[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF NO MAN'S LAND
Time was
when No Man's Land was a part of Mexico. Afterward it was a part of the
Republic
of Texas, but it was never any part of Texas. Let the reader take a good
map of the United States, and then while
looking at it, call to mind the fact that when, in 1803, the United States
purchased what was at the time known
as the Louisiana Territory, the boundary line of. this Territory followed
the Red River west from the 95th to the
100th meridian and thence it followed the 100th meridian north to the
Arkansas River. South and west to the line,
as here traced, the land belonged to Mexico, and it remained Mexican
Territory until after the War between the
United States and that country.
But before coming down as far in United States history as the Mexican war,
the reader should recall the fact the
Indian Territory was organized between the years 1835 and 1837, and that
the western boundary of the Territory
was the 100th meridian, for the very good reason, if no other were to be
had, that the meridian was then the western
boundary of the United States, and so continued until the Mexican war.
This fact is important, because it settles
the claim of the Cherokee Indians to No Man's Land adversely to the
Indians. When the Cherokees were moved from
Georgia to the Indian Territory they were given a treaty, " a perpe
tual outlet west, and a free and unmolested
use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of the above
described limits, and as far west as the
sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extended, the
sovereignty of the United States, as already
stated, extended only to the 100th meridian, and there is necessarily the
western limit of the Indian Territory
and the Cherokee outlet. "No subsequent acquisition of the Territor
y by the United States, says Land Commissioner
Wm. A. J. Sparks could
extend the rights of the Cherokee Nation beyond this limit," and Secretary
Lamar approved.
The 100th meridian is the eastern boundary of No Man's Land.
After the Mexican war as the reader will remember, Texas became a part of
the United States. In fixing the boundary
of the new state the negotiators for the State and for the United States
ran against a snag. The snag was Mason
and Dixon's line, or the parallel of latitude 36 degrees north of the
equator. Texas, as a republic had claimed
that land between the 100th and the 103rd meridians north as far as the
Arkansas River, and the claim had preforce
been allowed by Mexico. But by a compromise of the slave holders and the
free soilers in the United States Congress,
it had been agreed that no slave state should be created north of the
Mason Dixon's line, and here was Texas, a
slave state, coming in with slave territory extending north of the
Arkansas River. To get rid of the obstacle the
Texas Statemen ceded to the United States so much of her territory as lay
north of the dividing line between the
slave and free soil. We thus have the parallel of latitude 36-30 north of
the equator fixed as the northern boundary
of Texas and the southern boundary of what is now No Man's Land. No Man's
Land was then an unimportant part of
a very wide area or unorganized territory.
Along in 1854 came the Kansas and Nebraska bill, by which Kansas was to be
organized. The bill provided that the
southern boundary of Kansas should be the parallel of 36-30 north until
the Hon. Stephen H.
Douglas called the
attention of the House of Representatives to the fact that this would
deprive the Cherokees a large part of their
lands in the Indian Territory as given them by treaty and the bill was
therefore amended so that the thirty-seventh
parallel was made the southern boundary of Kansas. The northern boundary
of a part of No Man's Land was thus fixed.
Subsequently the organization of Colorado with its southern boundary in
the 37th parallel completed the northern
boundary of No Man's Land, while the organization of New Mexico, with the
103rd meridian as its eastern boundary,
left the strip of land between the 100th and the 103rd meridians of
longitude and the parallels of the latitude
at 36 30 and 37 wholly unorganized, and beyond the pale of any Territory
or State. It was simply the property of
Uncle Sam, a waste bit of pasture that he had overlooked in laying out the
rest of his farm in patches for cultivation.
That it should have been overlooked in the course of legislation is not
very surprising, but that it should be
a part of the United States and yet be beyond the reach of the United
States courts and court officers is a matter
needing explanation. The jurisdiction of each United States Court sitting
in the States and Territories around
No Man's Land is definitely fixed by the bill that created the judicial
district in which the court sits. No court
takes cognizance of any crime committed beyond its jurisdiction. Because
No Man's Land was not within the limits
of any of the surrounding States and Territories, it was naturally enough
overlooked in defining the limits of
the judicial districts. Now, it is proposed by the United States
Constitu-tion that in all criminal prosecutions
the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public impartial trial
by jury in the State or District wherein
the crime was committed, which district shall have been previously
ascertained by law.
Before what court, therefore shall the agent of the postoffice department,
for instance, hale the road agent whom
he has arrested for holding up the mail service? Will not the road agent
escape on the technical plea that the
court no matter which one it may be, has no jurisdiction?
