Muskogee History and Genealogy

Dub West's First Year as a Teacher

2008-10-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Many area residents know Dub West as a local historian without knowing much about his background. Here is part of the story of his early life before he arrived in Muskogee.

His parents were Adam Clark and Selena West. He was their first child. Though Texans for most of their lives, Dub was born in 1908 while his parents lived briefly in New Mexico.

Dub always went by the initials "C. W." Because his father often went by the name of Clark, the family referred to Dub by his middle initial. The "C." in Dub's name likely stood for Clark, but Dub always denied it. He perpetuated the use of Clark by giving it to his own son.

He spent most of his early life in the Texas panhandle where his father operated a furniture store or worked as a brick contractor in Floydada before the Great Depression wrecked so many careers and lives.

Dub graduated in 1930 from West Texas State Teachers College located in Canyon City. He and his young wife lived in a room on Fifth Avenue their last year in college. The rent was twenty dollars a month. Their room was in the floored attic with exposed rafters in the William Reid residence.

At the end of the summer, Dub began his teaching career in a rural schoolhouse in the Texas panhandle. The school's name and exact location is now lost. All that describes it is that it stood on prairie land along the Canadian River north of Amarillo.

One subject Dub taught was algebra. Yet, he found the school textbook more advanced than the one semester of algebra he studied in college. Therefore, he studied ahead each night in order to be a couple of lessons ahead of his two students, a boy and a girl. Dub was proud that these two told him at the end of the year that he was the best math teacher they ever had.

Kids usually become restive during a school day. Being cooped up in a single classroom was often over whelming. On fair weather days, however, Dub's students had a natural Texas outlet. After wolfing down their lunches, and sometimes during their meals, the children tried to out yell the prairie dogs that lived close by. Of course, the prairie dogs stood on the tops of their mounds and chattered more and more loudly.

Dub settled into the teaching routine well. So, too, did the students for the most part. As April Fool's Day approached, some of the children decided to test Dub one more time. At last, they decided to skip school on April Fool's Day. Being hesitant, one of the pupils approached their teacher and asked him what would he do.

His answer was firm. "I'll expel the student that cuts class," he said. Sensing a revolt near at hand, Dub proposed that if the students came to class and stayed until the noon bell, he would let all of them go on a picnic on the Canadian River during the afternoon. Both teacher and pupil enjoyed the picnic.

At the beginning of summer in 1931, Dub and his wife left the Canadian River school and returned to Floydada, Texas. Dub lived and worked with his parents until the following school year started. That summer, Dub purchased his first automobile, a Chevrolet.

October Genealogy Workshop

2008-09-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

The October genealogy workshop begins Saturday at 9:00 am in the Muskogee Public Library at 801 W. Okmulgee. The Muskogee County Genealogical Society is conducting this workshop in cooperation with the library. It is open to those interested in learning how to trace their ancestry.

Jere Harris, long-time staff member in the library's genealogy department, leads the first session by showing attendees how to "Advance Your Research Skills." She will present ideas to outwit the census enumerator and overcome other basic research problems.

Stacy Blundell teaches the second morning session. Besides decades of research under her belt, she is vice-president of the Muskogee County Genealogical Society. Her topic is "Tracing Female Ancestors." Perplexing problems in her own research taught Stacy that locating a wife or daughter's family in not impossible. Her visual aids in teaching always evoke laughter.

I present the final morning session. The subject of this presentation is "Pre-Civil War Arkansas Research." My extensive experience in using Arkansas resources enables me to show how to use diverse sources to broaden historical and cultural understanding of the lives of your ancestors. I will focus on using tax assessment records, delinquent tax lists and other sources to trace a life. My topic is especially appropriate for Oklahoma researchers because so many ancestors passed through Arkansas on their way to Sooner-land.

"Federal Land Records" is the subject Sue Tolbert and Stacy Blundell will discuss immediately after a brown-bag lunch. Ms. Tolbert is the Executive Director of the Three Rivers Museum and is a former president of the genealogical society. Together, Stacy and Sue will present information on the wealth of family data available in records of the Bureau of Land Management. These records were generated at the time of land transfer from the Federal government to private ownership. This duo works well together in simplifying learning how informative these records are.

Nancy Calhoun winds up the workshop by talking about the problems of "Researching Common Surnames." If your ancestors were named Smith or Jones (or any of the other common surnames), Nancy will tell you how to figure out which ones are your ancestors. She is the head of the library's genealogy department.

The Muskogee Public Library is co-hosting the workshop. Workshop attendees will be able to squeeze in moments of research during the lunch hour or after the workshop ends using the extensive collections in the library's genealogy department. Library staff will be on hand during the day to answer questions and assist researchers in locating resources or using equipment.

The workshop is free to the public. Donations to offset expenses will be greatly appreciated.

Muskogee's Kit-Built Homes

2008-09-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Barbara Downs' interest in Muskogee buildings extends back several years. She believes there are many homes in Muskogee that arrived in railroad boxcars.

Several companies sold everything needed to build a home. Sears, Roebuck and Company became the best known because they offered so many kits. Company use of widely distributed catalogs promoted the product. Sears began selling whole homes in 1909 after selling fixtures for over a decade. Altogether, Sears sold over 100,000 homes, not counting all the $39 outhouses and more expensive farm buildings or barns.

The Sears catalog eventually offered over one hundred models for the future homeowner. Some were mere cabins with no plumbing or electrical wiring. These usually cost much less than a thousand dollars. However, the buyer could add or delete features that raised or lower the final price.

This photograph is a current illustration of a Sears kit home. This home has the address of 712 Callahan Street. Sears first offered the "Lorain" model in 1910. The company designed it as a two-story structure to house two separate families, one above the other in identical floor plans. This house is identical to the building at 718 Callahan Street that was built the next year, but is no longer standing.

The base price for this two-family "flat" was $1,238. The contractor decided to purchase a "flipped" floor plan for the building. Originally, the front bay window was on the left side. Sears offered both designs for the same price. However, the contractor added a bay window to enlarge the kitchen area. It is possible to see the bay window bulging out of the right outside wall about half way back. The contractor also opted to make the front porch stretch across the front of the whole building. These two additions to the original plans elevated the purchase cost to about $1,500.

When the kit arrived in Muskogee, the builder hauled it from the freight depot to the construction site where he had the foundation already built. The kit included 750 pounds of nails and all of the hardware to doors and windows. Each piece had a number stamped on it to coordinate with numbers on the building plans.

The framing, flooring and all interior wood was pine. Cypress siding covered the outside walls. The original roof was of cedar shingling. There was enough paint for applying two coats both inside and out. The buyer got to choose the colors.

The price quoted above did not include a heater or hot water heater. Nor was the cost of electrical wiring included. Sears offered these as extras.

Sears began offering mortgages in 1911. The mortgages were one-page documents. These mortgages were Sears's first venture into providing financial services. This service helped Sears to become the sales leader for kit homes.

The first owner and resident of the home at 712 Callahan Street was a real estate agent named Charles Olentine. His wife and two children lived with him. It is impossible to say if he ordered the Sears kit home. Very likely he did. Two years ago, the former Olentine residence needed attention. The current owners are working to restore this home.

Muskogee Red, Tramp Printer

2008-09-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

Muskogee Red was a tramp printer who passed through Muskogee. It was during the days before typesetting machines dominated publisher's back rooms. Tramp printers were an itinerant breed of workers who came into existence during the explosion of newspaper publishing following the Civil War. They traveled from town to town, often along railroad lines, stopping to work for a few days or a few months. This is the story of how Red got his name and won his place in American history.

He was born Andrew J. Redmond in South Carolina several years before the Civil War. Exactly when he was born was unknown even to Andrew. Suffice to say, his birth occurred about 1856. He grew up with an older brother named Patrick in a large orphanage in Charlestown. He was one of hundreds of other boys and girls without parents. His lack of parents made it natural for him to exhibit no attachment to place during his life.

A description of him survives. He was a slender man of short stature. His red hair only partially brought about his "Muskogee Red" nickname. He had a typically Irish face. A wag said one could see the "map of Ireland" all over it."

