Oklahoma Journeys

Week of May 10, 2008

Passage of Free Homes Bill, 1900

Cheap land gets even cheaper. Participants in the first Oklahoma land run in 1889 were promised cheap land, and actually, it was free land. For the settlers in later land openings, however, land came at a higher price and therein lies the topic of this week’s program, the passage of the Free Homes Bill, this week on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.

From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.

For the white settlers invading Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800s the main attraction was free land. Under the Homestead Act participants in the first Oklahoma land run in 1889 were responsible for paying only the filing fees for the claim; the land itself was free. After 1889, though, this arrangement changed and no longer would Oklahoma land be given away free of charge. In all subsequent land openings in Oklahoma Territory, the settlers were required to pay for the land. With a small charge of one or two dollars an acre, most settlers incurred a cost of around $400.00 for their land, which was to be paid off over a period of years. The money from land sales, theoretically, went to the Native American tribes who at one time lived on the now open land and also to the Oklahoma’s Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges.

In 1895, however, settlers, who at one time had agreed to pay for their new land, began to agitate for free land. It didn’t seem to matter to most of the post-1889 pioneers that they had agreed earlier to pay for the land. The Free Homes League began in 1895 and agitated at the state and national level for passage of a Free Homes Act that would forever erase the money owed by Oklahoma settlers. For five years the Free Homes League, led by Dennis Flynn and James Callahan, the territorial representatives in Washington lobbied to remove the debt from the shoulders of their fellow Oklahomans. This money, they argued, could be used to better improve the land, pay for homes, barns, fences and livestock. By forcing Oklahomans to own up to their debt, people argued you really were hurting the state and taking food from the mouths of babes. The Free Homes Bill went up before Congress a number of times but always failed to pass. Causing doubt for many politicians was the question of if all of the debt was erased, who then would pay the Native American Tribes, and who would fund the states colleges? Finally with some small changes and after five years of trying, the bill made it through Congress.

It was in this week of 1900 that settlers learned that they would no longer be responsible for their debt and that the land was theirs free of charge. With passage of the Free Homes Act, the national government agreed to assume the payment of money owed to the tribes and to fund the various state colleges. The total money saved by Oklahomans amounted to more than $15,000,000.00 dollars, a hefty amount in 1900 terms. The Oklahoma History Center features an exhibit on the early settlement of Oklahoma. You can see that exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center, NE 23rd and Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to the collection, preservation, and sharing of our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.