Nevertheless, during the intervals of over two years in which Beaver City
has had at least a tri-weekly mail, no
road agent has ever tried to hold up the mail carrier. But this immunity
from danger which registered letters have
enjoyed is simply a flattering tribute to the excellency of American
firearms and to the marksmanship of American
frontiersmen. As a compliment to American legislators it comes in
vernacular of the country, left handed.
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[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER II
EARLY SETTLERS IN NO MAN'S LAND
From the
time that the Atchinson, Topeka and Sante Fe railroad was build through
western
Kansas until the completing of the Fort Worth & Denver City Road acr
oss the Panhandle of Texas, there was no
trail in the west over which more freight passed than that leading from
Dodge City in Ford County Kansas, south
and a little west through Meade County, across No Man's Land and down into
the Panhandle of Texas to Tascosa, Monita,
and other points. It was known as the Jones and Plummer Trail because of a
ranch which a firm of that name had
about 160 miles south of Dodge City.
All sorts of goods and merchandise and government stores were carried over
this trail in trains of covered wagons-the
prairie Schooners of which everyone has heard. The wagons were hitched
together in trains of three or four, and
then from ten to twenty mules were hitched to the front end of the train,
while drivers with long whips and much
profanity kept the mules in motion.
The half way stopping place on this trail was on the Beaver River, in No
Man's Land. It was a hundred miles from
Dodge City and from Tascosa. The valley of the Beaver was a very
attractive location. The water of the Beaver is
pure and sweet. The grass on the bottom land was long and nutritious.
There were hundreds of trees along the stream.
Buffalo, deer, antelope, and smaller game were to be had in any quantity.
On this account the country had always
been a favorite hunting ground of the Indians. The drivers of the mules
invariably rested their teams here two
days and not infrequently a week.
Early in March, 1880, came James
Lane to Beaver. He had often crossed it
on the trail, but this time he brought
his wife and family.
He had come to establish a ranch for the accommodation of the freighters
and his own profit. The house that he
built is still standing in excellent condition. It is a monument to the
skill of the frontiersman in adapting himself
to his surroundings. It was built of prairiesod 14x36 feet large, with an
L 18x14 at one end. It's rafters are
made of poles cut from the woods that then stood along the streams; brush
served in place of the ordinary sheeting
over the rafters, and layers of prairies sod took the place of shingles on
the brush sheeting. The walls within
were plastered with a mixture of sand and gypsum dug from the hills along
the stream. The prairie sod served admirably
for a time as the floor, though a wooden one has since been added. Except
for a few panes of glass and door and
window frame and two doors Jim,
as he was familiarly called depended not at all on the products of
civilized communities
for his shelter. He might have lived independent of civilized products in
the matter of heating his house by building
fire p. aces and chimneys of sod, but he prefered smoke. It is not a
little singular that in spite of the weight
of a stove and a difficulty of transporting it long distances across the
frontier, the people of this country are
all like Jim in the matter of heating and cooking appliances. They all use
stoves. The Sun reporter, during an
extended visit among them, did not see a fire place.
Besides his home Jim built
a corral which was nothing more than a patch of ground about 75 feet
square, with a
sod wall four or five feet high around it, and a low shed with a sod roof
on one side, beneath which horses, mules
and cattle could find shelter in a blizzard. This shed was one of the
comforts which he had come here to provide
for the freighters. Among the other comforts were whiskey, tobacco and
cartridges.
For years Lane had
almost a monopoly of the trade in freighters comforts at this point, the
monopoly being broken
only by an occasional traveling dealer in similar supplies for cowboys. In
those days the cattle were just beginning
to crowd the buffalo off the flats, as the table lands between the streams
were called. Cowboys as well as freighters
came to the ranch, and not a few people enroute over the trail for Texas
stopped there to rest.
Although many of these people noticed the fertility of the soil and the
favorable lay of the land for forming purposes,
very few thought of settling there, because every one supposed that the
"Strip", as it was sometimes
called, was a part of the Indian Territory, and therefore not subject to
entry as homesteads. It remained for some
of the restless boomers living in what was then the "Boomingist of
Boom Towns," Wichita, Kansas, to discover
that the Strip was really No Man's Land, to name it accordingly, and to
let the world know the facts. Just how
they learned this is not known here, but as long as 1882, Mr. W.
A. Starr, then of Oswego, Kansas, got an
official statement from the department of the interior confirming this
view at which he arrived after a study of the history of the case.
The immense profits made in real estate speculations while the "boom"
was on at Wichita stimulated many
of her citizens to start booms elsewhere. Out of this stimulation grew the
Beaver City Town company, of which N.
McClease, was president; C.