Tramp printers were generally competent spellers and writers who loved a good story. They usually were keen sighted and had nimble fingers. Many could quote long literary passages.

Some were sober, thrifty workers. Many tramp printers, however, spent their wages on that liquid refreshment that loosened one's tongue. Sleeping in the back room of a printer's shop was common. It was also common for a tramp printer to sleep in a jail cell or an empty railroad boxcar.

Redmond arrived in Muskogee in 1901, after having worked in Lincoln, Nebraska the previous year. Muskogee was a humming town with half a dozen printers. Picking out the largest, Redmond walked in the doors of the "Muskogee Phoenix." He found the office on West Okmulgee and Second Street, just a couple of blocks from the Katy Depot. Clarence B. Douglas was the editor and publisher.

Tramp printers were usually needed by printers for filling vacancies or for working on rush jobs. With the Dawes Commission and hordes of lawyers actively working in Muskogee, there was a lot of printing business.

Redmond's days picking out casted type out of typecase drawers ended on Friday with payment for his week's work. By Sunday, Redmond had spent at least one night in jail. His appearance before a Muskogee town judge Monday morning was predictable.

Whether it was his first appearance, or his tenth, before the judge, Redmond found himself receiving sound advice one morning from a judge who regularly dealt with drunks. One can hear the judge repeating a frequently delivered sermon about the evils of alcohol. The day Redmond stood in court, the judge must have also pointed out how physically destructive liquor was.

Redmond spotted a bottle of red ink on the judge's desk. Quickly grabbing it, he raised it to his lips and drank it all. An old time Phoenix employee recalled in 1936 that Redmond wanted to prove to the judge that he had a "cast iron stomach."

Unrepentant, Redmond soon left Muskogee for his next job down the road. Five years later, in Topeka, Kansas, Redmond wrote his obituary. Now widely known across the United States as "Muskogee Red" because of his ink drinking, Redmond predicted that he would be found dead beside some road, the victim of acute alcoholism. He predicted his permanent home thereafter would be the potter's field nearby.

Muskogee Red survived alcoholism and the many years of living precariously. The year before his death in 1936, Redmond saw his story published in the Saturday Evening Post magazine. After many years of sobriety, he died in Colorado at a home for retired print shop workers. Newspapers all across the United States paid homage to the tramp printer who made a name for himself in Muskogee.

Muskogee's First Newspaper

2008-09-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today, most residents of Muskogee think of the "Muskogee Phoenix" as being its first newspaper because it has lasted for so many years. When told that it was not, old-timers recall the "Muskogee Times-Democrat" as a likely candidate as the first newspaper. Neither one has the distinction.

The newspaper title that began Muskogee's publishing history was the "Indian Progress." Its slogan, "Onward and Upward," typified a growing town less than four years old.

Elias C. Boudinot owned the newspaper in partnership with at least one other. E. Poe Harris was the working editor. Both were Masons who promoted railroad construction and assimilation with whites who wanted to move into Indian Territory. Seventeen-year-old Caleb Starr also worked there.

The editor and owner bragged that the Indian Progress was owned, edited and published by Native Americans. All of this was true up to a point. Harris hastily filed for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation because of his marriage to a member of that tribe. At that time, such marriage conveyed citizenship to the non-Indian spouse.

Boudinot and Harris knew they faced opposition when they moved their hand-cranked press into a building they erected on Muskogee's Main Street. They planned to publish the newspaper in multiple tribal languages. They hoped the support of several tribes might offset the opposition of a single tribe.

However, the Creek Nation took offense with the newspaper's position on opening up Indian Territory to settlement. In typically western fashion, the arguments grew heated. The Creek's National Council finally passed a tribal law banning the newspaper.

The Creek Council ordinance was based on Boudinot and Harris not having obtained permission to locate a business in the Creek Nation where Muskogee was located. The council gave the newspaper ten days to depart or else the tribe would confiscate the press and building.

Six days later, on October 22, 1875, the first issue of the Indian Progress came off the press. The Creek Nation did not rush to remove the newspaper. This may possibly have been in response to Boudinot's complaints to the Indian Agent. Boudinot argued that "free press" was being trampled.

The Creek Nation's opposition finally won out. In December, the press moved to Vinita in the Cherokee Nation. It continued printing articles favorable to its agenda until the following March. Then, the newspaper owners finally gave up.

During its publication in Muskogee, the Indian Progress published a weekly, four-page publication. Two columns of print appeared in each of the languages of the Five Civilized Tribes. After writing columns in Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole, he wrote the last seven in English. A yearly subscription cost one dollar.

The Indian Progress newspaper did not survive for long because it was ahead of its time editorially. Alternatively, one may argue it angered the wrong readership.

Edgar Rulison and When Soda Pop Came to Muskogee

2008-09-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

The year was 1890. During those twelve months, Muskogee saw the arrival of carbonated soda drinks. Edgar R. Rulison got the idea of selling soft drinks in his hometown while in St. Louis buying drugstore supplies.

Rulison, of Danish origins, came to Muskogee about 1885 to be a clerk in Dr. Mason F. Williams' drugstore. He gained clerking experience in a grocery store in Burlingame, Kansas following the sudden death of his father in a sawmill accident. By the time Dr. Williams and Rulison met, Edgar had years of sales experience.

Drugstore business was successful until the fire of March 27, 1887 destroyed Dr. Williams' office and drugstore. At the same time, the fire destroyed every other building downtown except for a hotel. One merchant rebuilt his hardware store on the northeast corner of present day Main and Broadway.

A row of narrow wooden structures sprang up north of the lumberyard adjacent to the hardware store. The town post office operated out of the building next to the lumberyard. Dr. Williams' office stood next door to the post office. It was upstairs over the drug store operated by Edgar Rulison.

Early in 1890, before he started selling soft drinks, Rulison joined Muskogee's first band as its bass drummer. A few years later, he got fellow band member Ben Bellis to plumb his home. It was one of the first houses in Muskogee to have indoor plumbing.

Edgar began selling soda drinks by the glass in his drugstore in 1890. His soda fountain combined syrup with carbonated water. The concoction was a patent medicine remedy advertised for many ailments from headaches to drug addictions. Over time, the lure of a sweetened drink on a hot territorial day increased consumption for non-medical purposes.

Marshall Bragdon worked as a post office clerk and as a court clerk until failing health forced him, like Theodore Roosevelt, to take up an outdoor life on a nearby ranch. After regaining his health, he returned to Muskogee and asked Rulison to go into partnership. Rulison agreed and the two opened a drug store on South Main just a few blocks from Rulison's former location.

Following a fire on February 23, 1899 that destroyed downtown Muskogee again, Rulison set up a soda fountain at home and continued peddling carbonated drinks. The fire, however, brought about a surge in people realizing the value of insurance coverage.

At the same time, there was increasing awareness by Muskogee businessmen that the opening up of Indian Territory meant there would be greater interest in buying and selling land. Consequently, Rulison sold his soft drink company, the Muskogee Bottling Works, in 1903. He never sold merchandise over the counter again.

Edgar R. Rulison lived a long life in Muskogee. He married Ruth Myers in 1887 and had two sons. On March 8, 1888, he became the first Master of Arms for the newly instituted Phoenix Lodge #3 of the Knights of Pythias.

Soda pop was Rulison's ticket to success. By 1912, Rulison was worth an estimated $100,000. Between 1906 and 1913, he spent some of his money traveling around the world. In his travels, he visited Europe, Australia and South America.

After Rulison sold the Muskogee Bottling Works in 1903, he worked as a real estate agent. He began selling insurance about 1910, finally retiring in 1939. Edgar R. Rulison died in 1954. He rests in Memorial Park Cemetery west of town.

Naturalist Begins in Okay Area

2008-08-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

A party of men arrived at Fort Gibson in June of 1849 at the request of Benjamin Marshall. Marshall was the Second Chief of the Creek Indians. He wanted the east and north boundaries between the Creeks and Cherokees surveyed. Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves led the Corps of Topographical Engineers party.

