Oklahoma Journeys
Week of October 14, 2007
News Summary - Third Week of October 1907
In the third week of October 1907, the territory was only weeks away from becoming the 46th state…More than 2,000 farmers from around the country arrived in Oklahoma City for the Farmers National Congress Convention. The Territorial Supreme Court asked President Roosevelt to fix a date and time for statehood, and civic and business leaders from around the territory arrived in Oklahoma City to establish the Oklahoma Development League…all this a month before Admission Day…on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society, this is Oklahoma Journeys: Celebrating Our Centennial. I’m Michael Dean.
One hundred years ago this week, at the Territorial capitol in Guthrie, Supreme Court Chief Justice John H. Burford addressed a letter to Attorney General of the United States asking him to “advise President Roosevelt that the public interests would best be served by making a public announcement of the exact date and time upon which he would sign the proclamation of statehood.”
In this week of October 1907, more than 150 enthusiastic boosters of the new state arrived in Oklahoma City “to organize a society to advertise the new state’s manifold inducements”…so read a headline in the newspaper. They declared that “Oklahoma is yet in its infancy of its possibilities, and that it only remains for its natural advantages to be properly advertised before the new state shall pass many of the long established states in its development.” The meetings began with the election of temporary officers…Sydney J. Roy of Shawnee was acting chairman. H.G. Spaulding of Ardmore Commercial Club was Secretary. L.P. Kraus of the Blackwell Commercial Club expressed the great concern of the gathering. “A shortage of labor in Oklahoma was a serious question”, he said. “One that should be considered by every citizen of the state.” John A. Trotter of Mangum echoed that sentiment saying, “Out in my section of this state we need labor, both in quantity and in quality.” By the end of the meeting the organization had an official name and purpose…the name: Oklahoma State Immigration and Industrial Development Association, and the purpose to expand truck farming, remove restrictions from Indian lands, and further develop natural resources. One of the guest speakers was from the Rock Island-Frisco Railroad, who advocated allowing increased immigration both into the country and the new state, saying foreign laborers were needed for business and industry to expand.
On the subject of agriculture…Oklahoma City was the host for more than 2,000 attendees of the Farmers National Congress Convention in this week of October 1907. They took over the Lee and Threadgill Hotels in downtown Oklahoma City for their meeting. The highlight for them was a tour of the new and completely modern fairgrounds then located east of town at 10th and Eastern. In sports it was reported on October 18, 1907, that “Coach Bennie Owen of the university football team, who was seriously shot on the day before while hunting … is considerably improved and the attending physicians state that the danger of amputation of the wounded arm has passed, unless blood poisoning develops. The latter is not anticipated.” Unfortunately the physicians were wrong, and a day later they were forced to amputate his right arm.
You can read all of these newspaper accounts of the news a month before statehood by visiting the research library at the Oklahoma History Center, just east of the state capitol on NE 23rd Street in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma Journeys: Celebrating Our Centennial is a production of the Oklahoma Historical Society, dedicated to the collection, preservation and sharing of our State’s past. I’m Michael Dean.