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Welcome to this OK/ITGenWeb Special Project Page!
No Man's Land
encompasses the OK Panhandle counties of
Beaver, Texas, and Cimarron.
No-Mans Land of early Oklahoma
history became what is now known as the Panhandle and
touches Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Its
history begins about 1850 when Texas relinquished
claim to that territory in compromising over the
slavery question. Little or no settlement had been
made there then. The Santa Fe Trail traversed what is
now Beaver County in 1822. An 1850 map shows it as
merely part of the public lands neighboring on the
Cherokee Outlet. It was already a haven for outlaws
for Texas had paid little attention to the extreme
northern part of her territory.
The type of population in the
panhandle are responsible for its high rank in many
respects. There are practically no Negroes and very
few Indians. Those Indians that are there have
settled along the railroads and have come as
enterprising individuals rather than tribes or bands
which were forced to locate there as is true in the
rest of the state. The few negroes who are there were
not slaves to be released after the Civil War because
it was north of 36 degrees and 30' and the latter
fact makes the history of No-Mans Land what it is.
The outlaws who drifted into that territory because
it was so long unorganized and unprotected drifted
out when the opposite condition began to prevail
leaving the original settlers who had come, like the
type already mentioned more as individuals than as
groups, who had gradually filtered in from
settlements in surrounding states and territories. Probably
because there were no large groups led or driven into
this territory statistics show they are more capable
of individual self government than other peoples to
be found in the state. The population for the whole
panhandle rose slowly but steadily until 1900, sank
between 1900 and 1910, and has risen very gradually
since.
One of the agreements made in
1866 as a result of the Civil War was the
right-of-way to railroads across the "Indian
Country". One of these, the Santa Fe, followed
the old Santa
Fe Trail across Beaver County. In 1879 the Jones
and Plummer Cattle Trail from Toscasco to
Dodge City first crossed Beaver Creek, and at this
crossing a fur trader built a sod store. Several
years later this place became Beaver City. The name
Beaver, first given to the creek, later to all
No-Mans Land and finally to the present Beaver County
was probably in honor of a chief of the Choctaw
Indians. An 1880 map shows this country a 'Public
Land" strip surrounded by states and
territories.
In 1885 and 86 the general tide
of immigration into southwestern Kansas and
southeastern Colorado swarmed over into No-Mans Land.
By 1887 the population had reached 6000 yet there was
no way for the settlers to claim the land upon which
they lived, no way to make marriages legal in the
territory, no laws to govern tax foreclosures, the
organization of corporations, etc. More than that the
desperados and horse thieves who had come there
because of this condition were not pleasant neighbors
for the peaceful
settlers who held their land merely by
common consent and good faith. The main trouble was
that during dry years these settlers often had to
leave their holdings for a time in order to subsist
and if someone "jumped their claim" while
they were gone there was no way of forcing off the
intruder.
Under the circumstances there
was nothing the people could do but organize their
own government. The main hindrance to this was the
constant rivalry and meddling of townsites and
ambitious politicians. A meeting was held in Beaver
City on 26 October 1886 which organized a
"Claimants Board" to protect land claims.
The inhabitants had only the "squatters
rights" Federal law to work from. In November of
the same year a meeting was held in the sod
schoolhouse in Beaver City for the purpose of
manufacturing "quit claim" deeds at which
the foundation was built for the organization of a
new territory known as the Cimarron Territory.
At the same time a scheme was
being worked on by those who wished to delay or
prevent the settlement of the "Indian
Country" by white people to make No-Mans Land a
part of Kansas.
The first election in the new
Cimarron Territory was held 22 February 1887. The
nine delegates chosen at this convention met in the
same sod schoolhouse on March 4 and organized a first
legislative body of the Cimarron Territory. This
territory was divided into five counties - Benton,
Beaver, Palo Duro, Optima, and Sunset. Laws were made
governing land, marriages, taxes, foreclosures, etc.
What public property there was at the time had been
secured by private freewill contributions.
The next three years were marked
by the rivalry of political organizations divided
over purely local issues. J. E. Dale and Orville G.
Chase both reported in Washington, showed
credentials, and asked to be recognized as the
official delegate to Congress from an Organized
Territory. Either would have been seated if it had
not been for the opposition of the other. As it was
Congress could not decide which to recognize and that
more than anything else kept No-Mans Land from
eventually becoming a separate State.
In 1890 the Organic Act which
organized the Indian Territory made No-Mans Land part
of that territory. It also made it all one of seven
counties and called it Beaver County. Beaver County
then had a population of 64,000. Among other things
this county then boasted a newspaper published in Beaver
City known as the Beaver Herald. This
paper is still being published. The town of Rothwell
was then a rival of Beaver City and had caused much
of the political dissension. Beaver City succeeded in
becoming the county seat.
This item
can be found in the vertical files for Texas County
in the Oklahoma Historical Society's Genealogy
Library. It appears to have been part of the Oklahoma
Writer's Project, written on 22 July 1936. The
opinions expressed by the writer of the article in no
way represent the opinions of the coordinator,
OKGenWeb, or the USGenWeb projects. However, it is a fascinating view of the county from
the 1930's.
Thanks to
Mark Adkinson, former host of Texas County OKGenWeb.
HELLO -
WELCOME!
My name is LaRae
Halsey-Brooks, and my daughter,
Eireann Brooks, and I are the Co-Coordinators
for the No Man's Land ITGenWeb Project page.
If you would
like to contribute your information
to this page, please let us know!
If you are interested in sponsoring a county in the OKGenWeb Project,
or have questions regarding the OKGenWeb Project, please contact:
OKGenWeb State Coordinator: Ron
Henson
Asst State Coordinator: Bobbi
Dunn
For more information, you may also visit the
Adopt A County
page.
To post your Queries,
Biographies, Bible Records, Deeds,
Obituaries,
Pensions, and Wills, please visit the new
Rootsweb message board
for No Man's Land.
No Man's Land Message Board
Indian Blanket - Oklahoma State Wildflower
This
page was last updated
Saturday, 04-Oct-2008 20:47:23 MDT
© 1998-2008 by the No Man's Land Page Coordinator
for the OKGenWeb Project
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