The US government sent additional men with the surveyors. Samuel Washington Woodhouse went along as the naturalist. He was a 27-year-old medical doctor with responsibilities for the physical health of the men. In the field, most of his time was spent in gathering and identifying birds, animals, insects and plants he believed were new to science. His work with the Academy of Natural Sciences prepared him well for this work. Woodhouse and some of the men arrived the first week of June aboard the "Alert No. 2" steamboat.

Another member of the party was William Mayhew. Mayhew brought a camera with him and quickly began learning how to make daguerreotype images. He was unsuccessful in his early efforts. His photographs the following year are believed to be the first taken in the future state of Oklahoma.

The party finally obtained sufficient supplies from the post quartermaster at Fort Gibson to permit the party to begin. In the afternoon of June 20, 1849, the wagons, pack animals and men left the fort and forded the Neosho River.

Their first camp was atop a bluff overlooking the Verdigris River. Nearby, there was a ford across the Verdigris that led to the Creek Agency maintained by the US government. The ford was downstream from the Falls of the Verdigris. It was a natural feature now submerged by the Kerr-McClellan Waterway. Woodhouse described the falls as being caused by a ledge of sandstone running across the riverbed.

The second day, the caravan moved to their second campsite. It was located one mile south of the present town of Okay, Oklahoma. It was on the Texas Road above the ferry. Woodhouse also wrote his observations of Indian life in his journal. He noted that they raised corn, hogs and livestock.

He began immediately making observations of birds and wildlife near present-day Okay, Oklahoma. That is, he did when it was not raining. Out of the next three weeks, it rained thirteen days. The men spent most of the first week in this camp because of the inclement weather. When storm clouds cleared away, Woodhouse searched for natural history specimens. He complained in his journals of his most frequent finds, ticks!

Jacob McToy came down with cholera while the surveyors were still at Fort Gibson. Captain Sitgreaves hired McToy, who was Cherokee, to help the surveyors. Woodhouse, in those medically primitive days, prescribed quinine most often used for malaria. McToy survived, but another member of the party later died from cholera.

The surveyors began their boundary line at the Arkansas River and headed north. All too soon, the surveying progress forced the shifting of the campsite. The move was the next of many moves over the next year.

Woodhouse continued his dual duties as naturalist and physician. Following this expedition, he would go into the American southwest on yet another exploration as a contract naturalist and doctor. His discoveries enriched major collections back east. He had the honor of having a bird and a toad named for his contributions to American natural history. Just think, he began in the Okay area.

Moving to Council Hill

2008-08-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

James R. "JR" Barnes left for Indian Territory during the spring or early summer of 1901. The local gossip said a hard-working man could make good money baling hay in Indian Territory. JR wanted to go, but he wanted someone to ride with him into the Indian nations in search of work. In a store in Commerce, Texas one day, William B. "Bud" Gray overheard another man refuse JR's proposal. Bud then asked if he could go.

Bud and JR found work on the Matt Sappington ranch where the future town of Council Hill sprung up a few years later. The two worked well together all summer in Sappington's hay fields. In the process, JR and Bud became fast friends and agreed to return for the 1902 haying season.

JR and Bud returned to Sappington's farm early the next summer. As the baling season ended, Bud and JR decided to return to Texas. Sappington thought they were good workers and offered them a place to stay during the coming winter if the came back. On their way south, the two Texans decided they wanted to move to Indian Territory permanently.

The Barnes family left their home near Parris, Texas heading north in late October. JR drove the wagon pulled by a team of mules. His wife drove the wagon pulled by a pair of chestnut horses. The five other wagons carried Bud and his extended family. Altogether, there were 24 persons with surnames of Barnes, Gray, Coker, Toone and Hicks who made the journey. Forty head of cattle accompanied them on the trip.

When the wagons reached the Red River, they took the ferry across. Everything was going fine until Duff Coker's mules turned balky. They stubbornly refused to get on the ferry. It took three men pulling a mule harness, and another pushing, to get the mules aboard. The mules were so spooked that they almost jumped into the Red River pulling man and wagon with them. The trip across the river was a scary time because the mules would not quiet down.

The families traveled up the west side of the Kiamichi River, fording tributaries as they reached them. Each time, the horses had to be spurred into the creeks and streams. The men and boys herded the cattle as they crossed to prevent them from being washed down stream.

At McAlester, the wagons reached the Texas Road. From that point, they followed a well-beaten path toward Muskogee. It took about two weeks to finally reach Matt Sappington's ranch north of Checotah. Each night during the trip, the travelers camped under the stars or under the wagons. They arrived at Sappington's on November 2, 1902.

The following months were cold ones. The family cattle remained close to the houses that winter. They bawled day and night because they were hungry. The children remembered it as another scary time.

Aldena Powell's father was the youngest child on the wagon train. As an adult, he had a keen wit and enjoyed storytelling. It was from him that Aldena learned how her family came to the Council Hill area. She is working on her family history. It will include more stories about the Council Hill area.

Early Days at Fort Gibson Post

2008-08-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

The United States established the military post at Fort Gibson in the spring of 1824. The officers and men stationed there immediately began constructions of quarters while also sending out patrols to become familiar with the surrounding countryside. The post sprang up on the western flank of the Boston Mountains where the American plains begin.

White families following the leading edge of the American frontier were establishing homes in the area without any government. Upon riding up to a lone cabin, the officer leading a patrol asked for the head of the household. If the family father did not hear the troops ride up, a young child ran to fetch him. The houses were all small, one-room log homes with dirt floors.

If the household claimed Indian kinship, they were allowed to remain. Otherwise, the officer instructed the family to return to the United States. After 1828 when Arkansas' western boundary was surveyed, that meant the settlers went to Arkansas Territory.

Army patrols were often away from Fort Gibson for many days on end. Patrols found most intruders living in the eastern area just west of the territorial line. At this time, the northwest corner of Arkansas was attracting large numbers of immigrants seeking new homes. As new families settled in a clearing, they often had no knowledge they were in the newly established Indian Territory.

Soldiers on patrol, however, had instructions to remove settlers by force if they did not move willingly. When an intruder and his family refused to move, soldiers went into the fields and cut down corn plants. Soldiers also drove livestock away.

In many cases, fathers followed their livestock. As soon as the military felt they were far enough away, the intruder's animals were abandoned. Of course, the intruder herded the animals back home as soon as the soldiers were out of sight. After days of living in the field, officers and enlisted men relished returning to Fort Gibson post.

Col. Henry Dodge was preparing to depart with a unit of US dragoons to survey southwestern Indians. Also at the post was an English portrait artist named George Catlin. He accompanied Col. Dodge on the expedition. Catlin drew sketches and painted portraits of individual Indians and their homes. His 1841 publication of his drawings in London, England established Catlin's reputation.

As a footnote, it should be noted that the following summer was the hottest in decades. Beginning in the 1830's, medical officers recorded climatic conditions in their post reports sent to the War Department in Washington. While reports for Fort Gibson are spotty, there is a record for August 15, 1834. That day the temperature rose to 116 degrees in the shade.

The soldiers at Fort Gibson fell out into formation at the end of day on August 15th as usual. After the lowering of the American flag, soldiers removed their woolen tunics immediately afterwards.

How Briartown Got Its Depot

2008-08-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

Briartown is located in the southeast corner of Muskogee County about six miles south of Porum. It was a recognized community even before the outbreak of hostilities of the Civil War. The US Post Office established a branch there in 1882.

When the Midland Valley Railroad Company expanded rail service south, Briartown residents looked forward to lower shipping costs and quicker passenger service. There were reasons for resident optimism.

In 1910, the town had a population of about seventy souls. There were two stores, a gristmill and a blacksmith shop. The farms in the Canadian River bottoms were less than three miles distant. Average farms were of eighty acres in size.

Wagon roads stretched in every direction. Via such a network, larger communities in the area such as Hoyt and Whitefield were expected to make use of the railroad connection established at Briartown.

Yet, the extension of the Midland Valley railroad to Briartown did not mean the train company built and staffed a depot with an agent. At a meeting promoting the establishment of the railroad, the company's general manager said that Briartown would be a "regular stop" on the line.

