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Posted on 02/23/2005 9:41:17 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Stampede for Oklahoma's Unassigned Lands Wild as a gold rush, the stampede for Oklahoma's Unassigned Lands was a dream come true for some, a heartbreaking nightmare for others. They were the good and the bad, the tough and the weak, who raced for their 160-acre parcels on a spring day in 1889.  Map of the Oklahoma Territory, 1866-1889, showing Caddo and Wichita lands. WITH A SIX-GUN ON HIS hip and a Winchester pump-gun in his hands, the young cowpuncher faced another claim-jumper. They had reached the ground together, blustered the second man. He demanded an even split of the lush grassy quarter-section on which they stood, he to get the larger parcel, the youngster, of course, to have the smaller. The boy stood his ground. "A hundred and sixty acres or six feet," he said, "and I don't give a damn which it is..." The boy--and his Winchester--made his point, and the kid held his own piece of the new Eden in the wildest, the biggest, rush for new land in U.S. history. It began April 22, 1889, a perfect spring day--bright, balmy and cloudless. The Oklahoma prairie was green with the new year, a little glimpse of paradise to the thousands of land-starved pioneers.  Along the borders of the Indian Territory's so-called Unassigned Lands seethed a hive of excited people, waiting impatiently, praying, quarreling, jostling for position. They had eyes only for the great prize before them: 160 acres of government land, free to whomever first staked a claim...and could hold it. They waited in wagons and buggies of every kind, on horseback, even on foot. The able-bodied waited next to the blind, the old and the sick. The rushers were black and white, native and immigrant. For some it was purely a chance at profit, a chance to seize prime land and sell it later. For others, it was the chance of a lifetime, perhaps the last chance to find a home. For many, especially the young men, it was a chance for adventure. For more than a few it was a chance to rob and steal, to bully weaker people. Against these vultures the rushers relied mostly on their Colts and Winchesters, for the law was spread very thin in the Unassigned Lands. Even God-fearing, honest people oiled and checked their weapons. The Ten Commandments had little force between the North and South Forks of the Canadian; a bullet was surer by far.  Troop 'C,' 5th Cavalry, which arrested boomers and squatters prior to opening of Oklahoma, ca. 1888. The explosive opening of the Unassigned Lands had been a long time coming. This broad, fertile country had been promised to the Indian by treaty, "...as long as the grass grows or the water runs..." But as America drove West after the Civil War, the pioneers coveted these same green, empty lands, and a bill appeared in Congress annually from 1884 on, designed to permit opening of the wide-open Indian Territory to public settlement. For a time, the Cherokees and other tribes successfully held off all attempts to open their land, but in the end the pressure was too strong. Ironically, a Cherokee lawyer and Confederate veteran, Colonel E.C. Boudinot, was one of the first to urge opening of the two million acres of prime land left unassigned by the 1866 treaties. The agitation increased, in and out of Congress. In addition to continuing attempts to legislate free settlement of the Unassigned Lands, a settlement movement grew up in Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas. The Boomers, as members of this movement were called, bombarded Congress with repeated appeals to open Oklahoma, especially after the Santa Fe built its railroad line straight across the coveted ground, from Arkansas City, Kans., to Gainsville, Texas.  The starting line for the first Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889. When Congress did not act, parties of Boomers tried again and again to move into the Unassigned Lands--dugouts and shanties began to appear across the lush prairie. They did not stay. The long-suffering U.S. Cavalry evicted them as often as they settled, burning their fragile buildings, and on occasion the confrontations came perilously close to shooting. The Boomers were persistent, returning as often as the tiny units of blue-shined soldiers threw them out. By March of 1889 a substantial group had settled on the railroad around Oklahoma Station, the site of present-day Oklahoma City. Repeated evictions here led to scuffles and violence, settled by the soldiers with carbine and pistol butt. In spite of all the soldiers could do, many Boomers simply scattered and hid until the Army left. Oklahoma station, and a dozen other scruffy little settlements, were founded to stay. And by now the tide of westward movement and settlement was too strong for anyone to buck; finally the Congress would feel it, too, and on March 2, 1889, passed the annual Indian Appropriations Bill. It contained language placing the Unassigned Lands in the public domain, the first step toward opening them for public settlement. That opening would be left to a proclamation by President-elect Benjamin Harrison, due to take office two days later.  