R. Miller, Treasurer; Wm.
Waddle, Local Agent and Ernest
A. Reiman, civil engineer.
The company was formed to lay out and boom a city on the Beaver Paver, No
Man's Land. On March the 6th, 1886, Agent
Wm. Waddle, and Civil
Engineer E. A. Reiman, with four
assistants, arrived at Jim Lane's ranch and announced that
they had come to survey a townsite, because it had been definitely
determined that the Strip was public land and
there was nothing to prevent its settlement. A com-promise was necessarily
affected with Lane,
because as the first
settler there he could hold 160 acres of the land they wanted. Lane agreed
orally to waive his right in consideration
of having two blocks in the coming city reserved for him, and in the map
of the city as subsequently plotted two
blocks are marked, "Lane's Reserve." As a part of a history of
what must eventually become a part of
a rich and populous State of the southwest, the following certificate of Engineer
Reiman, made when his work of
surveying was done, is of interest:
I Ernest A. Reiman,
civil engineer hereby certify that I have surveyed and platted the town of
Beaver City, Neutral
Strip, I. T., and that the same is surveyed on the following described
lands:
S ½ of the SE¼ T. 4, N. of R. 23 E. 80 acres; also the NE¼ of sec. 13 and
the N½ of
the SE¼ of sec. 13T. 4, N of R 23 E., 240 acres; also lot 7 and the SE¼ of
the SW¼ of sec.
7, T4, N of R 24 E., 70 acres; also lots 12 and 13 of the NW¼ and the NE¼
of the NW¼ and the
NE¼ of the SW¼| sec 12, T 4, N of R 24 E. 224¼ acres. Total (more or less)
620¼ acres.
Having completed their survey, the Beaver City Town Company went to
Washington to get the townsite lawfully entered,
and at the same time began to let the world know all about the advantages
of the new city and of the surrounding
country. In the way of advertising they made the success which all such
enterprising men make, but in getting titles
to the townsite they were less fortunate. To advertise the place they
filled the Wichita papers with glowing descriptive
articles about the town, and scattered handsomely printed circulars
broadcast throughout the mails.
Agent Waddle built
in Beaver a sod house of two rooms, one as a grocery, and the other as a
home for himself and
family, and here he remained waiting for the population to come and fill
the city he had to sell. The population
came right along. It began to arrive and select lots before Mr.
Waddle got his plat from the civil
engineer, but
when it came to selling the lots to the new arrivals, one essential
transfer of title. He, Mr.
Waddle found himself
lacking in he hadn't any title.
The Beaver City Town Company had been unable to get a patent for the land
for two reasons. The strip had not been
fully surveyed, and there was no government land office of United States
court that had any control over that territory.
The town company's money had been spent in surveys and improvements,
almost for nothing. They could hold as "squatters"
only such lots as they built on, and if they continued to hold these lots
(two in number) until the survey of this
Strip was completed, and a land office and a United States court were
established for the territory, then they
could get title, and thus perhaps, get enough property to pay for the
survey of the townsite. The matter of incomplete
survey is worth a word of explanation, because on account of a swindle on
the people here was subsequently attempted
by some professedly pious Kansas statesman, the story of which will be
told further on. The land in No Man's Land
has been surveyed into townships and sections. The law provides that lands
cannot be entered and patents issued
for homesteads until it has been further divided into quarter sections;
but owners of land scrip can spread their
scrip over it and take title with the present survey just as soon as the
land office and a United States court
are provided.
The news of the misfortunes of the Town Company was received by the
incoming settlers and speculators without a
sigh. It enabled them to locate on lots and improve them, and thus obtain
the first right to a title whenever the
"Strip" came in as they designated the extending of the la
ws of the country over the territory.
Four new sod houses were completed by the end of four weeks from the date
of the completing of the platting of
the town, and within four weeks more there were twenty under way or wholly
completed. One of the first men to come
in was D. R. Healy.
He built the first livery stable in the "Strip," and a livery
stable is erected about
as soon as any building when a town is to be boomed in the West.
The stable was what is termed a dug-out. It was built with a log front,
but had an almost perpendicular bank of
earth for the sides and back. It was roofed, as is commonly done there
with sod.
The next building erected in Beaver was a saloon with sod walls and a
wooden roof, and kept by Jim
Donnely. This
was followed by a number of sod house dwellings, and then, in May, Adbison
Mundell, who subsequently became the
city's first marshal!, built the first wooden house for business purposes,
while L. E, Harlan,
who now serves as
sheriff in the provisional county government that has been established,
built the first wooden dwelling. Mundel's
building was about 10x14 feet large. It was occupied by Frank
Palmer and Rube
Chilcott, who had a large stock of
dry goods and cowboy furnishings which they had brought there in a prairie
schooner as traveling salesmen to meet
the cowboys who were in charge of a bunch of cattle not far away. Another
building erected about this time, which
should be mentioned, was about 24x50 feet large, with an extension 12x24
feet large at the rear. It was one story
high with sod walls and wooden roof, and was owned by O.