Instead, the railroad company built switching facilities and a loading dock with a flagpole. The rail line used the dock for off loading incoming freight. The cotton gin at Hoyt, about five miles away, could stack 500-pound bales of cotton on the dock for shipment to larger markets.

Passengers wanting to take the train raised a flag on the flagpole to signal the railroad engineer to stop in Briartown. They purchased their tickets from the local postmaster about a hundred feet from the train stop.

Dr. George Gulledge, a Tennessean, thought the railroad company should build a full depot in Briartown for handling railroad business. Otherwise, freight and passengers remained on the dock regardless of the weather conditions. After not getting the approval of railroad officials, Dr. Gulledge filed a claim with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in Oklahoma City.

Midland Valley Railroad Company countered that Hoyt and Whitefield shippers were south of the Canadian River and were thus unlikely to ship out of the Briartown station. Furthermore, Porum, just eight miles north, served the Briartown area adequately. The area south of the Canadian River would be adequately served by the Stigler railroad station claimed the company.

The last two months in 1910 saw the Briartown postmaster selling passenger tickets worth a total of $275 and $396 respectively. Inbound freight according the company amounted to less than $500 for the previous year. During the same period, outbound freight amounted less than $400 according to the company record keeper. Briartown passengers numbered about two a day.

Midland Valley reported building a depot would cost about $1500. This, they believed, was more than the traffic would support. Despite the company's argument, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission ordered the construction of a railroad depot in Briartown. The commission also ordered the depot to be completed by the middle of September 1911. Thus, Briartown gained its railroad station.

Library Subscribes to Footnote.com

2008-07-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Muskogee Public Library recently subscribed to a new online collection of historical records. It did so as it continues providing area residents with online content. Footnote.com is a growing company offering digitized historical records.

Footnote's "Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation" came up in searching for a Muskogee connection. The Bureau of Investigation pre-dates the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It had responsibilities that mirrored the present day operations of the FBI. Congress established the Bureau of Investigation one hundred years ago this year.

The "Investigative Case Files" cover the years 1908 to 1922. Footnote.com digitized over two million images as a cooperative effort with the National Archives. The archives retain custody of the original records. Viewers may print out records at the library for ten cents a page.

The bureau files are full of references to suspicious characters, prostitutes, stool pigeons, vagrants, burglars and safe crackers, lawyers and peace officers, strikers and rioters. In a file with a connection to Muskogee, the Vinita police took custody of a woman named Lena Jackson for mail theft.

The Vinita jail was almost not good enough to hold their prisoner. After being locked up, she immediately set about removing bricks from the jail wall to affect an escape. The police transferred her to the Muskogee's steel jail after finding the loose bricks.

She was initially indicted on May 7, 1919 under her alias. Then Muskogee police identified her as a drug addict named Peggy Willard. Peggy subsequently escaped from her attorney using a ruse. Another library database of the 1920 census reports her being incarcerated in the Missouri State Penitentiary about seven months later. Peggy's escape from the custody of her lawyer was short lived.

There are over a hundred references to Muskogee in the bureau's case files. Additionally, Footnote's collection of records includes the Dawes enrollment applications and enrollment cards.

Beyond Muskogee is the full panorama of records reaching from the Revolutionary War to the Second World War. Muskogee's airport namesake, Major Jack Davis, appears on a Footnote database because of his failure to return from a dawn patrol over the Sea of Japan.

Footnote.com allows a special feature to its website. A viewer has the ability to tag digital records with additional information. If a reader identifies a relative, they may wish to note how that relative became listed on that record.

In addition to expanding the library's access to online databases, the library purchased two digital microfilm readers. These two readers allow printing of images at higher resolution than previously possible. Golden wedding anniversary photographs, for example, are now sharper when printed or stored electronically.

The library is constantly improving its services to the public. If you have not visited lately, now is a good time to find out how much they offer.

Working Women of WWI

2008-07-23T09:14:00.001-07:00

Most Americans know that "Rosie the Riveter" worked during the Second World War. Less well known is the story of the mothers of these workers. This story is about the women who took on work during the First World War to free men for another war effort.

Women have always worked outside of the home in such occupations as store clerks, schoolteachers and nurses or mid-wives. Women did not normally work in many other occupations until a need arose. Just as the Civil War forced many women into heavy farm work because husbands, sons and fathers were in military service, Rosie's mother moved into similar jobs during World War I.

This war brought America to its feet. Shown here is a statute of an American "Doughboy" outside of the VA hospital. Doughboys were the GIs of the First World War. Over one million doughboys shipped from American ports for service in France by the war's end. More than twice as many went overseas in military service while America fielded a military force of nearly five million men. Months earlier, these soldiers were working on farms and in factories.

To fill the shoes and boots of servicemen, women began working in non-traditional jobs. One example is Miss Jennie Weatherford who became the first woman automobile mechanic in Muskogee. She worked at the Muskogee Garage. She wore "bloomers" while she worked and reportedly left her facial powder at home in March 1918.

Just as Miss Weatherford worked as a grease monkey, the federal government promoted hiring women. Government altered its policy so that women became eligible for jobs as rural mail carriers in 1918. It was the first time since 1911 that women could apply for these jobs. The Post Office held the first examination for them on April 27.

Miss Stella Pierce of Braggs was the first woman in Oklahoma to pass the examination. She received her appointment as a mail carrier for a rural route in late July. Born about 1900, she was the daughter of Mrs. Charles Pierce. Soon after the end of the war, she became a stenographer with a hardware firm in Muskogee.

Even the railroads employed women in traditional male occupations. Railroads played a major role in shipping of men and material during the war. The US Army focused its recruitment on railroad men for active service. In filling their boots, the local newspaper reported that women worked in railroad roundhouses and in the railroad blacksmith shops. Before the First World War, women rarely worked in these railroad departments. Supervisors reported the work performed by women to be satisfactory after the war ended.

Despite their successful work record, returning soldiers replaced many women workers. The balance of women working outside of home returned to a more normal level until daughters named "Rosie" were called to serve during the 1940's.

Here is a ditty that chronicled these changing times.

Women for the railroads,
Women for the farms,
Women for the duties
of bouncer and gendarme.
Baggage smashing women,
Trucks to load and shove,
There'll be women soon for everything,
Except a girl to love.

Social Security Death Index

2008-07-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has long kept records of reported American deaths. This effort is part of their fiduciary responsibilities for cardholders. Their database is called the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

The general public is unaware that this index first became publically available in 1991. A free online version of the database is available at http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi.

President Franklin Roosevelt worked for the passage of legislation to help needy Americans during the Great Depression. The enactment creating the Social Security Administration passed Congress in 1935. The law assisted to the disabled and family members when the wage earner was no longer able to work. This law still serves American today.

The legislation also established an insurance program in which workers identified by a nine-digit number contributed to a retirement fund. Upon death of the cardholder, SSA staff created an entry in a separate database recording the closure of the account under that number. Financial data for an individual remains confidential.

The SSA began keeping track of cardholders' deaths electronically in 1962. Today there are more than 82 million names in the database. Statistically, however, most of the deaths before this date are not part of this collection. This is because the earlier years were not recorded electronically. As older files are reopened for some purpose, deaths before 1962 are belatedly added to the death index.

The information in the death index includes the cardholder's name, social security number, state where the number was issued, date of birth and date of death. Many genealogists use this public information to help locate distant family members.

It helps if the name being searched is an uncommon one. If you wish to locate a record of a deceased family member who has a more common name, it may be best to use the advanced search feature. This will help to limit the search results to those with a similar name and have some other detail in agreement with known facts. It is amazing how many people have similar names, but resided in different parts of the country.

Even though my name is not very common, if someone made a search for Wallace Waits, three names come up. Two of the names are of my grandfather and father. They died in 1964 and 1974, respectively. I have never heard of the Wallace R. Waits who died young in life.

There is a low error rate in this data because the SSA staff works hard to maintain file accuracy. Joseph Seller is one case in point where an error crept in. The Social Security Death Index reports him being born in 1899. According to the database, Joseph died at a very young age in 1900. This is an obvious error since the death index was not created until sometime after 1935.

