Dear Kinfolk,

On Saturday, Sept. 16, 1893, the Cherokee Outlet was opened in the last and greatest land rush, it was the largest and most spectacular competitive event of all time!

In 1828 the Cherokee Indians had been given the outlet to the western plains so that they might hunt buffalos.  This giant pasture was 58 miles wide and extended 220 miles along the Kansas/Oklahoma border.  In 1890, under heavy pressure to open the outlet to white settlers, President Harrison recovered this land from the Cherokees, paying them $1.40 per acre.  Just another broken promise to the Cherokees who had been given this land “forever.”

Cherokee Strip

Granddad Elmer J. and Madelena along with their young son Curt, lived in McCracken Kansas, where his occupation was listed as Farmer-Rancher.  Possibly, he read some of the literature for home seekers in the Cherokee Outlet.  It stated that this part of the Oklahoma Territory was rich in hills, trees, water and the ground was fertile and rolling.  The fact that the land was covered with buffalo grass and the “finest cattle country in the world,” would have been very appealing to our ranching grandfather.

So granddad left McCracken by horseback for the 165 mile journey to Kiowa, Kansas, where a booth was set up to accommodate the registrants for the run.  There were 5 registration locations along the Kansas border and Kiowa would have been his closest location.  Granddad would be one of over 100,000 people who signed up for 37,626 plots (more people making the run than there were farms or town sites available.)

When the run began at 12 noon, granddad was competing with people on horseback, in wagons, two-wheeled racing sulkies, bicycles, and a special slow-moving train with 42 cattle cars.  With his good ranch horse he raced approximately 30 miles due east, staking a claim on 160 acres of farmland in Grant County, between Manchester and Wakita, Oklahoma Territory.

Oh how I wish one of us grandsons would have asked him about that great race for land.  It was reported that within 2 hours, all claims had been taken!  Today there is a beautiful monument in Medford, Oklahoma to the pioneers who made the run to settle Grant County.

Medford Oklahoma Monument to early settlers

Seven years later granddad was persuaded by his brother Charlie Guernsey to trade that good wheat farm in Grant County for grassland in Roger Mills County near Strong City, Oklahoma, then ideal for raising cattle.

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I owe you all my first blog correction (probably not the last).   In my last blog, I wrote of our possible connection to Priscilla and John Alden, who were passengers of the Mayflower.  I stated that there was one link, Marcy Thurber, that required more research.  With the help of cousin Gere Masters, we determined that our Marcy’s maiden name was Stafford, not Thurber………so there went out the link to John and Priscilla.

Hope all is well.  Please let me know cousins if you have any stories you remember about granddad’s famous run.

Jim Lee

PS Some of the facts for this blog came from the book The Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma by Robert Grey.