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IndexCherokee County Democrat
GOVERNOR CRUCE SAYS ARREST U. S. MARSHALS
October 31, 1912—Cherokee County Democrat—“The people of this state by a decided majority declared that the ‘grandfather ‘ clause shall be the law of the state; it has been declared by the Supreme Court of the state to be not you can’t let with the Constitution of the state; it is as much a law of Oklahoma as any of our statue books and I say to you now that so long as I am Governor of Oklahoma the ‘grandfather’ clause is going to be enforced until it is replaced or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.” Prompted to a declaration on the question of Negro suffrage by a question from the audience at Arnett, governor Cruse Wednesday declared emphatically that he would enforce the “grandfather” clause in Oklahoma with all the power and force at his command. “I am tired,” continued the governor, “of these cheap little partisan deputy marshals trying continually to interfere with the administration of the laws of the state.
“Oklahoma is a sovereign state and has a right to conduct her own affairs and if the local officers in Oklahoma follow my advice that they will put in jail every petty understrapper who tries to interfere with the election officers of Oklahoma in the discharge of their sworn duty.
“I the lead in the enforcement of the grandfather clause but I believe any sensible enforcement. The Negro in this state who can read and write has just as do the right to vote as you or I, and where the judges of the election that a Negro is a qualified voter there is no reason for applying the test than there is for making me swear that I am 21.
“Oklahoma with all the power, force and resources at her command will stand behind that law as long as it is properly endorsed and will stand by the man who enforce at with all the means at her command. I believe in economy in the affairs of state, but I want to say to you now that I’m ready and willing to approve any bill appropriating money to defend the citizens of this state, who are prosecuted for doing their sworn duty in enforcing the election laws of the state.”
Continuing his two through Northwestern Oklahoma, Governor Cruce in speeches to splendid audiences in Gage, Arne and Shattuck expounded his doctrine of economy and good government everywhere receiving the warmest applause and the assurance of the citizens that they were going to the Legislature men who are in harmony with his program and who would assist him in securing the reforms he proposes.
His declaration for the abolition of the district agricultural schools, three of the six normals and the two preparatory schools, was particularly well received everywhere.
ALVA M’DONALD HELD FOR MURDER
December 5, 1912-- Cherokee County Democrat—El Reno—Alva McDonald, state chairman of the Progressive Party, is under arrest charged with murder as a result of a fight with A. T. Marsh, an attorney, at 5:30 o’clock Tuesday the outcome of which was marsh died from wounds received.
Marsh accosted on the streets an old soldier named Morris and requested the loan of fifty cents, which was offered. McDonald appeared at this juncture and asked the soldier if that was the last fifty cents he had. Receiving an affirmative answer, McDonald struck Marsh in the face, saying, “You are the biggest thief in the country,” knocking him to the pavement.
The compression crashed Marsh’s skull and he was carried into a butcher shop where he recovered sufficiently to wash his head and was taken to the police station and thence to the hospital where he died Wednesday night at 5:30.
McDonald was arrested and placed under $1,500. Marsh was a socialist and 45 years old and married. Following the fall of Marsh, McDonald assisted him to his feet and carried him into the butcher shop and went to the hospital. He sat at his bedside until 11o’clock Wednesday night. At that hour after Marsh passed McDonald was placed in jail without bond.
WOMAN JURY ADJOURNED TO COOK
December 12, 1912—Cherokee County Democrat—Twin Falls, Idaho—The first jury of women Idaho found one of their own sex guilty of threatening a man with a revolver, but recommended to the mercy of the court. The defendant, Mrs. Edward Butts, was on trial yesterday, charged with drawing a weapon on Arthur Requa. The hearing was adjourned while the jury prepared the midday meal for their families and when the evidence was in they reached their verdict in less than one hour.
