Oklahoma War Chief, Rare Newspaper Founded by Oklahoma Boomer Leader David L. Payne, 1886

Oklahoma War Chief. Caldwell, KS: S.C. Smith & Son, January 14, 1886. Vol. 4. No. 1. 4pp, 17 x 23.5 in. The issue carries feverish editorials and news regarding the settlement cause as well as national news.

First published in Wichita, KS, in 1883, the Oklahoma War Chief was printed in a different town along the Kansas-Indian Territory border between 1883 and 1885 by founder David L. Payne in order to promote the goal of the opening of the Cherokee Indian Strip (Indian Territory; present-day Oklahoma) to white settlement. Following several moves to towns along Kansas' southern border, Payne moved the printing press to Rock Falls in the Cherokee Outlet in 1884 where he hoped to establish a colony. On August 7, 1884, the US Army arrested the colonists and confiscated the press. The "boomers" bought a new press and continued publishing the Oklahoma War-Chief (now hyphenated) at South Haven, KS until Payne's death in November 1884. It was published in Caldwell, KS after Payne's death. The publication was suspended on August 12, 1886, with an explanation from the editor that it had printed 64 issues in 14 months, which exceeded the original plan to publish for three months. The article further stated that perhaps the fight to open lands for homesteading in Indian Territory would be taken up again by a newspaper in another Kansas border town or "at the capital of Oklahoma."

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

Oklahoma War Chief, Rare Newspaper Founded by Oklahoma Boomer Leader David L. Payne, 1886