I learned this from the SSDI: Joseph Caudillo died in May 1967. He was my Company Commander during basic training when I first joined the US Army. Further research showed that he was killed in combat in Vietnam. I would have never know this if I had not checked the death index.

Here are some ways a person may make use of the Social Security Death Index. With the first payment occurring in 1937, it is possible your Civil War ancestor lived long enough to benefit from this Depression Era program. Or, your high school reunion is coming up and you can not find all of your classmates. Maybe several have already passed away. The Social Security Death Index may have the answers to these possibilities.

Joseph Sondheimer, Fur Trader

2008-07-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Joseph Sondheimer was the first person of Jewish faith to settle in Indian Territory. He came to the territory after the Civil War to trade animal hides.

Mr. Sondheimer was a native of Valkerschlier, Bavaria. He was born on September 22, 1840. He came to America as a youth. Young Sondheimer began his business training as a clerk in stores in Baltimore and Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, he worked as a commissary agent providing supplies for men and horses in the US Army.

Sondheimer began trading in hides for the commercial markets after the war ended. He opened his business in St. Louis, Missouri.

The depopulated area of Indian Territory provided the best source of animal hides because of destruction caused by the war. When riding through the territory in 1867, he heard about the newly established Cobb brothers store on the west bank of the Arkansas River. He authorized the Cobbs to purchase hides on his behalf. He established similar agreements with other merchants along the Texas Road between Missouri and Texas.

Sondheimer also purchased hides from settlers throughout the Cherokee, Creek and northern Choctaw Nations. He established his home and warehouse near the Creek Agency. This put him close to the Arkansas River where he shipped his purchases down stream. He was also near the center of Indian Territory.

Joseph moved his home and storage buildings into the new town of Muskogee after it became a thriving business center. Hides were among the first commodities shipped by railroad from Muskogee. Sondheimer found train shipments reliable.

During fifteen days in the winter of 1881, Sondheimer shipped the following from his large warehouse in Muskogee: 4,500 raccoon, 3,000 skunk, 2,000 opossum and 3,000 pounds of deer hides. Additional pelts shipped on this order included gray fox, beaver, wildcat, wolf, pole cat and otter. The shipment went to dealers in major cities such as Chicago and St. Louis. Two years later, Sondheimer shipped seven railroad cars loaded with cured hides.

Building the warehouse in Okmulgee established him as the largest dealer in hides in Indian Territory. Sondheimer shipped other commodities, too. Pecans were his largest non-pelt staple shipped back east. He also began shipping hides directly to Leipzig, Germany. Many shipments also included wool and, occasionally, prairie chickens and quail.

After more than thirty-five years of buying and selling animal hides, Joseph Sondheimer summed up his observations in 1904 about his business this way. "business will be very poor this year-in fact it has been getting worse and worse now for several seasons. It takes a very wild country or a fairly well settled country to make a good fur business. In the very wild country the fur trader depends upon the skins of big game, while after a country has been fairly well settled the fur trader gets more mink, fox and pelts of small animals."

He continues "it is a fact that is not generally known that such animals valuable for their furs follow settlements. They leave the dense forests and follow on the boarders of small settlements where they are always found in greater numbers than in the thick forests where hunted by Indians."

Joseph Sondheimer's observations are just as valid today. My next-door neighbor saw a skunk in his back yard one evening and I have seen opossum and raccoons scurrying across roads. These are settlement small animals like Sondheimer observed a hundred years ago. He would have smiled knowingly.

The Beginning of Council Hill

2008-07-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Council Hill is a town in the southwest corner of Muskogee County. Its location was part of the pasture of the "Big G" ranch owned by Bill Gentry after the Civil War. The Gentrys raised as many as a thousand head of livestock yearly on the land.

Henry M. Sappington went into partnership with Gentry in the 1890's as he began slowing down in his elderly years. In 1901, Sappington purchased Mr. Gentry's remaining interest in the land.

The Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad began extending toward Henryetta's coalfields in 1905. The M. O. & G. line wanted a location in the area for a depot, section house and shipping point.

An auctioneer sold Council Hill's first town lots on June 22, 1905. The lots brought in $17,500 in three hours of bidding. The money registered as the most paid for a single town in Indian Territory.

Council Hill was chosen for the town name because the Creek Indians once called a nearby hilltop by the same name. There was an excellent water spring on the higher ground where the Creeks held councils.

Two weeks after the auction, the town gained a post office. It initially operated out of the Case General Store. The first postmaster was Emanuel B. Case. His store offered cool drinks, groceries and fine shoes.

The town also saw the establishment of the "Council Hill Eagle" newspaper within months of the post office's establishment. Almost a decade later, the newspaper became the "Council Hill Times."

Even before the sale of lots, people began settling in the area in expectation of the new town. Dr. Andrew J. Lovell, for example, arrived in the area on January 5, 1905, with his family. He soon established a number of partnerships in local enterprises.

Traveling doctors regularly came into the area to treat medical and dental problems before the town grew up beside the M. O. & G. tracks. The new town attracted physicians who put down permanent roots. The Council Hill Drug Company soon was dispensing medical cures and notions.

Council Hill quickly took on the look of permanence. Businessmen used brick in many places to build their stores and offices. Six of them had concrete sidewalks twelve feet wide out front within months.

A new schoolhouse was built. The first classes began in September. Methodists also built a church as soon as the money could be raised.

The town's population grew to 200 by 1909. There were two banks, a livery stable, several general stores and a meat market. There was a lumber store, a blacksmith shop and a contractor to oversee building construction. A cotton gin joined the Council Hill Grain Co., the Council Hill Hardware Co., and Council Hill Telephone Company in providing services to the area.

The town added the services of a barber, a dressmaker and a jeweler, too. A hotel served the railroad traveler.

Council Hill also had growing pains. The M. O. & G. Railroad acquired the "Big Mallet" railroad engines to pull heavier coal cars to and from Henryetta. The first time a Big Mallet engine passed through town, it tore up the loading dock at the depot. Construction workers extended it too close to the tracks. The damage was repairable, but remained the topic of discussion for weeks.

Council Hill has continued to serve the agricultural community for over a hundred years. It remains a trading center in the southwestern corner of Muskogee County.

Boynton's Oil Field

2008-06-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Americans today worry about high gasoline prices. This renews interest in drilling in the United States instead of overseas. History repeats itself: almost one hundred years ago, Muskogee County was the location of frenzied drilling.

The Boynton Field was the smallest field in the county. Oil fields commonly took their names from the nearest town. As time went by, the oil field's name morphed into the Boynton-Haskell Field and then into the Boynton-Creekola Field. As more was learned about the oil field's dimensions, geologists added Haskell and Creekola to Boynton's name to better describe the field.

During the early years, the size and shape of the field was unknown. The Boynton Field has a domed shape with the top of the dome located in the Boynton area. Drilling was initially to a depth of about one thousand feet. Drilling to the same depth in the surrounding area failed to produce oil because the drilling rigs were not reaching lower portions of the field.

The earliest report of oil drilling near Boynton occurred in 1894, ten years before the establishment of the town. A decade later, some forty wells were drilled on the location of the present townsite.

Wildcatters returned to the Boynton area in June 1910. This time they drilled on the Jackson farm to a depth of 1,700 feet. This well initially produced a mere twenty barrels a day. Despite the oil being of the highest grade, interest in drilling in the area dropped again. However, this well promised geologists that there was more oil deeper in the ground.

During the next few years, events brought wildcatters back to the Boynton area again. Part of the increased interest arose from the explosion in the number of automobiles using internal combustion engines. Another part of the increase came because of the declaration of war in Europe.

Drilling in Okmulgee County and the huge success of the Glen Pool Field brought more interest to the Boynton area in 1914. The Yoga Oil and Gas Company started drilling one and a half miles south of Boynton in mid-January. Then, Litchfield and Sullivan found oil that gushed 40 to 60 barrels a day on the C. Davis farm in early February.