NOT ALL OF APACHE BAND WILL GO TO NEW MEXICO
December 19, 1912—Cherokee County Democrat—Colonel Scott of the United State army, Special Agent Ellis of the Interior Department and H. C. Phillips, representing the board of Indian Commissioners, who went to Fort Silll, Okla., last week to determine finally which members of the old Geronimo band of Apache prisoners of war, desired to remove the Mescalero Indian the reservation in New Mexico, as provided by the bill passed at the last session of Congress, have reported that 86 members of the band have decided to remain in Oklahoma while 181 will go to Mescalaro. According to Commissioner of Indian affairs Abbott, who said an agent of the department to New Mexico to report as to the cost of providing allotments for the Apache on the Mescalero reservations special agent Ellis is arranging for farms in Oklahoma for those Indians who wished to remain in order to work out the removal of a large portion of the band to New Mexico. The commissioner says that Congress will have to provide an additional appropriation of $77,000, which is less than the original estimate. Two hundred thousand dollars has already been appropriated for this purpose. Those Indians remaining in Oklahoma will be given 160 acres of land on the former Kiowa-Comanche reservation, and it is estimated that it will cost about $2000.00 for each farm purchased. They Apache will all be granted their freedom. The removal of the Indians has been worked out to the satisfaction of everyone concerned.
INDIAN LANDS MADE TAXABLE
Chickasaw Freedmen Are Not Beneficiaries of the “Atoka Agreement,” Says Judge
January 23, 1913-- Cherokee County Democrat—One of the most important decisions rendered since the admission of Oklahoma into the union was that by District Judge McMillan, Saturday, in the case of Steven W. Allen against J. F. Trimmer, county treasurer of Garvin County. In this case several hundred Chickasaw freedmen sought to enjoin the tax officers from collecting taxes levied up on lands allotted to Chickasaw freedmen, upon the ground that under federal treaties their lands are exempt from taxation.
Judge McMillan sustain the contentions made by Assistant Attorney General Davenport to the that these Chickasaw freedmen do not hold their lands under the Atoka agreement of 1893, containing the exemption, but under the supplement agreement, and further than the 40 acres of land allotted to each Chickasaw freedman was a gratuity, gift or bounty from the federal government, and that even though there were an exemption named in the allotting the lands, that Congress was empowered to withdraw the exemption and that the exemption, if any, being without consideration from the freedmen, there was no impairment of a vested right for contract.
The decision is a far reaching effects, in as much as there are several thousand Chickasaw freedmen in the side of the state, all holding their lands up on the same basis. The decision adds several thousand acres of the taxable wealth of Carbon County.
WHITE HOUSE OF SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY WILL BE SAVED
January 23, 1913-- Cherokee County Democrat—Danville Va.—Contributions to the Danville Confederate Memorial Association are pouring in from all quarters of the South to purchase and preserve the White House of the Southern Confederacy, known as the Southerlin property, for a some $48,000.
Since the organization was completed in the latter part of December, thousands of dollars have been subscribed to perpetuate the memory of their historical home.
A committee has been appointed to select the design and have ingraved certificates of membership showing the amounts contributed, to be signed under the corporate CEO of the association by the president and Secretary-Treasurer and delivered to each contributor of the payment of his or her subscription to the Memorial Fund. This certificate is being leave, will be fondly cherished by the contributors and later to those to whom it will be transmitted as a rich legacy.
Among the contributions are received from Oklahoma is one from R. W. Foster, Tahlequah, which was accompanied by the following letter addressed to Mrs. W. P. Robinson, president Danville Chapter U. C. D.
“Madam:--Enclosed here with find a check for $1.00 as my small contribution to the fund to ‘ preserve’ the ‘White House’ of the Southern Confederacy, mention of which fact I noticed a few days ago in the Christian Science Monitor, of Boston, Massachusetts.
“While I have no animosity whatever toward the North or its citizens in fairly thrills my whole system to see the patriotism, and loyalty of Southerners, both men and women manifest upon all occasions were ever the opportunity presents itself and being a native ‘Georgian’ myself, I naturally desire to assist in at least a small way.
