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Boomer Leaders
CAPT. DAVID L. PAYNE.
Emporia News, May 14, 1869.
THE NINETEENTH KANSAS REGIMENT. Lieut. Col. W. C. Jones, an estimable officer, was, on the first day of May, at Topeka, presented with a valuable gold watch by his brother officers of the Nineteenth cavalry, as a small token of regard, a dinner and complimentary speeches being the concomitants of the presentation.
Col. W. C. Jones was a general favorite in his regiment, and spared no pains in rendering his battalion efficient, while at the same time he had a due regard for the comfort of his men. We understand that Capt. Payne and Lieut. Steele, both of company “H,” had also watches presented to them by members of the same troop. Leavenworth Bulletin.
Emporia News, July 29, 1870.
Capt. D. L. Payne, of Sedgwick County, called on us a few days ago. He has established a ranch in that county, on the road from El Dorado to Wichita, and intends making a big stock farm. Dave fought for his country during the rebellion, and was a Captain in Governor Crawford’s regiment, which went out against the Indians winter before last. We are glad to know that his prospects are bright for the accumulation of a fortune. He certainly deserves success.
Emporia News, September 9, 1870.
Capt. Payne, of Wichita, known in Kansas as “Oxheart,” was in town a day or two this week. Payne’s friends are as numerous as his acquaintances. He is always welcome.
BOUDINOT AND PAYNE.
Elias C. Boudinot first stimulated the homesteaders’ interest in Indian Territory with a series of letters written to newspapers early in 1879. In mid-February he revealed, in the Chicago Times, that the federal government had, after the Civil War, purchased millions of acres of land from tribes in the Territory. By treaties signed in 1866 with the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, the government bought approximately 14 million acres for $1,600,530. More than 1 million acres had been assigned to Pottawatomies and Sacs and Foxes, while Wichita held another 743,610 acres under an unratified agreement with Washington. The rest, Boudinot, declared, was public domain. Located west of the 97th meridian and south of the Cherokee Outlet, this land was “well adapted for the production of corn, wheat, and other cereals.” Stimulated by Boudinot’s report, prospective settlers flocked to the Kansas line. Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz closely followed newspaper accounts of homesteaders’ growing interest in Indian Territory and became alarmed by the situation. He announced that neither the Homestead Act nor any other federal land legislation applied to the purchased acreage. Any settlement in the area would be illegal. Schurz instructed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to empower Indians to evict intruding farmers.
PAYNE INVASIONS INTO
INDIAN TERRITORY
In the spring of 1880, David L. Payne emerged as leader of the farmers who were “booming” for opening the Indian Territory to settlement. Payne, a one-time guide, scout, Kansas legislator, and petty bureaucrat, had met Boudinot in Washington. Both men enjoyed the support of railroads eager to remove barriers to homesteading below Kansas. Boudinot was content to seek lawful means of achieving those ends, but Payne preferred the more direct method of outright invasion. Between May 19, 1880, and August 28, 1882, the boomer leader was four times arrested within Indian Territory—once escorted to its borders and released, and three times jailed, either by Army or civilian authorities. His raids during 1883 occurred with such frequency that the War Department lost count of them. In the military’s view, “The whole history of Payne’s operations is a farce, in which the Government is, of course, at a disadvantage. There is no punishment for Payne and his followers, the law only providing a fine for such transactions—a sort of punishment easily borne by the impecunious crowd which follows this business of intrusion into the Indian Territory.”
Arkansas City Traveler, May 19, 1880.
THE INVASION.
Just now the Indian Territory invasion is attracting no little attention. Within a week several army officers and agents have been in Wichita trying to ascertain the bottom facts. The dispatches assure us that an army of squatters have marched upon the forbidden ground. We don’t believe a word of it. Capt. Dave Payne, of this place, with several men, have gone down to the Canadian country. Lieut. Steadman, who was in Wichita Saturday, said he had just returned from an extended tour through the Territory, in which he had not met a half dozen teams. The boom is kept up by a few adventurers, which spirit is backed by corporations anxious for the opening of the lands.
From dispatches sent to the editor of this paper from the Department, we are satisfied that the Government will remove every man, peaceably if possible, but remove them at any cost. The special dispatches sent out that the people of Sedgwick County are flocking by hundreds to the Territory are thin canards and without the least foundation in truth.
The Caldwell Commercial says that Captain Pardee with a force of men, conducted by John Meager, had started after Captain Payne’s settlement on the Canadian. Wichita Eagle.
We cordially invite the attention of the Kansas City Times to the above.
[INDIAN TERRITORY INCURSION BY CAPT. D. L. PAYNE.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 26, 1880. Editorial.
Capt. D. L. Payne, who recently piloted a colony into the Territory for the purpose of occupying the disputed lands of Oklahoma, was arrested by United States troops at Ft. Reno last week. He was acting upon the advice of Hon. Ben Franklin and other eminent jurists in going upon these lands, and claims that he expected nothing less than an arrest in so doing, but thinks it will lead to the judicial settlement of this vexing question. The “judicial settlement” will be nothing more than the ejectment of all parties invading these domains, peaceably if possible, by force if necessary; and the sooner the people accept this view of the case, and turn a deaf ear to the songs of the Kansas City Times and the Hon. Ben Franklin, the better it will be for them. You can’t go to stay yet awhile, and you might as well stay away altogether.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 2, 1880.
Two more companies of cavalry are expected soon. They will patrol the line to keep out Oklahomaists. One company will probably be stationed here. Caldwell Post.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 2, 1880.
A detachment of Co. I, 4th U. S. Cavalry, numbering some forty-nine men, and under command of Lieut. Budd, were camped on the Arkansas River west of town last Wednesday and Thursday. They were eight days out from Ft. Reno and on their way to Coffeyville, where they expect to make headquarters until further orders. This was the detachment that recently arrested and escorted to the lines at Caldwell Capt. D. L. Payne, of Oklahoma fame.
[INVASION OF INDIAN TERRITORY: CAPT. DAVID L. PAYNE.]
Winfield Courier, June 10, 1880.
Capt. David L. Payne’s invasion of the Indian Territory has come to grief, as everybody expected. Payne and his “colonists” have been arrested by a detachment of the Fourth Cavalry, under command of Lieut. Gale. And there was no fight, notwithstanding Payne’s vehement declarations that all of the streams of the Indian Territory would run with gore if any attempt was made to interfere with him and his colonists. Sedan Times.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 16, 1880.
A full company of U. S. troops are now in the city, and will remain for a few days.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 16, 1880.
Capt. Robeson, U. S. A., and company, after buying supplies of Schiffbauer Bros., started south yesterday, we presume on the lookout for Oklahomaites.
Winfield Courier, July 15, 1880.
It is reported that Capt. Payne has again invaded the territory, this time from Arkansas City with twenty-five men, and expects reinforcements. He thinks he is a “bigger man than Uncle Sam.”
Arkansas City Traveler, July 21, 1880. Editorial Page.
THE INVASION BOOM.
St. Louis, July 10. The scheme to settle on Government land in the Indian Territory is gaining strength daily, and quite a boom in its favor is being started here. T. D. Craddock, a lawyer, and one of the Oklahoma Company, came here a few days ago to work up the scheme, and has received telegrams from Effingham, Maroa, and other places in Illinois, stating that a number of persons will be here Monday ready to go to the Territory.
Advices are also received from Western Kansas that hundreds of families, who have suffered from drought in that country, are on their way to Oklahoma.
A letter has been received from H. L. L. Hill, an old scout, who was with Capt. Payne last spring, in which he says the party which left Kansas last Sunday arrived safely at their old headquarters and found the corn and vegetables planted in the spring in fine condition. Jack Bettle, a scout from Texas, was found here, and he stated that a thousand men from Texas would be in the Territory in a few days. Hill wrote from Arkansas City, at which point he telegraphed to numerous parties along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and Kansas Pacific railroads, to push on at once. It looks as though the invasion of Territory would be formidable and that if the military are instructed to eject the intruders, there will be a conflict.
The above is published as a sample of the dispatches that have been sent from St. Louis during the past two weeks to eastern papers.
For the benefit of all who contemplate a removal to this land of promise in the Indian Territory, we will state that there is not a word of truth in the foregoing telegram, and parties invading the sacred precincts of Oklahoma will find out to their cost that we speak the truth.
So far as we know, Capt. Payne never was in Arkansas City; certainly not with hundreds of men and an outfit for starting a colony. It is reported that he recently sneaked into the Territory with about thirty men, going by Hunnewell, and a later report says he was captured by a detachment from Ft. Reno. Be that as it may, if he has gone into the Indian Territory again, he will be arrested as soon as the troops can find him, and removed therefrom forthwith, the Kansas City Times and its hirelings to the contrary notwithstanding. The authorities at Washington have a faint idea that they have something to say in this matter.
[PAYNE AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARRESTED.]
Winfield Courier, July 22, 1880.
Washington, July 17. General Pope telegraphed to the War Department this morning of the arrest of Payne and 22 of his followers, and asked for instructions as follows. “Am I to understand that the government wishes this gang turned over to the U. S. Marshal at Fort Smith, Arkansas, for trial?” The Secretary of War will order the delivery of Payne and his men to the civil authorities for safe custody, and in the meantime, as some new questions are involved in the case, the matter will be referred to the Attorney General for his opinion as to the mode of civil prosecution to be instituted against them.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 28, 1880.
THE OKLAHOMA OUTLOOK.
[Special of the Kansas City Times.]
Wichita, Kansas, July 24. Judge Lanek, Capt. Hays’ attorney, has just returned from Pole Cat, Indian Territory, where Col. Payne is held. He has decided to make no move by habeas corpus, as the question of the right of settlement on the ceded lands would not be brought before the courts. He will await the action of the Government to proceed against Payne for trespass, when the whole question can be brought up. He is confident the courts will declare the lands open to settlement.
At a large private meeting of the Oklahoma colony today, it is understood they resolved that in case Payne is turned loose without a trial they will move into Oklahoma at once five thousand strong, and will not again submit to military arrest. Hundreds of letters are received daily at headquarters to join the expedition. One party from Arkansas says they can move fifty strong, fully armed with Winchester rifles.
[ARTICLE RE PAYNE: SOURCE NOT GIVEN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, August 4, 1880. Front Page.
The government is not dealing justly with Payne and his followers in the attempt of the latter to occupy the public lands in the Indian Territory. These lands are either subject to settlement or they are not, and Payne and his party have either violated the law or they have not.
As they are under arrest by the government they should have a speedy trial and this public land question and the right of the people to occupy those lands should be forever set at rest. The people will hold the authorities to a strict accountability for the manner in which they are dealing with Payne and his followers. All that the friends of the movement ask is that Payne be turned over to the civil authorities and tried without delay, that the rights of the people to occupy the lands in question may be determined.
[CAPTAIN PAYNE.]
Winfield Courier, August 12, 1880.
Capt. Payne and three others who are arrested for the second time have been sent to Fort Smith for trial. Fifteen of the Oklahoma company who had been arrested but once were taken to the state line and ordered to skip.
[CAPT. D. L. PAYNE BROUGHT IN BY MILITARY TO FT. SMITH.]
Arkansas City Traveler, September 1, 1880. Front Page.
CAPT. D. L. PAYNE.
Capt. Payne and five of his comrades, H. H. Stafford, J. K. Jarratt, J. Brophy, A. H. Riggs, and W. H. Smith, were brought in by the military last Friday, after a long detention, and turned over to the U. S. court, at this place. He found here no criminal charge against him, and was set at liberty at once and cited, together with his five comrades, to appear to November term of the U. S. court, to answer charge of going, the second time, into the Indian Territory.
Capt. Payne was very desirous to answer the charge at once, and without delay, but it cannot probably be well attended to by either party—plaintiff or defendant—at present.
It is a very important matter and will, no doubt, be decided by His Honor, Judge Parker, when tried in accordance with the genius of our Republican institutions, consistent with the spirit of the age in which we live, and in the great interests of civilization and advancement, and in the encouragement, as has always been the case, of the hardy, energetic, and bold pioneers of our country, a liberal construction of the law. Ft. Smith Elevator.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 22, 1880.
The Oklahoma boomers had a tent on the grounds at the Wichita fair last week, with maps, charts, etc., and an agent who supplied all the information asked for.
[OKLAHOMA: DAVE PAYNE - RUMOR HE WAS ACQUITTED.]
Winfield Courier, September 23, 1880.
We learn that there is some excitement in this county on account of the belief that Dave Payne has been tried at Fort Smith and acquitted on the ground that the law gives any citizen the right to settle and occupy under the preemption, homestead, and town site acts, any lands which belong to the government; and that under this belief many are making arrangements to invade and occupy that certain tract of 36,000 acres in the Territory immediately south of here, which has not been set apart to any particular tribe of Indians.
None of the above beliefs are true. Payne has not been tried, has not been acquitted. He was taken to Fort Smith and there gave his recognizance to appear for trial at the set time, (In November, we think), and was released. When first found in the Territory, he was arrested, escorted to the line, and told to leave. The second time he was arrested, taken to Fort Smith, and held for trial, as just stated. The next time he will be held in jail for trial.
There is no law to the effect that every tract of land owned by the government is subject to settlement. No one believes that the law gives one a right to settle on the reservations at Leavenworth and other forts. The whole Indian Territory is a reservation for the purpose of establishing the various Indian tribes thereon. Most of it years ago was parceled out to Indian tribes. Within the last ten years five different tribes have been assigned to certain other tracts and what remains is held by law for the purpose of receiving other tribes that may be brought in.
These are the facts in the case and those who go there to settle or speculate will fool away their time and money and get into trouble. Only those who are sharp enough to get away with the money of their dupes will gain anything.
Winfield Courier, October 7, 1880.
Our party of Oklahoma boomers started for the territory Tuesday. They will be back in about three days.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 10, 1880.
Two families passed through town last Sunday on their way to Oklahoma. Capt. Payne, the famous projector of this scheme, is at present lying sick in Mulvane.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 10, 1880.
Some parties went into the Territory about two weeks ago, their prairie schooners emblazoned with the motto, “Oklahoma or Bust.” They passed through town last Sunday, their prairie schooners emblazoned with the trite but significant tall piece of their motto, and “Bust” written in every lineament.
Winfield Courier, November 11, 1880.
A private letter from Ft. Reno informs us that two squads of Sumner county Oklahoma boomers were brought into the fort under arrest the first of last week. There were seven men in one squad and ten in the other. A detachment of soldiers is kept in Oklahoma constantly, and the Indians are also aroused against the invaders. We would repeat the advice heretofore given: If you want to settle in the Territory, just wait until Uncle Sam gives you permission. It is a big undertaking to “buck” the United States Government. Wellington Press.
[CAPTAIN PAYNE - OKLAHOMA AGAIN.]
Arkansas City Traveler, November 17, 1880.
OKLAHOMA AGAIN.
Captain Payne is still confined to his bed at Mulvane, but the boom goes marching on. There was a meeting of the leaders of the movement yesterday, and definite action was taken in regard to the pending expedition to Oklahoma. The muster rolls of the colony show that a force of from 2,000 to 3,000 men can be relied upon to move at the appointed time. The date of the invasion is not made public, nor the place of rendezvous, but it is surmised that there will be a simultaneous advance from various points on the frontier, moving to a com-mon objective point, and that the colonists will go to stay.
We shall be able to give further information as the facts transpire. It is evident that the boys are in dead earnest, and the dying echoes of the November election will mingle with the resounding slogan of “On to Oklahoma.” Wichita Republican.
Winfield Courier, November 18, 1880.
Capt. Payne, the Oklahoma boomer, is ill with fever at Mulvane.
[CAP. SANFORD RECEIVES PAYNE CIRCULAR.]
Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880. Editorial Page.
A circular received by Cap. Sanford, of this city, yesterday from the headquarters of Payne’s Oklahoma colony at Wichita, under date of November 20, states that the colonists will cross the Territory line on Monday, December 6, and desires all colonists to be on hand at the following places by that time: Caldwell, Arkansas City, and Coffeyville, Kansas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; Dennison, Texas; and such other points as may be most convenient to the objective point—Oklahoma. The circular is signed by D. L. Payne, president, and W. A. Sherman, secretary.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880. Editorial Page.
POPE AND PAYNE.
Gen. John Pope has fired off his annual columbine in the form of an official report, reviewing Indian affairs in the Department of the Missouri. The burden of the document is devoted to the late eruption of the Southern Cheyennes and repeated and pending raids of Capt. Payne into Oklahoma. Gen. Pope details the action of the military authorities in twice removing Payne and his followers, and on the last occasion turning them over to the United States district court of Fort Smith. He says it is certain that Payne and his comrades “fully believe in their right to settle in the Oklahoma district, and are anxious to test the question in the United States courts. He also expresses the belief that it is the intention of the colonists to reenter the Territory pending the trial of their case, and under the President’s proclamation it will be necessary to arrest them and repeat the same process. Gen. Pope accordingly urges that the question of their right to settle in the Territory be passed upon as soon as possible by the U. S. court, now in session at Fort Smith.
It is clear from the general tenor of Gen. Pope’s report that he anticipates a formidable raid. He is too well informed not to know that the Oklahoma Colony whose headquarters are in Wichita represents an enlisted force of several thousand men, scattered through Southern Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and that the mass of these recruits will respond to the call for a general movement, advancing simultaneously by front and flank to the heart of Oklahoma.
They commit no trespass upon Indian reservations; they will occupy only the ceded lands, from which the Indian title has been extinguished by Government purchase, and which are designated as “public lands” on the Government maps. It is true also that the executive is prohibited by act of Congress from locating any more Indian tribes upon any public lands, and hence they lie in idleness and implied perpetual isolation from development and civilization. The position of Capt. Payne and his associates is ably fortified by the elaborate opinion of Col. Broadhead, and Judge Krum and Philips, of the St. Louis bar, a committee appointed to investigate and report upon the subject. What course the executive may pursue in regard to the pending invasion cannot be foreseen. We believe but for the obstinacy of Secretary Schurz, President Hayes, whose first message to the present Congress contained a very decided expression in favor of opening the Indian Territory, would suspend his proclamation and direct Gen. Pope to interpose no further barrier against the settlement of Oklahoma.
But with or without military intervention, we consider the opening of these 14,000,000 acres of public lands a certain and speedy event. It is the public sentiment and temper of the southwest that breech clout barbarism shall no longer block the national highway, and stem the tide of civilization between Kansas and the Gulf. The President could do no wiser act than to order Gen. Pope to suspend offensive operation and give Capt. Payne honorable escort to the public lands.
In any event, we believe before the ides of March are passed, there will 20,000 bona fide settlers tilling the soil and building the capital city of the future State of Oklahoma.
. . .
Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880.
The Caldwell Post says the Oklahoma invaders from that town are on their way back to the line. Uncle Sam. impressed with the dignity and social standing of the outfit, has furnished them with a military escort.
Arkansas City Traveler, November 24, 1880.
Capt. D. L. Payne, of Oklahoma fame, who has been lying ill for some time at Mulvane, was removed to Wichita last Friday, where he is now receiving the kind attention of friends. He is convalescing slowly, is considered wholly out of danger, and it is expected will be able to lead the third expedition to the land of Oklahoma, which will probably start about the last of the month or the first of December.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 1, 1880.
Next Monday is the day set for the grand march into Oklahoma. The day for marching out has not been determined upon.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 1, 1880.
Captain Robinson, it is currently reported, will be at Caldwell next Saturday, the 4th, with a company of troops, to prevent Southern Kansas from being depopulated by those who fain would recline in the flowery fields of Oklahoma.
[THE OKLAHOMA QUESTION: LETTER FROM JUDGE W. P. CAMPBELL.]
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, December 8, 1880. Front Page.
THE OKLAHOMA QUESTION.
JUDGE W. P. CAMPBELL UPON ITS LEGAL AND MORAL PHASES.
Editor Wichita Eagle:
I wish through your paper to give my views of Payne’s raid upon Oklahoma. My purpose is to do what I can to save a few honest, hard working men from being entrapped in a scheme that is not intended for their benefit, and can end only in loss to anyone who has anything to lose, and trouble and difficulty to all who go to Oklahoma in opposition to the national authorities.
I echo the sentiments of a large majority of the solid businessmen and farmers of this city and county when I say that no honest laboring man can afford to be used by these Oklahoma boomers. And it is the wish of all such that their scheme shall fail, as it certainly will. There is a sense of justice and honor and a disposition to abide by the law characteristic of the American people that, when the test comes, will knock the wadding out of all such business.
Payne and his coadjutors pretend that there is no act of Congress against his going into the Oklahoma country, so called. But the law is too plain to be explained away on a flimsy technicality. The law prohibits anyone going into the Indian country without leave, and makes it the duty of the President to remove all intruders, and for that purpose to use the army if necessary. A second intrusion subjects the intruder to a penalty of one thousand dollars. The phrase “Indian country,” is one of long use and well understood meaning, and includes Oklahoma as much as it does any Indian reservation within the limits of the Indian Territory.
Payne and his crowd laugh at the penalty inasmuch as it is merely a civil liability, and does not subject them to imprisonment. But before they can succeed in this business, they must have the cooperation of men who are not indifferent to such matters. The only hope they have of success is to precipitate into the country such numbers that the army will be powerless to remove them until Congress shall be forced to recognize and legalize their occupancy. If they could find the precious metals to tempt the cupidity of man, their scheme, lawless as it is, might succeed. But when you ask a man to risk his little all and go to hard work, plowing in the ground, he is in no great haste to do so. The average Oklahoma boomer is little given to plowing, except by proxy. He expects to reap a rich harvest by the sweat of other men’s brows, and unless they delude a sufficient number of poor workingmen into the idea that by joining the expedition they can better their condition and obtain a valuable homestead in this promised land, their speculations will prove fruitless.
If asked to give the best reason for opposing the Oklahoma raid, I answer, because it is not right. It sets at defiance the laws and treaties of the national government, and the President cannot, under his oath of office, permit it to be done, but is charged by every consideration of honor, good faith, and duty to prevent it, by the whole power of the army if necessary.
Much has been said and written derogatory to the policy of treating with the Indians as an independent people, and it is urged that we should regard them as citizens, and subject them to all the duties and responsibilities of other citizens. This sounds very well from our standpoint, and if no other right but ours intervened, there could be no objection to it. But they were an independent people before they came under our jurisdiction.
So far as the Indians immediately interested are concerned, the policy of recognizing and treating with them as a sovereign independent people originated with the Kingdom of Spain, and while they occupied Spanish dominions. In this relation they became possessed of certain rights. Spain ceded her dominions known as the Territory of Louisiana to France, subject to the treaty rights of the Indians, and in turn the same territory was ceded by France to the United States, by the great Napoleon who required as part of the consideration by which we obtained this magnificent empire, a solemn promise “that we would execute such treaties and articles as may have been agreed upon between Spain and the tribes and nations of Indians, until by mutual consent of the United States and the said tribes or nations other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon.”
We have the power and, if we will, may disregard this stipulation, but not without dishonor. We have certainly gone as far in that direction as fairness will permit. We compelled the Indian to submit to extermination or the alternative of a settlement in the Indian Territory. He chose the latter with a promise, on our part, that it should be held sacred to him forever.
By treaty certain divisions of territory were set apart for certain tribes and nations, and the remainder, including Oklahoma, reserved for the future settlement of other Indians.
The act of Congress prohibiting the settlement of any more Indians in the Indian Territory is a violation of this agreement and ought to be repealed.
If we would civilize the Indian, let us give him an example of truth and justice, as practiced by civilized people. If we would teach him to obey the law, let us show him how law can protect him in the enjoyment of his rights. The Indian is no fool, if he is a barbarian. He knows that the settlement of Oklahoma by whites in the manner proposed is the entering wedge that shall eventually send him adrift, with his papoose and squaw, with no spot on earth that he can call home. He is naturally opposed to it, and he will doubtless resist it with all the force of his savage nature.
Much has been accomplished toward the enlightenment of the Indian during the last twenty years, and much more may be accomplished by pursuing an enlightened and Christian policy. But it is vain to offer him courts and laws while we exhibit an utter disregard of to him the highest law; to offer him bible and schools while we rob and drive him from his home.