Title: Indian Territory – The Oklahoma Boomers – United States Scouts Turning Back Invaders. The news raced to the Boomer camps along the Kansas border, where it was greeted with bonfires and gleeful shots. It remained only for the President to make his proclamation, and on the 23rd of March it came: some 10,000 quarter-sections of the promised land would be open to settlement at noon on April 22. With the great news came a quiet warning. Nobody who jumped the gun before the "hour herein before fixed, will ever be permitted to enter any of the said lands, or to acquire any rights thereto..." The government reserved two one-acre plots to itself. The first was on the Chisholm Trail, near an old stage relay station called Kingfisher. The other was near Guthrie station on the railroad. Here there would be land offices, for the registration of claims. There also were two sections per township reserved for public schools. And now the hopeful came from every corner of America, lured by the stories that appeared in newspapers all across the country. There were Mormons from Utah, miners from Pennsylvania, blacks from Arkansas and North Carolina, three separate groups from Chicago. All of these rubbed elbows with men and women from Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, an Italian immigrant contingent from New York, and a party of 30 men from Terre Haute, all decked out in yellow slickers and carrying white valises. And still they came, organized groups of old soldiers, immigrants from Scotland and Sweden and other places, whole groups organized to found towns and corner the market on town lots. There were tenderfeet in new city clothing, wives in calico and bonnets, and one skinny Missourian in overalls stamped with little American flags and trousers of red, white and blue. It is not recorded that anybody laughed at his original costume, perhaps because he also wore two monstrous Colt Navies, and a knife to boot.  Laying Out Town Lots in Guthrie Twenty Minutes after the Arrival of the First Train Many of these people were well-equipped. Others, down on their luck, brought little but hope with them. Almost everybody, however, was armed--the waiting throng bristled with sixguns, rifles, shotguns and a variety of knives. Those hardy enough to try their whole future in an unsettled and unknown land were not shrinking violets; what they took they intended to hold, law or no law. And the newspapers loved it. Correspondents descended on the Unassigned Lands from all directions, from papers in San Francisco and New York and Chicago and dozens of towns between. They wrote hundreds of thousands of words, filling their papers with stories of the rush to come, of all the things that happened, and of some that didn't. They wrote reams about the wonderful country to be opened and about the people who waited to take it. There were stories serious and funny. There was even a story, probably made up by the correspondent on a slow news day, of four Indiana men who waited, camped in the Antelope Hills, ready to descend on choice claims ahead of the competition--by balloon. And the news stories further fueled the fires of excitement about the opening. More and more people turned away from their old lives and headed for the Oklahoma Country. The rushers waited impatiently in all the little towns just outside the new lands: Darlington, Buffalo Springs, Silver City and Purcell. Purcell was jammed with hopeful people from everywhere, 2,000 to 10,000 of them.
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Skies clearing out today. Forecast high lower 50's.
February 24, 2005
I was driving to work and listening to a local Christian radio station. Amid the usual morning banter came the song "I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever."
I have no idea what came over me. As soon as this uplifting praise song began, I felt tears running down my face. There I was, almost at work, and I could hardly see to drive because of a song. What was going on?
I sat in my car after I arrived at my destination, trying to figure it out. Then it struck me. The song reminded me that while another day of normal activity was beginning here on earth, my daughter Melissa was fulfilling the ultimate hope of that song in heaven. I pictured her brightly singing of God's love-getting a head start on the rest of us in that forever song. It was a bittersweet moment of understanding Melissa's joy while being reminded again of our sadness in not having her with us.
Much of life is like that. Joys and sorrows intermingle-making reminders of God's glory so vital. We need those glimpses of a promising praise-filled future in our Savior's presence. In the sadnesses of life, we need the anticipation of joy-the joy that comes from singing of God's love and enjoying His presence forever. -Dave Branon
Those who know Christ now will sing His praises forever.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Howdy, y'all...
"Kerry's Party!!"
(To be sung to Bruce Springsteen's "Sherry Darlin'")
Dem Lib'rals yappin'...they're all deadbeats!!
Tell 'em it's all over...gonna be so sweet...
Next November's mournin', yer gonna be goin' down to the unemployment agency!!
'Cuz each morning Right be fightin'...no, we won't give up...
'Til Dubyuh wins...traitors, just shut up!!
Gonna be the last time DemRATS gonna be threatnin' the FRee!!
(Chorus)
Lemme tell ya there's a Lib'ral runnin' to be Prez'dent...
The dude's gawky and he's houndin' Dem young chicks!!
She can take yer guilt trip back to yer ghetto tonight!!
'Cuz the gang's all here and the FReepin's "FRee"...
Kerry's a fool, stop his blasphemy!!
Hey, Willie, why're you slayin' Kerry's Party?!!
FReeper gals flirtin' while they FReep...
They got great minds...and they know how to teach!!
There'll be no backtrackin' out here in Flyover Country!!
John Kerry, Left's love for you ain't real...
Boy, yer just fillin' in fer Hillary!!
Jane Kerry, RAT Party has its hero, Slick Willie!!
(Chorus)
Lemme tell ya there's a Lib'ral runnin' to be Prez'dent...
Dude looks gawky while he's bird-doggin' Dem phat chicks!!
You can take yer morals back to the ghetto tonight!!
'Cuz the gang's all here and the FReepin' "FRee"...
Kerry's a FOOL, Hanoi John's tyranny!!
Hey, Hill'ry, why you playin' Kerry's Party?!!