P. Bennett and Charley and
Capt. Tracy.
It was the first
dance house in the Strip, and Bennett was
the second (possibly first) man executed by the first irregular government
that was established by the citizens of Beaver City. The story of the
killing forms an interesting chapter in the
history of No Man's Land which will be told further on. (The Tracy's mentioned
in this story were no relation of
any person of that name now living in Beaver County.-Ed.)
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[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER IV
AN ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE GOVERNMENT
Such
incidents as the jumping of the widow
Poggonberg's claim by Dick
Roberts occurred
on several occasions that summer, the number increasing as the time went
on until those people who desired to live
in Beaver City and do business there it became necessary to afford some
sort of protection to the weak physically
against the strong, for with the growth of population not a few had come
without firearms.
At first there were conferences between two's and three's of the business
men. These were followed by conferences
of a half dozen or more in various private houses, the men in all cases
being personal friends who could trust
each other. Finally they called a public meeting for the evening of
October 26, 1886, and at this meeting a set
of rules were adopted by oral vote for the governing of the Squatters and
the settling of disputes over claims.
These rules make interesting reading because they were written to cover a
neat swindle which one cf the early residents
worked, according to report subsequently made in Congress on some
innocents in Ohio. The rules were as follows:
Article 1. We, the undersigned, do agree to support and assist in carrying
out the following regulations and requirements
in regards to holding claims in the Neutral Strip of the Indian Territory.
Article 2. That any person of legal age shall be allowed to hold one claim
and one claim only, of 160 acres of
land until April 1st, 1887, provided that he shall by this time have
broken at least five (5) acres or put other
improvements thereon equivalent thereto.
Article 3. Any person may be allowed to take and hold claim for each
member of his immediate family, to consist
of father and mother, brother and sisters, sons and daughters who are of
the required age, provided, he will make
improvements on each claim as provided for in Article Two.
Article 4. That each signer of these rules and Regulations and all others
taking land when required shall furnish
in writing to ---- or committee of proper description of his claim, also a
proper description of each claim which
he may be holding for each member of his family.
Article 5. That all persons who have heretofore or hereafter come in
person to take, select, or purchase claims
and go away with a bona-fide intention of returning, shall be entitled to
all the benefits of these rules and regulations,
and all non-residents who have claims surveyed and other bona-fide
improvements made shall have four months from
this date to come upon their claims, as required by these rules and
regulations, otherwise, their claims shall
be forfeited.
Article 6. That in case any person shall jump or trespass, or in any way
damage a claim or claims of any of the
signers of these rules and regulations, or of anybody entitled to the
benefits of these rules and regulations said
person or persons shall be politely solicited to get off said claim, stop
trespassing, and make good any damage
done thereon; and if, after twenty-four hours, no attention shall be paid
to said notice, measures sufficiently
severe shall be resorted to compel said person or persons to comply with
said notification.
"Measures sufficiently severe meant shooting to death, as was afterw
ards demonstrated in practice. It was
the third article that proved unsatisfactory to the squatters, however,
and furnished the opportunity to swindle
outsiders. One George
Scranage had marked out a large number of
claims for one hundred and sixty acres each by
plowing a furrow around it. They were all well located, and will foe very
valuable when title can be obtained.
He had taken them, on the plea that they were for various relatives. Then
he had gone east and had inserted the
following advertisements in the Portsmouth, Ohio, Blade and other papers:
CHEAP HOMES: McAllister & Scranage locators of land in Neutral Str
ip, Indian Territory, can give you the best
situation and figures on land. See Capt.
A. J. McAllister, on board steamer
Louise. Finest climate, best farm,
purest water in the country. Titles clear and terms Easy. McALLISTER &
SCRANAGE, Portsmouth, Ohio.
In the language of Congressman
Payson, when No Mon's Land was before
Congress for legislation (see Record July
25, 1888, Page 7,546) "every man who publishes of that kind, or is in
any way connected with them, is a thief
and a robber. It is an attempt on their part to secure from the honest
people of the country under false pretenses
their money."
