Day county saw the struggle between the farmers that wanted herd law and the cattlemen that supported free grass laws. Herd Law vs. Free Grass went to a vote.

1901, May 17, Arapaho Bee
Page 2. LYNCHED. A Free Grass Mob Hangs Herd Law Man. Mr. J. L. Chandler, a resident of Ioland, Day county, was taken from his home by a posse of cattlemen and hanged. The lynching party was composed of Day county cattlemen.

There has been trouble between the farmers and cattlemen of for some time. During the past few weeks the trouble has been growing graver and many cattle have died of poisoned water.

Mr. Chandler was suspected of being one of the party who has been poisoning the water and he was lynched as a warning to others.

Officers are on the trail of the lynching party and they will sooner or later be run to earth and receive the full penalty of the law for their crime.

This is the first lynching that has occurred in Oklahoma since its organization as a territory.
The question originated over the question of free range, the cattlemen being fierce over it and the farmers not wanting it. The land in western Oklahoma is still subject to homestead entry and many a small farmer has had all his crop eaten up by the cattle and has had no course of redress, not having any way of paying the costs of a suit in the courts. It has retarded the settlement of some of the western counties to a great extent. A poor man who wanted a home in some of those counties has often been told to move on by interested parties who wanted the range, and the cattlemen have been very negligent about trying to protect the farmer's crops by keeping their cattle in hand.

The act of the legislature of 1899 in granting free range west of range 14, also provided that a herd law could be voted upon at election, and in their efforts to get these elections, the will of the farmer had been thwarted by the cattlemen until the trouble has assumed the proportion of a feud, the farmer being arrayed against the cattlemen, and the end is not yet in sight.State Capital.

The settlers of Day county will eventually hold their land and will win out in the long run because they are right. The cattlemen resort to tricks to keep the land for free range, that nobody but one of the school on the frontier would believe should the newspaper tell the truth.

The government has in many ways winked at their depredations and the poor settler is left to paddle his own canoe.

The settlers have worked together more recently and have shown a spirit to contend for their rights that is commendable. The settler only asks to live on and cultivate his own land in peace. Whether it is fenced or not is nobody's business but the owners.

If they will legislate to occupy a man's farm they can also legislate to use his house for camp headquarters. But the inherent right of the settler rebels against this intrusion and when pushed he will fight.

The free grass policy has retarded the settlement of every country, but western Oklahoma has suffered more than the ordinary because of a notion that it never rained here and the strong lobby the cattlemen have kept at work 365 days each year. The lynching of this man at Ioland will probably mould sentiment very rapidly against free grass and we can look for those in authority to say a man's farm is his own and if you want his grass or anything else on that farm go and get it from the owner.
---
Lynching and slugging people turn public sentiment against the very cause for which the deed was committed to make smoother sailing.

1901, August 2 Arapaho Bee.
Page 2. Dastardly Outrage. Mrs. Mary Mills, of Millsville, Day county, had her cow and four work horses belonging to herself and son, tied up to trees and shot by some unknown parties last Sunday night. This was all the stock they had except one calf. The only grievance against the widow and her son, E. Mills, had tried to protect their crops by driving the longhorns out of their fields. The free grassers had threatened to hang the young man, but lacking the nerve to carry out that threat, they took this cowardly means of punishing the widow for trying to make an honest living in their midst. It wont take many tricks of that kind for someone to try it once to often.

1902 Day County officers
County supt: B. A. Bouldin
County attorney: S. A. Miller
Probate Judge: G. A. Bigelow
Sheriff: Joseph L. Smith
Assessor: George Wood
Treasurer: David Hogg
County clerk: A. S. Burran
County surveyor: F. M. Sandford
Commissioner 1st dist: Simpson
Commissioner 2nd dist: Geo. W. Carr
Commissioner 3rd dist: Thos Russell

May 28, 1903, the Taloga Advocate, headlined "Dewey and Day Counties Visited by Destructive Cyclone. Several Persons Killed and Many Injured." A large portion of eastern Day county and the west part of this county was laid waste Friday evening by one of the most destructive cyclones that ever visited the southwest. A portion of country beginning near the Grow post office in Day Co., and extending through this county and into Woods county, a mile wide and perhaps 80 miles long, is almost completely destroyed.

Nov 16, 1907 Day County's end by legislation, divided between Ellis county and Roger Mills county. Grand remained county seat of Ellis County until the County Seat Election of August 19, 1908 moved county seat to Arnett.