The principal objection the Indian has to white civilization is on account of his apprehension that it means death to him, and unfortunately the experience of the past is poorly calculated to remove this apprehension.
His rights are as dear to him as ours to us, and he feels his wrongs as we do ours. Perhaps it is very stupid and unreasonable in him to do so. Perhaps he should consider it very kind of our Paynes to force him to sacrifice his traditions, tastes, habits, and prejudices in the interests of commerce and agriculture.
This is not the first time the people have been called on to vindicate the national honor. Good faith with the Indian is not necessarily antagonistic to the interests of commerce. Convince him that we do not mean a conquest of his country and a destruction of his prosperity, and there will be little trouble in gaining his consent to run railroads through the Territory. It is not necessary to rob him in order to give him the benefits of courts and laws.
We need to give him schools and churches adapted to his nature and surroundings, and thus gradually fit him for citizenship, when he will accept the new relation from choice.
I favor every legitimate means of opening up the highways of trade through the Territory; the settlement of all the Indians in the Territory who will go there voluntarily; the establishment of courts with special legislation intended to protect the Indian from imposition, and to secure him exclusive control of the soil; the building of schools and railroads at Government expense, and the use of every other means of encouragement to the Indian to work out the problem of his own civilization.
With such encouragement and security he will, in time, himself build towns and cities, and invite immigration and enterprise. I would like to see the Government, the consent of the Indians being first obtained, construct a double track railroad from Arkansas City through the Territory so as to connect with the southern system of railroads, and give all companies the right to run their cars over it that will comply with such salutary regulations and conditions as may be imposed.
But whatever is done, let it be done on the principle of rigid justice and good faith to the Indians, they being the judge of what is justice and good faith.
Very respectfully, W. P. CAMPBELL.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 8, 1880.
ON TO OKLAHOMA.
A mass meeting was held last evening in front of the Central Avenue hotel, addressed by Capt. Payne, Major Bloss, and others. The Oklahoma spirit was thoroughly aroused, and an address to the President, presented by one of our citizens, was adopted, asking that the federal troops be not permitted to molest or interfere with the intending settlers. The feeling of our people is that the opening of the Indian Territory will make Arkansas City an emporium and supply point, and everybody shouts: “On to Oklahoma.”
Arkansas City Traveler, December 8, 1880.
THE OKLAHOMA BOOM.
AN ANSWER TO JUDGE CAMPBELL BY MAJOR BLOSS.
Editor Arkansas City Traveler:
I would like to occupy some of your valuable space in replying to Judge Campbell’s article in the Wichita Eagle of last week.
Against Judge Campbell personally I have nothing to say, although I believe he is on record as approving of the so-called invasion of Oklahoma.
I have read very carefully his communication to the Eagle, and find nothing therein in the way of argument on the main question that affects seriously our proposition of entering the public lands of Oklahoma. He indulges in that vein of sentimentalism peculiar to men who have never examined the question or who, knowing, persist in ignoring the stalwart facts. He says nothing whatever of the laws, the treaties, and the statutes relating to the Oklahoma lands.
By a treaty in 1866 about twelve million acres of the Indian lands were purchased of the Indians, and the Indian title thereby extinguished. In the treaty of purchase the Government indicated that it bought these lands for the purpose of locating upon them freedmen and friendly Indians. By a law of Congress “freedmen” were made citizens, and thereby that part of the treaty was abrogated and annulled. And repeatedly since 1866 Congress has refused to allow any Indians to be put upon these lands—friendly or unfriendly—and a resolution was adopted declaring that no Indians should ever be placed on these lands, except by a special act of Congress first granting permission.
Hence, here are public lands, surveyed and sectionized, not “reserved” for any purpose under heaven; not occupied by either savage or civilized; not set apart by any existing treaty or law; held by the Government exactly and for no higher or better purpose than that which animated the dog in the manger in his proclamation about the hay therein.
Judge Campbell, like Mr. Schurz, knows nothing about this Oklahoma question—or knowing, wilfully perverts the facts and testimony. Campbell, like Schurz, knows only the Fenimore Cooper tribe, while we of Kansas have met the infernal beasts that murdered and outraged the Meeker family. One is the real savage, the other the dream of the novelist— truth and fiction. It is very easy to roll up a hypocritical eye to heaven and talk lugubriously about the original inheritor of the soil;—the same had as well be said for the tiger or anaconda in their native jungles—especially when you come to talk to the matter-of-fact pioneer who has had to wrest this fair land from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the beast and savage.
Capt. Payne’s crusade is a righteous crusade, and it is bound to win. If Judge Campbell and the people who do not understand the question could put away from the minds this mistake—this total misapprehension of the subject—then it would not be a very difficult matter for them to see that all this country is deeply interested in the success of Capt. Payne’s effort to reclaim from waste this magnificent empire, and add it to the wealth of the country.
Mr. Editor, I have trespassed too far already upon your space, but at some future time I hope to be able to write more fully and more satisfactorily in regard to the Oklahoma question. We are going into the public lands of Oklahoma, and we are going to stay.
Respectfully yours, W. W. BLOSS.
Winfield Courier, December 9, 1880.
Though we have had occasion to say some unpleasant things of Judge W. P. Campbell, as a fair and impartial journalist we should say good things of him when we think he deserves it. We expressed our admiration of his course two years ago when he had the manliness to assert his clear and sound views of the currency question in the face of general popular clamor. He now exhibits the same clear, strong sense in an article in the Eagle on the Oklahoma boom. . . .
Arkansas City Traveler, December 15, 1880. Editorial Page.
OKLAHOMA.
Everything has been “Oklahoma” during the past week, and the movements of the Payne colony have been watched with a deep interest by all classes—those in favor of opening the Territory and those advocating the holding of this strip sacred to the rights of the Indians.
It has been known for several days throughout the Eastern States, by means of the metropolitan dailies, that the Oklahoma boomers were to enter the Indian Territory from Arkansas City, on Monday, December 6, the number of colonists being variously stated from two hundred to two thousand. The telegraph has likewise transmitted the important sequel to this intended move—that for quite obvious reasons these hardy pioneers have postponed their invasion indefinitely, and are now very peacefully traveling back and forth along the State line, casting a wistful eye into the Territory—their actions very much resembling those of a wild animal glaring through the bars of his cage at a coveted piece of meat.
After leaving this city last Saturday morning, the Oklahoma colony moved west to Hunnewell, Lieut. Mason’s company of cavalry escorting them to see that they kept within prescribed limits. Lieut. Mason’s orders are to turn them back in case an attempt is made to enter the Territory, and if any resistance is made, to shoot their horses and destroy their wagons. At this order the Oklahomaites are very indignant, and declare that such a step will provoke a bloody conflict. But in this these people are headstrong, and doubtless say a good deal for the sake of talk. They don’t mean fight.
The rank and file of this Oklahoma army are honest in this business. They believe these lands are public property, and that it is their right and privilege to settle upon them. But their zeal and pluck exceed their judgment. So long as the title to these lands is unsettled, Capt. Payne and his men have no right to make a forcible entry thereon in opposition to the Government. Call it Oklahoma or what you will, when you resist U. S. troops, you are doing wrong. If the law is wrong, have it changed, which can surely be done if clearly proven.
We favor the opening of the Territory as strongly as Capt. Payne or any of those interested in this movement, but we do not countenance any armed resistance to the Government.
It is to the interest of Kansas that this blockade to commerce known as the Indian Territory shall be at least opened to railroads if not to actual settlement, and so far as the settlement of Oklahoma would lead to this result, we are solidly in favor of it. Kansas needs a Southern outlet for her products. We are hopelessly at the mercy of the east and west railroads for transportation to a market whose prices are fixed by Eastern capitalists, and from whose rulings we have no appeal. It is not a local question, but one in which the entire State of Kansas is interested—and equally concerned are the Southern States, where a revival of business is evidenced by a disposition to explore new channels of commerce. To this end do we second the cry to Congress to act speedily on this question—not for the purpose of depriving the Indians of any rights, nor for the furtherance of any pet schemes; but solely for the advancement of the commercial interests of the West and South.
We have no interest in Oklahoma as a speculation—are not even the owner of a gratuitous certificate of membership in the Oklahoma Town Company, though many of our citizens have been more favored in this respect. But we want to see railroads running through the Indian Territory from the border towns of Kansas and Texas, the same as from the cities of Illinois to those of Ohio, through Indiana. And there is no just reason why it should not be done.
We do not care whether such a step necessitates the settlement of Oklahoma or any other country. That is not the point with the people of Kansas so much as the securing of a direct Southern outlet for the millions of bushels of grain that they produce.
In our humble opinion, a large portion of Oklahoma backing would drop off if railroads were only allowed to run from any point in Kansas through the Territory below us. Many persons have joined this move in the belief that it is the quickest and surest way to reach a Southern market. If the settlement of Oklahoma is the only way by which this can be done, Congress will be doing a lasting good by giving permission to the Oklahoma boomers to move forward. At all events, let us have railroads through the Territory.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 15, 1880.
Some U. S. transportation wagons and mule teams came in on Monday night’s freight train, for the use of the troops in this vicinity.
[BOOMERS.]
Winfield Courier, December 16, 1880.
The reports from the boomers along the line of the Indian Territory were so conflicting all last week that on Saturday the COURIER sent a reporter to the field of operation to get the facts.
On Monday the boomers began to arrive and go into camp near Arkansas City. Capt. Dave Payne was on hand and in command. He impressed strangers as a large, good looking gentleman not very talkative, but evidently having a strong purpose, which he meant to carry out as effectively as possible without resisting the troops. Beside them were camped about thirty U. S. cavalrymen under Lieut. Mason. Gen. C. H. Smith, of Gen. Pope’s staff was also present. On Tuesday evening the boomers held a meeting with bonfires and illuminations, and Capt. Payne addressed the assembly in a moderate speech. Mayor W. W. Bloss, of the Chicago Times was present and made a few remarks. A petition to the president was read.
On Thursday the boomers had accumulated to the number of about eighty men and twenty-five wagons and they broke camp and started on their expedition. They moved on Westward and camped on Bitter Creek on the Kansas side of the line, the troops following in the wake.
It was given out that they would cross the line the next morning. Gen. Smith informed them that his orders were to arrest the “whole outfit” and take them to Fort Reno and there hold them prisoners until released by the government. Friday morning Capt. Payne did not move as was expected. He was inclined to avoid a collision with the troops. The boomers were hot and dissatisfied. They wanted to fight and called Capt. Payne a coward. They held a meeting and deposed Payne and elected Major Mains, of Wichita, as their general and leader.
On Saturday morning they took up their line of march, but instead of entering the territory they marched westward and camped at Shoo Fly creek near Hunnewell close to the state line. The troops camped close by, just across the line in the Territory. Col. Coppinger arrived and took command. Accessions to the boomers arrived from Caldwell and other points so that on Sunday there were in camp about fifty wagons and one hundred and eighty men. They are organized in eight military companies under eight captains with Mains at the head.
In a conversation with Col. Coppinger and Lt. Smith, Maj. Mains said they should disregard the president’s orders and enter the territory at every hazard unless forbidden by Congress. The horses of the troops are in good condition, but those of the boomers present a scrawny woe begone appearance.
Major Randall with two more companies of cavalry was expected to join Col. Mason on Monday the 13th. One company of cavalry is occupying the Oklahoma town site and picking up stragglers. Other companies are watching the threatened incursions from Texas and other points. It was told at Hunnewell that considerable numbers of boomers had already entered the territory from Caldwell and other points, probably for the purpose of stimulating those at Hunnewell to desperation. Statements of persons who should know show that these reports were not true. Our reporter found both opposing forces in camp at the place near Hunnewell, and first visited the boomer camp where was found about 180 rough but apparently earnest, hardworking men with about fifty wagons.
The reporter was escorted by a gay company of young people, consisting of a versatile reporter for the Monitor, who amused the company on the route with speeches and songs. Mr. Ed. Rolland, Mr. J. Houston, a young attorney, Miss Grace Scoville, and Miss May Roland, Mr. and Mrs. Lem Cook, and Miss Summers were down from Caldwell to see the battle. These visitors together first paid their respects to the boomer camp, and were invited to remain and attend their religious services.
The visitors attended and furnished a part of the music for the occasion. The congregation united in singing, “Hold the fort for we are coming, Oklahoma still. Waive the answer back to Kansas, By thy grace we will.” The sermon was delivered by the colony chaplain, supplemented by remarks from another boomer. The reporter forgets their names. A large flag was floating over the camp and the congregation sang, “Rally ’round the flag.” Capt. Payne was called on and made a few remarks. The general and Lieutenant from the other camp attended the service by special invitation. After services the visitors were invited to partake of refreshments with the boomers, which they did with great relish, for camp life was new and interesting at least to the ladies.
Capt. Payne and others, including Major Bloss, treated the visitors with cordial courtesy, and made their visit very pleasant. They visited the camp of the troops where they were courteously received. There was found everything orderly and neat. There were a dozen tents looking trim, forty fine horses standing ready to be saddled and mounted on a moment’s notice, and forty well clad and equipped soldier boys ready for action on like notice. One of the saddlers was asked how they expected to cope with so many boomers. He answered that the boomers were not well equipped or disciplined, and that no serious difficulty was expected. He did not think they would attempt to cross the line; but if they did, they would be easily disposed of. Some of the soldiers were practicing shooting at a red handkerchief on a bush, but all were civil and quiet. The contrast between the two camps was very great.
Our reporter thought Hunnewell a hard place to get anything to eat and in other respects. At about 4 o’clock p.m. the visitors left for Arkansas City, where they arrived at 8 o’clock in the evening, returning to Winfield the next day. The conclusion arrived at, is that the stories and press reports afloat about the boom are grossly exaggerated.
[OKLAHOMA BOOM: MORE ABOUT PAYNE'S OKLAHOMA COLONISTS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, December 22, 1880. Editorial Page.
Caldwell, Kansas, December 18. Two teams and ten recruits joined the colony today from Montgomery County. The couriers from the western counties returned this morning with instructions to make no move at present. Nothing can be learned as to what was done at the secret meeting last night.
At a colony meeting held today, everybody was excluded from camp except members. It is understood to prevent parties from going into the Territory tapping claims.
It was expected that the opposition of the army would have broken up the colony and sent them back to their families, but it seems to have had the opposite effect and they think Congress will soon act and then it will be a race for choice of claims.
Major Randall said today that there need be no fear of an Indian outbreak if the settlers went in by the permission of the Government but that there would be danger if the settlers forced their way in, and the troops attempted to put them out. The Indians would rise, thinking they were helping the Government.
Col. Coppinger left last evening for Leavenworth, leaving Major Randall in command.
The excitement was increased in the camp by the arrival of B. F. Overton, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation; O. N. C. Ducon, of the Cherokees, and G. W. Grayson, of the Creeks. These gentlemen would never be taken for Indians, as they have only a sixteenth of Indian blood in their veins. They registered from Iowa to conceal their identity, but they soon found this unnecessary, as the colonists were glad to see them. Thos. Cloud, a full-blood, represents the Seminoles. They say that if the Government permits the colony to go to Oklahoma, their people will raise an army of 5,000 and drive them out. They are very bitter.
Mr. Grayson said to the colonists: “We are doing all we can to prevent the opening of the country, and you had just as well go home, for we have bought, and can buy, your Congressmen like so many sheep and cattle.”
They denounced Col. Boudinot as the Benedict Arnold of the Indian race.
A severe norther is blowing, and the staying qualities of the colony is being put to a severe test.
DR. WILSON IN WASHINGTON.
Washington, Dec. 18. Dr. Robert M. Wilson, representative of Capt. Payne’s Oklahoma colonists, arrived today. He expects to call upon the President Monday and urge that his proclamation of last spring be so qualified as to give the colonists a military escort through the Cherokee strip, and permit them to settle upon the Government land in which the Indian title is extinguished by purchases.
A CRUEL SCHEME.
We have no words at our command strong enough to express our condemnation of the men who have fostered what has been lightly called the “Oklahoma boom,” until it has involved a large number of people in a fruitless crusade which must be productive of absolute suffering and want.
If the telegraphic reports be correct, a body of men, women, and children, in the month of December, exposed to the sudden and sometimes frightful changes of weather common to the Kansas winter, are encamped on the State line, inspired by what seems a fanatical desire to invade the Indian Territory. These people are described as, for the most part, very poor. They are starved out of the western counties. What have they, then, to gain by going to Oklahoma, an unsettled wilderness? They do not need land; they have too much land now. They left their homesteads which they legally possess, only, at the best, to secure other homesteads, but with an alarming probability of losing what they have, and securing nothing. If they stay where they are, they will starve unless fed by the Government or by charity; and if they move to Oklahoma, they will not help the matter. They will make it worse.
One settler could test the question whether Oklahoma is or is not open to settlement as well as a thousand. It needs no “colonizing” in the face of express orders to the contrary, and in defiance of the United States troops. If the disputed territory is open to settlement, there is a way to find it out much more reasonable than that of these poor people.
When Mr. Dave Payne began this business, we stated that the conqueror of a territory was not wrapped up in his pantaloons. Our prediction has been abundantly fulfilled. When it came to facing the troops, Mr. Payne disappeared from the command of the “army of occupation.” Whether he resigned or was deposed is immaterial.
It is said the Oklahoma colonists have a chaplain. If that gentleman believes in the efficacy of his own petitions, he would do well, after a suitable thanksgiving for the disappearance of Payne, to ask that the colonists may escape from the clutches of the men who have been deceiving them; that they may return to their homes, or make new ones in Kansas, and possess their souls in patience until such time as Congress shall decide whether Oklahoma is open to settlement or otherwise. Champion.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 22, 1880.
CHICAGO TIMES ON PAYNE.
Payne is a huge fellow and a professional colonist. He is an American and a typical frontiersman. His reputation was made by leading a colony into the Black Hills on the very heels of the surveying party sent in by the Government. It was a dangerous undertaking. He undertook the work in the pay of railroads chiefly, and the men who paid him live in Chicago today.
Payne penetrated the country at the head of a couple of hundred miners, adventurers, and men gathered from the street corners in the large Western cities. Had not the soldiers gone to the rescue, the whole party would have been annihilated. This was eight years ago.
Then Payne dropped out of sight. He was met in Southern Kansas, peddling corn salve. It was not possible for him to stop anywhere very long. The Black Hills had no attraction for him. No Indian was ever more of a nomad. Finally, he brought up at Fort Scott, so destitute that, it is said, he stole a pair of shoes, was arrested, and imprisoned thirty days for the theft.
Payne is a schemer: bold, unprincipled, and venal. He has adopted the extraordinary profession of a colonist, and has no competitor in the vocation he has chosen. When a railroad or a company of speculators want a party led through a new country, or want reserved Indian lands stolen, or want a wild, dangerous country broken through, they know of no one save Payne to do it for them. It is his profession.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 22, 1880.
Three men came in from Oklahoma last Saturday. In interviewing them we inquired as to the number of people in the Oklahoma country, there having been rumors circulated to the effect that colonists were pouring in from other quarters. One of them replied that there were several people there. If his memory served him rightly, he thought there were fully four companies on the ground, but he believed they were paid to make this move—not by the railroads, but by Uncle Sam, who had fitted them out with horses, blue suits, and plenty of ammunition, with instructions to remain there and receive all new comers. Our home-bound friends had been “received” and escorted to Fort Reno, where the North Star was pointed out to them and the information vouchsafed that it was healthier up this way. They thought so, too.
Winfield Courier, December 23, 1880.
Further advices from the boomers say that they are camped at Caldwell 180 strong, or rather weak. That the troops are camped near them, that their “forward or fight” principles have not rushed them into the territory yet, that the new commander, Maidt, is no more anxious for a fight than Dave Payne, that the leaders are spending their time selling shares in the Oklahoma Town Company at $25 each, and in telegraphing exaggerated accounts of their strength, courage, and determination to the associated press, and that they are awaiting the effect of these dispatches on congress.
Winfield Courier, December 23, 1880.
The U. S. Senate rather “sat down on” the Oklahoma boom on Tuesday. Senator Cockrell presented the petition of the boomers, and after discussion as to whether it should be referred to the committee on territories or to committee on Indian affairs, it was ordered to lie on the table.
Winfield Courier, December 23, 1880.
Hon. J. R. Hallowell, U. S. district attorney for Kansas, in company with Capt. Smith, deputy U. S. marshal, honored our city with their presence on last Tuesday. Two livelier, whole-souled fellows cannot be found in Kansas.
The situation is still unchanged in regard to the Oklahoma raiders. They are still at Hunnewell, and the expedition is a failure: more for reason of brave intelligent leadership than anything else. Payne is nothing more than a drunken blatherskite.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 5, 1881.
PAYNE DEFENDS HIS POSITION.
Fort Smith, Arkansas, December 31. David L. Payne, of Oklahoma fame, by his attorneys, Baker, Krum and Boudinot, of St. Louis, today filed his answer to the suit pending against him in the United States court, for unlawfully entering and remaining in the Indian Territory.
By his answer he avers that he was not at the time charged in the complaint in any part of the Indian country owned or occupied by any Indian tribe at the time charged in the complaint, and for some time prior thereto, he, as a citizen of the United States, was located on lands belonging to the United States exclusively, within the limits of the Indian Territory, and to which no Indian or Indian tribe had any right or title whatever; that his location and settlement was made upon lands purchased by the United States from the Creek and Seminole Indians by a treaty ratified in August, 1866, and that said lands are a part of the public domain. He denies that he was removed from any part of the Indian country embracing lands belonging to any tribe of Indians or to which any tribe of Indians had any right whatever, but claims that he has been wrongfully and unlawfully ejected from his said settlement upon the public domain by the military forces of the United States, and claims damages in the sum of $20,000.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 5, 1881.
Lieut. Wood, in command of a detachment of soldiers, arrived in town last Monday, and is now encamped on the Walnut near Harmon's ford. He expects to be reinforced shortly.
Winfield Courier, January 6, 1881.
A new move is being organized to settle the Oklahoma lands. This is to colonize the exodusters there. It is claimed that under the terms of the treaties, these freedmen have a special right to settle on these lands. They say that they have been outraged and driven from the south, that these lands were purchased for them, that they are farther south than Kansas or Indiana, and the climate is more congenial to them, and there is no reason that they should not occupy the land. If on examination their position is found to be correct, they will not be interfered with by the government we suppose.
Winfield Courier, January 6, 1881.
Dr. Wilson has called on the president and is perfectly astounded by the ignorance of the president concerning the rights of the Oklahoma boomers.
Dr. Wilson's journey to Washington on behalf of the Oklahoma boomers has proved a complete failure. There is now nothing left for them but to fight or disperse.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 12, 1881.
A Payne-killer is wanted in Southern Kansas, warranted to remove Payne for good on short notice.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 12, 1881.
From a letter to one of our citizens, we learn that Capt. Payne will be here with the Oklahoma boomers some time this week. He may come, and he may not.
[MORE ABOUT PAYNE AND THE OKLAHOMA BOOMERS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, January 12, 1881. Page Four.
THE OKLAHOMA BOYS.
Most of the Oklahoma boys are at home again. Fourteen of these enterprising gentlemen were looking for the editor of the Eagle,headed by chaplain Weaver. For three days we did our principal traveling through alleys and side streets. Maj. Bloss had challenged Lieut. Wood on Friday, and we heard that Payne was a regular peripatetic arsenal. As good luck would have it, we were caught by a divided squad, and, of course, no seven boomers could get away with us. The boys are a jolly set, socially, bright and brave, but the U. S. army is too many for them.
It is said that Dr. Wilson, who went to Washington in behalf of the Oklahoma settlers to try to induce the President to espouse their cause, met with a repulse. President Hayes refused to order or modify his position, and has told Wilson that if the colonists attempted to enter the Indian Territory they will be considered as violators of the law, and treated as such.
However that may be, a secret and confidential circular was sent out on the 28th over Payne’s fist, announcing that, for the time being, they had been stopped and that the next move would be to concentrate five thousand men on the lands before planting time. Our opinion is, and it is the advice for which we charge nothing, that until Congress takes some favorable action it is time and wind thrown away—as for money the boys had none to squander in the first place. Wichita Eagle.
