Where can a fellow get a drink in this town?

Recent construction activity at the southwest corner of Main and Broadway in Lexington, Oklahoma, where most recently stood the late “89er Saloon,” brings to mind history’s accounts of the earliest days of this community. It is presumed that the present owner of that particular piece of geography is replacing the lot’s former inhabitant with one of like commerce. Perhaps that is as it should be if historical continuity matters. Some of our local residents may not be aware of the history of that location; as a matter of fact, this writer is fairly sure that most local residents—especially those under forty years of age—have not the foggiest notion of this community’s colorful history. We shall undertake to apply a written remedy to the malady of indifference to local history.

We are once again indebted to that premier researcher and recorder of Cleveland County history, the late John Womack. His work is the basis for a later work by Blake Gumprecht who has given us A Saloon on Every Corner—Whiskey Towns of Oklahoma—1889-1907. (The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume LXXIV, Number 2, Summer, 1996) I have drawn heavily on this work by Dr. Gumprecht. We should also recognize the work of Bonnie Speer, also of Norman, who wrote Cleveland County: Pride of the Promised Land, an Illustrated History (Norman, Oklahoma; Traditional Publishers, 1988). Finally, both of these authors have cited Womack’s work, The Wet Years in Cleveland County, 1889-1907 (Noble, Oklahoma; John Womack, 1980). Serious inquirers should review Mr. Womack’s work first and foremost.

Before we get down to the specifics of Lexington’s early-day enterprise in “John Barleycorn,” let’s construct the broader framework which existed immediately following “Harrison’s Horse Race,” the Run of 1889.

Before Oklahoma became a state, towns sprang up along the boundary of Oklahoma Territory to serve as supply centers for the Indians, cowboys, and farmhands who lived across the border in Indian Territory. The fact that liquor was legal in Oklahoma Territory but forbidden a few miles away on Indian lands gave rise to a unique kind of town in Oklahoma—the whiskey town—where saloons lined the streets, bootleggers came to stock up, gambling was widespread, and brothels did a brisk trade upstairs. In the most notorious of the towns, outlaws ruled the streets and murder was common.

More than a dozen such towns existed in Oklahoma Territory between 1889 and 1907, when Oklahoma voters approved prohibition for the new state. They included Lexington, probably the first true whiskey town, on the left bank of the Canadian River across from the Chickasaw Nation. A few settlements--such as Corner, Keokuk Falls, and Violet Springs—were so dependent on the saloons they became ghost towns shortly after the enactment of prohibition.

Dr. Gumprecht asserts that: “‘One-armed Ed’s’ Saloon is believed to have been the first frame building constructed in the [T]own of Lexington.” Regrettably, Dr. Gumprecht does not elaborate further! (Bad history! If a reader can document that assertion, perhaps a liquid reward would be appropriate!) To continue: In the initial months following April 22, 1889, saloons far outnumbered all other businesses in Lexington. One of the earliest was built on a sand bar in the middle of the Canadian river, as close to Indian Territory and the Chickasaw Nation town of Purcell as the law would allow. The Sand Bar Saloon stood on stilts, 200 yard from the Santa Fe Railroad station at Purcell. A rickety foot bridge led from the saloon to the Chickasaw side of the river to provide easy access to residents of Indian Territory and travelers aboard daily passenger trains that stopped at Purcell.

None of the whiskey towns were more ideally situated to attract the liquor trade than Lexington. Lexington was the only whiskey town so near a significant population and transportation center. (The writer’s grandfather, Albert Rennie, a pioneer attorney at Ardmore, Pauls Valley, and Purcell, was a regular AT&SF traveler between his residence at Pauls Valley and Purcell. His legal case was always heavier and more closely guarded on the return trip.)

Liquor laws in the newly settled country were unclear at first. Oklahoma technically remained a part of Indian Territory until passage of the Organic Act by Congress a year after the opening. Federal officials were unsure whether that meant the prohibition on Indian lands also would apply to Oklahoma. In August, 1889, federal officials said permits to sell liquor could be issued to druggists but still officials granted no licenses. The new settlers were not about to wait! By December, 1889, 500 saloons existed in Oklahoma! United States marshals began to crack down on the illicit trade soon after. In March, 1890, they arrested six men in Lexington for selling liquor illegally.

