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You Are There 49-03-27 (69) The Oklahoma Land Run
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You Are There 49-03-27 (69) The Oklahoma Land Run
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Don Hollenbeck
This is Don Hollenbeck in Oklahoma country. In exactly 27 minutes and 30 seconds at high noon on this 22nd day of April, 1889, you will see the biggest land grab in the history of the United States. The simultaneous roar of about 100 cannon and rifles around a more than 200 mile boundary will start 100,000 Nebraskans, Buckeyes, Cruisers, Jayhawkers, Texans, Razorbacks from Arkansas on a wild race for free land. For this is the day. And this is the hour President Benjamin Harrison has set for the opening of the unassigned prairie. In 27 minutes, 1,887,000 acres of blue stem grass which once fed grazing herds of buffalo and cattle will be marked with signs saying, keep off. No trespassing private property. April 22, 1889. The Oklahoma. You are there. The Oklahoma Land Run. Uncle Sam is waiting to give away 12,000 free shares of American Prairie. And 100,000 are waiting to make a run for it. CBS takes you back 60 years to the wildest land grab in history. All things are as they were then, except for one thing. When CBS is there, you are there. You are there. Produced and directed by Robert Louis Cheyenne is based upon authentic historical fact and quotation. And now, April 22, 1889. The Oklahoma prairie and Don Hollandale. This lonely depot here in the heart of the Oklahoma prairie will be shattered by the roar of land hungry thousands massed around its borders. But now all you can hear in this small wooden shack is casual conversation of the waiting cavalry, the telegraph key of the Santa Fe station master. Beyond that, no sound but the sigh of the April wind, the occasional cry of a crow flying past. On the way down here, I passed big thickets of cottonwood, bur oak, walnut, elm, locust and persimmon. Plums grow wild along the streams, and I don't know how many prairie chickens, jackrabbits, deer and coyotes we passed in the train. When I first stepped off at Oklahoma station, a cavalry lieutenant stepped up and tapped me on the shoulder. All right, he said, mister. Back on the train, I had to do some talking to persuade him I was here only to report the run, not to take part in. Meanwhile, soldiers walking up and down the platform kept shouting, all persons stopping off will be arrested. And when the train started up again, they yelled, all boomers aboard. The boomers, of course, are those men who for about 10 years have been agitating to have the Oklahoma country open for homesteading. Waiting here beside me is the cavalry lieutenant who stopped me when I got off the train. He's lieutenant Maxwell Russell from Fort Reno in the Cheyenne territory west of here. Lieutenant Russell's well heeled with a Winchester and sidearm. Lieutenant Russell, you still don't think I'm going to grab a piece of land, do you? I'll arrest you if you do. I'm quite sure you would, Lieutenant. How many cavalrymen and infantrymen have been detailed to cover this run? About 2,000, I think. Let's see. Men from Fort Reno and Fort Smith. They strung out all up and down the borders. Gunshot hearing from each other. Well, what are you supposed to do? Our orders are to see if the law is not broken. What law? The law of the run. Well, what is that law? What does it say? They can't start across the line before 12. Nobody must enter and occupy before noon. That's what the proclamation says. Suppose somebody does, then what? They'd be arrested. What happens then? I can tell you. They'd never be able to stake a claim in Oklahoma country. I see. Do you think anybody will try to jump the gun? Just this morning we pulled half a dozen men out of the woods. Now, if you weren't in the army, Lieutenant, would you be taking part in this run? I'm an army man, thanks very much, Lieutenant Russell. A week ago, Santa Fe Station Master Andrew Jackson Blueball was transferred from Topeka, Kansas to Oklahoma station here. He's taken a minute from his heavy duties to answer a few questions for us, Mr. Blueball. It's going to be a big day for the Santa Fe, isn't it? The biggest in the Santa Fe history. We going to carry more people in less time and make more money than any line in the country. Why, from Wichita to Gainesville decided it just choked with fake food, lumber and supplies of all kinds. Well, shut. I sold tickets all night long. And the depot in Arkansas city, Kansas, sold 1,024 tickets for one train alone. They got three engines down at Purcell waiting to shoot up north with 26 coaches. People drunk in the train