Arkansas City Traveler, January 19, 1881.
The great march into Oklahoma has not only come to a decided halt, but the columns of the sturdy boomers are fast breaking to pieces, and one by one they are returning to their homes. In consequence of this the military situation has been changed. Co. G, 4th cavalry, Lieut. Wood commanding, left this city last Saturday morning for the Oklahoma country and Fort Reno; Co. H, 4th cavalry, Lieut. Mason commanding, has left Caldwell for Reno, while Co. F, 4th cavalry, Lieut. Martin, will be stationed at some point on the road for a short time.
Arkansas City Traveler, February 2, 1881.
The Wichita Eagle says that “Captain Dave Payne returned from the border boom rendezvous last week looking particularly hale. Since their chaplain left the boys have suffered greatly for spiritual consolation, which want, combined with cold weather and the prohibitory amendment, conspired to dampen their ardor much more than the mere menace of Uncle Sam's troops.” It just now occurs to us that during the holidays a subscription of something over $100 was raised in this town to induce the boomers' return to Arkansas City. They didn't come back. Did they get the money?
Arkansas City Traveler, March 16, 1881. Editorial Page.
THE PAYNE CASE.
Little Rock, Ark., March 9. The case of Capt. Payne, for alleged violation of the intercourse law in the Indian Territory, was begun before United States Judge Parker, at Fort Smith, yesterday, Judge Baker, of St. Louis, defending. Judge Parker defers his decision until May.
[OKLAHOMA: AND D. L. PAYNE.]
Arkansas City Traveler, March 23, 1881. Front Page.
OKLAHOMA.
For seven months past well executed maps of Oklahoma, the prospective capital of the prospective territory of Oklahoma, have been posted in conspicuous places in various parts of the city. The site of the town was claimed by the Oklahoma colonization company, of which D. L. Payne is President, and other parties prominently connected with the recent invasion of the Indian Territory were officers.
A Globe Democrat reporter met an officer of the company, and, in a general conversation, asked him where the Oklahoma company expected to get its title to Oklahoma, as the company would have no more right to land embraced in the prospective limits of the town than any other settler, should the Territory be declared by the Government subject to settlement.
“That is fixed,” said the enthusiastic Oklahoman.
“How fixed?” asked the reporter.
“The railroads have assured us the land.”
Further conversation disclosed the fact that the officers of the colony have adopted a new scheme to obtain possession of the coveted land site. They claim that according to the construction placed upon a late decision of the Supreme Court, certain railroads will be allowed to construct their lines through the Indian Territory. One of the lines is to pass through the land laid out on the map for Oklahoma. The programme of the colony now is to follow the railroad to Oklahoma, build up the town, and then commence settlements along the line of the road on land claimed by the road. As a matter of information to the colonists, however, it might be stated that the railroad has not yet been constructed. Globe Democrat.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 23, 1881.
Payne’s trial at Fort Smith has taken place, and the prevailing belief in that vicinity is that the decision will be against him. Payne now tells a very different story regarding his attempted invasion of the Indian Territory, claiming that he did not know anything about the legality of his actions, but simply took the people there to test the matter.
[DAVID C. PAYNE CHARGED BY JUDGE PARKER/ FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 11, 1881. Editorial Page.
PAYNE (FULL.)
Fort Smith, Ark., May 3. Judge Parker, of the United States district court, has rendered a judgment for the government in the suit of the United States vs. David C. Payne, charged with unlawfully invading the Indian Territory. The penalty under the statutes is $1,000. Six other cases of the same nature were decided in favor of the government.
[OKLAHOMA AND TERRITORY NEWS.]
Arkansas City Traveler, May 11, 1881. Editorial Page.
There is not a solitary occupant on the townsite of Oklahoma. A detachment of U. S. soldiers and Indian scouts are camped about five miles above the site, waiting for some one to come, when they will be escorted to the Texas line and turned loose. If they come from Texas, they will be escorted to Kansas, and released; the object being, to have them to see all of the Territory they desire. The trail from Arkansas City is very good and very plain, with crossings on Red Rock, Black Bear, and other creeks. After crossing the Cimarron river, the trail is divided into a hundred or more wagon roads, evidently to prevent the authorities from discovering their whereabouts. The country is beautiful, but the location of the townsite dreary, as it is located in a valley, or draw, with scattering jack oaks all about. One mile further south, or about six miles south of the North Canadian river, on a high, prominent prairie mound, would have made a much prettier location.
Oklahoma—“Home of the Red Man,” is just 150 miles from Arkansas City. By going four miles south, 24 miles west, and 108 miles due south, you reach the desired spot, but the deviations on the road makes it foot up 150 miles, or six days drive with a team. The only Indians seen on the route are the Nez Perces, and some Otoes, camped on the Cimarron, until you are greeted by the Cheyenne scouts, who will be glad to meet you, and even care for you.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, July 7, 1881 - Front Page.
Judge Parker’s opinion in the case of the United States vs. D. L. Payne sets forth at length the legal status of the land, which it has been claimed, was open to pre-emption as the nucleus of the future state of Oklahoma. Payne, it will be remembered, was expelled from the Indian Territory by the United States military forces, and on re-entering the Territory, was expelled again. This second entry being punishable under the laws of the United States, an action was brought against Payne, who in his answer, denied that he was in the Indian Territory, or any part thereof; averred that the land from which he was expelled was the property of the United States, and subjected to pre-emption, like other public lands, and that he had settled on it under the pre-emption and homestead laws. The question presented for decision was, therefore, “Was the land on which Payne claimed to have settled a part of or within the Indian Territory?”
Judge Parker begins by inquiring whether Payne had the right to pre-empt any of the lands conveyed by the Seminole treaty of 1866, which was the treaty under which the Government acquired its title to them. The homestead and pre-emption laws provide that any lands which have been reserved by any treaty, law, or proclamation of the president, are no part of the public lands of the United States subject to those laws, so long as such reservation continues. The power to reserve may be exercised by treaty, law, or executive proclamation. The third article of the Seminole treaty, the judge holds, clearly reserves these lands for the purpose of locating on them other Indians and freedmen. He treats this portion of the question at considerable length, and explains why the government wanted to locate other Indians and freedmen there. The Indian branch of the inquiry involves nothing not generally known, but the privilege of freedmen to enter on the land at will, is not so well understood.
Judge Parker holds the intention of the government to have been to provide a place for the settlement of the liberated slaves of the Indians. The tribes of the Indian Territory held colored people in slavery, and when these were set free, it was not known whether the several Indian tribes who held them to slavery would observe their pledges to secure them the same rights which the Indians themselves enjoyed.
It was fear that the prejudice growing out of their former condition as slaves would be so strong against them that, in order to protect them, it might become necessary to settle them in a colony by themselves. This purpose of the government was manifested by the terms of the treaty with the Choctaws, and in making the treaty with the Seminoles, it sought to provide a home for freedmen as had been held in slavery by the Indians in the Indian Territory, to which they might be removed, should it be necessary in order to secure them in their rights. The government intended to locate there those freedmen who had been slaves in the Indian Territory, and none others; and these could only be settled on this land by the authority and permission of the government. Colored persons who were never held as slaves in the Indian country, but who may have been slaves elsewhere, are like other citizens of the United States, and have no more right in the Indian country than other citizens.
If this land is open to pre-emption settlement, it has been so ever since the treaty of 1866, with the Seminoles. Yet the government has never attached it to any land district, so that settlers could take the necessary preliminary step to perfect their titles. That it has not done so, shows how it has construed the treaty, which is a contract to which it is one of the parties. It is a matter of public notoriety that the Seminoles have similarly construed the treaty; and in this case, the construction upon which both parties to the treaty agree is the proper one to be adopted by the courts.
Treaties, like statutes, must be construed, if possible, to give them effect. The judge disposes of the claim that the right to pre-empt these lands is granted by a clause in a railroad charter. The supreme court has held that “whenever a tract of land has been appropriated to the public use, it has been severed from the mass of public domain, and subsequent laws of sale are not construed to embrace it, though they do not in terms express it.” This land, having been reserved prior to the passage of the railroad grant and charter, and the charter being general in its terms, and not making any special reference to this land, cannot be held to embrace it. This railroad grant was what the counsel of Payne mainly relied on to sustain their case, but the law, as expounded by Judge Parker, seems to show that it was of no value whatever.
He next decides that the land is a part of the Indian Territory because, if it is not, the laws of the United States do not extend over it. Payne was therefore clearly an intruder by the law, and is liable for the penalty.
This exhaustive opinion puts a complete quietus upon all schemes for colonizing the Indian Territory until it shall be opened for settlement by the proper authorities. Especially does it deprive the Hon. J. Milton Turner of the advantages arising from a previous condition of servitude, and we trust the freedmen whom he is exhorting to follow him to Oklahoma will be advised in time. This is one of the instances in which the United States seems to have the power to observe its treaty and obligations with the Indian, and the finest of Indian reservations appears to be beyond the reach of raiders. Globe Democrat.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 27, 1881.
“Oklahoma Payne” is now in Texas declaring and trying to get up another colony of dupes to again enter upon the lands in the Indian Territory, notwithstanding the decision of the U. S. Judge, J. C. Parker, and the law department of the United States Government, that there are no lands there subjected to entry and settlement by citizens of the United States. Payne is plentifully supplied with money, and promised the Denison Tribune pay for its influence in helping to get up a boom, which they to their honor, be it said, declined. We are informed, however, he was successful in another direction. He is a plausible talker, and being well supplied with maps, showing the disputed Territory, and claiming, as he does, that Judge Parker did not decide the question of the right to settle those lands by United States citizens, but only decided the “demurrer,” and having also plenty of money furnished by railroads or other parties, he will undoubtedly secure some “gudgeons” to join him.
Indian Journal.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 14, 1881.
An execution was issued last month by the U. S. District Court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, against Oklahoma Payne, et al., for the collection of the $1,000 fine assessment against them last winter.
Winfield Courier, December 1, 1881.
The old fraud and public demoralizer, Dave Payne, has gone to the Indian Nation alone and unattended.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 7, 1881.
Capt. Dave Payne’s Oklahoma crowd will start or attempt to start from Oswego this time.
Winfield Courier, December 8, 1881.
Captain Payne and a large body of followers crossed the Red River into Oklahoma last Sunday.
A dispatch from Denison, Texas, says Capt. Payne, with a large party, crossed at Red River at the mouth of the Little Wichita, on Sunday, and is en route for Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 14, 1881. Editorial.
A body of soldiers are in Oklahoma in anticipation of Payne’s threatened raid from Gainesville. Others are within call, and the intruders, if they should make an effort to abide in the forbidden land, will have an interesting time of it.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 21, 1881.
The U. S. troops are already in Oklahoma waiting for Dave Payne and his colony.
[STATE/LOCAL NEWS.]
Winfield Courier, December 29, 1881.
Gen. John Pope, commanding the department of Missouri, informs the interior department that the story published to the effect that Capt. Payne had entered the Oklahoma Territory was unfounded. Gen. Pope intimates that the stories of Payne are published to keep up excitement, and the less notice taken of them by the interior department, the better.
The Winfield Courier, January 5, 1882.
Capt. Dave Payne and a few of his followers entered the land of Oklahoma from the south some weeks since. Gen. Pope’s idea of letting them alone was adopted. Consequently, they came up through Caldwell last week going home.
Cowley County Courant, January 19, 1882.
The Wichita correspondent of the Kansas City Times says Captain David Payne has the papers prepared and will bring suit in the District Court of Sedgwick County against General Pope for his arrest and ejectment from Oklahoma Territory. This suit will involve the question of the right of settlement in that territory.
Winfield Courier, February 2, 1882.
Captain Dave Payne proposes to bring suit against Gen. Pope for causing his arrest and ejectment from the Territory. He had better employ Porter, McClellan & Co., to assist him, for they once succeeded in beating Gen. Pope at the second battle of Bull Run.
Cowley County Courant, February 2, 1882. Editorial Page.
D. L. Payne, of Oklahoma notoriety, filed suit in the district court against Gen. H. Pope, commander of the department of the Missouri, for ejecting him from Oklahoma, in the Indian Territory, on the 15th of June and 7th of August, 1881. In his petition Payne alleges that Oklahoma is United States land subject to settlement, and which he had a right to occupy as a citizen and a bona fide settler. The plaintiff asks $25,000 for ejectment. This suit will determine in the court the status of Oklahoma, and whether it is subject to settlement as government land or not.
Cowley County Courant, February 2, 1882.
Oklahoma boomers are still outfitting at Wichita, and a few of them have already started for the Indian Territory.
Cowley County Courant, February 16, 1882.
D. L. Payne is again in the Territory with a party of Oklahoma boomers. He went in last week, and is probably on the North Fork by this time. We wouldn’t advise anyone to rush into the Territory on the strength of this announcement as the probability is that Payne and his party will be bounced as soon as the military are aware of his presence upon the forbidden ground. Caldwell Commercial.
Cowley County Courant, March 9, 1882.
Dave Payne and his Oklahoma boomers, have sent to Wichita for seed corn, stating that they are hard at work plowing in Oklahoma.
[OKLAHOMA TACTICS: CAPT. PAYNE.]
Arkansas City Traveler, April 19, 1882.
“Capt. Payne still holds the fort on the Canadian river within the Oklahoma lands. There are no outstanding military camps, all troops having been retired to Fort Reno. If any arrests are made in the future, it will only be done by the U. S. Marshal and his deputies. In this case a warrant will be necessary in every arrest. The question of opening the Oklahoma country is thus virtually settled.”
It is difficult to tell where items of the above stamp originate, but it is certain they are copied with semiendorsement by a number of Kansas newspapers. The entire statement is false.
Payne is not in Oklahoma, and if he has been there since the last time he was bounced, he has kept well concealed. Troops from Reno are constantly scouting in the forbidden land, and if there are any boomers there, they would be arrested, and no written warrant would be needed. The Agent's order is sufficient to remove any and all trespassers from within the limits of the country which he controls. Besides, Major Randall has a special order to remove all intruders from Oklahoma. As to Payne, he is probably bumming wherever he can get his grub free and find a few loafers who will listen to his twaddle. The decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, published in this issue, settle the Oklahoma business.
Cheyenne Transporter.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 17, 1882.
Word has been received here that a party of Oklahoma boomers crossed the Kansas line on Monday, and on Tuesday Major Randall, with his usual courtesy, sent out a reception committee to meet them. From appearances Capt. Payne will have but a short time to tend that “truck patch” we have all been reading about before he is again fired out. Transporter.
Winfield Courier, May 18, 1882.
OKLAHOMA INVASION.
Col. Dave Payne is coming into notice again. It is given out that with ten wagons and sixty-five men from Wichita and Wellington, he has crossed the Kansas line at Caldwell en route to Oklahoma. He will be joined by fourteen wagons and fifty-five men from Parsons, and if attempts are made to remove the invaders, they will claim to be on government land and raise the question of title. If the title is in the United States, as Payne claims, it does not follow that anyone may settle on these lands. The military reservations are government lands, but Payne may not settle on them because Congress has not opened them for settlement. For the same reason Oklahoma is not open for settlement, and Dave Payne has no more right there than on a military reserve. We think Payne will get fired out again, but the poor fellows who follow him are those who will suffer the losses. Payne will make money out of it.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 31, 1882.
Major Randall is expected in today with Capt. (?) Payne and twenty boomers, captured on the forbidden grounds of Oklahoma. Cheyenne Transporter.
Winfield Courier, June 1, 1882.
STATE NEWS. It is rumored that Capt. Payne and his Oklahoma band have been arrested by United States authorities.
A party of 100 men left Concordia to join Capt. Payne in the Indian Territory. They are well equipped, and say they apprehend no difficulty.
Winfield Courier, June 1, 1882.
PAYNE’S CAPTURE.
Secretary Lincoln has information that Payne and twenty other colonists, while attempting to invade the Indian Territory, were captured by troops sent out from Fort Reno, and taken back to Kansas. The authorities had not decided what disposition to make of them.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 7, 1882.
Captain Payne and a few of his followers were passed kindly but firmly out of the B. I. T. at Hunnewell Friday last by the military power of the U. S. The boomers were camped on Shoofly, a mile east of Hunnewell, Sunday, and the soldiers on the town site. So endeth the boom of this spring. Caldwell Post.
Winfield Courier, June 22, 1882.
NOT A FOOL. Dave Payne is said to be getting up another expedition to Oklahoma. Dave is not a fool. The same cannot be said of his followers.
Arkansas City Traveler, June 28, 1882.
Captain Dave Payne is organizing another company for Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 19, 1882.
Captain Payne announces that on July 20th a large colony will enter Indian Territory. He seems to think that the invasion will be countenanced by Secretary Teller, and that is just where he will miss it.
Winfield Courier, August 3, 1882.
“Oklahoma” Payne has recently returned to Kansas from a visit to Washington. He was there told by the authorities what he might expect if he led another lot of invaders into the Indian Territory. Payne will probably now subside. He has lived off his dupes for several years. K. C. Journal.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 30, 1882.
A private letter informs us that Payne is on Dry Creek, near the North Canadian, with a small party; that they are putting up buildings, and Payne has written to parties in Wichita to come on at once. It is possible that the Military do not know that Payne is in the Territory.
Caldwell Commercial.
Yes, “it is possible,” but not at all probable, though.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 6, 1882.
If the Oklahoma boomers, passing through our streets every day, would lend a hand, or go to work with their teams and put up hay, they would benefit themselves, as well as helping others.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, September 7, 1882.
We are informed by parties recently up from Fort Reno, that Capt. Payne and some of his men are still held at Reno, awaiting orders from Washington as to what disposition shall be made of the party. It seems queer that the “wisest and best government on earth” don’t know how to tackle and settle that Oklahoma business.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 13, 1882.
The Status of Indian Territory.
GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, August 21, 1882.
I am in receipt of your letter of the 18th inst., requesting an answer to the following.
1. Is there any land in the Indian Territory within or without the tribal limits, which is open to settlement by whites under United States land laws or any other laws?
2. If so, where is it, and what are the provisions of law governing settlement?
3. Is there any foundation for Payne's latest assertions that he has explained matters at Washington, and can now “move in” without being interfered with?
In reply to your first inquiry, I have to advise you that all the land in the Indian Territory is set apart for the exclusive use and occupancy of Indians, and that no part of said Territory has been brought under the operations of general laws so as to make them subject to settlement as public lands. The above renders an answer to the second query unnecessary. In reply to your third question, I will state that there is no foundation for Payne's assertion that he can now “move in” without molestation. The government will prevent the occupancy of said Territory by white settlers. Yours Respectfully,
L. HARRISON, Acting Commissioner.
Winfield Courier, September 14, 1882.
FAREWELL, BOOMERS.
Capt. Payne and twenty Oklahoma boomers were arrested and brought into Fort Reno, Sept. 1st, and placed in the guard-house, awaiting to be taken to Fort Smith. He resisted and fought like a tiger, and was bound hand and foot and hauled in. We trust that the doughty Captain will now be put where he will boom no more, and that this will be the last of a fool who tried to buck Uncle Sam single handed.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 20, 1882. Editorial Page.
TERRITORY ITEMS.
From the Cheyenne Transporter.
Col. Boudinot is responsible for the statement that J. N. McCurtain, recently elected governor of the Choctaw nation, was elected on a railroad issue, and is in favor of railroads.
Capt. Payne and “outfit” were taken to Ft. Smith last Saturday, in charge of military. Payne will learn after awhile that his Territory trips are unprofitable—but that will never be as long as he can dupe poor fools of farmers out of their hard earned money by his “rights,” “shares,” stocks, and privileges he sells them. Payne and “Co.” make money hand over fist by their boomer schemes.
On the 23rd ult. a detachment went off to Oklahoma to drive off the settlers there, Lieut. Taylor, of Co. F, 9th Cav., in command. They captured Capt. Oklahoma Payne on the 30th, with a few settlers. The outlaws are now in camp on the southwest side of the Fort, and are under close guard night and day, until Co. D of the 20th Inf., will take them to Ft. Smith, where they will have to right themselves before the U. S. court.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, September 28, 1882.
Lieut. C. W. Taylor, 9th U. S. Cavalry, with a squad of ten men, arrived at Fort Smith on the 21st inst., with Capt. Dave Payne and his party consisting of the following persons: W. P. Miller, A. P., A. L., and E. Lewis, A. C. McCord, M. Hatfield, P. W. Odell, M. Rumman, H. A. Weatherby, W. H. Osburn, wife and child, and Miss Dicy Dixon. The entire party were served with summons to appear at the November term of the U. S. District Court at Fort Smith, and then released. Payne and his party were taken from Fort Reno, via Henrietta, Texas, and in that place Payne served out a writ of habeas corpus, which Lieut. Taylor resisted all attempts to serve. While it makes little or no difference what becomes of Payne, Lieut. Taylor ought to be made to understand that the military are subservient to the civil authorities, and any attempt on the part of a Lieutenant, or any other officer, to resist civil law, makes him just as liable to punishment as Payne can possibly be for his attempt to settle upon the Oklahoma lands. That young man Taylor needs a lesson on the firm of the United States government.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, September 28, 1882.
Lieut. Taylor of the 9th U. S. Cavalry with a squad of ten men arrived on the noon train yesterday from Fort Smith, to which place he had taken Payne and his party, and left on the stage for Fort Reno. Taylor, from what others report to us, feels “bigger than old Grant” because he stood off the civil authorities of Henrietta, Texas, when they came at him with a writ of habeas corpus for Payne. If the facts as reported in the daily papers and as stated by himself are true, Taylor ought to be court martialed at once and dishonorably dismissed from the service. For if subalterns like him can openly set at defiance laws enacted for the protection of the people against the military tyranny of such upstarts, what might not a commanding officer do, and with impunity, to subvert our liberties? Admitting that Payne is the great criminal in the country, he was entitled to the writ of habeas corpus to be examined under it, and if Taylor understood his duties as a soldier and a citizen of the U. S., it was his province to obey the writ without any grumbling or the ruffing up of his young military pin feathers. It is just such men as Taylor that creates in the mind of the average old Kansan a huge disgust for the regular army and the average freshly hatched West Point lieutenant.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, October 5, 1882.
Col. W. A. Phillips is very much disgusted with the manner in which Payne is treated by the Interior Department, and demands that that sleepy old concern shall wake up and empty its vials of wrath upon Payne’s band. Col. Phillips makes from $5,000 to $10,000 per year by weeping over the wrongs of the poor Indian, and he can afford to be indignant over Payne’s operations and the lax measures of the Interior Department.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, October 5, 1882.
PAYNE’S SIDE OF THE STORY.
Stuck away off in an obscure corner of the Topeka Commonwealth of the 30 ult., we find the following letter from one of Payne’s party. “If the statements made by Mr. Osburn are true, then Lieut. Taylor exhibited in the light of not only a mere military tyrant, but a brute, unworthy to wear the uniform of a servant of the American People.
“Osburn’s story is rather disoriented, but it bears on the face of it a desire to give the cold hard facts. If he has filed in that particular, Lieut. Taylor owes it to the service, the people, and himself, to show wherein Osburn is wrong or has misrepresented. False military ethics may require him to keep silent, in order perhaps, to screen a superior officer; but Mr. Taylor should remember that he is an American citizen as well as an inferior officer in the military arm of the government of the people, and as such he owes to his fellow citizens an explanation of his conduct as one of their servants.
“But read Osburn’s letter.”
FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS, September 26, 1882.
Special Correspondence to the Commonwealth.
Capt. Payne requests me to write you a sketch of our Oklahoma business, which I will do by saying that on Aug. 3rd we left Hunnewell, Kansas, for our new homes, about twenty-five in number. We arrived in three days’ drive, and commenced selecting our new homes, which we did until we were all satisfied, which was about August 12th, when we began building houses and digging wells, which we engaged in until August 26th, when the troops came and ordered us to load and move. This we did not agree to at all, but Lieut. Taylor, commanding the troops, tied us, hitched our teams, loaded our wagons, and then loaded us and carried us to Fort Reno, where we were held prisoners about twenty hours, without any-thing to eat, our teams faring as well. After holding us there without any accommodations, in rain and sun, for eight days, they sent a tent and stove, after thirty-six hours’ rain and still raining, and after eleven days they sent a Jesse James gang and stole our property, consisting of teams, wagons, and outfits for traveling, and took them to I don’t know where. Enough to say we were robbed of them and they are gone.
