Allen’s history never fails to amaze. There is this. The Green Corn Revolution in 1915. But first a little background.

As usual, back in 1915 area farmers were having a tough time. Most were tenant farmers on small patches of farmland, and they could not seem to make money on them. Not any of these farmers were capitalist but instead embraced socialism and believed most if not all their problems were brought on by outside forces--such as government and banks. (sound familiar?) These people wanted the government to open up free land for them and other free help. Like money. A guy named Woodrow Wilson had just taken over the office of President but instead of helping he was getting America into a war in Europe. None of this was popular at all with Oklahoma socialists who saw themselves as victims of a crop lien system and their debts to merchants and bankers. They were “hot” and easily organized by the Oklahoma Socialists party.

This new party promised the moon but really brought nothing but misery to these farmers. Land kept going up and these small farmers were being squeezed out fast. The very center of this radicalism was right here- -yes in Allen, Seminole and Coalgate. When President Wilson signed the draft into law in 1917 violence broke out. Just a bit north of Allen where Little River and the South Canadian join. A loud farmer named John Spears raised the red socialist flag over the bluff on the Little River just outside of Allen on July 27 th and called for a march on Washington.

On August 2 ^nd Seminole Sheriff Grall and a deputy rode over to Sasakwa to see just what was happening, but they were ambushed by 5 party members and barely escaped with their lives. Next a big revival was held on a sandbar near Allen and the gospel preached had more to do with politics than religion. While there are no reports of anyone getting “saved” on this sandbar, other results were that the phone lines to Francis were cut and its railroad bridge on the Canadian was burned down, taken out. Serious stuff. So,

Serious stuff. So, Sheriff Bob Duncan (Pontotoc County Sheriff) led a posse of 25 deputies into the river war zone of phone line cutting/ bridge-burning-rebels and brought back 10 captives. I have no names. The Ada paper had several stories on a series of other shootouts and raids in the area. If you live here in the Allen area and pine for a little excitement you are simply living in the wrong time frame.

Other shootouts soon took place in Stonewall and Francis. Then, sixty men were rushed by train to Konawa to save that town from being seized by the rampaging socialists. I cannot help but wonder what they would have done with Konawa if they had. If so, from who?

W. T. Cargill, secretary for the rebel’s party was shot down and killed in the Konawa fracas. Another farmer was shot dead at Spaulding and one more was killed just south of Holdenville. Soon, 450 farmers had been arrested and most were transported to McAlester where 150 were found guilty of conspiracy and immediately went to prison. At least the prison was right there and handy.

The march on Washington? Never happened. Protesters planned to sustain themselves during the march by living off the land eating green corn. Thus, the name, “Green Corn Rebellion.” Some good came of this, I suppose. It did cause the federal government as well as the state to clamp down on Socialists in Oklahoma. By the end of WWI, the Oklahoma Socialist Party had vanished.

If you really want to know more about this well just look online. It is all there. And in “The Spring 1999 Chronicles of Oklahoma.”

Wayne Bullard, DPh

waynebullard@sbcglobal.net