There were actually several land runs. For complete details of Oklahoma land settlement, visit the OKGenWeb site: http://www.okgenweb.org/~land/.
The Oklahoma "Land Runs"
1st Run: 22 Apr 1889 (Unassigned Lands)
The First Land Run opened all or part of the present Oklahoma counties of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne. At noon on 22 Apr 1889, millions of acres land that was formerly Indian Territory (commonly referred to as "unassigned lands") was made available to white settlers. The land was laid out in 160-acre homesteads and could settlers could claim title to the land if they lived on the land and improved it. An estimated 50,000 people lined up on the border waiting for the noon "rush." The hopeful, by all kinds of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot) raced to claim their land. Settlers who illegally entered the territory early in order to claim the best land became known as "Sooners." By the end of the day, tent cities had sprung up from nothing at Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, El Reno, Norman, Guthrie, and Stillwater. Oklahoma City and Guthrie had populations of 10,000 after only half a day.
2nd Run: 22 Sep 1891 (Iowa, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie, and Shawnee Lands)
In 1891, three Indian Reservations (which had been purchased from the Indians) bordering on the former "unassigned lands" were declared "surplus" and opened for settlement. About 20,000 people lined up to settle the land in Counties "A" and "B" which became Lincoln and Pottawatomie Counties.
3rd Run: 19 Apr 1892 (Cheyenne and Arapaho Land)
In 1892, 25,000 settlers "rushed" to settle land in Counties "C" (Blaine), "D" (Dewey), "E" (Day, obsolete county combined with Ellis county in 1907), "F" (Roger Mills),"G" (Custer), and "H" (Washita).
4th Run: 16 Sep 1893 (The Cherokee Outlet)
The 1893 run was the largest of the land runs. An estimated 100,000 people raced to claim land, The Cherokee Outlet was land leased by cattlemen from the Cherokee after the Civil War. The U. S. Government eventually purchased the land and allowed settlement of the area originally known as Counties K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q. It was decided that the inhabitants of each county could select the name after the run. The names selected were Kay, Grant, Woods, Woodward, Garfield, Noble, and Pawnee. (In 1907, after Oklahoma achieved statehood, the following counties were made from existing counties in the Cherokee Outlet: Alfalfa County was formed from Woods County; Ellis County from Day and Woodward Counties; Harper County from Indian Lands, Woods, and Woodward Counties; and Major County from Woods County.)
5th Run: 3 May 1895 (Kickapoo Lands)
The last, and smallest, land run in Oklahoma was the opening of 183,000 acres of Kickapoo land. The area was added to Lincoln, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie Counties.
The NORTHCUTT Family and the Oklahoma Land Rush
Shadrach Daily NORTHCUTT was an older brother of Willis NORTHCUTT (great grandfather my wife, Judy).
Shadrach was born in Champaign County, Ohio, and moved with his family to Wapello County, Iowa, then to Harrison County, Missouri, where he married Mary Jane FALLIS on 3 Nov 1872. Four children were born in Missouri and in 1882, they moved to Stafford County, Kansas, where they had four more children and lived until 1893.
In 1893, Shadrach made the land run into the Cherokee Outlet. He staked his claim to the South West Quarter of Section 28, Township 28 North, Range 6 West (in what is now Jarvis Township, Grant County), approximately 5 miles northwest of Wakita, and rode 80 miles to Kingfisher to file the claim.
His name is inscribed on the Homesteaders Memorial, located at the County Courthouse in Medford, Grant County, Oklahoma. The monument reads:
To the homesteaders and early settlers of Grant County this monument is gratefully dedicated. In recognition of their courage in the face of untold hardships the descendants sincerely acknowledge their sense of obligation.
These early Grant County settlers were among some 100,000 who lined up September 16, 1893 to race for a 160 acre claim. The homesteads scattered throughout an area comprising six million acres. The award went to the first person arriving, planting their stake and duly registering their location at the land office.
Others while not actually making the run acquired the land at an early date, either by purchase or barter, lived on it and raise their families and together with the homesteaders became the early pioneer settlers of Grant County, laying the foundation for our modern society.
The family, including seven children, settled on the claim. They lived in a small sod house, complimented by a large white tent. According to Mary's diary, they arrived "with our stock, goods, chattels, twelve head of horses, four cows, no money, no house, no fence, and no fuel except surface coal (cow chips)."
Ten years later, on 17 Aug 1903, Shadrach recieved the homestead certificate for his land. In 1907, the sod house was replaced with a two-story frame house, only a few months before Shadrach died. He died 19 Dec 1907 in Grant County.
Two of Shadrach's brothers later moved to Oklahoma, Jesse (1841-1917) and Willis (1854-1940), settling in Grant County.
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