We were pitched into government wagons and started on our road to Fort Smith, Arkansas, via Henrietta, Texas, Texarkana, and Little Rock. On our second day, on account of the rough traveling, the two ladies and a child in the crowd got sick and asked for a rest, but none was granted, and when we reached Fort Sill the child was very sick, as was also Mrs. Osburn, the mother of the sick child; but no rest was to be had, although they had to ride each day in a wagon, drawn by six mules, loaded with freight and from eight to twelve persons. When we reached Henrietta, Texas, the eighth day, the physician, Dr. McGee, said the child was very sick and told the lieutenant that he endangered the life of the child by traveling, that he must let them rest a day or two. But no; so we tried to stop him by a writ of habeas corpus, but he defied the civil laws, and intimidated the sheriff with firearms. So we came on, meeting with very bad usage from Lieutenant Taylor, in charge, but Sergeant Mason and the soldiers were perfect gentlemen, to whom we shall always be thankful for kindness. We arrived here Sept. 20th, and were taken to the courthouse and guarded until the morning of the 21st, at which time the court served a summons on us to appear at the next term of court, to answer the charges brought against us, for invading the Indian Territory, they being too cowardly to give us a trial at the present term. No more at present.
I remain yours as ever, W. H. OSBURN, Secretary.
The following is another side of the story, as published in a special to the New York Herald. It appears to have been written by someone interested in making as favorable a showing as possible for Lieut. Taylor. Read between the lines, it simply means that Taylor was acting under instructions from others higher in authority, instructions given for the sole purpose of preventing a legal decision upon the question between Payne and the government.
“Captain Payne and party were being escorted by Lieutenant Taylor and six well armed soldiers of the eighth cavalry. Yesterday evening at Henrietta, on the Indian Territory border, Taylor narrowly escaped serious trouble. Payne pretended to fear passing overland eastward from Fort Reno, in the Territory, to Fort Smith, in Arkansas, saying the Indians would attempt to lynch him or do him bodily harm, and he demanded that Lieutenant Taylor escort him south to Texas and thence to Fort Smith by rail Of course, Lieutenant Taylor granted the request. On arriving at Henrietta, Texas, Payne caused to be procured a writ of habeas corpus in the Texas District Court. Lieutenant Taylor refused to surrender his prisoner to the civil authorities, whereupon a writ was issued, commanding his arrest and that of Payne and party also. Taylor took his soldiers and captives, barricaded the car, and held the fort, so to speak, refusing admission to any of the state officers, and when the Fort Worth and Denver railway train left on which he and his party were, they all accompanied it. Lieutenant Taylor justifies his course on the ground that Payne and his party were United States prisoners and he had an authority to surrender them.”
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, October 12, 1882.
[Editorial by W. B. Hutchison, Publisher.]
PAYNE’S PROJECTS.
Col. E. C. Boudinot Gives an Explanation of the Oklahoma Plans
As Appearing from an Indian Standpoint.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
“What about Oklahoma Payne?”
“Capt. Payne is a man of more sense than the press generally gives him credit for; he is generally regarded as a reckless dare-devil who persists in intruding on an Indian reservation; this is a mistake, he is a typical frontiersman, about forty years of age, and as fine a specimen of physical manhood as there is in the country. He has examined the status of the land he has been trying to settle, and has satisfied himself that though they are within that tract of country called the ‘Indian Territory,’ they are the absolute property of the United States, and compose no part of the Indian reservation In the view of the matter I concur; there is no doubt in my mind but he is right.”
“Don’t all the lands in the Indian territory belong to Indians?”
“They do not; a large portion of the lands in the territory are occupied by Indian tribes, whose reservations are distinctly defined by treaty. Previous to treaties of 1866 all the lands in the territory belonged to the five civilized tribes I have before named, but in these treaties the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws sold about ten or twelve million acres to the United States for a stated consideration. The Creeks sold to the United States (the language of the treaty is ‘cede and convey’) 3,250,500 acres for the sum of $975,168.
“The Seminoles were foolish enough to cede and convey to the United States their entire reservation, consisting of 2,169,080 acres, for the paltry sum of $325,362. They literally sold themselves out of house and home. The Choctaws and Chickasaws sold what was called the ‘leased lands,’ lying west of 98 degrees west longitude, for $300,000. This tract contains about seven million acres.
“There is a piece of sharp practice connected with the purchase of these lands from the Creeks and Seminoles, which this government ought to be ashamed of. The United States paid the Creeks 30 cents per acre for their lands, and paid the Seminoles but 15 cents an acre. Having closed the trade with the Seminoles, this great government said to them:‘Now you have got no house; we will sell you 20,000 acres which we have just bought from the Creeks, at 50 cents per acre;’ and this Yankee bargain was actually closed. Lands which the United States bought of the Creeks in July, 1866, for 30 cents per acre; and even after driving this sharp bargain, they put the Seminoles on the lands of the Creeks, which the government hadn’t bought at all.
“Since the purchase by the United States of these lands in the Territory, about 3,000,000 acres of them have been assigned as reservations for wild Indians. It was the original intention of the government to use all these purchased lands for the purpose of settling other Indians and freedmen upon them, but members of Congress from the border states vigorously opposed this policy, and in 1877 an act of congress was passed prohibiting the department from settling any more Indians in the Indian Territory. But for this act of congress, the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona would have been removed to the Indian Territory and settled on these ceded lands. The lands which were bought and paid for by the United States in this Territory, and which are unoccupied by any tribe, and which under the law cannot be used for any Indian reservation, compose a scope of country larger than the state of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and it is these lands alone Capt. Payne is trying to form a settlement upon.
“The charge that he has intruded on Indian lands is utterly without foundation.
“The supposition that Capt. Payne is the agent of Jay Gould or in the employ of the St. Louis and San Franciso railroad is absurd. The Tribune, of this city, is all at sea concerning the matter. Speaking of the ‘Frisco’ road, the Tribune said a few days ago:
‘Its present terminus is at Tulsa, on the Arkansas river, in the Indian Territory. Here the reservations of the various Indian tribes commence and thus far it has been unable to obtain the right to extend its line through these reservations further west. The matter of granting the right of way through these reservations, as well as through the western portion of the Territory, against which Capt. Payne directs his attacks, and which he wants to be set apart as a separate territory, to be known as ‘Oklahoma,’ has been repeatedly before congress, but has always been defeated for some reason or other.’
“It would be difficult to group as many misstatements again in so short a space as are contained in this extract from the Tribune article. Instead of the Indian reservations commencing at Tulsa, the present western terminus of the ‘Frisco’ road, those reservations almost end there. To reach Tulsa the road had to be built through 100 miles of Indian reservations, and sixty miles more will carry the road through all the Indian reservations on its route. The right of way has long ago been granted to the Atlantic & Pacific, which is the same road, so far as the building through the territory is concerned, as the St. Louis and San Francisco.
“Capt. Payne has only anticipated the inevitable settlement of these ceded lands by a few years. The St. Louis and San Francisco road will run about 300 miles through the lands I have mentioned as being ceded and conveyed to the United States, and which have not, and cannot, without violating an act of congress, be used for the settlement of any Indians. Under the terms of the charter granted the Atlantic and Pacific road in 1866, a grant of twenty alternate sections of land on each side of the road in the Indian Territory was made, to take effect on the construction of the road, when the Indian title was extinguished. Now the Indian title has been extinguished to those lands, and when the road is built into them, which will be in the course of a year from this time, the road will be entitled to a patent from the United States to the alternate sections of land, which have already been surveyed. When those patents are issued, how are you going to keep the land from being settled? So far from Payne being an agent for the railroad, he is acting rather in antagonism to it, for the railroad company, it seems to me, would not relish the premature settlement of lands so soon to belong to them.”
Arkansas City Traveler, October 25, 1882.
The Oklahoma papers along the border are venting considerable spleen on Lieut. Taylor, of Ft. Reno, who recently refused to surrender Payne to the civil authorities while en route to Ft. Smith. It is amusing to note the ridiculous lengths to which they carry their tirades. Payne never will appreciate the leniency with which he has been treated, and the military authorities should give the bummer a lesson by setting him to pounding rock at Fort Reno. About two months of this invigorating exercise would probably revolutionize the whole “Oklahoma question.” Transporter, Oct. 13th, 1882.
Winfield Courier, December 7, 1882.
Reports are in circulation in the Indian Territory that the military have been ordered to arrest Dave Payne, put a ball and chain to his leg, and set him to work on the rock pile, if caught again in the Territory. This will put an end to the Oklahoma boom.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, December 14, 1882.
PAYNE’S LAST RAID.
While on our visit to Cheyenne Agency and Fort Reno, we ascertained that the stories published regarding the treatment of Payne and his party by the military were, to say the least gross exaggeration. The facts, so far as we could learn from a variety of sources were as follows.
Payne and his party, when captured by the military, had to be tied and put in the wagons and were taken directly to Fort Reno. On arriving there, they were placed under guard, but properly cared for, being furnished with wood and provisions. Payne stated to the commanding officer that all he wanted was to have a trial, and that he was perfectly willing to go to Fort Smith, promising at the same time that neither he nor any member of his party would make any attempt to escape or give any trouble to the officer in command of the military guard detailed to conduct them to Fort Smith. The party was placed under charge of Lieut. Taylor, and by him taken to Henrietta, Texas, that being the nearest railroad point. On arriving at Henrietta, Payne requested and received permission to go about town. An hour or so afterward, and about the time the train was ready to start, Payne returned, accompanied by the sheriff with a writ of habeas corpus.Lieut. Taylor stated that his orders were to take the party to Fort Smith, where Payne had said he was more than anxious to go; that he did not consider it his duty to obey the writ, as the party were United States prisoners, and that he would not respect it.
The sheriff then left to obtain a posse to take the prisoners by force, but before he returned the train pulled out with the entire party on board. Payne then endeavored to try the bluff game on Taylor, but the latter wouldn’t stand it, and the former finally subsided.
This is an unadorned statement of the case; and of the truth in every particular, we have not the least doubt. Under the circumstances, the attempt, on the part of Payne, to cast any reflection upon Capt. Bennett, commander at Fort Reno, and Lieut. Taylor, who took the party to Fort Smith, is both mean and contemptible.
The military endeavored to treat the party with every consideration possible under a strict observance of orders from headquarters, but their efforts in that line were not appreciated by Payne, and it is safe to predict that the next time he is caught in the Territory, he will fare far different from what he did at any other time.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, December 14, 1882.
Payne’s case against Gen. Pope has been postponed for thirty days. That case may finally come to trial, but if it should, it will be after the necessity for it—so far as Payne is concerned—shall have gone glimmering in the great past.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, December 21, 1882.
Payne, in a letter to the Kansas City Oklahoma Colony, claims that the organization he represents has taken up a piece of country fifty miles square on the Oklahoma strip If being chased over the territory by the military and scouts entitles a party to the land they have traversed in their run, then Payne and his party may stand some show of getting that fifty miles square, otherwise not.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, December 28, 1882.
The doughty Captain Payne has turned himself loose again in some of his choice English. We have no time this week to give him the attention he seems to require, but shall endeavor to impress upon his mind in the near future that it is neither good sense nor good policy to “fool with the buzz saw while in moshun.”
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, January 11, 1883.
An Oklahoma Meeting.
Pursuant to notice previously given by bills scattered over the town, about sixty persons, men and boys, assembled in the Christian Church building on Tuesday night, with the expectation of hearing something from Capt. D. L. Payne, the Oklahoma boomer. The Captain failed to put in an appearance, and the assembled multitude seemed to be at a loss how to proceed.
Finally, old man Haley took the chair and called the meeting to order, and requested that, as the room was used for worship by the Christian Church, no one present spit upon the floor or use profane language. Just then, some boomer ejaculated what sounded very much like “d n it!” And a coterie of other boomers threw out about a quart of tobacco juice upon the floor, while the not overly fragrant aroma from “stinkers” and pipes floated lazily toward the ceiling.
After this came a long, serious pause, during which the entire audience wore a look of indefinite curiosity as to what would happen next. This unpleasant state was relieved by someone moving that T. H. B. Ross act as secretary of the meeting, which motion prevailed. Mr. Ross, in assuming the duties of the position, stated that the object of the meeting was to organize a colony to join Capt. Payne’s Oklahoma colony. He said it was expected that Payne would be there to address the meeting, but from some cause he had not arrived. The speaker went on to say that several parties had been organized to accompany Payne, that they would go from Wichita, Kansas City, Independence, Rich Hill, Missouri, and other points, to the number of 1,000 men, all of whom would assemble at Arkansas City on or about the 1st of February, and gaily slip into Oklahoma like a sore foot into an old slipper. Mr. Ross also stated that the colony had the newspaper material, and the men to run it, at Wichita, and a saw mill, all of which would move with the colony.
[This is some kind of taffy Payne has been giving the public for the last three years. ED.]
The speaker stated that Payne said he would start his colony from Caldwell, if it were not that the newspapers here were against him.
[If we remember rightly, Payne used to give as a reason for not concentrating his vast forces here that the people of Caldwell were opposed to him and his scheme. ED.]
At the close of Mr. Ross’ remarks an opportunity was given those present to sign the roll, and after a long wait, two, more bold than the rest, walked up and signed the paper entitling them to the privilege of being taken in on the Oklahoma lands by U. S. Troops. Emboldened by the example of the two braves, about twenty-five others put down their names. Notice was then given that a meeting would be held on Wednesday night, when only those who had signed the roll would be admitted. The meeting was undoubtedly held, but as the COMMERCIAL reporter was not entitled to be present, we are unable to even give a hint of its deliberations.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, January 11, 1883.
The COMMERCIAL office had a pleasant call on last Saturday from A. W. Harris, formerly of Council Grove. Mr. Harris is making arrangements to go into Oklahoma with Payne, when the latter makes his next raid, advertised to take place on or about the first of February. Mr. Harris appears to be a man fully competent to run a newspaper, but we venture the prediction that if he waits to begin the newspaper business until Payne opens up the Oklahoma lands to settlement, he will never know the joys or sorrows incident to the life of a country publisher.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, January 11, 1883.
The COMMERCIAL office had a pleasant call on last Saturday from A. W. Harris, formerly of Council Grove. Mr. Harris is making arrangements to go into Oklahoma with Payne, when the latter makes his next raid, advertised to take place on or about the first of February. Mr. Harris appears to be a man fully competent to run a newspaper, but we venture the prediction that if he waits to begin the newspaper business until Payne opens up the Oklahoma lands to settlement, he will never know the joys or sorrows incident to the life of a country publisher.
Winfield Courier, January 18, 1883.
IDIOCY. BOOMERS.
We are a little dubious about the advantages to Winfield of having the Institute for the feeble minded located here. We could get along well enough with the ordinary run of idiots, but it looks now that we should get large numbers of Oklahoma idiots from Wichita and that kind would be a curse to any asylum. We observe that they are so numerous and strong at Wichita that they get up enthusiastic invasion meetings and have started an idiot paper called the “Oklahoma War-Chief.” What in thunder do they want of another? Won’t the Times fill the bill?
Winfield Courier, January 18, 1883.
The Oklahoma boomers will camp in the vicinity of Arkansas City and start from there for “the promised land” about February first.
Winfield Courier, January 18, 1883.
Payne’s Oklahoma colonists now have an official organ in the Oklahoma War Chief, a paper published at Wichita in their interests, by one A. W. Harris. The initial number is before us and contains many items of interest in regard to that “Garden of Eden.” Just where the editor expects his patronage from, we don’t know. Payne’s followers are hardly numerous enough to support a paper, and its advertising patronage is very slim to start with. Should the paper receive patronage enough for sustenance, it will be of great benefit to the colony in accomplishing its object.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, January 18, 1883.
A CHANCE FOR PAYNE AND HIS BOOMERS.
The status of that strip of land lying between Kansas and Texas, bounded on the east by the Indian Territory and on the west and north by New Mexico and Colorado, having been brought to the attention of the Interior Department, Commissioner McFarland, of the general land office, has decided that it is not a part of the Indian Territory, “which” the commissioner says “is protected from disposal by the government by existing treaty stipulations.” The commissioner therefore thinks that the said Strip, composing an area of about 165 miles in length and 40 miles in width, while not surveyed and platted, is open to settlement.
Now here is a chance for Captain Payne, and the fellows he has induced to put in from $2 upwards toward his Oklahoma colonization scheme to secure “free homes” and to wrestle with the coyote and prairie dog for the possession of an inheritance which shall descend to their children’s children.
Personally we know nothing of the character of this “No Man’s Land,” but from the best information obtainable, we have no hesitancy in stating that it is fully equal for agricultural purposes to the famed but unattainable Oklahoma region. It is said to be well watered, has excellent grass, and many claim that it has coal veins running through it, and other valuable mineral deposits.
To those of a scientific turn of mind, this “No Man’s Land” offers peculiar advantages for studying the flora and fauna, in petrified forms, of the ages when the arctic regions were the home of the tropical plants, and mammoths. For, if we may believe the late Prof. Mudge, this “No Man’s Land” was the great dumping ground of the drift sent down from the north on the great ice floes and arctic currents which swept over this part of the continent ere the Rocky mountains reared their peaks above the surrounding waste of waters and glaciers.
If Payne really wants to do great good for humanity, and likewise enroll his name among the savants of the age, he will direct the steps of his colony to this favored land and there, with pick and shovel, delve among those rich deposits of a pre-historic time, thereby adding to the information of this and succeeding generations and at the same time keeping himself out of mischief, and, perhaps, his name off the guard house book at Fort Reno.
Winfield Courier, January 25, 1883.
One of Payne’s Oklahoma boomers has written to the Kansas City Journal a letter, in which he gives a glowing and rose-tinted picture of that earthly paradise, in striking contrast with the views of Inspector Benedict. He says there are portions of that truly wonderful region that is adapted to farming, and will perhaps grow a larger diversity of crops than any other country in the United States. The statement that there are various kinds of coal in the Territory, and excellent indications of oil, is no doubt true of Oklahoma, as it certainly is of the Cherokee country. When, however, this sanguine writer touches the mineral question, he waxes eloquent and informs us that there are mountains in the western portion that contain millions in gold, both in rock and placer mining. There is also silver and lead. In another locality he found gray copper ore in large quantities. The country is rich in these minerals and they are there in paying quantities, and when properly opened up, they will prove the richest ever discovered. If this were really true, we imagine that the miners would crowd into that country and compel the government to open it for settlement as speedily as they did the Black Hills regions.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, February 1, 1883.
THE BOOMERS ABROAD.
U. S. Troops Waiting to Receive Them.
Reliable reports are to the effect that the threatened raid upon Oklahoma is about to take place. Boomers are concentrating at Arkansas City, Coffeyville, and various other points along the line. There seems to be two factions. One under D. L. Payne, and another under a Kansas City management. All claim to be well fixed, with all the appliances necessary to establish a strong and good working colony upon the lands in question.
It is certain, however, that they will not be allowed to go in. Information comes to us, from reliable sources, that two companies of cavalry and one of infantry are ready to receive the boomers when they cross the line, and, in accordance with orders, drive them out. Of course, loud threats are made by the boomers that they will not submit to military resistance in carrying out their designs. But that is all bosh. When they get sight of the blue coats, the boomers will retire with the best grace possible.
Winfield Courier, February 8, 1883.
Capt. Payne with about 50 teams and 150 followers left Arkansas City February 1st to go to the North Fork of Canadian River, in the Indian Territory, about 130 miles south of this place, to the land known as Oklahoma. The colonists were well provided with food and arms. A few hours after their departure someone telegraphed the Secretary of the Interior, who made a requisition for troops, and Gen. Pope ordered Major Bennett, Commander of Fort Reno, Indian Territory, to send all the available troops to the Oklahoma country to intercept them. The cavalry started so as to meet the “boomers” on the ground, for the purpose of ejecting them.
Winfield Courier, February 15, 1883.
New Salem Pencilings.
Mr. Pixley is suffering with the fever but it is not dangerous. It is of the “Oklaho” type. Several others are just as bad, and some since they heard the soldiers would drive them out are better or may be considered convalescent. OLIVIA.
Winfield Courier, February 15, 1883.
A COSTLY LUXURY.
Officials at the Indian Bureau assert that Captain Payne’s raids upon Oklahoma lands in the Indian Territory have already cost the government $200,000, and this expenditure might have been saved if Congress had adopted the repeated recommendations of the Commissioners, providing punishment for trespassers upon public lands.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, February 15, 1883.
THE OKLAHOMA BOOM.
Some newspaper men with detective instincts should get on the inside of the Oklahoma boom. Capt. Dave Payne does not prosecute his expeditions merely for the sake of doing something foolish. He is backed by somebody, for he has no money of his own. Who is that Somebody?
Without professing to know anything about the matter, we guess that if it is investigated, it will be found that some railroad company or companies are banking Payne. There are a number of railroads anxious to build through the Territory, and those that have already secured the right complain that their lines there are like lines through a tunnel. Champion.
We not only profess to know, but we do know for a fact, that no railroad company has been banking Payne. True, he has no money of his own, neither has he expended a dollar of money earned by himself during the past four years. He has depended entirely upon selling Oklahoma Colony certificates and stock in his so-called town company. He has also gathered in considerable money from gullible parties to whom he represented that the Territory was bound to be open at a certain time; and in consideration of said parties paying him $25 in coin, he has agreed to select and build for them a quarter section on the Oklahoma lands, they thereby being relieved from accompanying any of the raiding expeditions. In all the raids he has made, the supplies have been furnished by the people accompanying him or by a few individuals who have put up their money in full confidence that Payne was honest and would do the fair thing. In this last raid, we are credibly informed that he sold at Arkansas City fifty-six hundred colony certificates at $2 each. This is exclusive of the number sold between the time of his release last fall and the assembling of the boomers at Arkansas City on the 1st, inst.
The fact is, Payne belongs to the adventurer class. He is particularly anxious to make money without work, but he would starve rather than not see his name in print. His egotism is insufferable, and his inability to comprehend the beauties of truth, combine to make him an instrument no shrewd railroad man would use in furthering a scheme like that of breaking down the legal walls which surround the Indian Territory. The Champion can take our word for it, that no railroad company is fooling away any time or money on D. L. Payne.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, February 15, 1883.
The Boomers.
T. H. B. Ross received a letter on Tuesday from J. H. Miller, dated the 8th inst., in which it was stated that a squad of troops under Lieut. Stevens, had arrested Payne and a few others, but that the main force of the boomers had refused to pay any attention to the troops. The letter is dated February 6th, and was sent by a courier to Arkansas City. Since its receipt, we learn that troops from Sill and Reno had been sent out and the entire party of boomers captured. One thing is certain, that the entire outfit will be taken in and removed from the Territory, and the poor dupes who have spent their time and money in following D. L. Payne, will find themselves out to that extent, even if they are not punished otherwise.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, February 22, 1883.
Advice to Payne’s Followers.
The following from the New York Sun shows the sentiment of that great journal in regard to any undertaking not strictly lawful. The advice emanating from whence it does is undoubtedly good and Payne’s followers would find it very healthy to take a little of it. The Sunreceived one of Payne’s circulars through a correspondent, and comments as follows upon it.
“The language of Payne’s circular glows with adjectives and promises. The beautiful land of Oklahoma is ‘the garden spot, the Eden of modern times.’ ‘Come,’ says Payne, ‘and go with us to this beautiful land and secure for yourselves and children homes in the richest, most beautiful, and best country that the great Creator, in his goodness, has made for man.’
