Mike Cartel's maternal great grandfather, George Foster, a typesetter from Illinois raced a wagon in 1889 when the Oklahoma territory opened to the first who won (with a claim) the 'land run' homestead race (where some 100,000 participated). When Foster arrived at the water stop of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, he sat up the first newspaper (two other newspapers opened the same day) in the new rail head of Guthrie (and new capitol of Oklahoma).
By the turn of the century, when Guthrie lost its capitol status to Oklahoma City, Foster accepted a position at the Kansas City Star newspaper as Theater Critic and later as Night Editor, when Walt Disney was a newsie, (future president) Harry S. Truman worked the mail room and (later) Ernest Hemingway was a cub reporter.
