Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 337 
proclamation on the twentieth of February, 1879, warning all 
persons against attempting to invade or settle on any land in 
the Indian Territory and advising them that they would be re¬ 
moved by military force if necessary. 1 At the same time, 
the army was given instructions to enforce the proclamation and 
the proposed invasion was checked with little difficulty, the 
people readily turning back when informed of the true condi¬ 
tions. 2 * 
From this time on, attention centers in Captain D. L. 
Payne, the most noted of the “Oklahoma boomers.” He was 
of a frontier type, a skilful hunter, soldier and politician. 
In 1878 he was doorkeeper of the House of Representatives. s 
Payne was probably in the pay of the railroads at the start, but 
his fertile brain soon evolved a scheme of organization where¬ 
by “booming Oklahoma” became an extremely profitable occu¬ 
pation in itself, and no incentive was needed to keep the leaders 
at it. Payne and his associates organized what they called 
the “Oklahoma Colony.” Every one who joined the colony 
had to pay a fee of at least one dollar, and in addition, the 
leaders organized themselves into a town-site company and 
sold claims to lots at fronr two to twenty-five dollars each, ac¬ 
cording to whether “booming” was dull or brisk. It is esti¬ 
mated that one hundred thousand dollars must have been re¬ 
ceived in this way before the death of Payne. 4 
In order to get around the President’s proclamation of 1879 
and to delude the people into believing that they still had the 
right to settle in Oklahoma, the leaders of the “colony” repre^ 
sented that the President had changed his mind as to the state 
of these lands since the issuance of the proclamation, and had 
admitted in his last message to Cbngress that they were open to 
settlement. 5 To correct this statement the President issued a 
second proclamation on February 12, 1880, declaring such 
representations wholly without foundation, and reiterating the 
1 Sec. Int. Rept., 1879, vol. 1, p. 294. 
2 Ibid., pp. 14, 103; Sen. Ex. Doc., 50, 48 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 9. 
s Chautauquan, June 1889, p. 534. 
4 Ibid.; Sen. Ex. Doc., 50, 48 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 5. 
s Sec. Int. Rept., 1880, vol. 1, p. 96. 
5—S. & A. 
