In March, 1836, Governor Stokes was appointed 1 sub-agent for the Cherokee, Seneca, and Shawnee tribes in place of Captain Vashon who had died the preceding winter. This sub-agency was stationed at Fort Gibson and paid Governor Stokes the munificent salary of seven hundred fifty dollars annually. For an office Governor Stokes had only his bedroom fourteen by sixteen feet; with one letter case, besides his own table and chairs; “the Cherokee papers in one corner of the room; the Seneca papers in another; the Seneca and Shawnee papers in the third corner and the Quapaw in the remaining corner of the room. I am at a place where all the principal Cherokees come to transact their public business; and I have not eight feet square vacant in which to do their business.”
Governor Stokes complained 2 also to the Secretary of War that his post was an inferior position subject not only to the superintendent but also to the disbursing officer at the post; and that his effort to maintain a commanding influence with the Indians was rendered difficult by the fact that they were daily witnesses of their agent dancing attendance on the second-lieutenant disbursing officer at Fort Gibson who had supervision over his financial transactions with the Indians.
These complaints seem to have borne fruit for in upon to act without authority in consequence of there being no Agent for the Osage Nation of Indians at this time. You will see by the Osage Treaty of 2nd June 1825, 3 Article 5th, that certain reservations of land are made for the benefit of Half-Breeds among which are one to Augustus Clermont 4 640 acres, valued at $6,000; James, 640 acres valued at $1,000. Paul, 640 acres valued at $ 1 300; Henry, 640 acres valued at $800; Anthony, 640 acres valued at $1,800; Rosalie 640 acres, valued at $1,800; Emilia daughter of Mihanga valued at $1,000; Emilia daughter of Shemianga valued at $1,300. Total $15,000.
“These are Osages, the Indian family of the late A.P. Chouteau. For however it may be considered as a reproach on his character, almost all Traders who continue long in an Indian Country, have Indian wives. – This circumstance does not affect the justice of the claim. – The Osage Nation owned the land, and chose to bestow a part of it in this manner. These reservations are all in country ceded to the Cherokee Nation by the Treaties of 6th May 1828, and Feb. 14th, 1833.
“You will see by the 4th Article of the Cherokee Treaty of 29th December 1835, that the United States agree ‘to extinguish for the benefit of the Cherokees’, the titles to these reservations, which are valued in a Schedule annexed to said last mentioned Treaty, at Fifteen thousand dollars.
“Now Sir, Col. Chouteau, with the best intentions, thought he was doing the best for these reserves by stipulating to give them in lieu of the fifteen thousand dollars, about thirty two very valuable negroes, well worth the money. But the title for the greater portion of these negroes was derived from Indians of the Creek Nation, the friends and relations of whom claim the most of them, and it is feared that the reserves will not be able to recover and retain any of them. Since the death of Col. Chouteau, twenty-eight of them have been stolen or enticed away, and most of them are now in the Creek Nation, protected by the Creek Claimants: – Apoth-le-ya-ho-lo a Principal Creek Chief has seven which he claims; and two Half Breed Creeks by the name of Grayson, have most of the remainder. It is ascertained from records, Bonds and authenticated Merchants accounts, that Colo. Chouteau’s property both here and in Missouri will not pay one fourth his debts: In the meantime a Mr. Bogy the agent of the Administrator at St. Louis, has seized and sold or sent to Saint Louis almost every article of Colo. Chouteau’s property to be found in this country, leaving Col. Chouteau’s Indian family in this Cherokee Country nearly destitute of the means of subsistence. In this situation of affairs, these helpless, reserves have applied to me for assistence and protection: – a request that my limited power affords me but little chance of complying with. In the first place they are Osages, living upon two of their reservations in the Cherokee Country; but they have never been adopted into the Cherokee Nation. My power extends no farther than protecting them in homes, but I can not interfere with their property. I think Sir, that something ought to be done by the Government of the United States to rescue from total loss, the amount of the value of their reservations; and this the object of my application through you, to the War Department… The fifteen thousand dollars ought to be more Equitably divided than is done in the Schedule. The first section amounting to $6000, belongs to Augustus Clermont, the oldest son of Colo. Chouteau, and is rated at more than three times the value of any other: This inequality is owing to the great improvements made by Colo. Chouteau with his own money on that section, which was the residence of the family. One thing more and I will endeavor to close this long letter. It is said that Colo. John Drennan of Van Buren in Arkansas has made a request to the Department to set apart or retain for his use, the value of two of the sections for the payment of a debt due from Colo. Chouteau to him and his partner Colo. David Thompson. This would not be doing justice to the Reserves. The sections are the property of Half-Breed Reserves and they ought to have the value of them. The debt from Colo. Chouteau to Thompson and Drennan originated in this manner. I shall always believe that Colo. Chouteau intended to act honestly and justly by the Half-Breed Reserves, for they were his Indian wife, and most of them his own children: – But being in the possession of much property, he sold, soon after the Osage Treaty of June 2nd 1825, two of the reservations No. 5 and 8, supposed to have valuable salt springs on them. They were purchased by Gen 1 . Samuel Houston, then residing in the Cherokee Nation with a Cherokee wife, but not regularly adopted as a Cherokee. Gen 1 . Houston being unable to carry on salt works, sold the two sections to Thompson and Drennan. Now Gen 1 . Houston as well as Thompson & Drennan ought to have known, and I expect did know that no white could purchase and hold land in an Indian Country; – I know of no law to authorize such a purchase, but many are the Acts of Congress and Treaties expressly forbidding such purchases. -The debt from Colo. Chouteau to Thompson & Drennan is therefore a personal debt due from Colo. Chouteau, for which these reservations ought not to be held liable, and I believe Colo. Drennan thinks so too; for since the death of Colo. Chouteau, Colo. Drennan has got six of Chouteau’s negroes into his possession, towards the payment of the debt.