“But the circular fails to convey, with sufficient clearness, that this garden spot is no more open to settlement by Payne and his colonists than are the Central Park and Boston Common. The Territory belongs to the Indians, and is secured to them by treaties. Payne has been taken by the nape of the neck already, and pitched out of the Territory. If he carries out his announced determination, and the government does its duty, he will be pitched out again; and the foolish citizens who allow themselves to be inveigled into an unlawful enterprise by his firm promises will get into serious trouble.”
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, February 22, 1883.
The Oklahomaites.
On last Saturday and Sunday, the Oklahoma boomers who went from here began returning and still they keep coming back from the “promised land.” Some of the boomers expressed themselves as thinking the expedition was an entire failure, as far as results are concerned at present, owing to the fact that there was no unison of action, and therefore each separate colony from the different parts of the country had their own ideas and notions regarding the mode of procedure and acted accordingly. One McPherson County man advanced the idea that it would take a greater number of soldiers to keep the boomers in Oklahoma than it would to put them out. The boomers are getting out of that region as fast as circumstances will permit, but find it no easy task to dodge the U. S. Troops that are picking them up wherever found. One thing is certain, we believe, this will be the last raid that will take place for many a day, at least until congress takes some action regarding the disposition of the same.
Winfield Courier, February 22, 1883.
Pleasant Valley Pencilings.
The countenances of returning Oklahoma boomers are strongly expressive of gloom, sadness, and disappointment.
Winfield Courier, March 1, 1883.
OKLAHOMA.
It is reported that Capt. D. L. Payne, the great warrior who proposes to conquer the Indian Territory and the United States, has been brought a prisoner to Wichita in company with a few of his most prominent followers, and that he gives an account of the late expedition as follows.
“They at first made a determined stand upon their chosen grounds; having been met by United States troops before reaching their destination and being ordered back, but refusing to go, and taking the troops with them on to Oklahoma. The troops, however, were reinforced, and Payne, with several of the oldest aggressors, placed under arrest. Capt. Osborn, the secretary of the colony, refusing to submit to an arrest, a rope was produced, and fearing lynching, he surrendered. At this juncture the colonists became demoralized, and many abandoned further efforts to make a stand and went home. One of the party was arrested for selling liquor openly and without any concealment, but the federal authorities, fearing that his prosecution on this charge would bring in issue the question as to the right of colonists upon these lands, he was summarily discharged, and all were once more escorted to the Kansas line. Payne states that there were five women and six hundred men in this raid, and they suffered but slightly from the cold, being well provided for such. He acknowledged that his last raid was a failure, many of the colonists being wholly discouraged in consequence of his utter failure, but firmly says that although they were routed this time, they will try it again.”
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, March 1, 1883.
Payne, and sixteen men who had made former raids with him, were brought up from Fort Reno last week, under a cavalry escort, and turned loose at the line last Thursday. We learn that at first it was the intention to take Payne and his party to Fort Smith, but orders were received to escort the outfit to the Territory line and let them loose. The entire party took the afternoon train for the north, Payne stopping off at Wichita. We have heard, however, that he is now at Arkansas City organizing another party to go into the Territory again.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, March 1, 1883.
We met one of the Kansas City boomers last Monday, who had arrived and went into camp on the creek last Saturday. He was about the most disgusted man we have run across in a long time, and is loud in his denunciations of Payne and his misrepresentations regarding the country. The Kansas City man said he would not give one-quarter section in Kansas for the entire Oklahoma country for farming purposes. The soil is thin and poor, he claims, and the country rough and broken. Some of the bottoms along the streams look very nice, but the soil is poor. K. C. said he had enough of Oklahoma, and no man could induce him to go there again.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 7, 1883.
Capt. David Payne and Harris, the Chief man, are around our city every once in awhile.
Winfield Courier, March 8, 1883.
PAYNE’S OKLAHOMA RAIDS.
The Atchison Champion said, a short time ago, that some newspaper man with detective instincts should find out the inspiration of Dave Payne’s Oklahoma raids, and intimated that some railroad interests might be behind them. The Caldwell Commercial, published on the border of the Territory, says this supposition is not correct; that it knows no railroad company has had anything to do with the raids. Payne, it says, has no money himself. It gives this account of Payne’s operations. “He has depended entirely upon selling Oklahoma colony certificates and stock in his so-called town company. He has also gathered in considerable money from gullible parties to whom he represented that the territory was bound to be opened up at a certain time, and in consideration of said parties paying him twenty-five dollars in cash, he has agreed to select and hold for them a quarter-section of the Oklahoma lands, they thereby being relieved from accompanying any of the raiding expeditions. In all the raids he has made, the supplies have been furnished by the people accompanying him, or by a few individuals who have put up their money. In this last raid we are credibly informed that he sold at Arkansas City full six hundred certificates at two dollars each.”
Winfield Courier, March 8, 1883.
OF COURSE IT IS FUN.
The Hartford Courant wants to know if this farce of employing United States troops to capture “Oklahoma” Payne and turn him over to the civil authorities, only to see him walk out of jail and begin preparations for a new raid, hasn’t lasted long enough. It seems to be fun for Mr. Payne.
Of course it is fun for Payne. One thousand dupes per trip who pay him three dollars each to conduct them to the promised land would pay him very well without such perquisite as sales of shares in Oklahoma City at twenty-five dollars each. The only strange thing about it is that he should find many “guys.”
Arkansas City Traveler, March 21, 1883.
A meeting was held in J. R. Musgrove’s store, at Geuda Springs, on the evening of the 3rd inst., to induce the proprietor of the Oklahoma War Chief to locate his paper at that place. Mr. Harris asks a bonus of $500.00, of which $300 was subscribed. Press.
Winfield Courier, March 22, 1883.
The Oklahoma Lands.
We have at hand the decision of the U. S. District Judge, I. C. Parker, in the case of the United States vs. D. L. Payne, relative to the status of the lands in the Indian Territory known as the Oklahoma country. In summing up the court says:
“It was Indian country beyond question while the Creeks and Seminole occupied it. The government obtained it for Indian occupancy. Of course, it could not at the same moment make the treaty and transplant other tribes on the land, but we find it commenced to do so as soon thereafter as possible. It has gone on and treated it as devoted to that purpose, by settling on a large portion of it Indian tribes. It cannot be presumed that for fifteen years the Government has had a tract of country within the very heart of the Indian country, which it has purchased and permitted to remain in such condition, as it might become a place of refuge for criminals and outlaws, who could depredate and prey upon their Indian neighbors and others with immunity from punishment, especially when the government has pledged protection and security from intruders to all the tribes in the Indian country. Yet this is so if this is Indian country, because the laws of the United States would not extend over it, and it would not be within the jurisdiction of any state or territory. It never intended this. It did not by this treaty of purchase with the Seminoles do it. By its act of reservation of this country, situated as it was and being reserved for the purpose it was, it continued still to be Indian country as much as if it had been at that time entirely occupied by Indians. Now, in the estimation of many persons, it may be desirable to open this country to settlement. If so, it must be done by the power that has a right under the constitution and laws to do it. It must not be asked or expected that to accomplish this end the courts will break or even bend the timbers of the law, especially when that power in the government which could act has, time and again, refused to act. The courts do not make the laws. They interpret, construe, and execute them as they find them.
From my views of the law, as applicable to this case, upon the facts set up by the defendant, he is liable for the penalty under the law, and the demurrer to the answer must be sustained.
It is so ordered.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 28, 1883.
Capt. Payne & Harris, of the War Chief, were in the city Monday.
Arkansas City Traveler, March 28, 1883.
We understand it is a settled fact that the War Chief will shortly be published at Geuda Springs.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 4, 1883.
[Items from Geuda Herald.]
The Oklahoma War Chief came out last week headed Geuda Springs, and we understand the editor expects to buy an outfit and start to work here in a few days.
It seems that the Law Enforcement Club has done some good here as we are informed that it is now impossible to get a drink of whiskey in town, except for medical, scientifical, and mechanical purposes.
Oklahoma Payne was in our city a few days last week. We understand he intends moving here with his family and making this place Oklahoma headquarters. Democrat.
Capt. Payne is here with his family, and intends starting from here with his colony about the 1st of May. Geuda Springs is now the headquarters of Payne’s Oklahoma Colony.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, April 5, 1883.
The Inside of the Oklahoma Boom.
To the Editor of the Eagle: DEAR SIR: I desire to give the reason why Capt. Payne does not open Oklahoma, and help many parties come to a full conclusion, who think they were sold out on the last trip.
I will state that last May, while at Hunnewell, Cap came to me and said: “Nugent, there are parties here who want to buy me out, and there are but two men I can trust, you and Berry Eastas, and as Berry is not here, I will fetch them to you and introduce them to talk to you about it. And you tell them that Capt. Payne will not trouble them providing they will pay $200,000. If they won’t give that, come down to $160,000, but no less. Now I want you to do this for me, for I won’t dare to sell to them myself.”
I said, “No, Cap; for if the colony was to find it out, they would hang you sure.”
“Well,” said Cap; “You catch my meaning.”
I then said, “Cap, what are you going to do with the parties that have suffered, worked, spent their money and time as much as you have?”
“Oh,” said Payne, “I can easily satisfy them, but I shan’t be seen for a few days.”
I took from that, that he would not be seen at all.
He said, “Would you be afraid to do it?”
Now this I told in one of the colony meetings, and Cap acknowledged it. This being the case we would naturally suppose that he sold out this last time, as many have concluded who was with him. On this account I have never gone with him any more, and I blame myself for not telling it, to have saved lots of others; but I thought he would surely prove true when he had such a large crowd as he had this last trip. I am told he was the first man to surrender. And as the old adage is, that it is never too late to do good, I tell this, that people may not be fooled by him any more. Although he says now, (as of old), that he is going to stay this time sure, this he does from raid to raid, to get all the money he can. I know he will come back as usual. There are many more things about the man that citizens of Wichita know, and that every man ought to know, such as his borrowing money from all he can, and never paying it back. The money he gets for a certificate, he must always spend in the saloons. He has lived with an unmarried woman here for years, who has a boy nine or ten years old. And Cap took these parties with him to Oklahoma this last trip. And as it has been said to me, he is certainly the best educated dead beat in the State. E. H. NUGENT.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, April 12, 1883.
Payne’s lieutenant—we have forgotten his name—is organizing an Oklahoma boom on his own hook. Perhaps it has crawled through his head by this time that he might as well make the outside lucre as Payne.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, April 26, 1883.
That eminent confidence operator, D. L. Payne, is out with an ill-connected mess of garbage. He has undoubtedly paid the Eagle for publishing it with money beat out of Oklahoma suckers, but as it affords him some comfort and indicts no harm upon a living soul, it is not worthwhile to find fault with Payne or his senseless twaddle. Like all others of his class, the fellow can’t comprehend the fact that he is a fool as well as a fraud.
The Caldwell Commercial, Thursday, May 3, 1883.
The Kansas City Times announces that our highly interesting friend, Capt. D. L. Payne, started last Tuesday night on a lecture tour through the large towns in Illinois. The Times quaintly adds that “being now without money, he takes the lecture field in order to raise funds to pay the necessary expenses to secure an injunction against the Secretary of War, thus restraining him from issuing further orders for the arrest of persons who may be found upon the lands.” Of course, Payne is out of money. He always is, whenever there is an opportunity to raise a dollar without working for it. He will give the suckers a fine game of taffy, but if he leaves them with buzzards in his pouch, it will be for the reason that his borrowing racket is more successful than the lecture.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 16, 1883.
The Democrat remarks that Capt. Payne is going to make another “rade” into the Indian Territory. About the same time we presume the “great offender” will make another “rade” into the Democrat columns. That paper displays great originality when Capt. Payne is around.
The Caldwell Journal, May 31, 1883.
Capt. Sommers met Payne on the train last Saturday. Payne had but recently returned from his lecturing tour in Illinois and Indiana. He did not say what success he had. He said, however, that he was going to celebrate the Fourth of July in Oklahoma. Probably in company with those Choctaw negroes J. Hamilton Turner is taking there.
Winfield Courier, June 7, 1883.
[Arkansas City Correspondence.]
Captain Payne is trying the virtues of Geuda Springs. He is suffering from rheumatism.
The Caldwell Journal, June 21, 1883.
OSBURN ON PAYNE.
The Oklahoma Pilgrim, is the title of a newspaper started at Burrton, Harvey County, by W. H. Osburn, Payne’s private secretary and right bower in several raids made into the Territory. The farce last February was too much for Osburn and he gives Payne the “shake,” for reasons which he sets forth in the following article. Mr. Osburn’s article confirms what we have stated heretofore, and coming from one of Payne’s confidential advisers, it should have some weight with those who still believe that Payne is able or willing to carry out all the hifalutin promises he has made and is still making.
“Many will criticize me and my colony for the step we are taking. Now I will say (and no one can dispute it), that so long as Payne acted in good faith for the opening of Oklahoma, I worked hard with him. I never grumbled at his drinking and borrowing of money, which he never paid back, as some have, I considering that outside of our business; but when I became fully satisfied that he was not for the opening of Oklahoma, then I was done with him, for I want a home there and want all the colonists, and others that see fit to go, to have homes, and have taken the course we are now pursuing to help accomplish that end. It probably is necessary for me to give some reason for coming to the conclusion that Payne does not want to open Oklahoma. I have many very plain demonstrations of that fact, but of course cannot give them all here. I think the captain’s conduct on our last trip, which many know about, is sufficient to prove my views. It will be remembered by all, that our arrangements were to go to Oklahoma, and go to stay; as we hauled out and as we went some 700 strong, it was thought we would stay. On our road down the captain would give us a speech occasionally, always assuring us the victory was ours, that all that was necessary was for us to stay by him, that he would suffer his throat cut from ear to ear, and his arms torn from his body sooner than surrender; that if a negro soldier laid hands on him, that negro was to be laid low, or at least get the full force of Payne’s muscle. Well, let us see how the thing came out. We finally got safely camped on the North Canadian, when about 80 to 100 soldiers came, pitched their camp nearby, and after a time the lieutenant came into our camp and had a private talk of about one half hour with Captain Payne, and in a few minutes Captain Payne went with the lieutenant to their camp and gave themselves up without any resistance what-ever. He gave the colony no chance to protect him. Captain had never organized his men, and, of course, when he was gone the whole camp was demoralized, and men began to say I am sold, I am ready to go home, and away they went.
“Now why did he demoralize his men in this way? We think it was because he knew if he stayed with his men that Oklahoma was open and that would not suit him. Now it may be we judge wrong, and if Payne can give any reason for doing as he did, we will be glad to hear from him. Now Payne had surrendered and returned home time and again, and of course knew that no good could result from that way of doing. And as he had six or seven men to one soldier, so he could stay, how can it be only as we have it? But we are ready for an explanation.
Winfield Courier, June 28, 1883.
Oklahoma Boomers.
It is stated that the Oklahoma boomers, consisting of Dave Payne and his dupes, are gathered along the line and will make a raid on Oklahoma tomorrow or next day. The troops are also on hand and will march the raiders out again with a quick step and Dave will have the money and a good excuse for not succeeding in settling them on the Oklahoma lands. In a few months Dave will gather together another lot of guys who will pay him to conduct them to the promised land, and will get fired out and left in the same way. Dave gets fined heavily, but he is execution proof, and the law does not provide for imprisonment as a punishment for such raids. It is certainly time that congress attended to this matter, and if it fails next winter, it will be a disgrace to the government.
The Caldwell Journal, July 5, 1883.
PAYNE WANTS AN INJUNCTION.
The Secretary of War has transmitted to the Interior Department the following telegram from General Pope. “Ft. Leavenworth, June 25. To the Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.: David L. Payne has applied to the United States circuit court today for an injunction against yourself and me, restraining us from interfering with his entrance to and occupation of the Oklahoma districts in the Indian Territory. This application brings up for decision the whole question of the status of the Oklahoma district. I sent the papers served on you and myself jointly to the United States District Attorney for Kansas, who requested that we report the facts to Washington, in order that instructions may be sent him. The case needs immediate attention, and I request that the District Attorney for Kansas be telegraphed to at once to attend to the case.”
Secretary Lincoln adds that he has furnished a copy of the telegram to the Attorney General, with a request that he take the necessary measures to meet the application.
The Caldwell Journal, July 12, 1883.
Payne, it seems, is determined that the troops at Reno shall not enjoy an inglorious ease, while he exists, as he is making preparations to take into Oklahoma the half dozen followers who still think he is the greatest man on earth.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 8, 1883.
The Wichita Eagle received intelligence from Red Fork, Indian Territory, the present headquarters of the Oklahoma Invaders, under date of August 2, which says that at that time there were about 600 people located at that point. The Eagle informant on the frontier writes that the officers at Ft. Reno have orders to let the settlers remain, or at least that is the impression of the settlers.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 8, 1883.
Oklahoma has been the principal topic for the past week on our streets.
Winfield Courier, August 16, 1883.
GOOD ADVICE.
The following sensible letter written by Senator Plumb to a citizen of Winfield, who made inquiry of him concerning lands in the Indian Territory, is published by the Atchison Champion.
DEAR SIR: I have yours of the 19th. To my mind there is no use of going to Oklahoma until the government has in some way declared the land open for settlement.
If each and every man who has been ejected from the Territory had faithfully applied his time and money lost to opening a farm elsewhere, he would be fairly well off. Payne has spent time enough to have paid for a farm in Kansas—but I suppose he has spent the money of others.
Of course in time, all public lands—all balances of military reservations and of Indian reservations—will be opened for settlement. Meanwhile there are plenty of public lands for those who have none, and will be for some time. But really, should a man who has a farm in Kansas complain that the government don’t give him another? Wouldn’t it be better to save some of the land for the perishing thousands who have none? P. B. PLUMB.
The Caldwell Journal, August 16, 1883.
THE OKLAHOMA BOOM.
We are informed that about 250 boomers left Arkansas City on Friday of last week, for the Oklahoma lands. Payne was in Arkansas City at the time, but gave out that he did not intend to accompany the expedition. We learn that, in conversation with others, he stated it to be his intention to keep still pending the trial of his case before the U. S. Circuit Court, and that he thought inasmuch as he had adopted that course, the War and Interior departments should also maintain a neutral position and permit anyone who chose to settle upon the Oklahoma lands.
The fellow don’t seem to understand that such a course on the part of the government would be a virtual abandonment of its claims, and one is sometimes at a loss to know whether he is a fool or a knave. Perhaps a close analyzation of his character would develop both elements, each alternately predominating as circumstances seem to require.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 22, 1883.
United States Attorney Hallowell has filed his reply as attorney for Secretary Lincoln and General Pope in the David Payne injunction case.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 22, 1883.
Interview with Dave Payne, Boomer.
DE VERA, in Kansas City Journal.
At Arkansas City I met Capt. Dave Payne, the Oklahoma boomer. The captain has his office and headquarters in Arkansas City, over which he proudly floats the stars and stripes. Quite a number of intended “Invaders” were camped near town ready to move forward at any moment when the signs came. I had a brief conversation with the irrepressible Dave and learned he was awaiting the decision of Judge McCrary regarding his injunction proceedings. The captain said that he and his attorneys were promptly on hand at Keokuk, ready for business, but that the United States district attorney wanted to make a five days’ argument, but was informed by the judge that the weather was too warm. He therefore gave the parties until the 10th of the present month, in which to file their briefs and arguments, the whole to be printed, at which time something must be done. Capt. Payne is of the opinion that the case will be decided favorably and that there will be no more arbitrary arrests and removals, all of which he considers have been made heretofore without any warrant of law whatever and in direct violation of the plainest provisions of the constitution. The briefs and arguments submitted in the case by the complainant are ably drawn and reflect much credit on the attorneys retained by Capt. Payne. The argument certainly is an ingenious one and will set the military department of the government to thinking at least.
The Caldwell Journal, August 23, 1883.
TAKEN IN.
The Last Boomer’s Raid Comes to Grief.
Word was brought in on Tuesday, by Capt. C. M. Scott, who came over from Arkansas City, to the effect that Capt. Carroll, of the U. S. Army, had captured the boomers on the Oklahoma lands, taking their wagons and stock.
About seven of the boomers escaped, and footed it all the way into Arkansas City. It is also stated that the boomers, previous to their capture, had run short of provisions, and sent a courier to Schiffbauer to forward flour and other provisions to them. Schiffbauer filled the order, and before the teams reached the grounds the flour, provisions, teams, and drivers were captured by the troops. A courier, sent down from Arkansas City with a dispatch to one of the boomers, had his horse taken from him and was compelled to hoof it back to his starting point.
What disposition will be made of the boomers, is not known. They will likely be held until orders are received from Washington.
Thus ends the latest attempt to make a location on the Oklahoma lands. Some people never learn anything from the experience of others, and it is more than likely a number of the stupids may be induced to make another attempt before winter sets in.
The Caldwell Journal, August 30, 1883.
The Oklahoma boomers, captured by Capt. Carrol, week before last, are on their way up under an escort of some of the colored troops who fought nobly. The boomers will reach Caldwell about Friday or Saturday.
The Caldwell Journal, August 30, 1883.
A friend who visited Geuda Springs the other day informs us that efforts are being made to issue another number of the Oklahoma War Chief. Payne has had a picture made representing him at his supposed home in Oklahoma. He is supposed to be standing at the end of his log cabin, leaning on an axe. On a tree close by hangs a revolver and a belt full of cartridges, while his trusty and death-dealing rifle is braced up against the cabin. Our informant stated that while he and several others were looking at the picture, one of the party remarked: “It’s a good picture. That’s about the only position you could find Payne in with an axe—leaning on it.” The silence which followed the remark seemed to give consent.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 5, 1883.
The injunction asked for by Payne and upon the granting of which he rested all his hopes of a settlement upon Oklahoma, has been refused.
The Caldwell Journal, September 6, 1883.
OKLAHOMA.
Judge McCrary Renders a Decision in Effect Against the Oklahoma Colonists.
The following opinion rendered by Judge McCrary a few days ago will be read with interest by all persons who contemplated moving to Oklahoma.
In the Circuit Court of the United States, District of Kansas, August, 1883.
David L. Payne, complainant, vs. Robert T. Lincoln and John Pope. In equity.
MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION.
The complainant alleges that he is a citizen of the United States, and that he served as a soldier of the United States during the war of the rebellion, and was honorably discharged; that he is entitled to settle upon certain territory described in the bill for the purpose of taking a homestead and of obtaining and keeping his home, residence, and his citizenship therein; that he has been attempting by all means in his power to enter upon said territory for that purpose and would have done so were it not for the acts of the defendant, who is a major-general in the army of the United States, having command of a large body of United States soldiers, and who, under orders from the president, has by force prevented complainant from entering upon said territory, and thus unlawfully deprived him of a right guaranteed to him by the constitution and laws of the United States. The bill avers that the territory in question is public land of the United States and open to settlement under the laws hereof.
The particular territory in controversy is described as follows, in the bill.
“Being that portion of the so-called Indian Territory lying south of the State of Kansas and west of the State of Arkansas, and being that portion thereof situate and lying between the North Fork of the Canadian river on the north, and the Canadian river on the south, and extending from the Indian meridian on the east, which meridian nearly corresponds with the sixth principal meridian traversing the state line of Kansas from north to south to the north and south township line between townships seven and eight to the west of said Indian meridian, as will more fully appear by reference to the United States survey thereof.”
The prayer of the bill is for an injunction to restrain the defendants from molesting, interfering with, seizing, imprisoning, detaining, or prevent complainant and others similarly situated accompanying him from going to or remaining upon said territory.
There is no service upon the defendant, Robert T. Lincoln, and the present order is only asked as against the defendant, John Pope.
The motion is submitted upon the allegations of the bill in connection with the statutes and treaties applicable to the controversy.
S. N. Wood and Waters & Ensminger, for complainant.
J. R. Hallowell, United States attorney for General Pope.
McGraw, Circuit Judge.
