350 i Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
geit a marshal from whom proper authority could be obtained. 
In fact, many of the marshals sympathized with the worst ele¬ 
ments in the crowd. On the twenty-third of April, the only 
pump in town was taken possession of by a Chicago gambler 
named Cole, who demanded five cents for every drink and en¬ 
forced his demands with a revolver. He was soon removed by 
the military authorities. They were also continually called 
upon to protect a settler who had homesteaded the claim just 
west of the city on which the crowd was determined to lay out 
a town-site. 1 
On the twenty-sixth of April a call was issued signed by a 
dozen citizens of Oklahoma City for a mass L meeting on the next 
day to organize a municipal government. At this meeting it 
was decided to elect a temporary mayor who should make ar¬ 
rangements for a regular election on the first of May. W. L. 
Couch was unanimously elected. On May 1st, a regular ballot 
election was held and Couch was again elected, according to the 
books of the city recorder. At the time the election was accept¬ 
ed in good faith as the expression of the will of the people, 
but later it was questioned by many. The new government 
was installed on the sixth of May and the military officials re- 
signed their control to it, but it was absolutely powerless with¬ 
out their aid in enforcing its orders, and until August 5th a 
guard of from five to fourteen men was sent to town from the 
camp every day. After that until October 21st, from two to four 
men were sent. During this period several attempts were 
made to displace the city officials by holding new unauthorized 
elections, but as the established government was always sup¬ 
ported by the military authorities, these were all failures. The 
action of the military officials throughout seems to have been 
approved by all the better and more solid citizens of the new 
community, who desired a stable government, but it was late in 
the fall before the disturbing elements; were finally quelled 
and the city settled down to a regular life. 2 
Several other cities w r ere laid out and settled in Oklahoma on 
1 Sen. Ex. Doc., 72, 51 Cong., 2 Ses.s., pp. 30-38. 
2 Ibid., pp. 22-30. 