This later well helped finally to establish the Boynton Field in Oklahoma as one worth extensive development. In May, a second Litchfield and Sullivan well on the same property produced paying quantity of natural gas. At the same time, the Pulaski Oil Company and the Prairie Oil and Gas Company began bringing in oil wells nearby.

Two years later the Boynton Refining Company invested about $90,000 in the construction of a refinery. Its initial capacity was one thousand barrels of crude oil a day. The facility had the capacity to produce about four thousand gallons of gasoline. About 1918, Oklahoma refineries were selling gasoline at nineteen cents a gallon. Major Refining Company constructed a second refinery in 1917 in Boynton.

There were seventy-six wells drilled into the Boynton Field in 1916. These wells produced 4,617 barrels of crude oil a day. The field's peak production was in 1915 with about 7,500 barrels a day being pumped out. By the end of 1919, however, field production dropped to 1,800 barrels.

All oil fields reach a point where wells are no longer producing sufficient oil to justify running the pumps. Boynton Field was a smaller field and that point came early. Today, Boynton Field is little more than a footnote in history.

Manual Training High School's Beginning

2008-06-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

In 1909, the manual training educational system sweeping across America was ten years old. Following the new state's declaration for separate education for Oklahoma youths, Muskogee floated a bond proposal. Muskogee's Manual Training High School was a product of these twin drives.

The purpose of a manual system of education was to teach children in grades six to twelve to use their hands. In this manner, educators believed students would stay in school longer. It was also felt they would be better prepared for the industrial world when they left school. Muskogee's school was the second one constructed in the state for African Americans, after Oklahoma City.

Muskogee's bond in 1909 funded the construction of three schools. In mid-February, C. W. Briles and C. W. Dawson went to Missouri and Illinois schools to get ideas for the construction of the new school buildings. Briles was Muskogee's school superintendent while Dawson was an architect. All three schools were ready for use when schools opened in the fall of 1910.

About $75,000 went to purchasing the land and building Muskogee's Manual Training High School. The building and mechanicals cost $70,000. The balance purchased a trapezoidal one-acre lot across the street from the new Dunbar elementary school. Money also purchased playground equipment.

The building's two stories sat atop a full basement. It had a parapet around the front that added stature to the buildings yellow brick exterior. This touch of grandeur promoted a sense of pride among the students and faculty that lasted a century.

Manual Training High School educated 138 students in grades nine through twelve during 1916. Two-thirds were girls. Furthermore, its classrooms taught another 285 pupils in one class of the sixth grade and all of the seventh and eighth grades.

There were nineteen classrooms in the building. Four teachers taught the students below the ninth grade. Eight full-time and two part-time teachers taught the high school pupils. C. B. Bryant served as the school principal. The music teacher was Leanna C. Clark. The rest of the teachers were Elizabeth S. Brown, Lucy M. Elliott, Nellie W. Greene, M. Johnson-Jones, S. S. McCulloch, Julia E. Nickens, A. C. Perdue, Florence Pickens, Alma Ross, Susan A. Sharpe, W. O. Sneed, Myrtle Williams and S. E. Williams.

The high school students had two choices in their course of study. Eighty-seven pupils chose the general course that year. There were the basic classes of English, history, math and science taught to all students. Students often chose to take Latin during their last three years. The school's library was considered excellent for its day.

The manual training curriculum served boys and girls differently. The girls alternated sewing classes with cooking classes.

The boys in the industrial courses studied woodworking and mechanical drawing. Their classes were three double periods each week.

The Manual Training High School increased the emphasis on African American education in Muskogee County. The growth in student population caused the enlargement of the school building, first in 1922 and again in 1929. Additional buildings housing classrooms and vocational workspace came later, but the last addition in 1929 defined the main high school building until it closed in 1970.

Elbert Little, Dendrologist

2008-06-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

Elbert Luther Little, Jr., moved to Muskogee in 1909 as an infant. In 1923, he graduated from the Muskogee's Central High School. Little is famous for the compilation of numerous atlases of American trees. These works are still constantly in use today in the study of the impact of global warming.

Elbert was the son of a railroad tax agent. Like his father, he was always interested in details. His excellent oral and visual memory served him well. He made good grades throughout his school years where his fellow students thought he was "smart." Even so, they never imagined the height of recognition Elbert would obtain.

He continued his Latin and Spanish studies during his senior year. At the same time, he was also class secretary cum treasurer and a class reporter for "The Scout."

Elbert attended Muskogee Junior College the last year he lived in Muskogee. Then he enrolled for a summer course at McPherson Collage in McPherson, Kansas, in 1924. There he took his first biology course at the private, liberal arts institution. For a few years, the college offered field-study courses in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was in Colorado that his study of plants and trees became the focus of his life.

At the end of summer, Elbert enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. Because the university accepted the credits Elbert earned in the junior college in Muskogee, he graduated in three years with Bachelor of Arts degree in botany. The year was 1927. Without any letup, Elbert then enrolled in the University of Chicago. Within another two years, he earned a masters degree and a doctorate. Both advanced degrees were in botany. The topic of both his thesis and his dissertation was studies of plants of Oklahoma.

Elbert's first job was with the Oklahoma Forest Commission. Afterwards, he taught college courses at Weatherford for three years. During this period, he earned yet another diploma, this time in zoology.

In the height of the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt was trying to reduce the damage caused by the Dust Bowl, Elbert became a federal employee of the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture. He worked for the USDA for eight years as a forest ecologist based in Tucson, Arizona.

Elbert Little accepted a promotion and moved to Washington, DC in 1942. He worked for the next thirty-four years as a dendrologist. In his study of American trees (the dendro- in his title), he began his publishing career in earnest. He wrote over 150 handbooks and hardbacks, some multi-volume works, on the trees of the western hemisphere. His fluency in Spanish really helped him in his studies of trees south of the Mexican border.

He wrote the Field Guide to North American Trees. Published by the Audubon Society, this two-volume set is still in print with more than a million copies sold. The book for the eastern region covers Muskogee.

Elbert Little's list of awards and service is too long to cite here. In the early 1990's, he returned to his old hometown to see how much he remembered from his youth. Of course, he visited the library to see if any of his books were on the shelves. I found him to be a gentle man with just a tinge of pride. We searched for his books and then he left.

It was not until years later that I realized the measure of his contributions in the study of trees. If one searches for his name on the internet, the list of hits often include acknowledgements by other researchers of Elbert Little's contributions. This scientist truly surpassed his surname by a mile.

The Olympic Airdome

2008-06-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

An "airdome" was an open-air theater. Muskogee once had a number of airdomes around town. They operated from late spring to late fall each year. This is the story of the Olympic Airdome.

The Olympic rose from the ground on South Third Street next to the Columbia Alley. Carpenters finished the theater in May of 1907. Maybe the wood for the theater came from the lumberyard located behind the Olympic. The location of the airdome in the 200 block retained a bit of old Muskogee town flavor. There were a couple of residences located across the street that were destined to be replaced by stores in just a few years.

The eighteen-foot high stage faced west. It was about twenty feet deep and had a performance area that covered thirty of the stage's fifty-foot width. The bleachers backed up against Third Street to a height of fifteen feet. Tickets sold for ten cents and a quarter each.

Most theaters of this period accommodated vaudevillian performances. Thus, it is no surprise that a troupe of performers opened the theater. "Ferris' Comedians" was one of Dick Ferris' four companies entertaining audiences in America. This troupe of performers remained in town for over a week.

Their first play entitled "Friends" headlined the Olympic Airdome's first season. The "Ku Klux Klan" followed, but was immediately cancelled after its first night. Thirty citizens petitioned the city in opposition to its performance and the acting mayor, J. B. Campbell, ordered it shut down. The actors performed the same play two days later at Hyde Park outside of city limits.

Being versatile, the sixteen-member troupe performed "Her First False Step" at the Olympic in place of the cancelled show. This five-act melodrama was one of several performances that greatly amused the viewers for the rest of the troupe's stay in town.

The Olympic opened with electric lights strung from the stage to the stands. Before the season was over, electricity also ran a movie projector showing black and white silent films. The audience waited at the end of each reel for the loading of the next one because the theater owned only a single projector.

