. At one time, he even had a dealership for selling the Model T Ford. He never gave up his horses though until he could no longer ride. Even then he always had one or two around for when the kids came. He kept a herd of Shetland ponies on the ranch, raising the colts and having his younger children gentle ride them since they were gentle.

He did sell some of them from time to time, but doubt they were as much for profit as for ï¿½something to keep the kids out of mischief.ï¿½ Dust storm during the Great Depression J. Lew, Christine, Bob, and Monie and the horses J. Lew on his horse In 1947, he and Gladys and the two youngest sons moved to Fredonia, Kansas where he had bought a farm. Ramona, Ruth, and Lee Ruthï¿½s sister, Florence, married Alfred Gabriel (Gabe) Dorsey on July 1, 1936. Frank and his family were on the ranch in 1943. Virginia, Florence, and Gabe... Virginia, Frank Florence, James, Gabe, and Bill Lee continued to raise cattle and feed with his son Bob in Fredonia until his death on February 25, 1972. Lee was sometimes called ï¿½Beboï¿½ by his grandchildren. The story goes that Gladysï¿½ pet name for him was Lebo. Frank Dorsey couldnï¿½t say Lebo so the name became Bebo to the grandkids.

Lee wanted to be called daddy or Lee, so Ruth, Frank, Florence and Bill called him Lee. He used to tease and tell his kids to call him Lee so nobody would know they belonged to him. Gladys continued to live on the farm with her son Bob who took over the ranch. Gladys passed away on December 7, 1990. Bob Yeoman on Tex Bob Yeoman

Question: The Great Land Rush of 1889 took place in which state of the USA?
Answer: OKLAHOMA