| From the Glasgow Weekly Times, Barren County Kentucky 27 Sept 1893; |
| "The following interesting letter is from Mr. Cell HATCHER, of this place, who made the rush for a quarter section in the Cherokee strip and got there in great shape: |
| Enid, O. T., [Oklahoma Territory] September 20. Dear Mother and
Father: I have just got in from the plains. I made a race, and made
it successfully. I got a claim of 160 acres of very fine land - all
creek bottom and just as level as a floor. It is three miles east of
Enid, on the Rock Island railroad, and on Skelton creek. I intended
writing earlier but have been busy digging a well on my place that I
might hold it. Enid is the county seat of county "6". I made the run
of sixteen miles into the Strip in a buggy and in one hours and two
minutes, or about an average of one mile every four minutes. The
train started the same time we did, but we beat it three minutes and
didn't kill our ponies either. The road from her to the line is
strewn with dead horses. Several men and women were killed, while
many others got their legs and arms broken. I wish you could have
seen the sight when the cannon fired at 12 o'clock the 16th. They
made the run in every way imaginable -- in buggies and wagons, on
horses and bicycles, and on foot. Women put men's saddles on horses
and rode straddle like men. When the cannon fired, everybody put spur
and whip to their horses and dashed across the plain, the men
whooping and cursing and firing pistols, the women waving their caps
and hands to those behind. We led the procession for about thirteen
miles. Orville PACE did not get a claim, but BRADSHAW, MOSBY and
myself did. The prairie was set on fire a few days ago and has been
burning ever since. You can see the fire at night miles away. We
slept out on the prairie on blankets last night and the fire came
within a quarter mile of us to a small branch which stopped it. A
woman and two little children were burned to death last night. I wish you could see Enid. Saturday at noon there was not a man, house or anything whatever to be seen there by a few stakes marking off the town lots. Today there are six thousand people here in tents, wagons, and houses. Men were at work building houses and plowing all day Sunday. I wish you could see us out on the plain eating light bread and canned tomatoes and apricots for breakfast, dinner and supper. It would be a show for you to see Dink BRADSHAW and me walking out of town with our provisions, each with five or six loaves of light bread under our arms without any paper around it and the wind blowing dust so thick that you could not see a man ten steps away from you. I will let you know about a week before I come home so you can cook up a little, as I expect to eat you out of house and home for a week or two after my arrival. I can now eat almost anything on earth, from light bread up. I was offered $50 a month to run a newspaper here for a man, but that is no money for this country. Well, I must close for this time. Your loving son, Cell. P.S. Dink and I found a red flannel petticoat on the prairie as we were going out to our clam, and wrapped our light bread up in it. We are now using it as a tablecloth. Later: "Since the above was put in type, a letter has been received from Mr. HATCHER giving an account of the killing of three men on his claim. Mr. Hatcher had gone to Enid after provisions when a man from Texas jumped his claim. Almost at the same time, three men from Oklahoma Territory tried to dispose of the Texan. In the fight that ensued, the Texan killed two of the men and was killed himself by the third. The third man was thereupon immediately arrested and jailed, and Mr. Hatcher, by the time he was done buying provisions in town, again took possession of his claim, three men having been killed while he was out shopping. Times appear to be somewhat hilarious and boisterous out on the Strip. Mr. Hatcher has a choice claim, being bottom-land with a creek cutting it in two." |