“Wishing you complete success in this endeavor.
“I am your most respectfully,
R. W. Foster,”
SENATORS OPPOSE APACHE REMOVAL
January 23, 1913—Cherokee Democrat—Washington, Jan. 3—Owing to the renewed opposition of Senators Fall and Caldon of New Mexico, there is a chance that the plans for the removal of the Apache prisoners of war from Fort Sill to the Mescalero reservation will be delayed for some time, if not definitely.
Despite the approval given to the project by Colonel Hugh L. Scott, the war department’s investigator and adviser in the case, and officials of the department of interior, Senators Fall and Caldon now declare that New Mexico does not want the Indians and furthermore the Apache reservation in New Mexico is not large enough to accommodate the Oklahoma Apaches who have signified their desire to return to their native people. The New Mexico senators have requested that removal plans be held in abeyance for the time being.
Despite their present bitter opposition, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Abbott believes that the stand of the New Mexico lawmakers will be overcome and the removal will be accomplished in quick time.
Among the many Apaches who have but recently signed the petition for removal is Mrs. Geronimo, widow of the famous war chief, whose depredations caused the incarceration of the present band as prisoners of war.
MULE WAS WORTH FORTUNE TWO FARMER
February 13, 1913 –Cherokee County Democrat—Enid, Okla.--A kick on the head by a mule was worth $3800 to John Allen, a farmer living near here. Immediately after Allen was operated on yesterday for a fracture of this goal, which the mule’s hoof had inflicted last Saturday; he remembered where he had buried that amount of money during a financial panic of 1907.
After the operation, made necessary by the mule’s kick, Allen seemed entirely to have recovered his memory.
SUPPOSED TRAIN ROBBER ARRESTED
March 20, 1913-- Cherokee County Democrat—Bob Worthman has been rearrested on a charge of complicity in the Katy holdup in the South part of the state last October. John Parham, special agent for the M. K. & T., was in town yesterday afternoon with Worthman in custody, he having a rest of the latter at Tahlequah and brought him by way this place on the way to McAlester. Worthman was in the county jail a few hours, and when he and Parham waited for the South bound 9 o’clock train, he was handcuffed him closely watched.
Agent Parham declined to say anything regarding his prisoner; but Worthman said he was not guilty of the charge, but was mixed up in the matter because former connections with the “Davis gang’ of notorious thing. The prisoner was arrested in his box ball alley at Talequah, where he had been since January 1.
Worthman has been a resident of Muskogee and surrounding towns for 27 years, he declared last night, and he is proud of the fact that his face is well known by most of the leading citizens in the city. It is the current opinion that his connection with the Davis gang has been unsavory.
Worthman has been associated with the firm Worthman & Paden, proprietors of the box ball parlor the past two months. Sheriff Ferguson conducted Worthman as far as Muskogee.
APACHE OBTAIN THEIR FREEDOM
March 27, 1913—Cherokee County Democrat—Fort Sill, Okla.—By order of Secretary of War Lindtry M. Garrison, to which agrees Secretary Kranklin K. Lane of the Interior Department, the original Ferris bill for the transfer of the Apache prisoners of war from the Fort Sill military reservation to the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico is revived and, under authority of the order, nearly 200 members of the remnant band will leave Tuesday of next week by special train for their new homes on the “old stamping grounds,” of their fathers.
The exact number to be taken will depend upon the wishes of the individual Indians. Under the terms of the bill, all Fort Sill Apache are given permanent liberty. Those who go to New Mexico will be turned over to the Interior Department, in charge of the Mescalero agency. The 60 or 72 remaining will be bought allotments in Southwest Oklahoma, property of deceased Kiowa and Comance.
One hundred thousand dollars is appropriated for the transfer and an additional $100,000 for buying allotments here.