shooting out the windows. I tell you. How come you've got all this freight here even before the run begins? Well, the people are shipping. They're in here to have them all ready to start building. They want to be the first. Some of them are going to find the food there. They said it robbed it. It's been waiting so long. It's too bad throwing away good food like that and money and. Do you think there'll be many people making the run by train? Yes. There's 50,000 of them coming up from Purcell and down from Cherokee Strip as Soon as the gun goes off, the train starts. Oklahoma. Well, that kind of gives them a head start over the others, doesn't it? That's what they think. But the sandy feed is helping nobody break any laws. Been running between Kansas and Texas for 27 years. The train ain't going no faster than a horse can gallop. If people don't like it, they can jump off and run. This is a run, is it? Excuse me. Thanks very much for your very valuable time. Andrew Jackson, blueball. It's 11:38 now, Oklahoma time at the starting lines in Purcell, Fort Reno, the Cherokee Strip, the Indian Meridian. Thousands of land hungry Americans are growing more tense as the time gets nearer to noon. And waiting to receive them in the Kingfisher Land office is Cash M. Beale, a government land clerk. Ken Roberts is with him. So come in. Ken Roberts. Kingfisher, a stop on the stagecoach route down from Kansas, houses one of the two government land officers set up to handle this run. The land office itself is nothing more than a rough wooden hut. But here inside, there's a neat pattern of maps, files, almanacs, calendars and heavy legal reference books. And behind a clean, orderly desk waiting for action is the man who has arranged all this in perfect organization, Mr. Cash M. Beale. What's the M for, Mr. Beale? Merkin cash. Merkin beal. I see. Mr. Beale, did you check that clock on the wall? The answer's obvious. Well, then in 21 minutes by that clock, you're going to be busier than a bird dog. When the Oklahoma country is open. I'm sorry. This land is all too often called so loosely Oklahoma Country. On maps. On maps it is shown as unassigned land. At the close of the war between the States. Civil War? War between the States, the Creek Nation ceded the entire western half of their lands to the United States for 30 cents per acre. A total cost to the government of $975,500. For the purpose of locating, there are Indians and freedmen. Oh, Mr. Beale. Smaller tribes were thereupon brought in and given reservations on this territory, but not all of it was occupied. Unassigned was that part of the land ceded by the Creeks, bounded on the north, called the Cherokee Outlet, the east by the Indian Meridian, the west by 96 west longitude, the south by the Canadian River. Well, when the 1986 Congress authorized the president to stop negotiations with the Creeks, Cherokees and Seminoles for the purpose of opening two settlement under the homestead laws, the unassigned lands of the Indian Territory, the government paid the Creek Nation Therefore, a total of $2,280,000. It was ratified by Congress and approved by President Cleveland on the first day of March in this year. 1889. Yes. So on the 23rd of March, the new President Harrison, having been inaugurated on the 4th, issued a proclamation setting the time and date of homestead entry as the hour of noon on this 22nd day of April, exactly 19 minutes and 31 seconds from now. Any questions? Yes, I should like to know what size the lots will be. Townside or homestead? Oh, there's a difference. Oh, yes. Homestead lots. 160 acres each. Town lots unspecified. Oversight of the government. Stupid. Stupid. Well, what I want to know is where the town sites are, how you file an entry, and what laws will govern the new settlers at town sites. Kingfisher, Guthrie, Oklahoma Station. Filing entry at the land office either here at Kingfisher or Guthrie, taking the oath that you did not enter and occupy before noon on the 22nd day of April. However, there is absolutely not a single law provided oversight of the government again. We can expect murders that disorder, violent quarreling over conflicting claims. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to shoot me. How do you get a town lot? I've answered that. Yes. Oh, thank you, Mr. Beale. Listen there. The. The people for whom Land Agent Beale is so completely prepared are impatient at this moment to be the first to reach Mr. Beale. Oh, I know, I know. John Daly is with those now waiting to make the run from the south border. Come in, John Daly. The south bank of the Canadian river here between Texas and Oklahoma country as far as the eye can see and all the way back into the woods is literally boiling with men held back only by US soldiers strung out at gunshot hearing from each other. Some of these men have been camping here besides since last winter. Many of them pulled in this morning. Thousands arrived last night. We've already had a few incidents of violence here. And one of them, as a matter of fact, just a few minutes ago, when Thomas Ward, a farmer from Nebraska, tried to take off after half a dozen men, he says, sneaked across the border. Soldiers stopped him at the point of a gun. And I've got the Ward here waiting. Oh, he's arguing with the soldier again, Mr. Ward. Wait a minute. Well, what do you expect me to do about it? I know what you expect me to do about it. Oh, that's just fine. That's just standing a soldier and he can't do anything about it. Listen, mister, don't bother me, will you? Hey, come away from here, will you? A dozen wagons Were camped beside my wagon here on the riverbank last night. They're not here now, and I say where are they? Now, don't ask me where they are. I didn't see them go. I say they sneaked across the river somewhere down the river somewhere last night. I want them brought back. Don't talk to me anymore about it. Who else am I going to talk to about it? You're the lawyer. Look, mister, get away from here before I have you locked up. Get back to your wagon. I'll have you locked up, and you'll be out of the rut. I'm taking up a petition to have you arrested. Mr. Ward, you're absolutely sure those men crossed the river ahead of time, are you? Well, where do you think they went? Back home, son. There were six wagons next to mine last night. I woke up this morning and they're not there. We fight for 10 years to have this land open for homesteading. We break up our homes, we break our hearts. And when the pie's out of the oven, they're all ready to eat it. Then you must be one of Captain Payne's men, Mr. Ward. Four times. Four times Captain Payne led a colony of citizens in the Oklahoma country. We cleared the land, till the soil, built our home, and every time, they sent soldiers to drive us out. How did David Payne happen to be in Oklahoma territory before it was opened, sir? Well, Captain Payne was a member of the Kansas legislature from Sedgwick county, and it was his opinion and the opinion of many able lawyers of this country that by the treaty of 1866 with the Indians, these lands became part of the public domain and were therefore we fought in and out of congress to make the government see that. And all we got was trouble. Did a lot of you try to settle? Well, at one time, we had a colony of 500 people and 250 wagons. Now we're waiting here for the gun, just like any Johnny come legally, we've lost our homes, Captain Payne lost his life, and now somebody sneaks the land out from under our nose. How did Captain Payne Die, Mr. Ward? Some of us think he was poisoned. Don't ask me who did it. Maine had enemies. Some people still don't want this good graze of land connected to homesteads. We take the cattlemen, the boomers family sleeps under the open sky. We sit around a campfire and eat beans, and seven stockmen fatten their cattle while men starve. Why, you think the cattle kings want to lose this rich land that they've been fattening their cattle on for years. They've been fattening thousands and thousands of heads of steers on millions of acres of prairie for which they paid the Indian rental of only 2 cents an acre. Don't ask me why Oklahoma hasn't been open to home. Hungry people face Jerusalem and say the time has come. Thank you, Mr. Wallace. Coming up, tempers have long passed the breaking point here in the south border. There are 100,000 people in this run and 1,887,000 acres. At 160 acres, a lot. Well, that's roughly 12,000 shares. A lot of people are going to have to go back empty handed. A few minutes ago, a man ran up and asked me to exchange signatures, dates and addresses with it. In case there's any doubt later on, he said, as to his entering lawfully, I could be his witness. What if they don't believe me either? I asked him. In that case, I'll convince him with this with his reply. And he tapped his carbine. You know, one family that's staking everything in this run is the family of Mr. John Lee of Axtell, Kansas. At sundown yesterday, Mrs. Laura Lee and her two children pulled in here with her wagon and ox team. There's a plow lashed to one side of the wagon. A crate of chickens is wired to the other. And inside, well, there's just an assortment of bedding, pots and pans and baskets of food. Mrs. Lee. Just a moment. Just a moment. Down the line. Calling all Republicans. What have you got for us? Our Republicans. All you Democrats on this side. He's