The people of Beaver City say that Scranage is
not at all abashed by his exposure. Certainly he has not lost prestige
here, for the village paper makes note of his coming and going as
respectfully as it does those of other people,
while Addison Mundell,
the first city marshall, and at present the locator of claims, "told
the reporter that
Scranage is
interested in a number of townsites that had been surveyed in the strip,
and added that if the reporter
wanted to get in on the ground floor, he would write to Mr.
Geo. Scranage, care of J.
V. Ellison, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ellison,
according to Mundell,
being a capitalist who is furnishing Scranage (perhaps
unwittingly) with money for
his operations.
It was not so much on account of a swindle on far away people that the
squatters here objected to the rules written
by Mr. Scranage,
however. They did not like the idea of helping to protect him. in gobbling
up large breadths of
land to which they as actual settlers had a better right. Accordingly half
a dozen meetings were held to consider
the position of the public and Strip, and as a result a call for a meeting
was issued, "to proceed at once
and prepare a code of bylaws for our future adoption also to prepare a
form of quit-claim deeds for our common
use in the transfer of claims from one party to another." This call
was signed by thirty-four men and one
woman. The meeting was called for and held on November 9th, 1886, and was
presided over by Dr. O.
G. Chase. It
was at this time that first steps were taken which resulted in one of the
most unique governments ever organized
by civilized men.
It is interesting to note that this meeting was "called by the afore
said subscribers, at 7 o'clock in the
school house" according to the minutes now in possession of Dr.
Chase. Although there had as yet been no
form
of government established, the citizens had got together early in
September and built a sod walled house in which
their children could attend school, the teacher being paid by volunteer
subscription.
At this meeting two resolutions historically important, were adopted, they
read as follows:
Section 3. To enable us to consolidate our strength, and to know
the wants of the whole territory, it is also suggested
and hereby agreed upon that the entire population of Cimarron Territory
turn out on February 22, 1887, and hold
election in their respective neighborhoods as near in conformity to law as
possible, electing in each representing
district three representatives who shall meet in Beaver City on the 4th
day of March, 1887, as a territorial council.
To carry out the objects set forth in preceeding section a president, vice
president, secretary and treasurer is
hereby elected and authorized to act as a local council, constituting a
Board to be known as the respective Claim
Board.
The phrase in section 3 which reads "It is also suggested and he
reby agreed upon" is characteristic of
the suggesting and in the same breath come down with a thumping agreement
to carry out the suggestion. It will
be observed, too, that they have decided on a name for their Territory. It
was called Cimarron, from the River
of that name that flows across the northeast corner of the Strip, the
Territory was divided into districts. To
make a government at all good, it was necessary to have the whole
territory represented, for settlement had been
formed and claims located throughout the whole 167 miles of its length,
Beaver being only a much envied metropolis.
At this meeting also the first attempt to levy a tax was made. Few ever
paid the taxes provided for but the resolution
which referred to the subject is interesting because it defined some of
the powers of the respective Claim Board,
the first government of the Strip.
Section 5. The Respective Claim Board is authorized to proceed at
once to have printed for squatter claimants use
blank quit claim deeds and for each parcel of land or town lot the
president and secretary shall execute a deed
to the original re-claimant when called upon to do so; but if any contest
appears to exist; or doubt to the priority
of right existing in the claimant, then the matter shall rest and no deed
issue until all parties interested shall
have a chance for hearing, and evidence filed in writing, if demanded, and
the decision rendered by a board of
three disinterested citizen arbitrators, selected in the usual way by
parties interested. Either party feeling
themselves aggrieved may appeal to a new Board of five arbitrators,
selected as above but must state such an appeal
within five days, and pay to the secretary of the company the sum of five
dollars.
Section 6. For each parcel of land or town lot deeded as above
stated, the president and secretary shall each be
entitled to the sum of 25 cents; but for each parcel of land or town lot
deeded to nonresidents a fee of five dollars
shall be paid.
The election came on in due course of time and there was a spirited
contest in Beaver City, but it is doubtful
whether settlers in the west end of the Strip ever heard there was to be
an election. If they did they paid no
attention to it. Nevertheless, three delegates to represent three
districts were declared elected, although they
all lived within a few miles of Beaver City. The election returns were
made to Dr. J. A.
Overstreet, the secretary
of the respective Claim Board and in his report the nine delegates who had
been elected gathered in the school
house on March 4th as the first legislative body in No Man's land. Their
names are attached to the following oath
to which they subscribed.
We, the undersigned members of the Territorial Council of Cim-arron
Territory and officers of the same do hereby
solemly swear that we will support the Constitution of the United States,
and faithfully execute and enforce the
laws of said United States and also laws adopted by Territorial Council
for the government of said Cimarron Territory,
to the best of our ability. O.