Is the land under question subject to enter under the pre-emption and homestead laws of the United States? This is the controlling question in the case. It is, to say the least, a question of doubt, and one concerning which there is a serious dispute. The executive branch of the government after the investigation, and being advised by the attorney general of the United States, has decided it in the negative, and have accordingly issued orders to the defendant, John Pope, who, as major-general of the army, has military control of the Indian Territory, to prevent by force the occupation of the disputed territory by white settlers. Under such circumstances, all that this court can at present be reasonably asked to do is to preserve the status quo until the final adjudication of the controversy. Were the parties at issue upon a question of legal right, and an injunction is necessary for the purpose of preserving all existing rights until final hearing, a preliminary injunction will generally be granted; but in the present case the existing status would be destroyed, not preserved, by granting the writ. The sole purpose for which the injunction is granted in advance of a final hearing in such cases, is to preserve the rights of the parties pending the suit, so as to leave the subject matter intact, to be dealt with by the court in the final decree. It is to compel the party against whom it is granted to maintain his status merely until the matter in dispute shall by due process of the court be determined.
Hight on injunctions, sec. 8, Mammoth Vein Coal Company’s appeal, 54 Pa. St. 182. To grant the preliminary writ to this case would be in advance of hearing upon the merits, to open up the disputed territory by settlement, and this in effect to predetermine the controversy as well as to destroy the present situation.
To refuse this writ is to preserve, or at least not to disturb, the existing status. Without, therefore, considering other questions, the motion for preliminary injunction is overruled upon this ground.
The Caldwell Journal, September 6, 1883.
Serious Charges.
Special to the Kansas City Times.
ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS, August 31. The greatest excitement that has ever been known in this country exists now. The Oklahoma War Chief, a paper published in Geuda Springs, in this county, makes charges of not only a serious nature, but criminal in character, against Hon. P. B. Plumb, United States senator from Kansas, and Secretary of the Interior Teller. Right on top of this some buck the men driven out of Oklahoma by the United States army. These men are desperate and say, as all now believe, that Judge McCrary was improperly dealt with by these syndicates in Oklahoma. In a word, that McCrary knew that these lands were or were not public lands; that there is no excuse for this delay. The War Chief claims to be able to prove that Hood, a banker in Emporia, and partner to Senator Plumb, has men now taking up these lands, and that the settlers are held back that the syndicates may get hold of all the best lands. Certain it is that there are men now surveying, and taking up land there, and that they have the support of the United States army while all men not in the rings are driven out.
The Caldwell Journal, September 6, 1883.
Oklahoma Boomers.
Sergeant Wilson, with a detachment of the 9th U. S. Cavalry, arrived last Friday from Fort Reno with a party of Oklahoma boomers, captured the week previous. The boomers numbered 125 and had 38 wagons. A few of them went through town while the others went to Hunnewell and Arkansas City. Our interviewer failed to get hold of any of the party, and consequently we can’t give their opinions regarding the unprofitable trip they made.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 12, 1883.
A few Oklahomaites still linger about their headquarters, loth to leave the promised land, yet restrained from entering therein by the decision of Judge McCrary.
Winfield Courier, September 13, 1883.
WHERE IS PAYNE? Judge McCrary has decided that the Secretary of War is a bigger man than Dave Payne. It is intimated that Dave will take an appeal.
The Caldwell Journal, September 13, 1883.
Payne Skipped Out.
The Geuda Springs Herald says the JOURNAL was mistaken about Payne going to Oklahoma, and states that the boys got all ready to start, but Payne skipped out for Wichita, and they are still awaiting his return.
Winfield Courier, September 13, 1883.
Oklahoma Payne has again come to grief. He and his followers were again brought out of the promised land to Caldwell by the troops last week. The Oklahoma War Chief, his mouth organ, has turned up its toes to the daisies and it looks as though his efforts had certainly been wasted on the desert air—unless, possibly, he has salted down a goodly amount of the hard earnings of those he duped into following him.
Winfield Courier, September 20, 1883. The Caldwell Journal, September 20, 1883.
Payne and Other Officers, Oklahoma Company, Arrested.
Last Monday, at Wichita, David L. Payne, President; J. B. Cooper, Treasurer; A. B. Calvert, Secretary; and A. W. Harris, Assistant Secretary, of the Oklahoma Company, an association for the purpose of entering and locating in the Indian Territory, were arrested upon a warrant issued by United States Commissioner, J. F. Sherman, on the complaint of United States Attorney, J. R. Hallowell, charging them with a conspiracy to violate a law of the United States, and to commit an offense against the laws of the United States by settling upon the lands in the Indian Territory, and that Payne and his colonists be expelled therefrom, by order of the President of the United States.
Payne is the individual known as Oklahoma Payne, and was brought before the commission by Mr. Charles Hatton, assistant, and who appears for the Government, and the case was continued till the next day, for the witnesses to appear, but it is not expected that the case will be heard till the 29th. Payne has been costing the government many thousands of dollars annually, for two or three years, and in the face of repeated warnings. It seems that Attorney Hallowell has become tired of so much foolery and is determined on more radical and effectual means.
The arrest is a good thing for Payne, because it relieves him from promises made to his deluded followers, and gives him what he dearly loves above all other things, a little cheap notoriety, and at the same time will enable him to work a new batch of sympathy that will likely aid in replenishing his treasury. Save the above results, and putting the government to an unnecessary expense, we can see no good likely to arise from the arrest of Payne and the men associated with him.
It may be, however, that the U. S. Attorney has taken this step in order to get the case into court in such a way that a decision must be rendered as to the status of the lands in question. But it is claimed that the decision of Judge Parker, of the Western Arkansas district, and the more recent decision of Judge McCrary, practically settles that point, and leave no ground upon which Payne can claim a right to settle upon the Oklahoma lands. Look at the move on the part of the U. S. Attorney from any point we may, it has the appearance to us of being a farce.
Winfield Courier, October 4, 1883.
WICHITA. The preliminary examination of Dave L. Payne and others charged with violating U. S. laws by invading the territory was concluded last week morning and the accused were held for trial on their own recognizances. The defendants are lavish in their praises of Commissioner Sherman before whom the examination was held.
The Caldwell Journal, October 4, 1883.
D. L. Payne, J. B. Cooper, A. W. Harris, and A. B. Calvert, the leaders of the Oklahoma boomers, were bound over last week, at Wichita, by U. S. Commissioner Sherman, in the sum of $1,000 each, for their appearance at the U. S. Court, which meets at Leavenworth on the 8th inst. The prime object of this prosecution is to fully determine the question of the right of white people to occupy the Indian Territory, particularly that portion which the Payne crowd claim to be public lands.
The Caldwell Journal, October 18, 1883.
The Leavenworth Times says that Payne is in that city endeavoring to organize another raid into the Territory, provided the case now before the U. S. District results in his favor.
The Caldwell Journal, October 18, 1883.
When we left Leavenworth on Monday, the Grand Jury had not reported an indictment against D. L. Payne and others for conspiracy in attempting to locate on the Oklahoma lands. The probabilities are, no indictment will be found, though both sides seem to be anxious to get the case into court in some shape, in order that the question as to the status of the lands may be settled.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 24, 1883.
The federal grand jury at Leavenworth, on Friday last, found a true bill against D. L. Payne, better known as “Oklahoma Payne,” for conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States. Payne says he desires a speedy trial, and declares that there is no case against him, as everything in the way of preparations for entering the Indian Territory and marching to Oklahoma has been heralded, in many ways, and that he invariably notified the United States attorney and asked him to interfere, if he proposed to, when they reached the state line and not wait until arriving at Oklahoma.
Winfield Courier, October 25, 1883.
The Federal Grand Jury at Leavenworth, on the 19th inst., found a true bill against D. L. Payne, better known as “Oklahoma Payne,” for conspiracy in violating the laws of the United States.
The Caldwell Journal, October 25, 1883.
PAYNE INDICTED.
The Grand Jury of the U. S. District Court, now in session at Leavenworth, have indicted Payne and his three associates on the Oklahoma business. It is barely possible the case may come to trial at this term. Should such be the case, whatever the result may be, the case will be carried on up until it finally reaches the supreme court. By the time that very deliberate body acts upon it, Payne will have been gathered to his fathers, and the Indian Territory, as it exists today, will only be a memory.
The Caldwell Journal, November 1, 1883.
Indian Commissioner’s Report.
WASHINGTON, D. C., October 26, 1883.
The following is a synopsis of the annual report of Indian Commissioner Price.
Excerpt from report...
An amendment to the law in reference to intruders, so as to punish by imprisonment as well as fine, is absolutely necessary. An intruder without property has very little to fear of a fine. Notwithstanding his repeated expulsion from the Indian Territory, Payne and his party of Oklahoma colonists have twice, during the present year, made attempts at settlement in that country, requiring the aid of the military, at great expense to the government to effect their removal. The commissioner gives a detailed account of Payne’s operations, and asks that the special attention of congress be called to these aggressive movements on Indian Territory lands as illustrating the urgent necessity for speedy and effective legislation in regard to trespassers.
The Caldwell Journal, November 1, 1883.
The Oklahoma building, which was occupied by Payne and the War Chief, was moved yesterday to Rodolf & Howard’s coal yard, to be used by them for an office. The building was sold at auction a short time ago to satisfy a mortgage. The material of the printing office is stored away in Musgrove’s wareroom, and it will also be sold at mortgage sale in a short time. Geuda Herald.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 5, 1883.
The United States District Court convened on Monday of last week, and among the cases to be heard was that of Dave Payne. The hero of Oklahoma “bobs up serenely” with a persistency only equaled by the going qualities of Tennyson’s brook. And still the Territory is not opened.
The Caldwell Journal, December 13, 1883.
Col. Boudinot has brought a charge against Col. Wm. Phillips, agent and attorney at Washington for the Cherokee Nation, for receiving $22,500 from the Indians, and that Phillips stated this sum went to pay Senators Dawes and Secretary Teller for their influence in securing a large appropriation for the benefit of the Cherokee Nation. Col. Phillips denied the charge. He need not to have put himself to that trouble, for no one (whatever may be his personal or political prejudices) who knows the character of Dawes and Teller, will believe the story for a single moment. However, there are corrupt people who will take any charge made against an officer to be true, no matter how absurd it may be on its face. They seem to take it for granted no man can be honest and fill a public place. The reason is obvious. They would steal or be bribed themselves, and they imagine human nature, in that respect, is the same the world over.
The Caldwell Journal, December 20, 1883.
We learn that Boudinot, in addition to bringing suit against Col. Phillips, has also brought suit against the Directors of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association. Boudinot is an outlaw in his own country; at least, he don’t dare to set a foot inside of the Cherokee Nation, and hasn’t for several years. He is a lobbyist and a sharper, and the suits he has entered are only another tack to replenish his depleted purse. Washington is full of just such harpies.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, December 26, 1883.
Two Pictures.
It appears that Col. Boudinot has “poked up” the animals in and about Washington by instituting suits and preferring charges against those who have seemingly acted crooked with reference to “leased lands” in the Indian country. The Colonel’s “prod pole” is punching in the right direction and while great bellowing will be caused, the “general savage” will be able to ward off any damper that may threaten him. Let him continue in his work and protect the nation’s wards is the general sentiment of the country. Springfield Herald.
Winfield Courier, April 17, 1884.
D. L. Payne has filed with Gen. Rosecrans the sworn statement of Captain H. H. Maidt, of Cowley County, which charges most inhuman treatment from United States troops of Oklahoma colonists last August.
Arkansas City Republican, April 19, 1884.
Capt. D. L. Payne arrived in the city from Washington on Tuesday last, and reports everything as favorable concerning Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Republican, April 19, 1884.
Mr. Gordon, of Washington, D. C., is here negotiating for the Oklahoma War Chief at Geuda. Mr. Gordon is an old newspaper man and will edit the paper in the interests of the Oklahoma colony.
Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Republican, April 26, 1884. The stage drivers on the routes between Arkansas City and Oklahoma report about two thousand people upon that section of the Territory, and about five hundred teams. Returning to this place they met many colonists. The persons already there are staking off claims and laying out a city. The Southwestern Stage Co., has chartered seventy-five teams for Oklahoma.
The suit against Capt. D. L. Payne in the U. S. Court has been continued until June. He is expected in the city today. An issue of the Oklahoma War Chief will be published today. The emigrants are buying much provision from our merchants.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 30, 1884.
Oklahoma.
The periodic Oklahoma fever is now raging, and our city is full of men waiting to enter the promised land. A squad of them made a start some two weeks ago, and last Friday one of them came in town, hungry, foot-sore, weary and bedraggled, and reported that they had met the enemy and were theirs. He made his escape by swimming the river, and came on to the state with dispatches for Payne and Gordon, but Uncle Sam’s troops were entertaining the great body of Oklahomaites, and were looking very closely to the comfort of the invaders. After the returning pioneer had met the enterprising Gordon, editor of the War Chief (which has been on the verge of appearing for the last week), he changed his tune, and said everything was O. K. But his private opinion is that he has got enough of Oklahoma, and he wants to go home.
Arkansas City Traveler, April 30, 1884.
To the Oklahomaites.
We take pleasure in publishing the following letter, which we hope will soothe the agitated Oklahoma bosoms in this community. It comes from a locality where the best information on this subject exists, and is worth more than all the loud mouth buncombe given by Payne and his fellow leaders.
Darlington, Indian Territory, April 24, 1884.
ED. TRAVELER: Just a line or two to say that you can tell your readers that the invaders are now being ejected from what is called Oklahoma. Three companies of troops, in command of Capt. Carroll of the Ninth cavalry, met Payne on the ground. The trespassers will be summarily ejected under more stringent orders than formerly. Yours, etc.
L. MERRITT.
Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Republican, May 3, 1884. Many colonists for Oklahoma were in the city, during the first of the week, most of whom have departed for the promised land. Many are coming; many are going. The latest news is that the settlers are surrounded by U. S. Colored troops. Many persons are anxiously awaiting the action of the government.
Oklahoma War Chief Printed at Arkansas City.
Arkansas City Republican, May 3, 1884. Emigrants from the east to Oklahoma come by the way of Arkansas City. Capt. Payne has been stopping at the Central Avenue Hotel in this city since last Saturday. The Oklahoma War Chief is printed here. Our merchants are selling large quantities of goods to the emigrants.
Note: The “Boomer Movement” and “Railroad Interests” came to the fore on May 3, 1884, due to Sidney Clarke’s speech in Arkansas City. MAW]
Sidney Clarke Speaks to Payne Followers in Arkansas City.
Arkansas City Republican, May 3, 1884. Hon. Sidney Clarke, an ex-member of congress from this state, was in the city last Wednesday on private business, and by the invitation of Capt. Payne and others, spoke at Highland hall Wednesday evening to a large audience on “The Rights of Citizens to occupy Public Lands.” The speech was directed against the granting of public lands to railroad corporations and the failure of congress to open the Indian Territory to settlement. He spoke of large grants of lands that should now be declared forfeited, and made some good points and was frequently applauded. He also produced some good arguments in favor of opening the Territory to settlement. At the conclusion of his speech, Capt. Payne, being present, was called for; and on coming to the stage, was greeted with tremendous applause. He said they were going to settle Oklahoma, that they meant to continue to go there till they were allowed to stay. He read several acts of congress in proof that the land was a part of the public domain and said that Senators Plumb and Ingalls would do nothing toward opening the country to settlement because they had private cattle interests there. He said that by the first day of next March these cattle men would not have a piece of fence post in Oklahoma large enough to make a tooth pick or a piece of wire long enough to hoop a wash-tub. Capt. Payne has not the gift of eloquence, but is in some way getting up a big boom for Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, May 10, 1884.
The latest report from Oklahoma is that the soldiers conducted a squad of 48 men to Ft. Reno and turned them over.
Arkansas City Republican, May 17, 1884.
LA PORTE, INDIANA, May 10, 1884.
C. T. Atkinson, Editor Republican, Arkansas City, Kansas.
DEAR SIR: I have seen mention in one or two of your papers of persons going to Oklahoma. What is the social and moral standing of these individuals? Some of the papers would convey the impression that they are all disreputable. Your old friend, J. H. L.
In reply to our friend’s inquiry, we would say that it will not do to brand the persons seeking settlements in Oklahoma as disreputable. While doubtless there are some adventurers, a great number of them are sober, industrious men. These gentlemen truthfully think the land is subject to entry, and are acting accordingly. The impression that all these parties are low in character is a false one.
Arkansas City Republican, May 17, 1884.
A large number of Oklahoma colonists have been in the city for several days. Col. Bentley, of Wichita, was advertised to speak at Highland Hall Thursday night, and on his failure to be present, Capt. D. L. Payne addressed the audience. The house was crowded, and he was frequently applauded. After he concluded his address, the members of the colony, about seventy-five in number, held a secret meeting and elected officers. They have established headquarters at McGinnis’ Hall, and a lively correspondence was carried on yesterday. We called at the headquarters yesterday morning, and learned from Col. E. S. Wilcox, of North Springfield, Missouri, the principal member of the colony, that they were not discouraged by the action of the government in ejecting them from the Territory, but would persist in going there, till they were permitted to remain. A number of those arrested and taken to Wichita, mentioned in another column, have arrived in the city, and we learned from one of them that they were charged with two offenses; the punishment of one of which is a fine of $1,000, and the other $10,000 and two years imprisonment, and that eight were discharged upon each giving his separate bond for $250 for his appearance to answer the charges, and one was discharged without bond.
Arkansas City Republican, May 24, 1884. Police Court. Capt. H. M. Maidt was fined $5 and costs Tuesday for being drunk and using profane, vulgar, and obscene language.
Arkansas City Republican, May 31, 1884.
Mr. T. Bentley has lately taken charge of the War Chief. He is a man of considerable newspaper experience and it is hoped that the paper will succeed.
[STATE NEWS.]
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, June 7, 1884.
A large Oklahoma meeting was held at Wichita, Monday evening. Messrs. Bentley and Stafford of Wichita, Harry St. John of Washington, D. C., and Capt. D. L. Payne made speeches in favor of opening the country to white settlement. After some discussion the following resolutions were adopted:
WHEREAS, We believe the lands known as Oklahoma are public lands, and whereas citizens of Kansas who have gone on to such lands for the purpose of settlement have been abused by the U. S. Army; and
WHEREAS, Such citizens have not been prosecuted and convicted of any crime; therefore, we denounce the action of the U. S. Army as an act of tyranny, and we call upon the President of the United States to so command the Army that such acts of injustice must cease.
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, June 14, 1884.
At Wichita Monday evening Oklahoma Payne addressed a crowded house. He threatened that they would hang the first man that tried to frustrate their movements, “and that nothing but blood, blood of the bloodiest and sudden kind would bring them to terms.” One of our citizens being in that city, attended the meeting. He states that excitement ran high, and that anybody speaking against the invaders would likely have been mobbed. Payne warned the cattle men in Oklahoma territory that their time had come, and that they would use all their fence posts for tooth picks. Emporia Republican.
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, June 14, 1884.
General Augur has organized a new military district, to consist of that portion of the Indian Territory included between the Cimarron River and the southern boundary of Kansas, and west of the ninety-sixth meridian, including Ft. Reno, and is to be known as the district of Oklahoma. Col. Edward Hatch, ninth cavalry, has been designated as the commander. In order to enable him to carry out President Hayes’ proclamation of February 12, 1880, and all existing orders found thereon, in relation to arrest and removal of all unauthorized persons from the Indian country, and the prevention of threatened invasions thereof, there will be assigned to him, in addition to the troops already in the district, two troops of the ninth cavalry from Fort Riley, Kansas, one from Fort Elliott, Texas, and one from Fort Supply, Indian Territory. He is also authorized to call for troops, when necessary, from Forts Sill, Elliott, and Supply.
Arkansas City Republican, July 5, 1884.
Judas Iscariot.
[The following was handed us, by one of our prominent citizens, for insertion, with the remark that it might do much good. It is from the Caldwell Daily Standard.]
Below we publish a letter from W. F. Gordon, late editor of the Oklahoma War Chief—
Payne’s paper—to Ben S. Miller, president of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association. There is no doubt about the genuineness of it. We copied directly from the original. Milt Bennett, at our request, brought it to us and we copied while he held it in his hands and read it to us. Mr. Bennett, treasurer of the association, still has the original and intends to keep it.
This man Gordon has long been identified with the Oklahoma movement. He now proposes in his letter to give the boomers away. What is there to give away? Anything that is not already known? There is something rotten in it or Gordon would not offer to sell it out. Whatever it is should be ascertained and published as soon as possible. The letter speaks for itself and we have not space for further comment today.
Arkansas City, May 30, 1884.
BEN S. MILLER, President Stock Association, Caldwell, Kansas.
DEAR SIR: In a conversation here yesterday with Dr. Roberts, it was suggested it would be to yours and my advantage to open correspondence.
First permit me to refer you as to myself to Hon. Sidney Clark and Osburn Shannon, Esq., of Lawrence, Kansas; ex-Senator E. G. Ross, secretary and financial agent New Mexico system narrow gauge railroads at Las Vegas, New Mexico; R. T. VanHorn, Kansas City, Missouri; and others if necessary.
On certain representations, I left Washington, D. C., April the 30th, last, and came here and took charge of the Oklahoma War Chief, a newspaper in the interest of the colonists entering Oklahoma and other parts of the Indian Territory. I had been engaged two months in Washington searching the records, cessions, treaties, etc., between the United States and Indians, and laws, decisions, etc., bearing upon the subject, of course, on the side of the colonists. But I have been so deceived (in what manner it is not necessary to state), so misled as to the status of the country (territory), its population, best interests, etc., that I severed my connection with this paper, but retained my membership in the colony (with advantages) as private and inner secretary and adviser. I think I have some knowledge of the affair. My profession is that of a newspaper writer and publisher, and can honorably turn my pencil whither I choose, if not employed at the time by an opposite party. Can you give me employment? Would regular “letters” be of service enough, at this juncture, for you to pay reasonably for them? I mean “letters from the border,” treating the subjects in which your association is interested, published in such journals as you might suggest would publish them. Say, articles upon “The Dependence of Labor and Capital upon each other,” “The Western Prairies are Nature’s Pasture Fields,” “Necessity of Vast Pastures to meet the serious demands upon our cattle supply,” “The True Inwardness of the Boomers, etc.” I merely suggest these topics as leading to others; in other ways not best to write of.
I think I could be of service to you by remaining on the border. If you think it of any use, I would call upon you personally for fuller interchange.
Of course, I expect this letter and its subject matter will be strictly confidential with yourself. Would be pleased to hear from you at your earliest moment. Yours truly,
Wm. F. GORDON.
P. S. Circumstances prevent my going to Caldwell for a few days. Nor do I feel able to bear any unnecessary expenses now because of my loss in this Oklahoma business. Hence, I have been compelled to trust to your discretion in the use and care of this note. But if you think anything will come of it, telegraph me and I will go to Caldwell at once. W. F. G.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 23, 1884.
There are now seven companies of soldiers on the Chikaskia, about twenty-five miles from this city, awaiting special orders. The general impression is that these orders will be instructions to burn everything in the shape of permanent improvements now in the Territory, except those on recognized leased lands. In conversation with an official, he tells us this may include the excellent building at Willow Springs, as the orders will be general and sweeping. The troops have burned all the permanent improvements on Oklahoma land, there now remaining nothing but dug-outs, and the same course will doubtless be pursued with the new settlement called Rock Falls, south of Hunnewell, and run in the interests of Payne and his strikers.
[STATE NEWS.]
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, July 26, 1884.
A new town company has been organized for the Oklahoma country by Payne, Safford, Keller, Miller, Mix, and Mendenhall. This company has $2,500 capital stock, divided into shares of $100 each. It will create a new town and engage in manufacturing, mining, and mechanical, chemical, and printing enterprises. The stock will be for sale. There are a number of these Oklahoma town companies incorporated at Topeka.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 6, 1884.
Oklahoma Orders.