Many casts of performers would be coming to the Olympic one after another during the next eight years. One comedy making the rounds of many theater circuits had a serious message. "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" drove home the value of temperance. The Sherman Stock Company performed it and the Russian drama named "Michael Strogoff." The last play was based on an original story by Jules Verne.

The "Ferris' Comedians" stayed long enough to put on one last show. It was entitled "The Cattle King," a western melodrama that was based on the dime novel of Frank Dumont by the same name. The first few lines from the actors ceased momentarily when a fistfight broke out in the back bleachers. A young man named J. G. Blalock was blocking some "ten cent" seats when instructed to sit down. The altercation lasted but a minute before the restoration of order.

Yet, this 1907 incident represented the nature of rowdiness common in general theaters of the day. Rowdiness did not doom open-air theaters. Their demise came about by the desire for more control over the elements.

Brick and mortar buildings paid investors with a steady, year-round income from ticket sales. As motion pictures became the most common form of entertainment, audiences were grateful they no longer had to suffer from an interruption in a performance when a train passed through Muskogee.

By 1916, the proprietors had abandoned the Olympic Airdome. The lumber company behind the theater asked the city to have the old theater condemned. The city fire marshal and building inspector both examined the theater. In their joint report to the city council, they stated that both the theater and the lumberyard were firetraps. In the end, the city took no immediate action against the old airdome, but it already had seen the last stage full of actors.

Dangers US Indian Police Faced

2008-05-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Before he became Oklahoma's first United States senator, Robert L. Owen served as an Indian Agent in Muskogee. During his tenure as Indian Agent, he constantly strove to improve working conditions for the Indian Police who worked for the agency.

The mid-1880's was a trying time in Indian Territory. Deputy Marshals and U. S. Army patrols provided some protection to Indian and non-Indian residents alike. In many cases, however, the Indian Police was important to successful police work in the territory.

In 1886, Owen reported having forty-three members of the Indian Police operating out of the Muskogee office. There were forty privates, two lieutenants and a captain. The police operated from their homes in order to provide service to their neighborhoods. Consequently, they knew their neighbors and the terrain nearby. This local knowledge frequently came in handy when tracking down a criminal.

However, there was an uncommon threat to service as a police officer in Indian Territory. Owen reported that some young Cherokees rode into Muskogee. Suffering from their consumption of alcohol, they began firing revolvers indiscriminately. Captain Samuel Sixkiller was shot and slightly wounded in one arm.

When the offenders were disarmed and arrested, they protested. They thought they were only shooting at the Indian Police. The intoxicated shooters were unaware that there were two Deputy Marshals nearby. At that time, there was no legal protection for the Indian Police except what local laws provided.

In another case, an Indian Police Lt. Thomas R. Knight killed Albert St. John in the process of arresting him. Members of St. John's wealthy family brought charges against Lt. Knight forcing the latter to make numerous trips to Fort Smith to defend himself.

One police officer was sentenced to hang by a tribal court for killing a desperado in self-defense. About the same time, the Federal Court in Fort Smith acquitted a Deputy Marshal, who was a US citizen, of the same charge.

Months after making his report for 1886, Agent Owen reported the killing of Captain Sixkiller the day before Christmas. Two young Cherokee half-breeds shot down the unarmed Sixkiller as he walked out of a Muskogee store. The drunks who committed the murder were never tried. One was captured and place in the custody of the Creek Lighthorse (tribal police) because the crime was committed in the Creek Nation. However, he was lightly guarded and soon escaped.

Thus were the variances of protection for lawmen. Owen advocated in his annual reports for passage federal legislation protecting the Indian Police. Then, no federal law protected Captain Sixkiller. Congress shortly afterwards passed such legislation.

For the risk they took, the Indian Police privates received eight dollars a month. Officers received a little more. Out of this salary, the police supplied their own provisions and a horse.

Lt. William Fields was promoted to captain following Sixkiller's death. A desperado murdered Lt. Fields about three months later while being arrested. His death on April 10th, 1887 led to the promotion of Lieutenant Knight, mentioned above.

Lt. Knight experienced a similar situation. While making arrest, the criminal resisted. Knight's killing of the offender was justified by Agent Owen who said he believed "it necessary to save his own life."

The passage of federal legislation to protect the US Indian Police began the process of reducing the threats these peacekeepers faced.

Girl Scout Statue Coming

2008-05-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Phyllis Mantik has cast a statue of a Girl Scout. She is a Canadian who has made sculpting her purpose in life. Now a resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma, she was chosen to make a bronze cast for the scouting program. That vision will be unveiled at the Three Rivers Museum on Saturday, May 31 at 4 o'clock.

Phyllis is celebrating the Scouting program by portraying a girl in her Scout uniform. This girl is an accomplished youngster as attested by the number of badges she wears on her sash. She has raised her right hand in the three-fingered salute recognizable around the world as a pledge to "do her best."

One tradition of the Girl Scouts is the selling of cookies to support the Scouting program. It is an important rite of passage for girls who meet the public while selling cookies. Thousands of local girls have become more confident in themselves while asking someone to buy a box of cookies.

The location of the statue in Muskogee is no accident. Four boxes of cookies are shown stacked by the Girl Scout who is forever frozen in bronze. Girls in the scouting program first sold cookies in Muskogee during December 1917 to raise money. The girls sold cookies in order to raise money to purchase uniforms.

The Muskogee's Mistletoe Troop was a new group in town. However, so was the Girl Scout organization. Juliette Gordon Low organized the first troop in the spring of 1912 in Georgia. It was only in 1915 that she incorporated the organization as Girl Scouts, Inc. Juliette sold her valuable necklace to support the society during these early days. This was because there was no regular income until troops all across the country began following Muskogee in selling cookies.

Members of the troop were able to sell cookies in Muskogee only until the middle of the month. A shortage of gas and the discovery that the heating plant at the Central High School was deficient forced the local school board to start the Christmas holidays on December 16th.

Since those days when Muskogee girls first peddled their cookies in the high school cafeteria, troop activities all across the United States have benefited. Because of those first sales, the "Cookie Seller" statue is coming to Muskogee.

Beginning May 21st, the Three Rivers Museum will display current and former Girl Scout uniforms. Also on exhibit will be memorabilia illustrating the scouting tradition and activities. This material may be viewed until June 7th.

Girl Scouts from all across Eastern Oklahoma plan to be at the Three Rivers Museum on the 31st to celebrate the "Road to a New Beginning." This celebration begins at 4:00 pm and will include the unveiling of the new statue.

If you were ever a Girl Scout, parented a Girl Scout or purchased cookies in support of the Girl Scout activities, plan to attend the dedication of the new Girl Scout statue at 220 Elgin Avenue in Muskogee.

Museum Digitizing Interviews

2008-05-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

Alexander Hamilton Mike, Jr. was born in the Creek community surrounding the Union Agency now atop Agency Hill west of Muskogee. His birth occurred, he said, in 1874.

When Dub West interviewed Mr. Mike in September 1973, his voice showed the weakness of advanced age. Despite his low volume, A. H. could recall events and people from the earliest days of Muskogee's history.

Since 1860, man has been interested in recording the human voice. Mr. A. H. Mike was among the first persons Dub West recorded for posterity. Dub recorded nearly two hours of Mr. Mike's recollections.

Mike's interview is among the more than 180 discussions Dub recorded. He began in 1970 and continued recording on audiotape for nearly two full decades. His interviewees were all born before 1924. Mr. Mike, for example, was nearly 100 years old when Dub interviewed him.

Dub West sought out many long-time residents to interview. While most lived in the Muskogee area, he did not limit himself to the immediate area. He also sought out knowledgeable people in McIntosh and Cherokee Counties. Though West conducted interviews year round, he visited informants more between late winter and summer.

Following Dub West's death in 2001, the family donated the collection of interviews to the newly established Three Rivers Museum. The museum duplicated many of the tapes for preservation purposes years ago.

