The Saga of No Man's Land as seen in 1888 and 1889 : Early historical facts and stories of Beaver City, Oklahoma, Cimarron Territory, the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Beaver Okla.: Published and distributed by The Herald-Democrat, 1969

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 perpetual 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 Territory 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.

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 across 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 laws 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.)

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 afterwards 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 Strip, 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 aforesaid 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 hereby 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 rights 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.

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 character 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 ex-tend 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.

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.

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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