Indian Territory Land Rush Photograph Archives AT&SF Guthrie Cherokee Strip

Description

Indian Territory Land Rush Archives of a Young A.T.&S.F. Depot Worker During the Excitement of the Openings of Indian Territory Lands.
1889-1893.  Guthrie, I.T.  Very rare, unpublished archive consisting of one claimant’s certificate, a related article clipping and six spectacular mounted albumen “cabinet card” photographs. Most images are one of a kind, with no like copies recorded.  Notable features include the backstamps of two unusual photographers.  Subjects include bustling street scenes with construction in new Guthrie, public gatherings for parades and elections, “Indians at Camp” in Guthrie and two meticulously identified images of the A.T.&S.F. “Express and Depot Boys” including W.M. S.till.well.  A newspaper clipping kept with all of the items tell the story of disappointment that most land-seekers, including Stillwell came to realize.  The prime lots of real estate had been staked by Sooners, leaving hopeful youths like S.till.well better prospects remaining with the “Depot Boys” than seeking his future from a claim in Indian Territory.   W.illis was the only son of long time Western Railroad man A.lmeron S.till.well.  W.illis would have been granted his first job in the “Depot and Express Force” under the tutelage of his father, a trusted “Traveling Freight Agent” with the A.T.&S.F.  By the time of the 1900 Census W.illis was more established as a “Clerk” at the Wichita A.T.&S.F. Depot.  W.illis later became Treasurer and then Director of the
Kansas Milling Company
of Wichita.
Six photographs on standard 8”x5” “Cabinet Card” stock, albumen images themselves approximately 7” x 4 ½”.  Very Good to Fine Condition: Clear, focused and with minimal foxing, tanning or wear.  One “Certificate D” Land Claimant’s Certificate measuring 10”x8” in Fine Condition.  One Newspaper clipping pasted to railroad ledger paper: Fair.
Image #1:
A Fine Street Scene of Dapperly Dressed Men, Posing Conservatively on Main Street in Guthrie.  Photographer’s title written on negative, lower center margin reads, “Cow Boy Riot. June 3, 1889.”
Among a variety of recognizable Guthrie structures, several advertising signs stand out.  At upper right is that of, “L.B. Shapland & Co.  Groceries and Hardware.”  Shapland is verified to be a Merchant on Main Street in Guthrie in Smith’s,
First Directory of Oklahoma Territory.
(1) Other recognizable signs include, “Commercial Bank” which according to the Smith directory was also on Main Street in Guthrie.  Other recognizable signs read, “J.L. Rock: Attorney at Law,” “Seed House,” and “Sportsmen’s Exchange.”  In the foreground is the particularly outstanding, “Wichita Crystal Ice Wagon.” The “Unassigned Lands” were opened on April 22
nd
, therefore this image’s date is about five weeks after the initial rush.  Enterprising dealers in fresh water and ice from Kansas are present in multiple images.
It is likely that the Photographer’s title, “Cowboy Riot” is a flippant reference to the event’s lawless reputation.  While many injuries and deaths were sustained in the initial rush, citizens of the new territory prided themselves in being upstanding characters.  According to Wm. Willard Howard’s
The Rush to Oklahoma.
Guthrie was proud to promote that there were no acts of violence and attributed that fact to liquor having been outlawed in Indian Territory. (2).  Another distinct possibility is that this “Cow Boy Riot” on June 3
rd
was an assembly in Guthrie (The Capital City) in anticipation of the first election of officers of the Territory, which was held the following day: June 4
th
.
The “Cow Boy Riot” image has the backstamp of Photographer J.J. Hargave who was initially active during the CDV era in Berlin, Wisconsin. (3). Hargave is likely to have been drawn to O.T. for a brief few years during this time.  He is not recorded in either Mautz’
Biographies of Western Photographers,
or in Mautz,
Supplement
.(4)  Neither is he recorded in Palmquist, though a small number of his images are archived at the Oklahoma Historical Society.(5)
1)
Smith, James W.
Smith's First Directory of Oklahoma Territory for the Year Commencing August 1st, 1890: Embracing an Accurate Index of Residents of All the Cities and Towns of the Territory, Together with the Names of All Homesteaders, Giving Quarter Section, Township and Range: Also, the County Officers, As Appointed by Governor Steele, for the Seven Counties, and the Federal Appointments by President Harrison
.