It is anticipated that there will be very lively times in Indian Territory in a few days. For some weeks past Capt. Payne, who has led a number of invasions towards Oklahoma, has been mustering his forces in Kansas. When his party numbered about 3,000 men, a good part of whom desired to become actual settlers in the Territory, he moved south into the Cherokee Strip, from Kansas. The Cherokee Indian Agent complained to the Indian department, and orders were sent by the war department to Gen. Augur, commanding the department of the Missouri, to prepare to head them off, and to remove them. Gen. Hatch was then sent to watch the movements and stop a move on Oklahoma with a part of the Ninth cavalry from Forts Sills and Supply, in addition to the four troops now in the temporary district of Oklahoma. The balance of the command were also held in reserve. Since that time final orders have been desired and some definite instructions as to when the military should remove them from the Territory. While these were being waited for, Payne’s band has been greatly increased, and he is taking steps for an advance. The order of the interior department directing that a land agent accompany the military, which was issued on Thursday, has settled matters, and the work of removal will commence at once. It is not thought Gen. Augur will wait for the land agent to arrive, but will proceed in the matter or is even doing so now. The plan that will probably be used will be the posting of proclamations in the parts of the Territory invaded, directing the invaders to be out of its limits by a certain day, and if they are not out at that time, they will be removed by force. Payne’s party talks of resistance, and a small internal war is likely to follow. Payne’s former offenses have been so little regarded by the interior department heretofore, that his men think that the department is inclined to believe that Payne is in the right. Inter-Ocean, 25th.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 6, 1884.
OKLAHOMA BOOMERS.
The Colonists at Rockwell Falls to be Removed by Troops.
TOPEKA, KANSAS, August 1. It is believed that the body of Oklahoma settlers will be removed by the United States troops on Monday. Gen. Hatch, of the United States army, and A. R. Greene, of the interior department, are now at Caldwell, Kansas, in consultation concerning the orders from Washington. Gen. Hatch has 900 soldiers in his command. The first move will be made on the town of Rock Falls, a few miles south of Hunnewell, Kansas. Rock Falls is a sort of general headquarters for the settlers, and contains the office of the Oklahoma War Chief newspaper. The town and newspaper will be moved outside the Indian Territory. The officers say that the orders given them shall be strictly obeyed, and that in expelling the settlers, the utmost kindness will be used consistent with the circumstances. The estimates concerning the number of people to be removed varied greatly, some putting it as low as 400. The true number will probably be about 1,500 boomers and about twenty stock ranch outfits. Some of the latter are pretty extensive. The highest estimate heard came from military sources, and raises 3,000 in all. The last issue of the War Chief is full of defiance. Force will be required to remove these people, but the position taken by the leaders of the boomers in their organ would indicate they desire this to be exercised. It is said that some 18,000, including servant girls in hotels and the easily influenced everywhere, have paid their $2.50 fee for claims, and another $2.00 fee as members of the colony. Of course, the men who have received these moneys want something more than constructive force for their own justification, but at the same time no violent opposition to the military is anticipated.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 13, 1884.
Busted Oklahomaites.
Elsewhere will be seen an account of Payne’s ejectment from the Indian Territory. This event has been expected by all who have retained a moderately tight grip on their reason, and whose eyesight has been clear enough to see through Payne and his scheme. Our sympathies are extended to the honest poor men and women who have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by this whiskey-soaked deadbeat and a few fellow-bummers, but for the ring leaders in this swindle we only wish that the government, in defining their course as an offense, had prescribed a sufficient penalty. Payne has made thousands of dollars out of this business, but his poor dupes have lost everything. If a friendly bullet should happen to penetrate Payne’s head, it would save a great many worthy people from unnecessary loss.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, August 13, 1884.
Bounced Boomers.
On Wednesday morning, August 6, Gen. Hatch, in company with Adjutant General Finley and Inspector Green, of the Interior department, visited Payne’s camp at Rock Falls, and after reading the president’s proclamation to him and his assembled followers, directed them to leave the Territory before the next morning, or they would be ejected. This took place in a small board shanty occupied by the Oklahoma Chief newspaper, the forms of which were being made up at the time.
Payne attempted to discuss the legal aspects of the case, but soon became angry and very abusive in his language, calling all the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, a pack of damned thieves. Cooper, the editor, chimed in with vituperation and threats. Failing to provoke the officers into a quarrel, Payne said he had a valise full of money and would give one thousand dollars to be tried by a United States court, and, in order to assure the officers of a case against him, he would, then and there, sell them liquor or cigars without license or permit. He urged the officers to dine with him and offered them plenty of liquor if they would do so. By this time a large crowd had assembled from the tents and shanties along the river, and the officers again admonished them to leave and not return. The only reply was a torrent of abusive epithets that cannot be published. The officers then returned to camp ten miles distant.
Early the next morning two squadrons of the Ninth United States cavalry, commanded by Capt. Moore, appeared in the boomers’ camp, and under direction of Indian Agent Rogers, arrested the whole community, and took charge of the printing office. All the women, children, and men who were first offenders, were escorted to the Kansas line, together with their personal property. Six old offenders, named as follows, D. L. Payne, J. B. Cooper, D. G. Greathouse, T. W. Eclebarger, John McGrew, and S. L. Mosley, were loaded into a six-mule team and started under escort of Lieut. Jackson and fifteen men, for Fort Smith, Arkansas, three hundred miles distant. The paper was ready to go to press, and upon inquiry a number of printers were found in command who soon printed an edition of one hundred copies. The press was then carefully packed and loaded into a wagon, and started under an escort for Muskogee, Indian Territory, it being confiscated property and, under the law, unreplevinable. The printing office and other buildings, including the boarding houses, a drug store, cigar store and restaurant, and some cheap dwellings, were then burned to the ground, and the last vestige of Rock Falls had disappeared.
Payne threatened to cut the throat of the first man who attempted to arrest him; but one colored soldier marched him about the camp for an hour. Payne has lost whatever prestige he may have had heretofore with the thinking class of the community. He has been on a drunken debauch for a week, and was too drunk last night to attend a conference of the squatters after Gen. Hatch left Rock Falls. The poor deluded squatters realize that they have paid him many thousands of dollars without any equivalent.
The number ejected from this camp was about two hundred and fifty people. A large crowd of citizens were present from Hunnewell as spectators, and heartily approved the course adopted to rid the Territory of the intruders. It is believed this will cure the boomers of trying to force a settlement on the Indian lands. Other detachments have been sent to the remaining settlements, who will in like manner arrest the ringleaders and take them to Fort Smith.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 13, 1884.
Oklahoma and Rock Falls stock had a tumble last week.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 13, 1884.
Payne swore he would cut the throat of the first man who attempted to arrest him, but as soon as a negro told him to “hold up your hands,” the cowardly braggart marched around in sight of his followers, among whom there were “none so poor to do him reverence.”
[OKLAHOMA BOOMERS.]
Winfield Courier, August 14, 1884.
Ousting the Oklahoma Boomers.
On Aug. 8th, Gen. Hatch, in company with Adjutant Finley and Inspector Green of the Interior department, visited Payne’s camp at Rock Falls, and after reading the president’s proclamation to him and his assembled followers, directed them to leave the Territory before the morning or they would be ejected. This took place in a small board shanty occupied by the Oklahoma War Chief newspaper. Payne at first attempted to discuss the legal aspects of the case, but soon became angry and very abusive in his language. A large crowd assembled from the tents and shanties along the river and the officers again admonished them to leave and not return. The only reply was a torrent of abusive epithets that cannot be published. The officers then returned to camp ten miles distant. Early the next morning two squadrons of the Ninth United States cavalry commanded by Capt. Moore appeared in the boomers’ camp and under the direction of an Indian Agent, Rogers, arrested the whole community and took charge of the printing office. All the women, children, and men who were first offenders were escorted to the Kansas line together with their personal property.
SIX OLD OFFENDERS.
Named as follows: D. L. Payne, J. B. Cooper, D. G. Greathouse, T. W. Echlebarger, Jno. McGrew, and D. L. Mosely, were loaded onto a six mule team and started under escort of Lieutenant Jackson and fifteen men for Fort Smith, Arkansas, 300 miles distant. The printing office and other buildings, including two boarding houses, a drug store, cigar store, and restaurant, and some cheap dwellings were then
BURNED TO THE GROUND.
And the last vestige of Rock Falls had disappeared.
Payne threatened to cut the throat of the first man who attempted to arrest him, but one colored soldier marched him and raved about the camp for an hour. Payne has lost whatever prestige he may have had heretofore with the thinking class of the community. He has been on a drunken debauch for a week and was too drunk to attend a conference of the squatters after Gen. Hatch left Rock Falls. The squatters realize that they have paid him many thousands of dollars without any equivalent. The number ejected from the camp was about two hundred and fifty.
A large crowd of citizens were present from Hunnewell as spectators, and heartily approved the method adopted to rid the Territory of the intruders. It is believed this will cure the boomers of trying to force a settlement on Indian lands. Other detachments have been sent to the remaining settlements, who will in like manner arrest the ring leaders and take them to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Arkansas City Traveler, August 20, 1884.
Speaking of Payne’s ejectment from the Indian Territory, the Caldwell Journal says that among the personal effects captured was the colony membership book, dating from 1881 to 1884, and further says: “The face of the receipts in those books shows that Payne has received $54,435 from the sale of membership certificates, aside from the sales of stock in the town he has started in Oklahoma proper and on the Cherokee Strip, which from the best information obtainable, is fully as much more, and must aggregate over $108,000.”
Arkansas City Traveler, August 20, 1884.
Oklahoma.
W. B. Williams, deputy United States marshal, of Wichita, was in the city last Wednesday, and from him we learn the following facts.
Armed with a warrant for the arrest of D. W. Payne and other trespassers against the government, Mr. Williams came to this city, and securing the services of Frank Reed, they started for Otoe Agency. On Wednesday morning Mr. Williams met Lieut. Garner and force with the prisoners in charge, and showing his authority, asked that the lieutenant deliver the men over to him, and provide him with an escort of thirty men to the state line. Mr. Williams says that Lieutenant Garner not only refused this request, but in a very insulting manner told him he would not entertain it al all; that he drew his troops up in line and threatened fight if the demand was insisted upon. In view of the fact that Messrs. Williams and Reed were alone, this was very brave on the part of Garner with two or three companies of soldiers at his back. It is probably true, as we are informed, that Lieut. Garner had a little more whiskey than anything else in him, or he would have been more courteous to Marshal Williams.
Regarding Payne and his work, it is known that we have opposed him, only because he was acting contrary to law. But in this matter it looks to us as though Mr. Williams had the right on his side, if, as he claims, his authority ranks higher than that of the military. The lieutenant may not have known this, or it may be that he did, but was acting on the advice of interested parties, knowing that he had sufficient force to hold his prisoners.
The government is losing by its attitude in this matter. Mr. Payne has been arrested repeatedly, but nothing has ever been done with him. Now if he is violating the law, he ought to be put in the penitentiary. If he is not in the wrong, let him and others go in and occupy what lands are open to settlement. We do not advocate this in the interest of Payne, who has duped thousands, but in the interest of right and justice to all parties. We would like to see the Indian country kept for the Indians according to treaties, allowing the right of way to one or two railroads, so that Kansas may have direct communication with southern markets; but if there are government lands there which the government does not want settled by whites, let it pass a law to that effect and forever settle this question. Otherwise, we do not see how people are to be kept out of this country much longer.
We predict that Mr. Payne will suffer no more punishment at Fort Smith than if he had been delivered over to Marshal Williams.
Arkansas City Republican, August 30, 1884.
Reliable information from Oklahoma shows that cattlemen, as well as Payne men, are having their ranches and hay burned by the soldiers. The acting secretary of Interior says all white men must go from this strip of land. This sounds right. Serves all alike.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 3, 1884.
Oklahoma Payne Interviewed.
FT. SMITH, ARKANSAS, August 26. An associated press reporter today visited Capt. D. R. Payne and his Oklahoma boomers where they were held prisoners at the camp of Lieut. Jackson and a detachment of the ninth cavalry in the Cherokee nation opposite Ft. Smith. Payne said: “I first went to Oklahoma five years ago, when informed by able lawyers that these lands were open to white settlement, and located a colony. Since then I have been removed seven or eight times by the military. I spent last winter in Washington City and learned the Cherokee outlet was open to settlement, and that the title was not in the Cherokees but in the United States. I organized a colony of 500 and located at Rock Falls, four miles south of Hunnewell, Kansas. Gen. Hatch, August 6, ordered us out. I told him not to bring his soldiers, we were willing to go into court to have the question settled. I asked him to lay the matter before the secretary of war. He refused. Next morning six companies of the ninth cavalry arrived, accompanied by Indian Agent, Tufts Clark, a Cherokee Indian, and arrested J. B. Cooper, editor of the Oklahoma Chief. Most of the men were absent at the time. The cattle men and cowboys were against us and threatened to assassinate us. The cowboys tore down our flag to use for a saddle blanket, but Capt. Moore recovered it. A little girl came to us with a flag wrapped around her and pistol in hand. We were taken to Gen. Hatch’s camp and Rock Falls was burned. We were allowed to get our clothing and furniture, but Mr. Cooper lost some valuable papers and his clothing. While at Hatch’s camp, I agreed to go to Ft. Smith or any place designated for trial, if released, and offered to put up $5,000 security for keeping my word, but Gen. Hatch said the orders were to take us to Ft. Smith and he intended doing so. Deputy Marshal Williams served writs on us and wanted to take us up to Wichita for trial. Lieutenant Gardener, who was in command, refused to turn us over or recognize the civil authority. About sixty soldiers guarded us as far as the Cimarron River. The officers seemed to fear the cowboys would assassinate us. Half the soldiers returned and the other half are with us. We want to get our matter before the courts of the country, for we believe we have a right to locate homesteads on these lands, and intend to keep on trying until the matter is properly adjusted.
Arkansas City Republican, Saturday, September 6, 1884.
More About Payne.
J. A. Smith, counsel for Payne and the Oklahoma invaders, Thursday filed a document addressed to Attorney General Brewster at the department of justice, calling attention to the act of congress approved January 6th, 1883, which it is claimed has been overlooked or defied in proceeding against Payne and his associates. This act provides for holding terms of the United States court at Wichita, Kansas, and it is contended by counsel for Payne that the judicial authority of that court extends over the territory which Payne invaded. The document claims that Payne should have been arraigned at Wichita. It also sets forth that Payne and his followers are anxious for a speedy trial, but that they are held as prisoners and deprived of the privilege of habeas corpus in the interest of a rich cattle corporation, whose interest they threatened by attempting to settle the territory. The attorney general is urged to direct his subordinates to see that these men have all the legal rights to which they are entitled. A letter received here from Payne says himself and associates are kept in the Cherokee country across the river from Fort Smith to prevent the possibility of habeas corpus. He says they could have reached Fort Smith by rail in one day, but that would have taken them through the judicial territory, wherein they could have appealed for writs of habeas corpus, and it was the determination of the authorities to deny them any such privilege.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, September 10, 1884.
The Oklahoma Matter.
WASHINGTON, D. C., September 2. J. A. Smith, counsel for Payne and the Oklahoma invaders, today filed a document addressed to Attorney General Brewster, at the department of justice, calling attention to the act of congress, approved January 6, 1883, which, it is claimed, has been overlooked or defied in proceeding against Payne and his associates. The act provides for holding terms of United States court at Wichita, Kansas, and it is contended by counsel for Payne that the judicial authority of that court extends over the territory which Payne invaded. The document claims that Payne should have been arraigned at Wichita. It also sets forth that Payne and his followers are anxious for speedy trial, but that they are held as prisoners and deprived of the privileges of habeas corpus in the interest of a rich cattle corporation, whose interest they have threatened by attempting to settle the Territory. The attorney general is urged to direct his subordinates to see that these men have all the legal rights to which they are entitled. A letter received here from Payne says himself and associates are kept in the Cherokee country, across the river from Fort Smith, to prevent the possibility of habeas corpus. He says they could have reached Fort Smith by rail in one day, but that would have taken them through the judicial territory, wherein they could have appealed for writs of habeas corpus, and it was the intention of the authorities to deny them any such privilege.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, September 17, 1884.
Indignant Kansans.
WICHITA, KANSAS, September 12. One of the largest meetings of political nature ever held in this city occurred at the skating rink this evening, the occasion being an indignant meeting over the late arrest of Capt. Payne and his followers by the United States authorities. The meeting was held upon the return of the prisoners to this city after being released from the custody of the military. Fully 1,000 people were present. The meeting was called to order by the election of J. M. McCoy, of this city, as president, with Gen. B. English and ex-Gov. Glenn, formerly of Illinois, as vice presidents. Mr. McCoy is well known to all cattle men in the west, having been on the plains since 1868, engaged in the Texas cattle trade. In 1869 he was sent by the census bureau into the Indian Territory to take the census of the number of cattle in the territory. He made a special examination afterwards in connection with ex-Congressman Phillips of this state as to the legal status of their land. He gave the meeting a very clear statement of the acts by congress in relation to the western part of the territory. He was for several months afterwards at Muskogee, where he was employed as agent to collect rent from the cattle men who had leased the lands from the Indians. While there, he became fully acquainted with the methods of doing business by Mr. Tufts and other agents of the government at Muskogee.
He was followed by Capt. Payne, who gave a graphic description of the arrest of the Rock Falls settlers, the destruction of the property by the agent Tufts, and the negro soldiers and their subsequent treatment while on the march across to Ft. Smith and while there and at Ft. Gibson.
Captain Payne was followed by Judge McDonald of Winfield, one of the most highly respectable and able attorneys of the southern Arkansas valley. He complimented McCoy’s statement of the legal status of those lands. He is the attorney for the boomers.
Mr. McDonald was succeeded by Mr. Cou_ [LAST LETTER IN NAME WAS OBSCURED], a Wichita lawyer. Resolutions asserting the right of settlement on the lands and condemning the action of the general government as illegal, unconstitutional, and outrageous, and as a violation of the rights of the citizens of the United States, were unanimously adopted. General enthusiasm as well as great indignation was expressed.
THE ABOVE WAS FOLLOWED BY THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH, WHICH I BELIEVE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRINTED FIRST.
THE BOOMERS lately under arrest have all arrived in this city. Payne is coming in tonight. Following their indictment of yesterday by the United States grand jury, bills were posted calling a meeting at the skating rink, which will be addressed by Payne and other democratic speakers, who denounced the government for arresting and dragging them across the country of their love. A long series of resolutions were passed to the intent that they had been unjustly arrested and illy treated, and their property burned and destroyed.
Arkansas City Traveler, September 17, 1884.
In the Globe-Democrat’s special from Wichita last Saturday, giving an account of the Oklahoma meeting, is the following sentence: “Capt. Payne was followed by Judge McDonald, of Winfield, one of the most highly respected and able attorneys of South Arkansas.” This is tough on J. Wade.
Arkansas City Republican, September 20, 1884.
“Boomers” in Wichita.
Capt. D. L. Payne, the notorious Oklahoma boomer, arrived in Wichita by the “Frisco” Friday at 6 p.m. It had been previously announced that Payne would arrive, and it was expected that a delegation of friends would be at the depot to meet him. There was a man at the depot with a United States flag to which a placard was attached. This flag was confiscated by the cattle kings to be used as a saddle blanket.
Payne appeared dressed in a slouch hat, brown shirt, and blue pants. He looked dirty and seedy and said he had been sick.
THE INDIGNATION MEETING AT THE RINK.
J. G. McCoy was appointed president. There were about five hundred present. The president on coming forward, said that Prof. Arbuckle would open the proceedings with a song. It was a strictly political song, and the meeting in all intents and purposes was as strictly political as the Democratic ratification meeting, and it appears that it is to be a song campaign. At the conclusion of the song, the president called for Governor Glenn to come forward if he were in the hall, but he did not respond. The president then began to make a speech himself. He said that such proceedings as had been carried out in the case of Payne was more in keeping with the despotism of the Czar of Russia than any proceeding of a government. The people assembled at this meeting to protest against such arbitrary proceedings. An outrage had been perpetrated. These men, seven or eight in number, had been marched about five hundred miles at point of the bayonet and then turned loose like dogs. The speaker then said he would tell what he knew about Oklahoma. He would give a lesson in geography. A map of the territory was taken up on the back of the stage and the speaker went on to describe [REST IS A BIG BLUR]. (Gather he tried to describe the territory in Oklahoma.)
At the top of next column:
and belonged solely to the United States government. He had been at Washington and examined the records. These strips were originally intended for the colonization of Indians and negroes. The government did not know what the devil to do with the niggers, and finally did nothing. Then a law was passed forbidding the colonization of any more wild Indians, therefore the land reverted to the government. The government never declared that the land must be kept for the Indians. If ever there was rottenness in Denmark, it was in that Indian Territory. Referring to the cattle men, he said that it was decided that the interior department had the right to deal with them and that Indian Agent Tufts made a great ado about driving them out, and then told them they could stay if they paid him $5,000. Things were so rotten in the territory that the buzzards had to hold their noses while flying over it. He then arraigned the party, as he called it, that controlled the administration of law in the Indian Territory.
Payne was then called for to make a statement. When he came forward he was received with loud cheers. He said he could not speak loud or long as he was more dead than alive. He said that Gen. Hatch was two-thirds drunk on the cattle men’s money. Payne said that he had been driven about from place to place at the point of the bayonet to keep him away from a civil court or to keep a court away from him. It was needless to send an army to take him; that one United States marshal could take the whole lot. He was taken to Ft. Smith and then back to Gibson, and the officer took them to Tahlequah to show the Indians what he was doing with these terrible boomers. He said that after being marched for several days, one day they were tired and when they came to a creek, the lieutenant in command would not allow them to drink until the horses had drank first. If Payne’s story is all true, he has been badly used. In fact, according to his story, one would think that incarceration in British dungeons or transportation to Siberia did not amount to a row of pins compared to what he endured during those terrible weeks in the hands of those tyrannical “nigger” troops.
Judge McDonald said it was an honor to address such a meeting. It was a protest by American freemen against the perpetration of such an outrage as had been perpetrated by the officers of the government. He argued the legal status of the strip of land in question and made a long argument to prove that [AGAIN...TWO OR THREE LINES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS COLUMN CANNOT BE READ]
STARTING AGAIN AT THE TOP OF THE NEXT COLUMN:
back again, and warned cattlemen, if there were any present, to keep out of his way.
A series of resolutions were read to the effect that the meeting denounced the action of the government for not bringing Payne before a civil tribunal, for keeping him in custody without a trial, etc. Wichita Eagle.
Arkansas City Republican, September 20, 1884.
Payne Indicted.
The U. S. Grand Jury returned an indictment against David L. Payne and associates, the 13th inst., to the United States district court. The indictment is very long, covering the attempted settlements on the Oklahoma as well as in the Cherokee strip, and involves all the questions at issue between the boomers and the government. Wade McDonald will appear for Payne et al, and U. S. Attorney J. R. Hallowell for the government, and the hearing is set for the 11th of November, in Topeka, before Judge Foster at chambers.
Arkansas City Republican, September 20, 1884.
Capt. Payne is reported as being sick in Wichita. He was to have been in South Haven Wednesday, but he did not get there.
Winfield Courier, October 2, 1884.
Oklahoma Payne is advertised to hold a “grand rally” at Oxford Saturday. He is arranging for another raid into the much coveted territory.
Arkansas City Republican, October 4, 1884.
The members of the Oklahoma colony have been notified by the secretary to meet on the territory line, October 11, preparatory to once more invading the coveted country. Payne and his companions, who were arrested at Rock Falls a short time ago, were taken to Ft. Smith and held until the U. S. Court, which was in session at Wichita at the time of their arrest, had adjourned, and then turned loose. Payne and his followers have been arrested quite frequently for this same offense, and, as everyone knows, each time they have been set free. It is a criminal offense to enter the sacred territory, and yet Payne has openly defied the government and broken the laws of the land. Why has not the government visited the penalty upon these notorious boomers, we can’t say. It can’t be that Uncle Sam is afraid of Payne. The REPUBLICAN thinks it is high time to settle this vexed question and if Payne has broken the law, let him suffer therefore. If not, then open this land for settlement. This will be the third time the boomers have moved on the land in the last few months. Let us have their dispute settled immediately and not keep in waiting thousands of colonists who desire to make their home in the new country. The people have a right to ask this much at the hands of Uncle Sam.
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, October 8, 1884.
