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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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FW-190 Long Nose
Afternoon PE. LOL!
Geez this is scary. I hadn't really thought about it but are those old stories even told nowadays without any political correctness added?
Howdy!
Just a quick hello . . . long day. God bless.
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Thank so much for setting me straight. I feel so ashamed of amerika and am very sorry for all the evil wicked things we've done to the peaceloving environmentally conscience disability aware gender neutral peoples of the world. Oh if only George Bush and his cabal of evil neo-cons would just come to the realization that we all need to learn to live in harmony and oneness walking lightly on our mother the earth.
Damn! I think I'm ready to teach in college!
The following letter was written by Newton Franklin Locke (born January 13, 1853 in Dallas Co., Alabama; died April 26, 1939 in Miami, Roberts Co., Texas) November 5, 1893, in Mobeetie, Texas to his brother Thomas Jackson Locke (born March 14, 1862 in Orrville, Alabama; died July 2, 1934 in Orrville, Alabama) in Alabama.
Dear Tom,
Your letter of Oct. 13th to hand. I was pleased to hear of all being well. Your letter found us all well, both my family and Matt's. I arrived at home on the 29th from my trip to the Cherokee Strip. I will give you a small sketch of my trip. towit!
Myself and four others left Mobeetie on Sept. 1st and carrying with us 17 head of horses, a mess wagon and 4 mules, plenty beding and provision and a little Hydrophoba Medicine. We traveled for eight days, going through some very pretty country. Passed several Indian reservations, saw them in their natural state in their tepees and villages. Camped among them and they treated us very kindly. And after having a pleasant journey of eight days arrived at Hennesey, our destination. We there week in camp about 4 miles from town and commence preparing our horses for the race on the 18th and while in camp we had a pleasant time. Though the town was so crowded and dusty we visited it only for provision and mail. When the 18th arrived we had our 5 race horses in fine fix, went out to the line and took our places about one hour before starting with twenty thousand people. The line at our point was 14 miles long and at 12 o'clock when the signal sounded, the ground start was made, I looked down the line for an instant and it appeared like a huge serpent moving. it was the most people I ever saw together. The crowd was composed of all nationalities. All classes of men from the gray haired Grand father to the boy of 12 years, dudes, school mamas, bicyclists, and the train with 33 cars and 3 engines was all in the start. You can amagine how I felt mounted on a Texas horse my chances were certainly very few. However myself and comrades rode on together at our usual Texas gate for about 7 mile until we got our horse well heated and covered with foam and as fast as we could. Not to hurt our horses. We then began to get faster, faster, and faster and ere long were passing the multitude very rapidly. Still we rode on recklessly. Finally we came in sight of the US Land Office at the town site of Enid, our destination. We arrived in among say 30 people the first to get there. We had made a fine race and were proud of it. We had beat every thing there ex- Western horses. Kentucky and Missouri race horses not excepted. We made the 18 mile heat in 48 minutes. Not a bad saddle horse time and that too without hurting any of our five horses. I was No. 1 to file in the land office. It was an exciting trip and I enjoyed it very much. I went over the route next day to get our wagon and other horses and could trace the route by dead horses broken buggies and wagons. Some of the prettiest horses I ever saw lay dead. Naturally run to death by not knowing how to ride them. Several people killed and several badly mashed up.
On the evening of the 18th the town of Enid looked like and was a city of tents for every lot was taken and something on it. We all sold our property and prepared to return to our homes for we did not like the country nor the people. Yet Enid will make a city sure. Of all the ground rascals on earth the Strip certainly has a large share. However we all got out safe without any serious difficulty.
Have arrived at home and are satisfied I will have to stop or you will think I am trying my hand on a novel. Mr. Long and myself have formed a copartnership and are doing well. Selling lots of goods. I have closed my cattle all out and am renting my farm so that I can rest easy, make a living and educate my boys. Matt is still best man at Dickerson's, doing very well. Give my love to Mother. Tell her I will write her soon. Tell Bill the big fat rascal to write sometime, love to Aunt. Write soon and tell me all the news.
As ever your brother,
Newt
The extant land rush is conducted largely in Spanish.
I kept a log of the vehicle descriptions and license plates of the colonias two doors down. Many pages of notebooks.
A long and ever-changing line of cars with out-of-state plates, Mexican plates, pieces of paper taped in the window saying we don't need no stinking plate.
Then the local television news affiliates announced the completion of a joint drug task force investigation arresting two hombres in an apartment visible from here, a wily one who had overseen an extensive network of mules, but escaped back to Mexico ahead of the federales.
Shazam the line of cars disappeared from two doors down.
In the city more Chihuaha plates, its city council vowing no cooperation with immigration authorities, followed by the Albuquerque city council and the New Mexico state legislature.
Canada's Martin announces that he and Peter Jennings will not cooperate with U.S. antiballistic missile defense efforts.
NAFTA has been the shafta.
I kept a log of the vehicle descriptions and license plates of the colonias two doors down. Many pages of notebooks.
A long and ever-changing line of cars with out-of-state plates, Mexican plates, pieces of paper taped in the window saying we don't need no stinking plate.
I couldn't do it. I'd have to fight or move.
Long day...I know all about those. Goodnight w.
Morning w_over_w.
Just about, you need to mention "Haliburton" by name at least 3 times in each soul searching rant.
In the city more Chihuaha plates, its city council vowing no cooperation with immigration authorities, followed by the Albuquerque city council and the New Mexico state legislature.
Portland and Oregon are the saame way. Not only won't they cooperate on illegal immigration they refuse to cooperate with the Justice Department onn the War on Terror.
NAFTA has been the shafta.
What!?!?! Just because jobs for illegals and immigrants have grown as much as jobs for citizens?!?!?! Besides they're just doing the jobs that people who now collect welfare checks used to do. < /sarcasm>
Thanks "Haliburton" for "Haliburton" the "Haliburton" imput "Haliburton"
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