a Democrat. Hey, don't you a Democrat? Well, it looks like there's an election starting up here. There's a man on a horse, another one on a mule. They're riding up and down the line. Calling all Democrats and all Republicans. And there's another party, sinners. It certainly Looks like it, Mrs. Lee. Well, now the time's drawing close, Mrs. Lee. Your husband gave up his farm to make the run down here, didn't he? Yes, sir. But we lost the farm in the drought. The sun burned a cocktail you could like a match to it. And the wind was fierce. If you didn't watch sharp, you had to blow over to the next farm. You had to carry a hammer and nails to keep the strips on your house nailed down so the wind wouldn't blow it away. That's a high wind. It sure was. So we stole everything we couldn't carry in the wagon and we took off. Where's your husband now? Why Isn't he here for the run? I left him in coffee though with scarlet fever. I'm making the run for him. And are you going to make the run in the wagon? No siree. I'd about that chance dragging a wagon in some of the waste horses I see lined up here. No sir, I'm leaving the kids behind the wagon. I'm hitching one of the horses and when my gun goes off, I'm off. Good enough. D Lee's oldest child is 15 year old Donald. He's right here now keeping an eye on this interview and protecting his mom. Well, how do you feel about your mother making the run, Donald? Well, I'm lighter. If I rode the horse I'd get there faster. I thought that's a good peak up on him leg and I wouldn't let nobody take it from me either. He can't make the runs. Wouldn't do any good if he did have to be 18 to file a claim. He's only 15. Come on, get up there and I come back and get you. That horse would go under me. I'm not as heavy as you are, Ma. You're so brave. You can just take care of Nona and the wagon. Nona here looks as if she can take care of herself. How about that Nona? I'm awful excited. Boy, we're gonna have an awful lot of fun in Oklahoma. Why Nona, what are you going to do about school in Oklahoma? Oh, I can learn it. I went through sixth grade. See, we'll get us a good quarter section first year. We'll plant it in wheat, we'll sell the wheat and buy lumber. First thing we're going to do when we get our clean Donald, is to bring Paul home. Yeah, that's right, Mark. Well, good luck to all of you. Good luck to you, Mrs. Lee, and you Donald, and you Nona. Just 10 minutes. You can start that ride for that piece of bottom leg. Better ride fast because there'll be 100,000 others racing against her and some of them will be coming in on the train. Waiting on the edge of the Cherokee Strip. Up north where that train will start from is Ned Kelma. Go ahead, Kelma. This is Ned Kalmer. I am jammed in here in the baggage car of a Santa Fe train waiting on the edge of the Cherokee Strip. There are three engines here waiting for the starting signal, each pulling eight coaches and in every coach men are fighting for space. Two men tried to ride the cow catcher and had to be forcibly removed by the United States Army. And there was More excitement. When a conductor tried to stop an overarch barber from shooting out the windows in the coach, well, the barber won a general vote of sympathy around here. And now all the windows down where you found me, gentlemen, please watch out for these tables. My trouble. Hey, take it easy, will you? Shovel trick. I thought he took it higher. Frame. All right, all right. You go anywhere before I. I guess the gentlemen weren't addressing me after all. This train is scheduled to go no faster than a horse or a gallop. And the passengers are all set to jump off anywhere along the line when they see a likely claim. The air in here is foul as you might imagine, with over a thousand aspiring people jammed into eight coaches and jostling for position here. Besides the farmers, the land hungry clerks, the mill hands are 35 businessmen who club together as the Oklahoma Town Company. Coming from the Kansas towns of Burlington, Garnett, Greeley, Colony, Baldwin and Paola, they formed the Oklahoma Town Company for their mutual assistance and protection in the run. Beside me here now is one of them Mr. Cassius M. Dyke, a feed and grain dealer from Burlington who's hoping to get a town lot in Oklahoma County. Mr. Dyke, what's the land company going to do for you in this run that you couldn't do for yourself? Well, protect me against other land companies for one thing. And what could other land companies do to you? Well, let me put it this way. A town's got to be surveyed and planted, right? Right. Well, now you want to be with the company that does the planning. Then you're pretty sure that your claim isn't