OKLAHOMA PAYNE, who, like the ghost of Banquo, will not be downed, is again buzzing about the limits of the Indian Territory, and preparing to locate therein. It looks as though such a flagrant violator of United States statutes should be placed in the chain gang, and serve his country by cracking rock instead of being the drunken idol of a crowd of deluded followers, who find comfort in his frenzied utterances against the government. Happily General Sheridan has ordered General Hatch and his forces to make the demagogue the object of their peculiar care, and it is quite probable that Payne will continue to be peripatetic during the winter months. The worst feature of this business is that leniency to Payne is in the nature of encouragement to all law-breakers. Inter-Ocean.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 8, 1884.
Tomorrow, October 9, is the day set by Payne and his followers at Hunnewell to make another grand march for Oklahoma. They haven’t yet set the day for their return.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 8, 1884.
The Caldwell Journal speaks of the notorious boomer and dead-beat in the following complimentary language: “If Dave Payne would refund fifty or a hundred thousand dollars of the money he has stolen from the poor people of Kansas and Missouri, he would not have so much to spend in hiring brass bands to escort him home from thieving expeditions.”
Excerpt from a long article from Mayor Schiffbauer...
Arkansas City Republican, October 18, 1884.
“Schiffbauer as a Legislator.”
The reason I did not seek the Republican nomination is, because I did not desire it, nor would I have accepted it if tendered me.
As regards my remarks pertaining to the Territory, I have said the proper resolutions should pass both houses of this state at the next session demanding the proper tribunals to settle this much vexed question as to the title of these lands, and thus set at rest this much vexed question between the military and Capt. D. L. Payne. Wherein the consistency of our military taking the poor people prisoners, and destroying their property within forty miles of the Wichita courts, the proper tribunal for their trial, take them to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, thence to Ft. Scott, Kansas, thence in a round about way to Wichita, finally, is a problem I leave you to solve. That is a military ruling I have not found in Blackstone or Coke. Neither have I ever found why this government is so lenient with a man whom they claim has so grievously offended her laws as Capt. D. L. Payne; if in fact he is guilty, why is he not tried, found guilty, fined, imprisoned, or hung, as the offense may warrant. I say again, the whole proceedings against the Oklahoma people by the government is a long continuation of a wholesome farce and fraud, and I have said I would vote, if sent to represent this district, for any man for U. S. Senator, who would not pledge himself to use his influence to right this wrong, and neither will I, not even for “the best senator the United States has ever had,” as you quote him.
Arkansas City Republican, October 18, 1884.
Tonight there will be a meeting of Oklahoma sympathizers in Highland Hall. J. Wade McDonald and D. L. Payne will make addresses.
Arkansas City Republican, October 18, 1884.
Oklahoma Talk.
At the meeting held in Emporia Friday evening by the Oklahoma “boomers,” the question was asked by Capt. Payne if Maj. Hood was in the audience. Someone remarked that he was, whereupon Payne requested him to stand up, that he wished to ask him a few questions. Maj. Hood was not present, and therefore did not stand up.
Payne made some statements in regard to the cattle held by the Major, Senator Plumb, and others in the Oklahoma country, which led us yesterday to interview the Major upon the subject.
Referring to Payne’s statements, we asked the Major if he had any cattle in the Oklahoma country. He replied as follows, in the most emphatic manner: “I have not now nor did I ever have a hoof of cattle in the Oklahoma country or anywhere near it; certainly not within fifty miles of it.”
“Has Senator Plumb any cattle in that country?”
“I know that Senator Plumb has no cattle in the Oklahoma country at this time, and I further know that he never has had any interest in any cattle that was ever herded there. And further, Senator Plumb has no cattle nor cattle interests at this time, anywhere in the Indian Territory.”
“You are not interested then in any pastures or fences in that country?”
“Not at all, neither myself nor Senator Plumb; and we never have been. Zimmerman & Wilson, by mistake, ran a string of wire fence a short distance across the line into the Oklahoma country, and when improvements made by the ‘boomers’ were destroyed by the soldiers, that fence was destroyed also, and Zimmerman & Wilson were warned not to reconstruct it.”
“Then, so far as you and Senator Plumb are concerned, there is no truth in any of the statements about having cattle or an interest in cattle in Oklahoma?”
“Not a particle of truth in any such statements. They are all positively without the shadow of a foundation.”
“What is their object in misrepresenting you and Senator Plumb in regard to this matter?”
“I don’t know whether these ‘boomers’ are in the services of the Democratic party and desire to make political capital for state and local purposes.”
We had some further conversation with Major Hood; and we are entirely satisfied that both he and Senator Plumb have been grossly misrepresented by leading “boomers” and opposition papers in regard to this Oklahoma cattle question. They don’t heed Cleveland’s advice to “tell the truth.” No good citizen will act upon a falsehood, even in political matters, and the “boomers” will lose ground whenever they resort to misrepresentation.
Emporia Republican.
Excerpt from a long article relative to Mayor Schiffbauer...
Arkansas City Traveler, Wednesday, October 22, 1884.
SCHIFFBAUER AS A LEGISLATOR.
Mr. Schiffbauer further says:
“As regards my remarks pertaining to the Territory, I have said the proper resolutions should pass both houses of this state at the next session demanding the proper tribunals to settle this much vexed question as to the title of these lands, and thus set at rest this much vexed question between the military and Capt. D. L. Payne.”
This would sound new and refreshing to a man just arrived from Kamtschatka, but every voter in this county or state ought to know that for the past ten years “proper resolutions” have passed both branches of our legislature, requesting congress to take some action in this matter. These resolutions are forwarded to Washington every two years, and that is the last heard from them. Why? Because the general government is running the Indian Territory according to law and treaty stipulations, and not at the bidding of a few deadbeats and tramps in this or any other section of the country. There is no need to say anything further on the Oklahoma question. It is not a party question, but is simply taken up by Democrats in some neighborhoods for the purpose of making a few votes. When congress passes a law opening up these lands to settlement, it is time enough to think of going there, but until this is done, it is contrary to all principles of government, civilization, law, or order to advocate forcible entrance into the Territory. This is what Mr. Schiffbauer does indirectly, and it is certainly in poor taste for a man to ask that he be made a law maker when he advocates law breaking.
Mr. Schiffbauer states the truth when he says he was indignant at the proceedings of certain citizens who demoralized the “blind tiger” in our city last fall. He had grounds for his indignation as we believe one of his relatives was found therein.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 22, 1884.
Our Democrat friends seem to have tacked their tail on Payne’s kite in this district, but it won’t do them much good.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 22, 1884.
There was an Oklahoma Democratic rally in the opera house last Saturday night, which was largely attended under the supposition that it was to be a political meeting. The disgust of the respectable Democrats who went expecting to hear Judge McDonald talk politics was amusing the next morning. Payne was keen for politics, but he wanted to boom Schiffbauer, to which the Democrats objected, and he had to confine himself to his old senseless harangue with which everybody in this section is so familiar. McDonald talked for his clients, the boomers, thus earning his salary. One Democrat in the audience said: “I followed that dead beat six months, and have had all the Oklahoma I want.” Taking out the Democrats who went to hear a political speech, and the Republicans who were simply looking on, the Oklahoma crowd proper would have made a poor showing.
Arkansas City Republican, October 25, 1884.
All Aboard for Oklahoma.
E. H. Nugent, Esq., of Wichita, lately secured permission from the government for himself and others to peacefully go into Oklahoma and settle as squatters upon any lands therein not otherwise occupied. And he with a large number of families have gone in and are now upon their claims in Oklahoma, taking with them from South Haven two car loads of lumber to put up their first houses. The right was also granted him to receive mail at Darlington, Indian Territory, and convey it at his own cost to his settlement.
So that all mail for parties settled in that country at present, should be addressed to Darlington, I. T., but with (Oklahoma) in brackets on the corner of the envelope.
As if in consonance with this permit, the troops have been withdrawn from the country, as we are informed by several gentlemen who have lately returned from trips in all sections of it.
This permit does not apply to the “Cherokee Strip,” but only to the country known as Oklahoma. Every reader should by this time know that the “Cherokee Strip,” is that land adjoining the Kansas line, running 57 miles south, and that Oklahoma is the country lying between the 5th standard parallel and the Canadian River, north and south, and from the Indian meridian to the 98th meridian east and west—containing 5,419,640 acres.
True, this is but a drop in the ocean compared with the grand domain we have always claimed, and still claim, as belonging to the government and hence the lands of its citizens, and should be open to their settlement. There lies the strip, with its 6,500,000 acres of fat grass, between Kansas and our “beautiful land.” This, too, as justly belongs to the whole people; but, hungry as we are for that chance for bread, a half of the loaf is better than none. There are still other sections, now simply occupied by Indians, “by executive order,” upon which these tribes are held as prisoners, against their will—for they have begged the government, repeatedly, to let them go west to their old and better adapted homes. These millions upon millions of acres should be embraced in this present grant, and let the empire, of which they are the germ, burst out upon the world as the grandest state in the Union. Let these God’s grain fields be tickled by the hardy pioneer till they laugh with such a harvest of grain as shall fill the world’s granaries—till their cattle upon a thousand hills shall bellow gladness to the beef markets of Europe and America.
Yes, this should all be so. And, thank God, the powers that be are beginning to see it. But as chary as they are in their yielding, let us be glad—let Miriam’s song be sung, for our people are free, our feet are on a spot of the coveted prize. The rest will come. Justice must come, and our enemies must be satisfied to let it—only a little while, and “the whole boundless universe is ours.” Oklahoma War-Chief.
Arkansas City Republican, October 18, 1884.
The hearing of the cases of the Oklahoma people will take place at Topeka, in chambers, before Judge Foster, Nov. 11. The parties are Capt. D. L. Payne, P. M. Gilbert, Geo. F. Brown, and T. W. Echelberger, indicted at the last term of U. S. District Court at Wichita; A. C. McCord, N. T. Nix, W. M. Couch, Dan O’Neil, D. G. Greathouse, and John McGrew, transferred from Leavenworth, by consent of counsel, that all cases could be heard at once, being all alike charged with “intruding upon the Indian territory.” Will the case be determined this time? It is to be hoped, after so many postponements, that it will. But see if something does not postpone it again. Maybe, in view of the fact that the government is already yielding a little, they will now throw the bars all down by letting the case be heard, when all know the decision by the law in the case will vindicate the colonists and let the land be opened as a part of the public domain. Oklahoma War Chief.
Arkansas City Republican, October 25, 1884.
The Boomers’ Meeting.
Last Saturday evening, “Oklahoma” Payne and J. Wade McDonald spoke to a large audience in the hall. Payne’s address was made up chiefly of threats against the persons who he claimed were preventing him and his followers from occupying the Oklahoma country. He said people were saying that a few men could not “buck” against the government, but he claimed that they were not “bucking” against the government but against Secretary Teller, John J. Ingalls, and Senator Plumb, who objected to the settlement of that country because they had cattle interests there. He said that those men ought and will have to account for the murder of Mrs. Turl, and the cruel treatment of other men and women at their hands, and also for the burning of the houses of the poor settlers of Rock Falls; and for the treatment which he (Payne) had received.
Judge McDonald followed, who after a few introductory words, said that some years ago the Creek and Seminole Indians were moved from Georgia to lands west of the Mississippi, now known as the Indian Territory. In a few years the Creeks, finding that they had more land than they needed, ceded part of their land to the government and part to the Seminoles. A year or two afterward, the Seminoles ceded part of their land to the government, and that this land is now known as the Oklahoma country, and there was little doubt but that it is public land, and therefore open to settlement.
He said further that Republicans throughout the country were against Payne because they had interests in the Territory, while the leading Democratic orators and papers upheld Payne and condemned the actions of the party in power for not allowing these men to settle in the Oklahoma country, because they thought more of a Texas steer than of the welfare of the people.
Democracy tried to turn it into a rally for their party. The Widow Halpin Guards were out—110 in number—and marched and re-marched up and down Summit street. Then they marched and re-marched up and down Summit street again to the solitary rub-te-dub-dub of the drum.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 29, 1884.
The notorious fraud, D. L. Payne, was on our streets last Saturday with the usual amount of “corn juice” aboard. How the hundreds of honest, industrious people of this county can be bamboozled by this tipsy bummer is more than we can comprehend. Geuda Springs News.
Arkansas City Traveler, October 29, 1884.
A Friendly Warning.
One day last week we received the following letter from a friend, who is in every way entirely reliable, and we believe speaks the truth touching the threats of the boomer Payne. Payne may mean what he intimates to his followers, and he may not, but it will be well for our stockmen to keep an eye on his movements, while loafing around the southern border of the state.
______, Kansas, Oct. 16, 1884.
FRIEND WALTON: I have got onto one of Payne’s infamous schemes and it is of vital interest to you (if you have cattle in the Territory, as he claims) and all cattlemen who have cattle there, to know what it is. Payne, while here, told or intimated as much to one of his followers (who happened to be an intimate friend of mine also) that as “soon as the grass gets dead and dry enough, and the wind is favorable, it is the intention to burn out the cattlemen from Red River to the Kansas line, in retaliation for the burning of Rock Falls.”
He further gives us some friendly advice as to precautionary means which is useless to publish, but such that if followed will most effectually settle that little “burning out” scheme of the great incendiary. The writer of the letter is a Democrat, but not such as Payne likes to tackle with his boomer scheme, and is not in any manner whatever connected with the live stock interests of the Territory. Caldwell Journal.
Arkansas City Republican, November 15, 1884.
The Oklahoma Boomer.
David L. Payne, the great Oklahoma Boomer, is in the city looking after his interest of the United States vs. Payne. A suit brought to oust him and his colony of settlers from the Oklahoma land. A motion to quash the indictments is now being argued before Judge Foster, of the United States district court, in chambers. J. Wade McDonald, of Winfield, appears as attorney for Payne while the government is represented by Col. J. R. Hallowell, United States district attorney. Mr. Hallowell informed a Commonwealth reporter that defendants, in their motion to quash, had abandoned all claims to the Cherokee lands, but still hold and contend that they have a right to occupy the Oklahoma lands. The arguments consumed all of yesterday afternoon, and were then not completed. An adjournment was taken until 10 o’clock this morning. Commonwealth, November 11, 1884.
[STATE NEWS.]
Arkansas City Republican, November 22, 1884.
Dave Payne, Sam Wood, and others have organized the “Topeka Town Company.” The place of business is described as on the southern Kansas line opposite Oklahoma.
Arkansas City Republican, November 22, 1884.
A decision has been reached in the trial of D. L. Payne. Last Monday Judge Foster decided in substance that the title to the Oklahoma lands rests exclusively in the United States. The indictments for intrusion upon the Cherokee Strip have not yet been argued. The Oklahoma question was argued before Judge Foster, of Topeka, in chambers.
Arkansas City Traveler, December 3, 1884.
Announcement of Death of D. L. Payne.
DIED. Capt. D. L. Payne, the well known Oklahoma boomer and president of the Oklahoma Colonists, dropped dead while eating breakfast at Wellington last Friday morning. The funeral took place at Wichita on Sunday from the M. E. Church.
[BOOMER, CAPT. D. L. PAYNE, DIES AT BREAKFAST TABLE.]
Winfield Courier, December 4, 1884.
Last Thursday afternoon Capt. D. L. Payne and Mrs. R. A. Haines came up from Hunnewell to Wellington in a wagon and stopped at the De Barnard hotel. Payne made his last speech at the courthouse in the evening. Friday morning Capt. Payne sat at the breakfast table with Mrs. Haines at his left. He had eaten heartily and was talking Oklahoma to a gentlemen on his right, when he hesitated, dropped his head forward, and expired without a struggle. The cause of death has not been determined.
Arkansas City Republican, December 6, 1884.
Funeral, D. L. Payne.
Geo. Cooper of this city returned from Wellington Tuesday and reports that the funeral of D. L. Payne, on last Sunday, was largely attended. The services were held in the M. E. Church, and his remains were followed to the grave by one of the largest processions ever witnessed in that place. He was buried with military honors by the G. A. R. Post of that city. The cause of his death was congestion of the heart. Prior to his death he frequently expressed a desire that should he die before succeeding in opening up Oklahoma to settlement, he desired to be buried as near the state line as convenient; and that as soon as settlement was accomplished, he wished his remains to be removed for final interment in that country. His life was insured for $5,000 in favor of Miss Haynes, to whom he expected to be married. It is supposed he had another policy of insurance for friends to whom he was indebted and under obligations for favors of one kind or another. All the money he had as far as is known, was $6. He served faithfully through the war for the Union, and had his discharge papers with him. At the time of his death he was 47 years, 10 months, and 10 days old. He was 6 feet 4 inches high, and weighed 230 pounds. He commanded the confidence and respect of his followers. Emporia Republican.
Arkansas City Republican, December 6, 1884.
Oklahoma News.
Wednesday at the skating rink the Oklahoma colonists, Arkansas City branch, convened to make ready for their move to the Oklahoma country. They were in session nearly all day. No business of importance was transacted. Resolutions were drawn favoring W. L. Couch as their leader in place of David L. Payne, deceased. For several days a number of these colonists have been camped in the jack oaks across the canal. Thursday afternoon they took their departure under command of Couch for the territory. There were 31 wagons, averaging about 8 men to the wagon. Joe Finkleburg, Chas. Holloway, S. F. Stineberger, with a representative of the REPUBLICAN, went to the nation line to see them cross over.
When the colonists entered into the territory, Capt. Couch lectured them, and gave each “boomer” the command “not to shoot unless fired upon. Do what you do in self-defense.” It was reported that the soldiers were camped just over the line and trouble was anticipated by the boomers. Finally the command to move was given. They crossed the state line with hopeful hearts, and wended their way slowly southward to Chilocco creek, where they camped for the night. We learn that the soldiers have drawn farther back into the territory and are awaiting their coming. The boomers will make about two miles travel and then halt for a time and wait for colonists from Hunnewell and other points to join them. They claim between 600 and 700 altogether will be the number that invades Oklahoma this time. All were armed to the teeth. Revolvers, shot-guns, hay, provisions, and dogs were the equipments of the boomers. We suppose the soldiers will escort the boomers to the line once more.
[BOOMER: PAYNE’S SPIRIT.]
Winfield Courier, December 11, 1884.
PAYNE’S SPIRIT MARCHING ON.
Congressman Ryan has suddenly taken hold of the Oklahoma question with a bill which proposes to declare the land open for settlement under the homestead law. President Arthur’s message says that if people settle on the tract again they will again be expelled. It is evident that the changed position of various senators and representatives will add great strength to the popular feeling in favor of occupying the lands, and congress should take action before the interior department again turns out the thousands of families who will soon spread themselves over the Oklahoma tract. The congressional change, from indifference to a desire for the credit of getting a bill passed to throw the tract open for settlement, is sufficiently indicative of the result of the movement, and reasonable speed on the part of congress will prevent the infliction of further hardships on the “boomers,” whose boom seems about to prevail over all opposition.
[OKLAHOMA.]
Winfield Courier, December 11, 1884.
OKLAHOMA AGAIN.
Judge Foster, in the Payne case, decided that the lands in the Indian Territory, known as Oklahoma proper, was owned by the Government, that no Indian title covers those lands in any particular.
The question has been decided before thousands of times in the minds of the people and by good lawyers, but that fact does not change their statutes nor allow anyone to settle on them with a view to finally securing a title.
That country is under executive control, or in the hands of the President, by act of Congress, and until Congress changes the law, no one can nor will be permitted to enter upon the lands for the purpose of acquiring title.
That decision may be reserved by the Supreme Court, but we hardly think it will be so. Yet the Oklahoma boomers will be wasting their time and money by attempting to settle the lands until Congress takes action in the matter. The war department has its orders regarding the removal of all persons attempting to settle on those lands, and if anyone is foolish enough to think these orders will not be carried out to the letter, let them try it a time or two. Those orders are still in force and will be executed as promptly and as effectively as they were last summer, and will be until they are revoked by the order of the President.
We are reliably informed that a large party of boomers were last week congregated at Arkansas City ready to start into the promised land. We know a detachment of troops left here later in the week to look into the matter and bounce the boomers if they made the invasion.
We are satisfied that our advice to the boomers to keep out of the Territory and work on their Congressional delegation will not be followed now, but it will be some day, and that not by “invasion,” but “persuasion,” will that country become accessible to the thousands of poor men in this country. There will be two bills pass Congress and become laws before any settlers go up on those lands. The first one is the bill passed by the senate last winter forfeiting the grant made the Atlantic & Pacific railroad company through the Indian Territory.
The other is a bill by Senator Plumb, opening certain lands to settlement to which the Indian titles have become extinct, in the Indian Territory (referring to Oklahoma proper). This bill is now in the hands of the Senate committee on Indian affairs and will probably be reported favorable early in the present session.
The one passed by senate must become a law before the other is passed, or the railroad company will come in and claim over one half the country under that grant, and as it has not complied with its charter and the provisions of the grant, it can be declared forfeited by Congress and then the other bill can be passed and the settlers secured in their rights, enter upon every foot of that country.
As we have before stated in these columns, the men who pay their money to Payne, or any of these colony organizations, will have no better chance to get claims in that country, nor protection in holding them, than will any outsider, and this wasting of hard earned money on such men as Payne and his cohorts were, by men whose families were in actual want for bread, is one of the prime causes of our opposition to the boomers, and that of all thinking men.
Give Congress a chance at that Oklahoma country and after it gets through with it, then there will be a chance for about 40,000 families to go in and occupy it. About 25,000 of them will starve to death on it, as there is about that many quarter sections of the land that is no more fit for agricultural purposes than is the bed of the Arkansas River or the royal gorge of the same river in Colorado. Caldwell Journal.
Arkansas City Republican, December 27, 1884.
[WOW! LOOKS LIKE THEY HAD A LONG ARTICLE ABOUT THE BOOMERS, BUT WITH OUR LUCK WE ARE MISSING OUT ON MOST OF IT. THE PAGE WAS TORN AT THE TOP SO THAT THE FIRST PART OF ARTICLE IN COLUMN ONE IS MISSING AND THE TOP PORTION OF COLUMN TWO IS MISSING ALSO. WILL TRY TO TYPE WHAT PORTIONS I CAN READ!]
ARTICLE ABOUT OKLAHOMA...
The latest that we have heard is to the effect that the colonists have reached the coveted land and have commenced erecting houses. But in a few days the report was that more troops were being sent to the Oklahoma country to assist in the expulsion of the “boomers.” No one knows anything definitely, but all await the news anxiously be it favorable or averse to the invaders. For the benefit of our eastern readers, we print the boundaries of Oklahoma, as given in Plumb’s bill to open up the land for settlement.
Commencing at a point where the north line of the Cherokee lands intersects the west line of the Pawnee land; thence west along said south line of said Cherokee lands to the boundary line between Texas and the Indian Territory; thence south on said line to where the same crosses the main channel of the Canadian River; thence down said channel of said river to where the same crosses the Indian meridian; thence north on said meridian; and along the western boundaries of the Pottawatomies’, Kickapoos’, and Iowas’ land to the main channel of the Cimarron River; thence down said main channel of said river to where the same intersects the west line of the Pawnee lands; thence north on said line to place of beginning.
If anyone will take a modern map of the Indian Territory, he can locate the country and estimate its acres for himself. He will find it is an irregular shaped region, between the Cimarron and the Canadian, and with a wide strip of Indian country intervening between it and Kansas.
The Atchison Champion receives the following piece of correspondence from a reliable gentleman, who is in the very heart of the country, so it says, but the REPUBLICAN would judge from the way he speaks of the Oklahoma lands that he was located on one of those big sand hills along the Cimarron. He says: “It is a fraud to claim that this country looked as Kansas did thirty years ago. Kansas is and was a queen, seated on the throne of her glorious destiny. This country is the natural home of the coyote and herdsman, hardly good enough for the Indians. The Oklahoma country is as false as the mirage of Sahara, and it is probable that God in His infinite mercy called the Christian Payne home glory, to prevent him from luring the poor deluded Kansan to his doom.” This wonderful piece of correspondence shows on its face that the author is prejudiced. Too many of our people have been there and reported different. While there may be plenty of land unfit for agricultural purposes, there are thousands of acres that are. No one denies but what the country is well timbered and watered. Like all other countries it has disadvantages.
