Rector Oklahoma Territory Homestead

Milton A. Rector (1855-1951) pursued greater opportunity in the American West. October 19, 1901 he filed a homestead claim for land in Oklahoma Territory (O.T.) under the provisions of the 1862 Homestead Act.

The Act granted surveyed public land to adult heads of families for a minimal filing fee. Each applicant needed to be a citizen or promise to become one. After five years of continuous residence on the land, the claim could be “proved.” The National Archives in Washington D.C. stores the original Land Entry Case files.

In April 2022, I held the packet of papers for file #4537 in my hand. I called it Christmas at the Archives.

Missouri

Prior to Oklahoma, the Rector family lived in Lindley, Grundy/Sullivan County, Missouri. According to the youngest son, Ralph:¹Interview with Ralph Rector. 1984/11/12. Oklahoma Historical Society Oral History Collection H1984.185. Sound Recording. Accessed by K. Blees 30 Sep 2016, transcribed 20 Feb 2017.

My dad [Milton Rector] was mechanic in a wagon and buggy factory.  And he had contracted a cough that he couldn’t lose.  His family had a poor track record in health and the doctor told my mother [Charlotte Ann “Lottie” Senate Rector] that if she didn’t get him out of that sanding dust, what have you, in that manufacturing place, she would be a young widow.

Her father [John Senate] was a blacksmith. So he [Milton] left that place and went into business with his, my mother’s father, his daddy-in-law and learned the blacksmith trade.

So in 1901, when we came to Oklahoma a blacksmith was about as important as the president of the First National Bank because all of the machinery needed a man skilled in that sort of repair, especially being making wagons and buggies. My dad had a profession that just fit exactly, which helped a lot in that time.

Moving to Oklahoma Territory

Ralph Rector went on to describe the move to Oklahoma:

We chartered a [railroad] car for us and the few things that we owned, one was a work horse and a Jersey heifer was the animals that we owned and what little household goods we had, which was little. 

We arrived in Woodward just a minute after midnight on January the first, nineteen one [1901]. And of course we had in mind to stop over at Camp Supply.  So we shipped the car out to Tangier, which is not much of a place anymore and borrowed another horse from other settlers, which was a usual thing among the settlers was to help each other. [We] freighted across to Camp Supply which a part of it was where the lake is now at Supply up at the river bottom. And uh, of course the Army had abandoned the Camp oh some twenty years before but they left the buildings, they were in disarray. But we patched up things and the people were to live in them. We lived in the building that had been the bakery of the army camp. And we lived there until the spring of nineteen-two [1902] when we moved out on the farm.

Land Entry Case File

Milton A. Rector claimed 160 acres in Oklahoma Territory: the northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 27N of Range 25W.

Ralph’s story of the family moving to Oklahoma is a precious piece of family history. Let’s take a look at how his dates line up with the original documents found in the Land entry Case File.

Which dates are correct?

First, let’s consider the Land Entry Case Files. Milton Rector, himself, signed these original documents. On October 19, 1901, he claimed the land and listed his place of residence as Lindley, Missouri. In his final testimony, he swore to the veracity of his identity, his citizenship and his cultivation of the claim. Therefore, I put a lot of trust in the dates contained in the Case File.

So, what about Ralph’s recollections?

I believe that Uncle Ralph is mostly correct. His details about the train trip, their residence in the former bakery and the building of the sod house have a ring of truth to them. Remember, Ralph was only 3 or 4 years old when the family moved. He likely gathered his versions of the stories from hearing his father recount the experience.

In summary, I posit that Uncle Ralph is off by one year. Would the family move to Oklahoma Territory in January of 1901 without a claim on the land? Is it probable that a large family would live in an abandoned former army bakery for more than a year? If the land was claimed in October of 1901, the family likely arrived in January 1902 and moved to the farm that spring.

This 1910 map shows Harper County, Oklahoma, Township 27N, Range 25W.²Western Publishing Co. Plat book of Harper County, Oklahoma: containing maps of villages, cities and townships of the county, and of the state, United States and world: portraits of representative citizens and leading men of the county. Ashland, Kan.: Western Publishing Co, 1910. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2007633237/>. Milton A. Rector’s 160-acre homestead is highlighted. Also note the James E. Garnett homestead just to the north of the Rector place.

What research is next?

Where did the Milton A. Rector family live before Oklahoma?
More about Ralph Rector, the promoter of the World Championship Cow Chip Throw?
Where did Gillison “Gee” Rector and M. Pettris Garnett move after they married in Oklahoma?
Next week, I’ll post a photo of the sod house.