Nearly a year after the region had been opened for settlement, federal officials issued the first liquor licenses in Oklahoma. In May, 1890, Congress approved the Organic Act which established Oklahoma Territory to be governed by the laws of the State of Nebraska until it could create its own. Nebraska statutes prohibited the sale of liquor except for medicinal and sacramental uses. The law also required dealers to obtain a license from the county commissioner and to keep detailed records of each liquor purchase. Many saloons ignored the new laws and illegal operations continued to flourish. In August, 1890, the Cleveland County sheriff raided ten illegal liquor dealers in Lexington and fined each $100!

In October of 1890, a Purcell man built a flat-bottomed boat on the Lexington side of the river that would serve as a saloon. A development spread beside the river, the area became known as “Sandtown.”

The first legislature of Oklahoma, convening in August, 1890, in Guthrie, took a much more liberal attitude toward the sale of liquor. Lawmakers enacted statutes that lifted the most serious restrictions. They authorized county commissioners to grant retail liquor licenses to any resident who applied. If no residents objected to the application, the commissioners issued a one-year license for $200.

In the months following the creation of the Oklahoma statutes, illegal liquor dealers rushed to become legitimate. In 1891 commissioners issued eleven retail and two wholesale liquor licenses for the Town of Lexington. In February, 1892, Lexington had more saloons than any other town in existence in proportion to its population. Early saloons in Lexington included the Buckhorn Saloon, Two Brothers Saloon, Dutch Saloon, Commerce Saloon, J. H. DeBerry’s Saloon, Fashion Saloon, French Saloon, and Thomas Farmer’s Saloon. Three years after its founding, the settlement still had no bank!

At least three saloons appear to have been in operation at “Sandtown.” They included the Riverside Saloon and the Point Comfort Saloon. One operator moored a floating saloon, “The City of Purcell,” to the left bank of the river. Floods in May, 1891, tore the boat from its moorings and washed it two miles downstream. The owner towed it back the following spring.

Lexington and the sand bar town quickly developed a reputation for unruly behavior and lawlessness. The local paper reported in November, 1891, that a gun fight erupted on the town’s main street in which two local constables exchanged at least twenty shots with two men from the Chickasaw nation who had been drinking in one of the saloons. (More will be told about that in another article.) Shootings were common on Saturday nights when cowboys, farmhands, and Indians converged on the town from the surrounding country.

Between 1894 and 1904 Lexington had between six and ten saloons—excluding the Sandtown saloons—despite the fact that its population never exceeded 900 souls before Statehood. All the saloons were located on Broadway. By 1902 eight saloons were operating in a single block between Main and West First Street.

Whiskey was the lifeblood of Lexington before Statehood. Revenues from the saloon tax kept Lexington afloat in its early days. As late as 1901, income from the saloon tax supplied three-quarters of the village government budget according to a local tabloid of the times, “You Alls Doin’s.” Whiskey became all the more important to the area’s economy in 1900 when the Weitzenhoffer and Turk distillery opened one-and-one-half miles south of town. (Other authors assert that it was located one mile east and one-half mile south of town. Some additional research by this writer is necessary to nail the location down. Sanborn’s Fire Insurance Maps on file at OU’s Bizzell Library will be authoritative. Details will be furnished at a later date. Stay tuned.) It claimed to be the largest distillery in Oklahoma. The same local news organ greeted the distillery’s opening with enthusiasm and lauded its potential benefits to the local citizenry.

In March, 1981, Mr. Womack republished his1980 work in The War Chief of the Indian Territory Posse of the Oklahoma Westerners (Volume 14, Number 4).  He re-titled his earlier work as Cleveland County’s Wet Years: 1889-1907. We’ll go there now for some more details and interesting anecdotes.

Contemporary attitudes towards liquor control were affected by at least two factors [between The Run of 1889 on April 22nd and Statehood, November 16, 1907]. First, the realities of early frontier life precluded any great concern over the way a person made a living unless that person’s livelihood involved violence or stealing. Second, the “Bible Belt” had not yet encircled Oklahoma and Indian Territories; therefore, less anti-liquor sentiment existed.

At one time during the year after the Run, Lexington reported a population of 180 and twelve saloons; one saloon for every fifteen persons (hardly a pew-full per store). Complaints from such influential folk as the editor of The Norman Transcript in early March of 1890 led U. S. Marshals to open a drive against liquor joints; they arrested the offenders and presented them to the nearest United States Commissioner who usually assessed a fine of one hundred dollars. One of the earliest arrests known to have been made in the area was chronicled in the March 2, 1890, Purcell Territorial Topic: