A dispatch from Oklahoma City says: The woods here are full of boomers and claims have been laid on all the land for miles around the place. The city at present consists of a depot, boarding house and military supply store. But Oklahoma City has its real estate agents, who will drive you miles out on the prairie to find “the prettiest kind of places" and charge you $5. This is the only kind of business which appears to flourish. Trade would be lively for several stores, if the boomers bought all they need, which is an immense amount. Most of them are hard up and holding on to claims, to which they have no title except that given by mutual consent, with a grim determination which excites admiration. Although there are a great many men around and a few women there is only one person that can justly claim any title to citizenship in Oklahoma. She was born here July 1st and her name is Tidy Slavens. Some of the people want to change her name to “Oklahoma." There is great rejoicing over the passage of the Indian appropriation bill to pay the Creeks for their cession, and everyone acts as if he owns the claim he has staked out. They are expecting a big crowd within the next day or two, and the enthusiam mounts higher hourly.

The Weekly Star and Kansan (Independence, Kansas), March 8, 1889.

Note: "Tidy" (Tide) Slavens was a boy, and he was born in 1884 in Hendricks County, Indiana. The baby born July 1, 1888, was my grandfather, Guy Slavens.