The Year Commencing August 1st, 1890
.  Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory.
2)
Howard, William Willard.
The Rush to Oklahoma.
Harpers Weekly.  New York City.  May 18
th
, 1889 Issue.  pp. 391-394.
3)
Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin: Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the Counties, Together with Portraits and Biographies of All the Presidents of the United States
. Chicago: Acme Publishing Co, 1890. Print.
4)
Mautz, Carl.
Biographies of Western Photographers: A Reference Guide to Photographers Working in the 19th Century American West
. Nevada City, Calif: Carl Mautz Pub, 2018.
5)
E.N. Yates Photographic Collection.
“4919. Towns - Guthrie - Town Building - Street Scenes - "Cow Boy Riot June 3, 1889" Photo by J.J. Hargrave, Guthrie, I.T. June 3, 1889 [1993.096]
Research and Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Accessed Online 9/11/18:

Image #2:
An Image of Early Construction on Second Avenue in Guthrie with the Title in Lower Margin, “No. 23. -  View of Guthrie, I.T.  – June 9
th
.”
This image is also on a “Cabinet Card” mount with the same dimensions as the other images.  However, this is a different material, with a maroon recto, titled in gilt manuscript. No comparable images from this series or the photographer have been located in institutional holdings.  The subject is of dapperly dressed men, posing on a very wide thoroughfare with new buildings being constructed in the background. Surely another image from the 1889 opening of “Unassigned Lands” this features a new store-front at center with a legible façade.  The names “Baxter & Cammack” are written above the words, “Livery, Feed and Sale Stable.”  According to Smith,
First Directory
the Baxter & Cammack operation was located, “On Second Ave, bet[ween] Harrison and Vilas.”
1)
Smith, James W.
Smith's First Directory of Oklahoma Territory for the Year Commencing August 1st, 1890: Embracing an Accurate Index of Residents of All the Cities and Towns of the Territory, Together with the Names of All Homesteaders, Giving Quarter Section, Township and Range: Also, the County Officers, As Appointed by Governor Steele, for the Seven Counties, and the Federal Appointments by President Harrison
.
The Year Commencing August 1st, 1890
.  Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory.
Image #3:
A Compelling Image Titled, “Indians in Camp at Guthrie, O.K.  June 1, 1889.”
Another image with Hargrave’s pictorial backstamp; this features fourteen Native Americans and one White man, possibly Hargrave himself. The Natives are wearing a mixture of anglo and native styles of clothing.  Two men are holding weapons; one a rifle, while another poses at the image’s center with a thick book that appears to be a Bible.  Various headdresses and regalia are worn with care for the photograph.  Also notable that they appear to be in a “fresh” camp with tents instead of tepees, surrounded by untrampled grass in an image dated June 1
st
, also about five weeks after the opening of “Unassigned Lands.”  This image in unpublished, and no other copies seem to have ever been documented.
Image #4:
A Bustling Image of a Celebration on Second Avenue, Likely Guthrie’s “First 4
th
Of July.”
Another image by J.J. Hargrave featuring a wonderful wide-angle view of a celebration on Second Street.  At foreground is the advertising on the side of the “Dodge City Ice Co.” Wagon #3.  Subjects of image include many on horseback or on wagons and is the only image of the archive that includes white women and children.  Of the many people pictured almost all have their attention facing the center of the street.  A possible police presence is visible on horseback at center; men wearing white helmets, white gloves and shoulder boards.  Visible buildings in the background of image’s left include a long, dark sign slightly right of center.  This sign clearly reads, “Merchant’s Bank.”  According to Smith,
First Directory
Merchant’s bank was located at the “Corner of OK and 2
nd
Ave” in Guthrie.  While no identical images can be located in institutional holdings, a different view, also attributed to Hargrave at the Oklahoma Historical Society features many of the same subjects.  While it is a smaller view in fair condition this copy does have the title, “First 4 of July Guthrie OK” etched into the negative. (1)
1)
Hargrave’s “First 4 of July” Image:  Hargrave, J.J.,
L. Haynes Buxton Collection. “#2108. First 4
th
of July. Guthrie, OK. Parade. July 4, 1889.”
Accessed Online 9/10/18:
Image #5:
The First of Two Meticulously Identified Photographs of the A.T.&S.F. “Depot Force” Shortly After the Opening of the Cherokee Strip.
One of a pair of similar photographs taken in front of the same depot, though each is identified with a different name for the depot. This first image (#5), dated Oct. 29
th
, 1893 is identified as “Depot force at
Wharton
after the opening of, ‘The Strip.’”  Along with this note are three thorough listings of names in three columns to represent the three rows of men.  The date of this image (#5) is the same as the second.  Both images are clearly taken in front of the same depot (even shows the same chalk writing on the background wall.)  According to Highfill, “Perry”:
“
When the Southern Kansas Railway (part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe system) built its line in 1886 through the Unassigned Lands of central Oklahoma, a siding, depot, and water station called Wharton was established near present Perry. A few Cherokee had filed on land around Wharton. The federal government selected the site for the placement of a land office for the Perry district before the 1893 Cherokee Outlet Opening. The land office was located a mile north of Wharton and named for J. A. Perry, one of the men sent by the government to lay out the land-office towns.”
(1)  This image (#5) as well as #6 both bear the mark of photographer W.A. Flower.
1)
Mildred Highfill, "Perry,"
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
, www.okhistory.org (accessed September 12, 2018).
Image #6
The Second of Two Meticulously Identified Photographs of the A.T.&S.F. “Depot Force” Shortly After the Opening of the Cherokee Strip.
One of a pair of similar photographs taken in front of the same depot, though each is identified with a different name for the depot. This second image (#6), dated Oct. 29
th
, 1893 is identified as “The Depot and Express boys at
Perry, O.T.
after the opening of the Cherokee Strip on Sept. 16
th
, 1893.  [This image]  Taken October 29
th
, 1893.”  Along with this note are four thorough listings of names in four columns to represent the four groups of men.  The date of this image (#6) is the same as the first (#5.)  Both images are clearly taken in front of the same depot (even shows the same chalk writing on the background wall.)  Both images bear the mark of, “W.A. Flower, Photographer. Capital City Gallery.  Guthrie, O.T.”  Oklahoma Historical Society holdings show that Flower was active in the Stillwater, Perry and Guthrie area, all billing himself as the “Capital City Gallery.”  All of his recorded images seem to center around the days or the opening of the “Cherokee Strip” in 1893.  Mautz lists Flower under Oklahoma as, “FLOWER, W.A.  Operated Capital City Gallery in Guthrie, O.T. 1893.” (1)
1)
Mautz, Carl.
Biographies of Western Photographers: A Reference Guide to Photographers Working in the 19th Century American West
. Nevada City, Calif: Carl Mautz Pub, 2018.
Item #7
“Certificate D” Cherokee Outlet Land Rush Claimant’s Certificate.
General Land Office, Under Direction of the Secretary of the Interior. 13 Sept 1893.  Rare claimant’s certificate issued to W.M. Stillwell before partaking in the Cherokee Strip Land Rush.  Rubber hand stamp impression by a booth agent stationed at an identified township intersection along the Kansas/Indian Territory Border.  Issued on the 13th, with the opening of the outlet on the 19th.  As expressed in the article that Stillwell clipped and identified with, this certificate proved to be a failed venture.  Stillwell never staked a claim and never settled in Oklahoma, the Sooners had picked them over.  The article closes with, “Now that the rush is all over, the uselessness of Hoke Smith’s booth system of registering settlers is apparent to all.  It cost the government ,000, the settlers ten times as much in cash, an immeasurable amount of suffering, the loss of twelve lives and benefited nobody, save those in a small political circle…”  Not in Hargrett,
Gilcrease.
Fine Condition.  Fold lines present, minimal tanning.  Measures 8”x 10”.
Please View High-Res Scans at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskHS45D7
Item #8
An unidentified newspaper clipping dated Sept 17
th
.  The opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893 began on September 16
th
.  The clipping highlights the disappointment of most homeseekers, the deaths and catastrophes of the rush and the corruption of those involved in the political infrastructure surrounding the event.  Probably clipped from
Arkansas City Daily Traveler
[Kansas].