G. Chase, President; Merritt
Magann, Clerk; R.
M. Overstreet; J.
G. Snode; James
Lane; Robert
A. Allen; Elmer
Tompkins; Thomas
Waters; W.
J. Kline.
R. M. Overstreet was
a Presbyterian preacher, and Robt.
A. Allen a Methodist preacher. The first
business attended
to after organizing was passing a resolution as the request of Rev.
Overstreet, he said that there was a
grave
defect in the Constitution of the United States, and he hoped that in the
documentary organization of the new territory
the mistake of the fathers of the American republic would not be repeated.
He therefore moved the adoption of the
following measure which, as printed is the verbatim copy of the record;
Whereas, the residents of Cimarron Territory are without the pro-tection
of law of any state or recognized territorial
government, and recognizing the urgent need thereof, and desiring to adopt
and establish rule and law for our protection,
safety and government, do hereby recognize All' Mighty God, to be the
supreme ruler of the universe, the creator
and preserver, and governor of individuals, communities, States and
Nations, and recognize the laws of the United
States as our organic law and adopt the same with the constitution of the
United States as the foundation and basis
of all laws and rules for our government and so far as may be to execute
and enforce the same.
Therefore be it resolved by the representatives of Cimarron Territoryial
Council Assembled, that we do hereby declare
ourselves the Territorial Council of said Cimarron Territory, and do
hereby adopt the constitution of the United
States and the laws thereof, as the ground work and foundation for all our
laws or rules to be adopted for our
government.
Another resolution which looked toward the dividing of the Territory into
seven representative districts, or counties
of four rows of townships each, taken vertically across the territory was
passed; also one providing for a general
election, to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in
November, "for the purpose of electing
nine senators and fourteen delegates, who shall meet in Beaver on the
first Monday in December, A.M., as Territorial
Council."
This was fee end of their work on the constitution of Cimarron territory.
They then turned to making laws under
that constitution and here is the first one passed. It was introduced by
delegate Elmer Tompkins and
was unanimously
adopted:
"Be it resolved by the Territorial Council of the Cimarron Territory "
That regularly ordained ministers
of the gospel" are hereby authorized and empowered to solemize the ri
ghts of matrimony for parties having
first procured from the secretary of any auxiliary Council or from the
secretary of the Territorial Council a certificate
authorizing such ceremony between the parties therein named which
certificate with the return of the officiating
minister endorsed thereon be returned to the secretary having issued the
same within 30 days from the performance
of such ceremony.
A fee of $1.00 shall be charged by the secretary issuing such
certi-ficate, and he shall keep a true record of
all certificates issued and return to him of marriages solemnized, and
local secretary shall make semi-annual returns
thereof to the Territorial secretary. Such certificates shall only be
issued by the secretary to parties that he
is satisfied are of legal age and able to make a civil contract."
The term auxiliary council refers to the governing body which it was hoped
would be organized in each county district.
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[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER VI
FURTHER ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE A GOVERNMENT
Possibly
the killing of Thompson and
Bennett raised
the standing of the "Territorial
Council of Cimarron Territory" in the estimation of the people
; it certainly raised the councillers in their
own estimation, for at the next meeting of the council which was held on
April 15th, 1887, an astonishing number
of bills were introduced and passed. This meeting is noteworthy from the
fact that a Chaplain, a Rev.
R. A. Allen,
officiated for the first time. President of the Council O.
G. Chase, read a long message, "On
the State of
the Territory" thereby taking upon himself somewhat of the characte
r of Chief Executive. The message is preserved
in full in the journal.
A seal for stamping all bills was brought in use at this meeting also It
was bought by the president.
The first two bills were introduced by the Rev.
Overstreet. They related to the public
highways. A road overseer
to be elected annually in each township was provided for, and each claim
of 160 acres and each male citizen between
the ages of 21 and 45 years who owned no claim was to be taxed three
dollars a year for the benefit of the highways.
It was provided that "improved but unoccupied claims may be sold for
the tax where the claimant is not known,
but a protest notice of such sales shall be given of the time and place of
such sale, thereby giving full notice
to the public of the sale."
No one ever paid the tax and no road overseer was ever elected, but during
the past year the men of Beaver City
turned out voluntarily on several occasions and worked the trail through
the sand hills north of the river, as
well as the main street of the village, and put the roads in excellent
condition.
Council Bill No. 4 provided an enacting clause for all subsequent bills
thus: Be it enacted by the Territorial
Council of Cimarron Territory in Council Assembled.
To show just how this council tried to do the work of a lawful legislature
the following bill is given verbatum
except the enacting clause:
COUNCIL BILL NO 8 - An act concerning cattle mortgages.
