People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — IN OKLAHOMA. [ARTICLE]

IN OKLAHOMA.

A Descriptive Account of tlic Indian Country. McKinley, Dec. 16, ’S3. Ed. Pilot:—l have received quite a number of lettersof inquiry in regard to this country and what I am going to do, etc. I will say that I didn’t start out to hunt a job, nor rent a farm, nor buy oue, or take a claim. I started out to spend a winter in the south. Railroad travel is expensive, and on a train a man only gets a glimpse of the country, but by wagon he gets to see the country aud crops satisfactorily. December Ist was our tirst snow and cold. December sth the sun shone out and a coat was unnecessary. Cold blasts here indicate a oliazard in the north. As to crops here: The long wet spring and summer and The dry, hot fall, they wore a partial failure. All kinds of grain. aud vegetables grow here. East oi Guthrie, cotton is the surest crop, west of Guthrie corn and wheat, but. as a whole, corn is the surest crop a man can put out in Oklahoma. Tim third class of emigranst have . l>:-o!uie possession here now. -Nearly every claim, has three houses. The iirst setter dug a hole in the ground, threw some poles and brush across and covered it v, l:h red dirt. The second put up a small log hut. the third has ;; frame house and the last iruiK-h are farmers who know i:0 other way of getting a living, but tilling the soil. A great sue; are mortgaging their eiai-i. • The time has come to j>• --x and it requires &2UO per ss • section to pay to the go- •mi oi and they have to mdr’.g;.' !■ set it. The ;■ i .s- of Oklahoma were ,s r; year, there not being :t .utiicieui amount of money is -lie country to do the business 1 know that Oklahoma v. hi bn the worst mortgaged hi the United States. 1 spend ->*.hue i:i Guthrie in-vest-igat* ;g. and nineteen out of Iweir v have to* mortgage to get the A A p.-r acre which goes to the thins:; States. This is why nearlv v \ cry claim holder wants to seh. every day proves that the chf-elating of money is so limited and the' population so great- thal there is not money enougli to d.o the bus'-ness of the count' ,'. The soil here is capable of producing most all kinds of grain v> you may know by the limbo: ■ ash. oak. black walnut, peeon and hickory. Shumac, grape v hies, gremi briar, and paw paw grow i:uintense here. 1 saw three aciv • of wheat threshed that made. Iff: bushels. hfcKii-’oy post office was named after <,<)v. McKiidey, of Ohio, mid is kept by a widower, Mr. Moonv. from P< u•Ay 1 van ia. The building is a two story one, stud has a stock of goods and the

post office in the JoveL’ room, lire. np-stairs being used for a kwcll The population is 1 hree. Mi’. Mooney, daughter and son iii-l;v*v. McKinley stands in a valley between two big hills, and is the half way place between Guthrie andCnandier, and has a daily mail, carried by stage. Dan Campbell, aa old resident of Beuton county, keeps a feed stable and boarding house one-half mile west of McKinley, where the stage stops to change teams and get dinner. And, by the way, Mr. Campbell lias the finest farm I have seen. lie raised some of the tines! peanuts i ever saw. There are some springs here. The depth of wells is from 20 to 7u feet, all drilled with an 8-inch drill and needs no casing. It costs forty cents })-:[• foot for drilling. This is. called free stone water. Our cattle are doing well on grass, with no ether feed. There is eons Morale green grass and some bunches of green leaves. Poultry is dull sale, at *1.25 per dozen. The 1 uliansare in the bottoms along the creeks —some in tents, some live in huts. They are intelligent, and can talk on any subject, political or otherwise, and are up with the times in living and dress. Tney are sociable and dice white company. The Indian does no kind of wont. He draws Ids annuity every three months from the government. Chief Keyabolt informed me it amounted to $86,000 per quarter. So the Indians have got to be the most favored class of men in the United States. They have reservations or allotments, as they call it, in every township. Wherever there is a good piece of bottom land the Indian holds it. They have 900 acres in Bear Creek bottom, one mile west of where I live. Keyabolt visited me in a day or two after I arrived, and asked me to come and him. .Id short, the Indian

has adopted the white man’s ways in everything but work. He won’t work. All kinds of merchandise is as cheap in Guthrie as it is iu Indiana. As to malaria: Yes, this water lias some malaria in it. My son, Mahion, had an attack of malaria in ten days after we got here. After the second attack, Dr. Underwood advised him to go north. He left here Dec. I3th for Rensselaer. The car fare via. Wabash to Lafayette, jlnd., is *22.33. Myself and wife j have good health and are enjoying such nice weather. The Owens boys are engaged in carpenter work with their brother-in-law, Lorn Robinson. As for stores, every third house has a one horse store in it, and most all necessaries of life are near at hand. About every fourth farm has a shop on it and the owner is a roving Jack of all trades. Fix anything from a watch to a locomotive, in metal, wood or leather. So you see we are near some conveniences. As for schools. I don’t know of any being kept here. As to the citizens: Mostly from the states of Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, and the “darkies” are mostly from Texas. One-third of the population of Oklahoma consists of colored people. You can buy a claim cheap. I don’t know of a single claim but that is for sale. All along the road through Illinois and Missouri I got tired of seeing boards nailed up: “This farm for sale cheap,” and in every town the same kind of a board met the eye: “This property for sale.” Guthrie is no exception. You can scarcely get down a street in some towns for the bulletin boards, advertising farms and town property for sale and at the bottom, “Money to loan on. real estate.” This is the case in general in any sized town in the States, north or south, for I receive advertisements by the dozen. We expect to stay here till spring opens up and return to our home in Jasper, by way of Kansas and lowa, stopping a few days at some noted places on the route, and want to arrive home between April and August, roads, weather, health, etc., taken into consideration. Wnen we left we expected to winter in Arkansas and return by Tennessee and Kentucky. Oklahoma, when admitted, will be the strongest People’s party state in the Union. That special session of congress that met Aug. 7th was an eye opener, and John Sherman's silver scheme and the movements of the present congress all goes to ma ke People’s party votes for ’9O. There is no stir being made here over the opening of the Kickapoo lands to take place March 4th. We understand that is the set time. Fully one-fourth of the claims in the strip that o[ ened last September have been deserted. The *2.50 per acre at the time of proving up is what caused so many to leave. Success to the Pilot.

REV. PETER HINDS.