University:
Felician University
Course:
HIST-110 | World Geography and Culture
Academic year:

2022
Views:

341

Pages:

15
Author:

Clint W.

In 1890, Congress passed The Organic Act, joining the western lands and the Panhandle to create Oklahoma Territory. The Organic Act also determined ownership of Greer County, which had been claimed by Texas. Texas argued the North Fork of the Red River was the boundary. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, setting the deeper South Fork, or Main Branch, as the actual border. Squatters also tried to establish Cimarron Territory. The Panhandle was originally called “No Man’s Land” or The Public Land Strip. But due to its small population, it was attached to Oklahoma Territory in 1890. The entire area was called Beaver County until statehood, when it was divided into three counties: Beaver on the east end, Texas in the center, and Cimarron on the west end. George W. Steele of Indiana was appointed as the first territorial governor. The Republican president, Benjamin Harrison, disappointed the mostly-Democratic settlers when he chose a major contributor to his campaign. Locals thought Steele was a “carpetbagger,” taking advantage of the opportunity for his own profit. Although Steele was a retired Army officer and known for his administrative skills, he was regarded as a “northern” outsider. Stereotypical carpetbaggers. Townships were set up by the Territorial Legislature as the basis for a public school system. Townships had been created from the Baseline / Indian Meridian grid. Two sections of each township were reserved for public schools. Heavily-populated townships had four schools: two primary (grades 1-8) and two secondary (9-12). Smaller communities had one-room schools with multiple grades. A township called Verbeck was on the AT&SF Railroad just south of Oklahoma City. A railroad employee named Al Moore lived in a railcar there, but had difficulty receiving his mail. He painted his last name on the boxcar, and people gradually began think it was the town’s name. Verbeck became the City of Moore in 1893. The first Legislative session also established a teacher training institution in Edmond called the Territorial Normal School. It would later become the University of Central Oklahoma. They also established a liberal arts college and a vocational training college. The Norman Territorial University would become the University of Oklahoma. The school in Stillwater was originally called Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College. In 1957, the name was changed to Oklahoma State University. Politicians wrangled over locating the capital. Governor Steele chose the city of Guthrie. The Territorial Legislature met in Guthrie’s Convention Hall. Oklahoma Territory had nine governors in the 17 years before statehood. In 1890, the Jerome Commission began negotiations with the reservation tribes to buy their surplus lands. The reservations were dissolved, and former Michigan Governor David Jerome opened more than 15 million acres to homesteaders. Between 1891 and 1906, all remaining Indian lands - with the exception of the Osage Reservation were allotted and the surpluses sold. A Chicago Daily Tribune editorial said: “Oklahoma will be knocking at the door of the Union before we are aware of it.”