Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1893 — A PLUCKY INDIANA GIRL [ARTICLE]

A PLUCKY INDIANA GIRL

How She Went to the Cherokee Strip and Defended Her Land. During the rush of the army of boomers at the recent opening of the Cherokee Strip, a young lady who formerly resided In Hamilton county was one of the heroines of the event. Her name is Miss Grace Bly, who is making her home near Coffeyville, Kan. It is a case where deserving maidens as well as men always acquire success by well directed efforts. Miss Bly Is twenty-one years of age. and when the news first reached her that the strip was going to be opened she determined to cast her fortune with the boomers, “just to see what a girl can do when she tries,” and she did. Her outfit consisted of a team of active mules attached to a light buggy. At the given signal she started in with the rest, and by the time they had made eight miles she was in the lead with but one or two exceptions. She kept her mules on a dead run and reached a splendid quarter-section, seventeen miles from the starting place, in a few minutes over an hour. Miss Bly was fortunate enough to secure a large tract of land, and was molested by no one, until late in the evening a burly negro came along and attempted to run her away, but she soon gave him to understand that she was there to stay and the best thing he could do was to go. Ho did so. Miss Bly is still owner of that section of territory.