That all personal property except growing crops is subject to mortgage.
Such mortgage is void until delivery to
mortagee or until the mortgage or a copy thereof shall have been filed
with the clerk of the auxiliary council
in the vicinity of where the property is to remain. The mortgage may
stipulate the rights of the mortagee, otherwise
the property will be held by the mortagor. The time and manner of
advertising to foreclose shall also be stipulated
in the mortgage, otherwise thirty days notice shall be given in writing to
the mortagor giving time and place of
sale.
Another bill providing for the division of the territory into seven
counties of twenty-four townships each; also
for the election in November of a new legislative body of nineteen
senators and 14 delegates. The Senate district
was formed by the meridian line, and the delegates were to represent the
county. But it was provided that seven
of the delegates and six senators should be elected at large, which meant
from Beaver City, Beaver being the center
of population. The people who lived beyond the limits of Beaver's
influence would have objected to this but for
the fact they didn't care a cent about the legislature or its enactments.
Although an election was held that provided
no one living over forty miles was elected and the vacancies were filled
by those who met on the first Monday in
December as this bill said they could do.
Meantime the original council of nine held several meetings. They had
resolved to meet once a month, but could
not get a quorum very often.
The meeting of August 2nd was interesting for two reasons. First in spite
of their utter lack of power to do anything
lawful, this council passed a bill of ten sections providing for the
organization of corporations. Second, President
Chase forgot all about a little political
deal he had made with the Rev.
Overstreet, and a split occurred. Here
are sample sections from the law governing corporations:
Section 4. Such articles of incorporation must state name of
incor-poration and its place of business. The general
nature of said business to be transacted. The amount of its capital stock
and the manner in which it is to be paid in. The duration of the
corporation. By what persons the affairs of the corporation are
to be conducted and the times they will be elected. The highest amount of
indebtedness to which corporation is
at any time to subject itself. Whether private property is to be exempt
from corporate debts.
Section 5. The corporation may commence business as soon as
articles are filed with the territorial secretary,
and their doing shall be valid if the publication in newspaper is made.
Publication of what? Of course there was never any corporation that took
advantage of this bill.
The political deal was this: The Rev.
Mr. Overstreet had agreed to support Chase
for president of the Council on
condition that Chase should
support, him for delegate to Washington, for it had early been determined
to send a
delegate to work for legislation which should extend over this territory
with protection of United States laws.
At the August meeting of the council the Rev.
Overstreet proposed that provisions for a
delegate be made. President
Chase forgetting the deal ruled the
matter out of order on the grounds for putting men in nomination for
election
by ballot should be called. The Rev
Overstreet did not attend any more
Council meetings.
A convention to choose nominees was called at Rothwell on Septem-ber 14th.
Fourteen delegates representing fourteen
out of the 158 towns in the territory were present. The preacher was not
mentioned as a candidate. After twenty
ballots J. G. Snode of
Paladora, had seven votes; J.
E. Dale, five with two scattered. So both
Snode and
Dale went
before the people. Then Dr.
Chase came out as an independent and on
the face of the returns beat the other two
out of sight. As the returns were made to the Doctor's son-in-law, who had
previously been elected secretary of
the council and as the number of votes somewhat outnumbered the voters in
some localities, the opposition were
suspicious of the returns. Mr
Dale who led Mr.
Snode in the returns, decided to go to
Washington also. He said
Dr. Chase had
been counted in "by the ring that wants to run the whole country." Dr.
Chase retorted by
saying, that Mr. Dale was
backed by the thieves and land grabbers who had all along worked against
the efforts
of honest citizens to establish law and order; and further, unfortunately,
by the friends of an honest but disappointed
candidate. The stranger who talks to both sides will conclude that both Chase and
Dale told
the truth.
Here is the copy of the ticket voted by the Chase faction:
Repudiating all other platforms, we ask for Territorial
Government United States District Court, and United States Land Office
within the borders of the Public Land Strip,
as other territories have. For Congress, O.
G. CHASE - For Senatorial Congress at
Large; W. H. MILLER,
Optima;
S. S. BAKER,
Mineral City; JOSEPH
HUNTER, Beaver City; J.
R. LINLEY, Beaver City; J.
B. MORSE, Clear Creek; J.
G. SNODE, Paladora. - For Senator First
District, THOS. P.
BRAIDWOOD - For Delegates at Large, GEO.
REEMER, JAMES
LANE, R.
R. ALLEN, A.
G. BENDER, E.
T. BIRMINGHAM ELMER TOMPKINS, ALEX
WRIGHT - For Delegate Seventh District,
G. T. PEMBERTON -
For Territorial Secretary, W.