Developments in technological areas, however, mean today's audiocassette tapes are a dying recording media. Realizing this, the staff and volunteers have begun the process of digitizing these audiocassettes for the long-term future.

The process necessitate that each tape be played on a tape player that is connected to a computer. The computer used a recording program to re-record the stories digitally.

After this comes more steps before the interviews will be of much use to historians. Transcriptions of an interview are necessary, too. Such transcriptions point to accounts of an individual, place or event that historians will want to study.

The Three Rivers Museum has an offer for you. If you have a taped recording of an area resident, you may bring the cassette tape to the Three Rivers Museum. Then the museum will create a digital file for you to take home on the flash drive. There will be no charge for this service.

All the museum asks is that you allow it to retain a copy of the recording in order to expand the museum's collection. You get the added benefit of seeing that your relative's voice lives on in an institution dedicated to preservation of area history.

1916 Muskogee Balloon Race

2008-05-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Muskogee hosted the first of two "International Balloon Races" in 1916. While not officially sanctioned by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, this race kept interest in ballooning alive in America during the years of the Great War.

The race was sponsored by the Oklahoma Free State Fair to promote that year's fair. In 1916, the contest drew six contestants. None was from foreign countries because of the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. The board posted a prize of $2000 for the entrant who traveled the farthest.

October 7th, the last day of the fair, saw the gas bags lift off from the fair ground racetrack. The Muskogee Gas and Electric had pumped 360,000 cubic feet of natural gas into six balloons. Three of them were 80,000 cubic feet in size.

The "Dayton" balloon launched first. A lumberman from Dayton, Ohio, piloted one of the smaller balloons. He sailed aloft without a rider. This balloon came down near Kansas City, Missouri.

The "Saint Louis No. 1" lifted off second. It suffered a rip in its bag at 14,000 feet. Fortunately, the fabric acted as a parachute. Both passengers landed safely near Macon, Missouri.

The "Wichita" departed with two dentists aboard. The balloon lifted slow enough to not even clear the north fence around the racetrack. This embarrassing beginning was quickly followed by a landing at Coweta.

The Kansas City Aero Club sponsored the "Uncle Sam." Its captain was Harry E. Honeywell of St. Louis. He won the silver trophy for the greatest distance traveled at the 1909 International Balloon Race. By the end of his ballooning career, he had made about 600 flights.

After arriving in Muskogee, Captain Honeywell recruited Jack Horne to travel in the race as his aide. Horne was the district manager for a national insurance company.

While flying near Bartlesville, they were fired upon by "Indians." One of the bullets hit the bag, causing a steady leak that finally forced the balloon down near Dubuque, Iowa.

The "White" balloon also had two passengers. Both the pilot and aide came from Saint Louis, Missouri, for the race. Their luck held throughout the race. They traveled 410 miles, landing near Chariton, Iowa.

The "St. Louis Million Population" balloon rose into the air last. Captain John Berry was the oldest at seventy-six years of age. A manufacturer, he agreed to take another Muskogean.

Miss Irene Adams was set to depart when Capt. Berry abandoned his plans to take her at the last moment. She was a single Illinoisan who worked selling curios at the Muskogee Indian Trading Company.

Berry's balloon was the last one to report in at the end of the race. This was the result of landing in a rural area of Harrison County, Missouri. It took him longer to get to a telegraph office in order to notify the race officials back in Muskogee where he came down and when he landed.

The fair board awarded the first prize money to Capt. Honeywell for his masterful piloting of a damaged balloon. In the end, however, the real winner was the town of Muskogee because of the excellent national news coverage the race received.

Charles A. Moon, Orphaned Lawyer

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The photograph above shows the facing of the sidewalk step at 819 West Martin L. King Blvd. Charles A. Moon purchased the house about 1919 and later paved the sidewalk. He was proud of his home and this last vestige reminds us of this man's life in Muskogee.

Born in Cartersville, Georgia about 1883, Charles A. Moon was the son of Charles A. and Hattie (Goodwin) Moon. His parents, who married in late 1880, died when he was still an infant. A multitude of kin thereafter took turns in raising him. His upbringing left him with a strong sense of fairness and justice.

Fortunately, his mother's younger sister took him as a "pupil" because she wanted to become a schoolteacher. Her efforts to "teach" Charles resulting in him attending the University of Georgia Law School.

He arrived in Muskogee in 1906 after graduating with his law degree, but began working as an errand boy for Benjamin Martin's law firm. Before long, however, he was practicing law. Eventually, he served as City Attorney under four different mayors.

Always a leader, Charles was active in unraveling the mayoral form of government when Muskogee's city council ceased functioning harmoniously. He was among those who advocated the manager form of government. A city election in 1919 changed Muskogee's government to its present form.

Charles Moon won his first election to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1926. Then he won re-election in 1928. During this term, legislators tried to impeach the governor. After a failed attempt in 1928, Oklahoma state legislators impeached Governor Henry Simpson Johnston the next year. Moon acted as the leading prosecutor among the legislators who supported Gov. Johnston's impeachment.

Same year, Moon became involved in impeaching Gov. Huey P. Long of Louisiana. Moon advised those seeking to oust Gov. Long because of his experience in impeaching Gov. Johnston. However, he withdrew his efforts before Gov. Long beat back his opponents.

Representative Moon ran against Muskogee's State Senator W. M. Gulager. Moon won the election in November of 1930. After replacing W. M. Gulager as State Senator, Moon immediately wanted to replace many of Gulager's appointees. Following his instincts for fairness, Moon said one of Gulager's appointees spent the previous eight months of the year in Texas instead of on the job in Oklahoma.

Senator Moon served a second tern as state senator. During this term he helped to end the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that abolished the consumption of alcohol. At one point, those seeking to reintroduce legislation allowing alcoholic sales in the state came up short of the votes. Those in favor flew Moon from Muskogee to Oklahoma City to vote in the Senate. This vote led to the reintroduction of legal consumption of liquor.

Charles Moon spent the remainder of his life in Muskogee. Home life and his law practice took up much of his time. Nonetheless, he found time to perform civic work, too. For example, he served as attorney of the Oklahoma Free State Fair for many years. He finally retired from this work in 1952. He was nearly seventy years old.

When you are driving across the intersection of Ninth Street and Martin L. King Blvd, look for "Chas. A. Moon" on sidewalk step. When you spot the name, tip your hat to a man who believed in fairness and justice in Muskogee.

Free Beginning Genealogy Workshop Coming May 3

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The Muskogee County Genealogical Society and the Muskogee Public Library is presenting a Free Beginners Genealogy Workshop on Saturday, May 3. Registration begins at 9:00. Registration is not necessary unless ordering a box lunch.

There will be five sessions during the day. Each session lasts forty-five minutes. The first session begins at 9:30.

Jere Harris starts with "Basic Genealogy 101." This session tell you what a person needs to know to get started.

Stacy Blundell and Alissa Hill teach the researcher about "Organizing Your Family History." This tag-team humorously tackles the task of keeping track of your family details.

Sue Tolbert covers "The Why and How-To of Citing Your Sources." Sources are important for evaluating the accuracy of the information uncovered during research. Sue teaches the proper steps for following a standardized approach.

Lunch begins at 12:15. Workshop attendees may "brown bag" by bringing their own meal. If they prefer, attendees may reserve a box lunch by registering early and paying $5.50. Pre-payment is required by May 1 for a box lunch. Sandwich choices are Ham/Cheese or Smoked Turkey.

Nancy Calhoun kicks off the afternoon sessions at 1:30. Her topic will be "Research Aids in the Local History & Genealogy Department of the Muskogee Public Library. She will also cover how to find the material in the collection.

I will be teaching the last session beginning at 2:15. The topic will be "Websites Worth Using (Free)." The emphasis of my talk will be on using the internet to find free information about your family or ancestor.

All during the day, researchers may access the resources in the Muskogee Public Library. During the afternoon, society members will be available to provide one-on-one assistance in overcoming research roadblocks.

The workshop is free and open to anyone wishing to begin researching their past family history. If you are lucky, you may even take home a door prize.

Mark your calendar for the next workshop coming October 4.