[Bigman on sax, CM on guitar]
Folks, keep fighting fer what's Right...ignore the pain!!
Let the bleedin'-hearted spew their spin!!
Kerry, you can run, but be warned, "Be Wary of the Right!!"
Tell Dem Lib'rals down in Central Park...
And all you politicos who're missin' the mark...
Say, Slick Willie, won't you pray fer yer Party?!
Hey, Willie, why'd you slay Kerry's Party?!
FReegards...MUD (02/23/2004)
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on February 24:
1304 Muhammad ibn Battutah Arab travel writer (Travels in Asia & Africa)
1463 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Italy, scholar/platonist
1500 Emperor Charles V king of Spain (1516-56)/Holy Roman Emperor
1536 Clement VIII [Ippolito Aldofireini], Fano Italy, last Counter-Reformation pope (1592-1605)
1545 Don Juan of Austria the elder, Austrian general (The Battle of Lepanto)
1557 Matthias C Sarbiewski [Sarbievius], Vienna, Polish Jesuit/poet/Holy Roman emperor (1612-19)
1684 Catherine I Empress of Russia 1725-27, Dorpat, Estonia
1750 Miklós Révai Hungarian linguistic/poet
1786 Wilhelm Karl Grimm Hanau Germany, story teller (Grimm's Fairy Tales)
1811 Daniel A Payne Bishop/reformer/educator of AME Church
1811 Edward Dickinson Baker Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1861
1824 John Crawford Vaughn Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1875
1827 Charles Davis Jameson Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1836 Winslow Homer US, painter (Gulfstream)
1838 Thomas Benton Smith Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1923
1848 C Grant B Allen Canadian writer (Woman Who Did)
1874 Honus Wagner HOF shortstop (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1900-17)
1885 Admiral Chester Nimitz US Admiral (commanded Pacific fleet in WWII)
1898 Kurt Tank German WWII aircraft designer
1909 Max Black Dutch/British/US philosopher (analytical philosophy)
1909 Michael Francis Morris Lindsay orientalist
1917 William Fairbank Minneapolis MN, physicist (superconductivity)
1921 Abe Vigoda New York NY, actor (Barney Miller, Fish)
1924 William Pillar British Admiral
1932 John Vernon Canada, actor (Animal House, Chained Heat, Dirty Harry)
1934 Bettino Craxi Italy's 1st socialist premier (1983-87)
1938 James Farentino Brooklyn NY, actor (Dead & Buried, Final Countdown)
1940 Jimmy Ellis WBA heavyweight boxing champion (1968-70)
1942 Joe Lieberman (Senator-D-CT)
1946 Barry Bostwick San Mateo CA, actor (Spin City, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lexx, Megaforce, Movie Movie, Scruples, Foul Play)
1947 Edward James Olmos California, actor (Miami Vice, Stand & Deliver, Triumph)
1955 Steven Jobs cofounder of Apple Computer
1968 Kendall Cross Hardin MT, 125½ lbs freestyle wrestler (Olympics-gold-92, 96)
1972 Patricia Regan Leines Medford OR, Miss Oregon-America (1996-3rd)
1977 Floyd Mayweather Grand Rapids MI, featherweight boxer (Olympics-bronze-96)
1978 Louise Woodward Elton England, nanny who killed Matthew Eappen
Thank you SAM, for hot linking both this one...
And thanks, again, for posting this thread.
mornin!
I live in Norman which was in the unassigned land area with the Chickasaws on one area south of us and the Potawattamie Tribe to the East of us. You cross the Canadian River on the southern edge of Norman and you are in Chickasaw Territory.
Norman was named for a railroad surveyor. In 1870, the United States Land Office contracted with a professional engineer to survey much of Oklahoma territory. Abner E. Norman, a young surveyor, became chairman and leader of the central survey area in Indian Territory. The surveyor’s crew burned the words “NORMAN’S CAMP” into an elm tree near a watering hole to taunt their younger supervisor. When the “SOONERS” (those who headed west before the official Land Run date, April 22, 1889) and the other settlers arrived in the heart of Oklahoma, they kept the name “NORMAN.” Today, with an estimated 102,195 residents, Norman is the third largest city in the State of Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma was founded in 1890 as the people chose the University instead of the Capitol -- OU is the Sooners and before every football game and during the game you will hear "Boomer" yelled answered by "Sooner" from the whole stadium. I have been in airports where someone will yell out "Boomer" to be answered from across the way "Sooner."
It is a neat State with a lot of interesting history, conservative, and some of the friendliest people I have ever known -- proud to call Oklahoma home and my adopted State.
sn*wing here! YETCH!
free dixie HUGS,duckie/sw
First in!
a RUSH to STEAL Indian land!
free dixie,sw
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Thanks for the link AJC.
The Foxhole's kind of guy!
Great story today Sam, thanks.
Good morning EGC.
Good morning Mayor.
Good morning alfa6.
Hiya Mud.
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