suddenly declared a public street. By planting you mean charter. That's it. You say here's a street and here's a lot. And the man who's got a lot where you say there's a street is out of lock. But doesn't the government decide that? The government made no provision for that. Oh, I see. You mentioned other town companies, Mr. Dyke. Do you mean any specific ones? I haven't heard of any others in particular, but that's just good business. Uh huh. But what happens if you run into another company that started flatting from a different point and they declare streets where you've got luck? That's why every member of the Oklahoma Land Company is going to have 34 men behind it. I think I'm beginning to understand, Mr. Dyke. That's pretty smart. You told me before that your equipment is already being shipped into Oklahoma Station. I don't suppose you had any trouble getting it down from Kansas? No, not in the least. The division superintendent of the Santa Fe is a member of the Oklahoma Town Command. And naturally, you've got a good surveyor. J A Harrison. Cousin to President Harrison, of course. Well, Mr. Dyke, his organization helps you. People are in business. Is business, you know. So it is, Mr. Dyke. It sure is, and thank you very much. And now, there's one man on this train today who frankly admits that he's here just for the ride. His name is Ambrose Sutter. His business is Stafford. This pretty good show, Mr. Sutter, don't you agree? This run reminds me of hangin day at Fort Smith. Hangin day? You came in days ahead of the occasion. You camped on the ground and slept out because you wanted to make sure of a ringside seat when the trap fell. That's what this run is like to me. Hangin's not a very pleasant thought, Mr. Sutter. Don't you approve of this run, mister? I think this run is the worst tragedy that ever happens to the United States of America. Tragedy? Russian scene. There'll be starvation. There'll be goose towns. This land is not farming land. This is grazing land. It's only good for cattle. By next spring, all these people coming in now, they'll be begging the government for a handout. Did you graze your cattle here, Mr. Sutter? Mostly up in the Cherokee Strip. Oh, I see. Pretty soon homesteaders are going to start fighting to have that open to them, too. You give them an inch, they want a mile. In the end, they'll be hurting not only themselves, but everybody else. How do you mean, Mr. Sutter? Why, look what they did to the land in Kansas. They plowed it up till the rains. Watched it, the wind blew it away. They ruined one part of the West. Now they're coming down to ruin another. They're worse than locusts. They're a plague. The government doesn't seem to think so. They begged and scratched around Washington. The government couldn't do anything about it. This country's too soft, too easy. Like a mother with a sick kid. She gives it everything till the whole family's ruined. The sick kid doesn't get better anyway. These men with holes in their pockets. The only reason they're here is because they couldn't make a go of it where they came from. They're taking away our grazing land. They're going to ruin the cattle industry. They're going to send the price of meat sky high. There's going to be inflation. Then we'll have a depress. You said it, mister. I'm here just for the ride. And you and everybody else is going to take it with me downhill. Well, thank you, Mr. Sutter. A little over four minutes now to the starting gun. This is Ned Calmer. I return you to Don Hollenbreck in Oklahoma Station. We've had a little excitement here ahead of schedule. Just a few minutes ago, two cavalrymen brought in a man they caught hiding in the thickets a few miles from here. Lieutenant R. Tells me the man's going to be taken to Fort Reno where he'll be held for trial. Meanwhile, he's given me permission to ask the prisoners some questions. The prisoner's standing right here with me. Do you mind telling me your name? I. I don't mind. My. My name is Jason Hale. Why did you come into the territory before the deadline? I don't know about any deadline. There's no deadline. The president's proclamation. Enter and occupy. That's what it says. Enter and occupy. I wasn't occupying any land. I wasn't gonna file until after 12. Well, a hundred thousand others. People seem to think it means you can't enter before 12. They just don't know the law. By. By rights, this whole run is illegal. This land is part of the public domain. Public domain belongs to the people. And anybody can enter at any time. Well, the authorities just don't see. They're wrong. The authorities are wrong. They should read the proclamation. All right. That may be, Mr. Hill, but meanwhile, you're out of the run. You can't get any land here. Well. Well, then there are about a hundred others who shouldn't either, because there are a hundred others hiding out there right now. Well, they even got their wagons. They even got their wagons. As soon as the run goes off, they. To come out of the woods and start turning up the forest. Turning up the forest. They, they, they caught me. They. They ought to take them in too. Either it's right or it's wrong. I didn't break any law. The law says. And I'll occupy that. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I occupy just two and a half minutes. Man. Well, the tension that's sweeping the borders is beginning to infect us here too. Two and a half minutes to go. Time for John Daly on the south bank of the Canadian river and the a start of the run. So take it, John Daly. Two and a half minutes before 12. Two and a half minutes more and it will be every man for himself, racing his neighbor for a free share of Oklahoma soil. Covered wagons, buggies, buries, cowpunches. On 40s, men on race horses, women in wagons. They're all pushing and trusting each other for choice positions. There's some evidence of good humor there, but not very much. Everyone is too tense, everybody waiting for that gun to go off. For hours they've been milling about, baking in this hot gun. There's dust in the air and sweat with hard work. Now the tension of the race is high. The is losing. About every mile a horse has jumped out of line. Big tension, too much for the men almost. The horses are consumed. That rider is fighting to get him back in the line, but the horses fighting hard, just rearing up. And a cavalryman has ridden up, down, is helping the rider. They're getting the horse back in line. They're working hard at it. And those cavalrymen have got a great deal of work to do here. They're all the time running up and down the line, forcing horses back into their position and forcing the wagons to stay on the line and wait for the gun to add to all of the excitement and the anxiety here where it has gotten around that the authorities at the different starting points around the borders haven't checked their watches with each other. That's a story that's now sweeping up and down the line, causing a great deal of tension and some anger. Some say that there's as much as half an hour's difference between the official time here on the south border and the time on the north and over to the east. That could mean that the people up in the north and the east will have a four half hour head start. And that's more than enough to knock these people here in the south out of the race. But that's just one of the rumors. One minute more now. Free land, lots of it. All you have to do is to run and to grab. But after that, from now on, you'll have to buy your land. Everywhere you go there'll be a fence and a price. But the price is getting higher and higher right here. For who can tell how much this land is going to be worth tomorrow? Here in this crowd there are men willing to gamble where the grass grows. Now there'll be streets and busy cities, lawyers, offices, schools and churches and factories. Everyone on the line grabs the warning. The soldiers are riding up and down, strong enough to get ready and let her go. And then just shout it. Let her go. The kids is boiling up. 100,000 reings for 12,000 shares. 10 seconds to go. I don't think these people can wait much longer. I know I couldn't if I were out there 5 seconds more wagon cruisers. Men are plunging for the river. Red wagon hawkers sliding the water. The wagons are fighting for the shuttle front. I can see one wagon in deep water. It's going down. The driver's side is getting hoarsely. The river swirling with men now. Horses and wagons fighting for that Oklahoma shore. Four wagons are tipping over and the first horse is reaching the Oklahoma shore. Fighting the Oklahoma Bank. 1889, the o' clock and another power went in. You have been listening to the Oklahoma Land Run, another broadcast in the series you are There. Produced and directed by Robert Louis Shayan. The Oklahoma Land Run was written by Sylvia berger. Next week, February 8, 1587, England, the execution of Mary, Queen of God. You are There. Tonight on cbs, Ginger Rogers will be heard as the star on the family Hour of Stars comedy the Capture of Kitty Stone. Ms. Helen Hayes will be heard as the star of the comedies It Comes, the Farmer Takes a Wife. And Eve Arden will again be heard as our Ms. Brooks. The Jack Benny show will be heard over all of these same CBS stations. The rest of the stars and programs will be heard over most of these stations. This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting.