Since there's been a lot of discussion about the panhandle recently, I thought I'd share this from the Autobiography of Governor A. J. Seay, Edited by Dan W. Peery, Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 17, No. 1, March, 1939 (Seay was the first judge of the Panhandle region after the act organizing Oklahoma Territory; He was later appointed 2nd governor of Oklahoma Territory.)
The act organizing Oklahoma Territory was passed by Congress in May 1890. It provided for three judges, and 'that the judicial power shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, county courts, and justices of the peace.' President Harrison appointed E. B. Green of Illinois chief justice, and John G. Clark of Wisconsin and myself associate justices. We met in Guthrie about the 23rd of May, 1890, took the oath of office, appointed clerks, and divided the territory into three districts, as follows:
First district, Logan and Payne counties, assigned to Green.
Second district, Oklahoma and Cleveland counties, assigned to Clark.
Third district, Kingfisher, Canadian and Beaver counties, assigned to Seay.
The third district was known as the 'short-grass district,' and embraced all the unorganized territory west of the 98th meridian to the east border of the Panhandle of Texas, on the 100th meridian, was bounded by Kansas on the north and Greer county, Texas on the south. All this, except the Cherokee Outlet, was known as the Cheyenne and Arapaho country, and was occupied by the Indians of those tribes, some government troops, U. S. Indian agencies, cattlemen, and a few 'bad men of the border,' which latter gave the court some work, but it gave the officers a merry chase to capture them.
Beaver, one of the counties assigned to me, designated in the organic act as the public land strip, was known among the old-timers as 'No Man's Land,' and probably took that name from the interesting historical fact in which the institution of slavery played its part. It will be remembered that when Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slave state there was an agreement between the North and the South that thereafter none of the territory of the United States north of 30 degrees, 30 minutes, the parallel of latitude called Mason and Dixon's line, should ever be admitted into the Union as slave territory. This was the Missouri Compromise. In December, 1845, the Republic of Texas knocked for admission into the Union as a slave territory. It was discovered that Texas' northern boundary extended to about 37 degrees. The North objected that it violated the Missouri compromise, whereupon Texas ceded the strip north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes to the United States and was admitted under its slave constitution, leaving 'No Man's Land' without any political existence or organized government, abandoned to the coyote, the antelope, the buffalo, and red man and the 'wild and woolly westerner.'
In order to hold court at Beaver, I had to go by rail via Wichita to Englewood, Kansas, and take stage from there 50 miles, making a trip of 300 miles; or else, go overland up the North Canadian river to Camp Supply, thence up Beaver creek to Beaver city, a distance of 200 miles from Kingfisher. There were but few people, no courthouse, and but very little business. The people were poor, except a few cow men, but fairly intelligent and law-abiding. They greeted the court warmly and were evidently pleased to know that organized government had come to stay.
The territory, comprising the seven counties, was opened to settlement April 22, 1889, but the organic act was not passed until May 2, 1890. Thousands of homeseekers from all parts of the country staked their claims and established a provisional government which was obeyed by the orderly, well-disposed people, but could be enforced, if at all, only by overwhelming public sentiment or by the cool prowess of the man behind the gun. Peace and order prevailed among the homesteaders except an occasional shooting affray between rival claimants for the same quarter section.
But in the towns it was different. There was a rough, disorderly, gambling, drinking, bawdyhouse element which was aggressive and to some extent overawed the better element, who, though in the majority, were 'negatively good' and had no taste for the 'firing line.' Gambling houses and unlicensed saloons were running wide open day and night.
Their keepers denied the existence of any law requiring a license or regulating their business in any way. I had this element to contend with. They would get some of their friends on the grand jury and prevent indictments, or, failing in this, would bring improper influences to bear on the trial jury. It was hard to prevent this, for they knew their friends better than did the court and the officers. In this way they sometimes got a 'hung jury' or an acquittal. On more than one occasion during the first year of my services, I removed jurymen whose conduct showed crookedness. In one case a man was put on trial charged with keeping a gambling and bawdy house. Twelve men were selected from the regular panel to try the case. The evidence showed his guilt 'beyond a reasonable doubt,' but the jury reported they could not agree and asked for further instructions. The only question was whether the defendant kept the house as charged. I withdrew the instructions and gave one covering that point. After three hours more they wanted supper.
The sheriff was directed to inform them that supper would be ready as soon as they found a verdict. On my return from supper I found them ready to report a verdict of guilty. Upon asking what had detained them so long in such a plain case, a red-nosed man of some prominence in the town was pointed out as the man who had 'hung' the jury for seven hours because the court's instructions were not the law. I told him I declared the law; that the jury found the facts; that if he knew the law better than the court he should serve his friend as a lawyer and not as a juror. He was discharged and the sheriff was instructed never to bring him into court again as a juror.
After three hours' deliberation I wanted to sound the jury, so I drew instructions covering every conceivable point. That night indignation meetings were held in the gambling houses and saloons, in which the discharged juror took a prominent part, denouncing the court and the judge, but that incident, ended the jury trials of that character for that term of court. All of the other defendants charged with similar offenses pleaded guilty and submitted such mitigating circumstances as they had 'to the mercy of the court.'
Our courts had plenty of work, and were not well paid, housed or fed. We were pioneers. We had to blaze the road and build the bridges. While our work was not perfect, it gave confidence, encouragement and support to the law-abiding people of the territory. Mine was known as a 'shotgun court' on account of my bluntness in rulings and decisions, and I would not resent the charge that it was 'double-barreled and breech-loading.' Having to shoot off-hand in the dark a shotgun was more likely to do execution, and less likely than a Winchester to do irreparable injury. I got small game, to be sure, but a good deal of it, though I did not always hit the mark.
In the beginning we were short on libraries and long on jurisdiction. An examination of the 9th an4 11th sections of the organic act will show that as district judges we had original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases arising under the laws of the United States. We also had original and appellate jurisdiction specially conferred in Indian cases, and in the 'Cherokee Strip.'
My work was made lighter by the able and efficient services of the Hon. Horace Speed, U. S. Attorney for Oklahoma Territory. A fine lawyer, an indefatigable worker and an honest man, he was a terror to evil-doers.

EXCELLENT ! ! !