Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 375 
per cent of Oklahoma’s native-born population, and from all the 
rest of the Union only forty and four-tenths per cent, showing 
that the settlers came largely from the adjacent states. 
To divide the settlers of Oklahoma into any hard and fixed 
classes would of course be impossible, but there seem to be some 
more or less distinct divisions which might be made. Con¬ 
sidering them in the light of what 1 had been their previous oc¬ 
cupation, we have first of all the professional “boomers” whose 
agitation had opened the territory and many of whom had be¬ 
come so used to violating the law that they now became “soon- 
ers” in their eagerness to reap the fruits of their agitation/ 
Then we have a large class of farmers who had met with fail¬ 
ure in other parts of the country, either because of adverse con¬ 
ditions or for lack of those qualities which go to make up a suc¬ 
cessful farmer. It was one of this class taking part in the 
first rush who had as his motto painted on the canvas side of 
his prairie schooner: “Chinch-bugged in Illinois, Bald-nobbed 
in Mizzouri, Prohibited in Kansas, Oldihommy or Bust.” 2 
There were also a great many men from the professional 
ranks, such as lawyers, druggists and physicians, and a large 
number of merchants who sought Oklahoma during and between 
the rushes as a good field in which to build up a practice or a 
line of business. 3 Lawyers were especially numerous at first, 
called by the vast amount of litigation resulting from the rush. 
Besides these classes there were many common workmen and 
day-laborers, miners, factory employes and unskilled laborers 
in general from the cities of the Korthwest, 4 who drifted down 
to Oklahoma, took part in the rush and often won a home and 
became in time successful and independent farmers. 
Looking at Oklahoma’s population from the standpoint of 
purpose in coming into the territory, we have a possible divi¬ 
sion into three classes, those who came to make a home, those 
who came to make money by speculation, and those who had no 
settled purpose in coming. The first class includes not only 
1 Tribune Extras, vol. 1, no. 7, p. 23. 
2 Ibid. 
3 Ibid., p. 24. 
4 Ibid., p, 30. 
