The Run, Sept 16, 1893
History books will tell you that the Cherokee Strip was a tract of land 57 miles wide, 200 miles long...9400 square miles with about six million acres that lay just south of the Kansas border.
When the government decided this land should be opened for settlement, people from nearly every state of the union rushed into that section of the country in hopes of obtaining one of the 160 acre tracts that could be theirs for the claiming.
Grandad Charles Newland told us he remembered that day as being cloudy. Maybe to a boy of nine, the dust stirred up by thousands of milling people, wagons, and horses would remain in his mind as dark clouds. Others who made the run say that day was very bright and windy...until high noon when the shots were fired that signaled the beginning of the run. Then, the dust begin to rise and for at least two or three miles into the strip, it almost hid the sun.
People on horseback, in wagons, buggies, even on trains rushed into the strip from both the north and the south side, each intent on getting his name on a claim. It was supposed to be that simple. In the center of each claim was a white stake. The first one there would put his name on that marker and he or she was to be the owner.
Some people had gone into the strip in the darkness of the night on Sept. 15th before the race and hid in the thick brush that lined the rivers and creeks. Of course, by the time the others arrived, these "Sooners" had already claimed many of the choicest tracts. It took years to get some of these claims straightened out in the courts, and in many cases the honest man who entered at the proper place and the proper time lost to the sooner.
It is strange how that term has now become the nickname for our state.
Gramdpa Silas Newland and his young son, Charles were not the only ones in our family who made that historical run.
The Love family was also present that day. Jeremiah Love and his sons, George and Frank settled farmland near Blackwell in Kay County. Jeremiah was the great-grandfather of Kenneth Love, my husband. His grandfather was George whose young son, Ernest, accompanied the older men on that run.
Ernest was Kenneth's dad.
There was one more ancestor waiting near Caldwell, Kansas on that morning. He too, had hopes of settling in Oklahoma Territory on some of the most fertile land in this nation. He was also among that rushing throng of humanity on September 16, 1893; and by nightfall he had staked his claim near the Lamont township. His name was James Henry Walker Robertson, and he too was my great-grandfather. He was my grandmother Lola Nellie Robertson Newland's dad.
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The Cherokee Strip
James Henry Walker Robertson and Emma Jane Cockrell on their wedding day, November 5, 1876 at Newton County Missouri
THE FAMILY OF LOLA NELLIE ROBERTSON NEWLAND
I have often wondered when the paths first crossed between my grandfather, Charles A. Newland and my grandmother, Lola Nellie Robertson. They were both living in Caldwell, Kansas in September of 1893. Silas and Rachel Newland had moved from Lancaseter in Schuyler Co. Mo. to Platte County sometime around 1884 and by 1886 they were living in Caldwell.
The Robertsons, James and Emma, were married in Newton Co., MO. in 1876. From 1883 until 1888 they were in Concordia, Kansas according to the birth records of some of their children; but the last child, James Ocie was born in Caldwell in June of 1893. That was three months prior to the run into the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma Territory.
The Newlands on the other hand, had been residents of Caldwell for at least seven years before that date. It is not clear when the Robertsons first decided to make that move.
Grandma "Nellie" was seven years old, and Grandpa Charley was nine in 1893. I wonder if the Robertsons had lived in Caldwell long enough to become acquainted with the Newlands. Had Nellie and Charley known each other then? Had they attened church or school together? Had their parents been friends, had the kids been playmates? These are questions for which we will never find answers.
The year 1893 was not a pleasant one for America. Our country was in the middle of a depression, thousands of men were without jobs, banks were failing, and children were going to bed hungry.
When the word began to spread that President Cleveland had issued a proclamation declaring the Cherokee Strip open for settlement, thousands of people from every state in the union began making plans for a trip to southern Kansas for a chance at a new beginning.
Silas Newland had an advantage over most of those people. He had lived in that section of Kansas long enough to know the 'lay of the land.' Silas was a plasterer by trade, but his income depended on the economy of the farming community of that area. The year before the run was not a kind one to farmers. The heart of this country was in the grip of a drought that would last several years; and Silas, I imagine, probably spent much of his time in search of food for his wife and young sons.
Indian Territory was just a step away from Caldwell, and he must have made a few hunting trips into that country. There are accounts of the people of this area..farmers, merchants, and tradesman...who made expeditions into that territory on extended hunting trips.
