April 22 in History 1889: The Oklahoma land rush begins
This Day in History 1889: The Oklahoma land rush begins
My family has a personal connection to this historical event:
At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start.
The soldier who fired the "starting gun" for the land race was a man named Captain Edward Rickey. His sister, Alice Maude Rickey, married a lawyer from Ionia, MI named Cowell. Her grandson grew up to be my Great-Grampa McCartney, father of Gramma Beard, mother of Dad, (obviously) father of me and my brothers.
(This post is paraphrased from the email Dad sent me yesterday.)