Today we will venture into the Land Run of 1889, and view it from the beginning. We will establish the early actions taken to bring about the later results and consider the Indian viewpoint of the whole situation.
The Oklahoma Land Run was the most American of all frontiers because it was an event that combined the workings of our political and economic institutionswith a dramatic personal experience, by tens of thousands of ordinary American citizens, who knew that they were making history.
The American territorial system created by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 brought western areas into focus and promoted the bringing of many states into the Union. Enabling settlements to become states and enter the Union on a basis of equality and share in the governance of the entire United States.
The Omnibus bill of Feb.22, 1889, admitted four states into the Union at once, North and South Dakota, Montanaand Washington. The center of political power at that time was thus shifted to Indiana. It had previously been in New York.
Our interest today is in the incidents leading to the Land Run of 1889 in Indian Territory. The admission of the Omnibus States was a foot in the door for other territories.
Back in the Gold Rush of 1849 there was a vast movement of men across Indian Territory, on their way to California, any route that they took led them through buffalo country. The vast areas of grassland and flowing streams that they crossed left the impression permanently in their minds, of a land of opportunity. Most of the adventurers returned to their homes after the allure of mining or panning for gold had run its course.
As time passed, the memory of the open spaces in Indian Territory caused many to desire to relocate there. Kansas territory began to fill with settlers. Missouri had already filled with settlers to its western border. Pressure upon Indian tribes in Kansas to remove was tremendous. Kansas became a state in 1861 after 33 yearsas a territory.
The Civil War came in 1861 and upset all development and expansion until after the war ended. Reconstruction slowed expansion, but the government made new treaties at Ft. Smith penalizing the Five Civilized Tribes for their loyalty to the Confederacy.
Other tribes of Indians were allowed to come in, and land areas of some tribes were reduced greatly, resulting in 2 million acres of Creek and Seminole land, in the heart of Indian Territory, left unclaimed. The masses of whites, many impoverished, made an outcry for the surplus land that the government owned in Indian Territory. Elias C. Boudinot, a prominent part-Cherokee attorney and railroad lobbyist pushed for settlement of the territory. A turncoat for Indian interest.
Dr. Morrison Munford, publisher of the Kansas City Times, joined the vocal outcry to open the land for settlement. Col. C.C. Carpenter, a pretentious frontiersman,with “Wild Bill Hickok,” in 1879 prompted a caravan of land seekers to cross the Kansas line at Coffeyville and head for the unassigned lands. Carpenter himself did not cross the line with them. The U.S. Army troops intercepted them and returned them to Kansas while Carpenter fled into hiding. The effort may have died there had it not been for David L. Payne, a former captain in the Kansas Cavalry.
Payne had settled and been in politics in Wichita, Kan. He was a likable man and had some good points, but he had a weakness for alcohol and borrowing money from his friends. He had lost three homesteads because he could not work and improve them due to excessive visitation at the local saloon. Payne saw himself as another Sam Houston, who led Texas to independence and formed a “Boomer movement” to settle Indian Territory. They moved in and were thrown out of Indian Territory several times from 1879 to 1889. William L. Couch joined forces with Payne and, between 1880 and 1885, they led 16 intrusions into Indian Territory. However, once back in Wichita, Payne died suddenly of a heart attack at breakfast in the DeBarnard Hotel.
The “Boomer Movement” slowed to a whisper for a time while the Santa Fe Railroad was constructed from Arkansas City to Gainsville, Texas in 1886 and 1887. Many of the Boomers worked on the railroad construction, which led directly through the center of the unassigned lands, and provided opportunity to enter the lands and select a homestead in anticipation of the land opening.
In 1888, the Oklahoma issue ignited again when a circular was sent out to arrange for a convention at Kansas City on Feb.8, 1888. Present at the meeting were prominent men including Morrison Mumford of the Kansas City Times, William Couch, Kansas politician Sydney Clark, and Samuel Crocker, the fiery editor of the Oklahoma Boomer journal The War Chief. Joining in were such men as Marsh Murdock of the Wichita Eagle, frontier journalist Milton W. Reynolds and Harry Hill, the wealthy owner of the Wichita Horse and Mule market, and a stagecoach line. The meeting awakened interest in the movement.
The Oklahoma issue was before congress where measures were introduced to open the country; however, a delegation of Indian leaders arrived in Washington to stop the legislation. The Indians looked upon the situation as the great father in Washington strong robbing the Indians and breaking treaties. The government was determined to solve the “Indian Problem.”
Editor's Note:In collaboration with the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Examiner-Enterprise has revivedthe lateEdgar Weston's 'Revisitingthe Past' columns that ran in the newspaper from 1997-99. Weston's columns recount the history of Bartlesville as well as Washington, Nowata and Osage counties.