The Ferris bill, which left location discretionary with the war and interior departments, was adopted early last fall and arrangements were immediately made for the transfer of those Indians who wanted to go, but objections from the Indian rights association and New Mexico Senators caused Secretaries Stimson and fisher to hold up final action.
A new bill, proposing to force action and specifying definitely that the Indians should go to New Mexico, pass both houses in February, but was killed by President Taft’s veto of the general appropriation bill to which it was attached. It was being leaned that final settlement of the Apache Affairs would have to wait action by the 63rd Congress, but through the efforts of Mr. Ferris, the new secretaries of the department’s interested have decided to ignore former objects and give the Indians immediate freedom.
R. R. RATES TO GETTYSBURG TOO EXPENSIVE FOR OLD VETS
June 12, 1913—Cherokee County Democrat—Oklahoma City—Oklahoma veterans of the battle of Gettysburg will not attend the reunion of their comrades in July. Provided with funds by the state to visit after 50 years the scenes of the world’s greatest battle, the opal homeless survivors of Gettysburg have been prohibited by the railroads of the state from purchase a painting in the greatest reunion held since the close of the civil war, according to the Oklahoma-Gettysburg Reunion.
Veterans of every other state in the union have been granted railroad rates that will permit their attendance while the Oklahoma Veterans stay at home because the Oklahoma railroads refused to grant the same rates within this state that have been fixed by foreign roads. The Gettysburg Commission of Oklahoma will send the Governor Cruce a letter Wednesday recommending that the fund appropriated by the legislature to send the Oklahoma veterans to Gettysburg in July they turned back into the general fund of the state.
This action was taken Tuesday after the commission had heard propositions made by more than a dozen passenger representatives of railroads and Oklahoma and outside of the state which serve the territory between Oklahoma and Gettysburg.
Railroad East of the Mississippi River sent representatives to tell the commission that from the river that there would be $0.01 a mile in each direction. Representatives of the four trunk lines serving Oklahoma reduced the rate to be low $0.02 a mile in each direction between here and points for the veterans could be taken care by the foreign roads.
In the opinion of the commission this is a prohibitive rate. The fund appropriated by the state for transportation of the Oklahoma survivors of Gettysburg was $7,500. the bill provided that every veteran in the state should be granted the privilege of attending the reunion at the expense of the state. 218 veterans prove that their claims as having actually purchase faded in the battle of Gettysburg. Because of the rates offered by the railroads in this state the fund is insufficient to care for them all and the commission declares that if all cannot go as honored guests without expense they will all remain away.
COWBOY PUGILIST DIES FROM BLOW
AuAugust 28, 1913—Cherokee County Democrat—Los Angles, Cal.—John W. (Bull) Young, a cowboy Pugilist, died in a hospital here Saturday of injuries received at Vernon a rain Friday night, when he was knocked out by Jess Willard. Immediately after his death, warrants were issued charging manslaughter against Willard and eleven others connected with the fight, while legislators, clergymen and club women revive the demand for an anti prize fight bill in California.
The operation on Young’s skull to relieve cerebral hemorrhage, which followed that knocked out in the eleventh round of his scheduled 20 round fight with Willard, at first was pronounced a success, but rapidly proved otherwise. Surgeons who operated on him stated that death was due to concussion of the brain.
When Young’s death was made known to Sheriff W. A. Hammel, who had placed the principles concern in the fight under technical arrest Friday night, warrants for twelve were issued by deputy district attorney A. L. Veitch.
It was said the defense of the men would be based on a ruling of Superior Judge Frank R. Willis, that contests licensed by municipalities were legal. His decision was rendered several years ago in the cases of George Memsic and Ad Wolgast, who were arrested for price fighting.
Refree Eyton declared the “only hard blow struck in the fight was the knock out punch.” He said there had been “no occasion for stopping the fight.”
Sentiment against prize fights grew rapidly during the day many classes of citizens.