B OGDEN - N. B. Immediately after
counting the ballot must be returned,
with the tally sheet and poll book to W.
B. Ogden, territorial secretary at
Beaver. Candidates must see that each
neighborhood appoints its own election officers, and open the poles
November 8, 1887.
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[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER XIV
THE FIRST CHURCH IN NO MAN'S LAND
The Rev.
R. M. Overstreet organized a Presbyterian
church in Beaver City on June 12,
1887, with ten members, including himself and four other members of his
family. A new church building 24x40 feet
large was erected at the cost of nearly $1,000, but a large part of the
money came from the Home Missionary Board,
of the church in New York City. More members have moved away than have
been added by new arrivals, while there
have been no converts.
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[Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp]
CHAPTER XV
THE OPENING OF THE TERRITORY
Up to the
meeting of Congress in December, 1887, the whole territory boomed along
in a way that delights a western heart. Even the completion of the Ft.
Worth & Denver railroad through the
Panhandle of Texas which then stopped the freighters train over the Jones
& Plummer trail did not check the
prosperity of Beaver City let alone the influx of settlers who were
looking for homesteads. Claims changed hands
at prices that farms with good titles would not have brought across the
line in Kansas. But when the fiftieth Session
of Congress had grown old and nothing had been done for the relief of No
Man's Land its people began to get discouraged.
Their capital had keen sunk in improvements and surrant expenses. They had
nothing left to live on. Not only were
the influx of the settlers stopped but many of the residents began to
"haul their freight" which in the
vernacular here means to leave the country. The majority of these people,
however, left such improvements on their
claims as will enable them to return and hold them whenever the Strip
comes in. There was probably at one time
a population of 12,000 people in No Man's Land. Now there may be 8,000.
Nevertheless, many of those who remained are full of hope and no less than
forty new houses were added during the
past six weeks. To the three hundred to which Beaver contains. They are as
a rule sod houses of cheap box frames,
but they will serve to hold the town lot as the boom arrived.
To trace the history of other parts of No Man's Land than this, the
metropolis, is out of the question. There are
dozens of small settlements and a half dozen villages of twenty or more
houses in every one of which there have
been fights, murders, lynchings, and the usual lawlessness to be found on
the frontier. To give in detail half
the tales of the sort which the Sun reporter took note would fill many
pages of this paper not to mention the common
place killing of which no note was taken. But the record of events at
Beaver is tolerably complete, and that will
give an idea of what occurred elsewhere.
To the man who comes from a land where trees grow the scenery about Beaver
seems at first sight utterly desolate.
The barren sand hills which are found all along the north bank of every
stream in this country fairly seems to
dance in the glare of the sun even on a winter day. The lowlands were once
covered with trees but these all have
long since been cut away. The table lands between the streams are only a
little less dreary than the sand hills.
But in a day or two, or at most a week, this feeling wears off. There is
something about the sweep of the uplands
that excites the imagination and facinates the eye. The hills may be a
picture of desolation but one is found confessing
that in the sense of grandeur exceed the depression which their desolation
at first creates. The whitish buffalo
grass which by reflecting the sun light, had at first made the eye ache is
seen at last to be of a delicate shade
of green that is delightful to look upon.
The one difficulty in the way of farming is the south winds. The trade
winds from over the sea sweeping across
the Gulf of Mexico and over the land until deflected to the north by the
Rocky Mountains. They drive along the
broken prairies for hundreds of miles. Heated above by the direct rays of
the sun and heated below by those rays
reflected back from the white buffalo grass sod. They come like the breath
from the furnace in which Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego, fell down and they destroyed the face of the land.
Crops that mature before the first of July flourish luxuriantly every
season. Other crops flourish about two years
out of five for wet seasons are had that often. When crops can be
irrigated as in the bottom lands there is a growth
almost beyond belief.
Two crops of ordinary garden vegetables are raised every season and each
crop is in itself a wonder. As the country
is settled up and the buffalo grass turned under the climate will change
and this land will be as good as it is
in Kansas-no better and no worse. Central Kansas used to get burned up as
this country now.
But in spite of this obvious drawback, there will be a tremendous influx
of population here as soon as the laws
of the land reach the country. Two railroads, one near each end of the
Strip are built to the line and have stopped
there only temporarily. The country has been so much talked about
everywhere throughout the west that thousands
will hasten hither as much from curiosity as for any other reason as soon
as property is secure. There will be
a mushroom growth of partial wilting down again and then No Man's Land
will become a humdrum country of farms with
only a curious early history to make it talked about.
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