The First Eight Months of Oklahoma City.

MONDAY, APRIL 29.

Work on buildings went rapidly forward and men who could not drive a nail in the ground secured employment as carpenters at good wages. The streets assumed shape and many new business enterprises were established. To leave a familiar locality for a few hours was to never find it again, so rapidly did the face of the young city change.

The metropolitan newspapers came filled with strange stories of crime and riot in Oklahoma, but they were false in every particular. The city had practically no telegraphic communication with the outside world. There was only one wire and that was crowded with railroad business, and it was well nigh impossible to send a telegram however important. A second wire reached the city about May 10th, but the stirring struggle was over by that time.

page 16

Temporary Mayor Couch issued in accordance with the Articles of Confederation the following proclamation:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas: By virtue of authority vested in me by certain articles adopted by the citizens of Oklahoma City, I. T., at a mass meeting held by them in said city on the 27th day of April, 1889, authorizing the calling of an election for permanent officers therein designated to be held on the first day of May, A. D. 1889 for the designation of the manner, and time and places for holding the same, and, 

Whereas: By section 2 it is provided that at said election to be held under said articles there shall be elected one person who shall be designated and termed Mayor, and one person as Recorder, and one person as Police Judge, and one person as City Attorney, and one person as City Treasurer, and six persons to act as Councilmen, who shall hold their offices for the term of one year, and,

Whereas: By section 2 it is provided that the temporary Mayor shall appoint three suitable persons to act as Judges of each election precinct, to be named by the Mayor, who shall have charge of the ballot boxes and of the counting of the ballots, and shall report the result of the same to the Mayor and Recorder, who shall declare said persons receiving the highest number of votes elect-ed; who after taking and subscribing to the oath of office required generally of such offices as they may have been elected to fill.

Now, therefore, I, W. L. Couch, temporary Mayor of the town of Oklahoma City, do proclaim that a general election for one person as Mayor, for one person as Recorder, for one person as Police Judge, for one person as City Treasurer, for one person as City Attorney, and for three persons for Councilmen from each ward, shall be held in the town of Oklahoma City, I. T., on the first day of May, A. D. 1889, which election shall be by ballot, either printed or written, and each citizen of lawful age of said town shall be entitled to vote for said officers, and that the places for voting shall be opened at 8 o'clock a.m. and close at 6 p.m., and that there shall be two voting precincts dividing said city into two wards as follows: All persons residing north of Clarke street shall be entitled to vote at the places designated in said ward, which is at the junction of Main and Broadway; all per-sons residing south of Clarke street shall be entitled to vote at the place designated, which is at the junction of

page 17


California Avenue and Broadway. The following persons are designated to act as judges of the election north of Clarke street, viz: J. W. Gibbs, George S. Chase and Moses Neal; and those to act as judges in the ward south of Clarke street, 0. H. Violet, John A. Blackburn and James Murray, who shall count and return the ballots to the temporary Recorder who shall canvass said returns and make announcement of the result as soon as can be done.

Attest: 
WILLIAM L. COUCH, Temporary Mayor.

WM. P. SHAW, City Recorder.

A committee of six, three from the citizens' committee of fourteen, and three from the committee of ten, consisting of W. L. Couch, John Wallace, C. P. Walker, C. W Price, M. V. Barney and J. B. Wheeler, were appointed to adjust individual rights to property in the strip between the two surveys.