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THE ATLANTIAN
19
II Attention Barbers? I
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SOME EARLY OKLAHOMA
HISTORY.
In spite of the fact that Oklahoma is
the youngest of the states, it has historic
associations as numerous and romantic
as attach to many of the older states.
Parts of Oklahoma are as old in point
of settlement, for that matter, as some of
the states farther east. Without going
back as far as Coronado's visit, the evi
dences of which are numerous and indis
putable, Oklahoma’s authentic history
reaches back at least to the second decade
of the nineteenth century, and has been
replete with historic interest ever since
that time.
One fact in connection with the his
tory of the new State, which is not very
•generally known, is that the country be
tween Hobart and Chickasha is the tract
chosen by Aaron Burr and Gen. Wilker-
son for the original southwestern empire.
Emissaries of Burr and Wilkerson went
over this territory over 100 years ago and
gave a glowing report on it throughout
the east. Gen. Wilkerson, who had made
a personal investigation of the country,
said of it:
“It is a marvelous land, surrounded
by lovely hills, which in the spring time
are clothed in the bloom of innumerable
fruit trees. The soil is the richest that
1 know anything about on the American
continent and some day it will support a
great population.”
How well Wilkerson's prophecy is be
ing carried out, a visit to the country he
described will demonstrate. The country
is filled up as thoroughly as Burr and
Wilkerson believed it would be. Burr
died a disappointed man except for one
fact; he lived long enough to hear the
story of the victory of San Jacinto in
Texas, and he knew that the future of
the Oklahoma country was safe.
The story of Port Gibson, established
by the United States government in 1816,
would of itself fill a good sized volume.
It was for many years the extreme out
post of civilization and the link between
the older states and the new American
empire which was gradually growing up
in Texas. Gen. Taylor and Jefferson
Davis were both stationed there in the
days before the Mexican war, and it was
there that the future president of the
Confederacy courted and eloped with
pretty Betty Taylor in defiance of the
objection of her parents.
It was to Fort Gibson that Sam Hous
ton came after suddenly resigning the
governorship of Tennessee. It was there
that he wooed and wed Talihina Rogers,
a beautiful Cherokee girl, leaving there
as suddenly as he had Tennessee to go
to Texas and begin his career as the
liberator of the Lone Star State.
Henry M. Stanley taught school at
Fort Gibson. Washington Irving stopped
there in 1832 during his famous “Tour
of the Prairies,” and described in glow
ing terms the country to the westward
from the fort, now comprising the State
of Oklahoma. Longfellow visited the
post and became intimate with many : of
the Cherokee and Delaware Indians. It
was from the mountainous country along
the Grand and Illinois rivers, near Fort
Gibson, that he obtained the inspiration
for some o*. the scenic descriptions in his
poems.
Many historic associations are also at
tached to Fort Supply, Fort Arbuckle,
Fort Sill, Fort Reno and the other army
posts maintained in Oklahoma in the
early days. From Fort Supply, now
used as a general hospital for the insane,
Custer, Sheridan, Miles and many of the
other Indian fighters of the United States
army went forth on their campaigns.
Custer’s historic battle of the Washita
was fought on Oklahoma soil, and the
bodies of the heroes who were slain in
that fight still rest in the old National
cemetery at Fort Gibson.
During the Civil War, as well as in
the Indian campaigns which followed,
Oklahoma was a battleground. A full
brigade of Indian troops, under Gen. Sam
Watie, the Cherokee chieftian, entered
the Confederate army, while the Osages,
Cherokees and Creeks were also well rep
resented in the Federal armies. Quan-
trell’s guerillas and other irregular troops
operated all over the northeastern part
of the State.
Historic “No Man’s Land,” now
divided into the three counties of Beaver,
Texas and Cimarron, could also furnish
enough historical reminiscences to fill a
book. Cut off from Texas because of
the fact the territory was a slave-holding
State could not extend north of Mason
and Dixon’s line, it was for years without
any law or sovereignity. Tiring of the
rule of vigilance committees, the resi
dents of the strip tried to establish a
government of their own by organizing,
the provisional government of Cimarron
territory, but it was never recognized
by congress, which finally attached the
territory to Oklahoma in 1856.
William H. Taft, now president of
the United States, played an important
part in establishing the jurisdiction of
the United States government over the
unique tract of land. When he was
solicitor general of the United States he
presented the legal argument which de
cided that question. The case arose over
the county seat war in Stevens county,
Kansas, in which a number of persons
were surprised and killed in No Man’s
Land, just across the State line from
Stevens county, in what was known as
the May Meadow massacre. The defend
ants escaped because of defects in the
trial in the lower court, but the control
of the Neutral Strip by the United States
was clearly established and for the first
time.
Both No Man’s Land and the Texas
Panhandle were in the path of the pio
neers who went through to California in
’49, and also of those bands of travelers,
free-booters and soldiers of fortune who
sought Spanish treasure in both Old and
New Mexico. In consequence of that fact
many buried treasure stories have arisen,
and even yet a party occasionally appears,
armed with maps and diagrams, and digs
a few holes, apparently without result.
Almost Equal to No Man’s Land in the
interest of its history is Greer county,
where many of the older settlers have
lived in two states, one territory and
two counties without changing their hab
itation. Originally a part of the State
of Texas, then of the territory of Okla
homa and now of the State of the same
name, citizens of Beckham, Jackson and
Harmon counties, carved from old Greer,
have lived in Greer county, Texas, and
Greer county, Oklahoma, in addition to
the one in which they now reside.
Capt. Payne’s Oklahoma boomers and
their efforts to secure the opening of the
country to settlement added another in
teresting chapter to the history of the
State, while the development of Okla
homa in the last twenty years, its adop
tion of the constitution which has been
pointed to as the best ever and its suc
cess in putting into operation experiments
in government hitherto untried have add
ed a fitting climax to the romance of
“The Land of the Fair God.”
WANTED A PARADE.
(From Judge)
When Henry Irving was making one
of his last tours of the country he found
himself with an open date in Michigan.
His manager wired the manager of a
small opera house in a near-by place,
asking if ho could use Irving on the
night in question. The following mes
sage came back:
“What does Irving do?”
The manager used up much expensive
space on the wire explaining the leading
points about Irving, and for his pains
received the following reply:
“Can not use Irving in this town un
less Irving can parade.”
UNASSISTED.
Meek Sister (sorrowfully): “Seems
like it wa’n’t hardly fair fer Providence
to give you four husbands and me nary
a one.”
Aggressive Sister: “Now, Hetty,
don’t you lay that onto the Lord. He
never had nothin’ to do with it. I jes’
got out an’ hustled fer them husbands.”
—Harper’s Magazine.
W. E. TREADWELL & CO.
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