“Thompson & Drennan are gentlemen of respectability, and my friends, but I cannot consent that these Half-Breed Reserves shall be wronged without apprising the Department of the nature of the claims upon their property.
“I must again claim your forgiveness for calling your attention to this difficult and troublesome affair, which I do at the earnest request of a helpless family, suddenly reduced from Independence and Comfort, to great inconvenience if not to absolute want and distress. – I enclose a copy of a letter I received a few days ago from Rosalie, the Indian wife of the late Colo. A. P. Chouteau.”
Governor Stokes’s efforts were unavailing to secure immediate relief for the unfortunate Osage raised in affluence and so suddenly made destitute, but his interest served to assist them until an equally kind hearted successor finally made an adjustment of their difficulties.
During Governor Stokes’s four years term as Cherokee agent he witnessed the troubles of the Cherokee Nation, and did much to pacify and conciliate the contending factions. Though he was a very old man and frequently ill, he faithfully looked after his duties as agent. 5
Lacking an official recording place or repository for such documents, the Cherokee people had placed in his possession their wills, deeds, bills of sale, and guardian’s bonds; and he wrote that he was the sole custodian of written evidence of property amounting to over one hundred thousand dollars in value, “belonging to widows and orphans and other legatees; who but for this precaution, might and would have their papers destroyed, and the evidence of ownership left to the uncertain recollection of individuals as formerly. The wealthy Cherokees are too much enlightened to have their property at the hazard of verbal testimony.” 6 This evidence of their confidence in their agent, Governor Stokes, must have been gratifying but there was no legal authority for it and therefore no way to compensate him in a pecuniary way for this additional responsibility and labor. At the termination of his office he was most solicitous about the safe-keeping of these papers and he continued on at his post without pay until his successor arrived, so that these documents would be safeguarded.
Governor Stokes replaced by Governor Pierce M. Butler
But at the end of his term the President declined to reappoint him. Richard Adams of Virginia was nominated by the President for the post but the Senate refused to confirm him; thereupon the President nominated Governor Pierce M. Butler 7 of South Carolina, who was confirmed and received his commission on September 20, 1841. And we thus have the spectacle of the Governor of South Carolina coming to Indian Territory to take from the Governor of North Carolina his little office.
Governor Stokes clung to the hope that he might not be forced to give up his post, and as a result the files of the Indian office yield an interesting though pathetic letter written by this veteran to Secretary of War Spencer, telling us something about his life: 8
“I know that no man ought to address a public functionary on the score of friendship or former acquaintance, and to expect thereby to obtain a favorable consideration of his claims for redress of what he may consider as grievances. But I know of no other mode of making my pretensions understood, but by referring to transactions in which I have had a conspicuous share.
“I was in public service, either in the land or Sea service, during the whole of the Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783, and am one among the last of those that remain of that class.
“After the close of the War in 1783, I remained in North Carolina, in various public appointments, until December 1816, when I took my seat in the Senate of the United States for seven sessions, (one Short Session to fill a vacancy and six years under a new Election). . .
“After retiring from Congress, I was occasionally in the Legislature of North Carolina, and President of the Board of visitors at West Point, until 1831, when I was Elected Governor of North Carolina and served 1831 and 1832. – I was then appointed at the head of the Commission of Indian Affairs West, with Henry L. Ellsworth and John F. Schermerhorn, with considerable power in the regulating of Indian affairs West…
“After having trespassed so long on your patience, I have now only come to the object of this letter. – Some time ago I received a letter from the War Office notifying me that Pierce M. Butler was appointed Cherokee Agent, and directing me to deliver the Cherokee Books, papers and property to him. By the same mail I received a Commission as Register of the Land Office at Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas. Now it is not my wish to be in the way of any man; but as Mr. Butler has not yet come, and perhaps may decline the office, I beg leave to submit my humble Claim to the Office of the Agency, with the duties of which I am acquainted, in preference to accepting the office of Register of the Land Office, to the duties of which I am a stranger.
“I am perfectly satisfied that my removal has not been sought by either the Treaty or Ridge party; the old party or first settlers; or the new Emigrants, or Ross party. – My most influential friends are among them all, and I have seen them all a few weeks ago, as most of them called on me in going or returning from the annual Council in October last. – If it should not be deemed inconsistent with the views and interests of Government to continue an old Revolutionary Veteran in his former office for a short time, I shall be thankful; in as much as my long stay in the Cherokee Nation has caused me business which it will take me some time to settle to my satisfaction.
“I now again beg pardon for trespassing upon your valuable time on matters relating to myself.”
Official tyranny followed Governor Stokes to the end of his service. It appears from another letter 9 of his that after the arduous labor of making the treaties of 1835 and 1837, out ∞f an appropriation of ten thou-sand dollars for expenses, presents, and other demands, there was a balance of $425.15 remaining in the hands of the commissioners, Chouteau, Stokes, and Arbuckle, which amount was by them turned over to Governor Stokes as part compensation for his services. For traveling while sick to Camp Holmes in the summer of 1835 and negotiating the treaty, and negotiating the other treaty at Fort Gibson in 1837, in both of which he not only acted as chairman, but performed all the labor of secretary, he had received no other pay. Nor had he been paid a penny for his services in appraising the improvements at Harmony and Union missions, involving several weeks of labor and hundreds of miles of travel. But on closing up his affairs as Cherokee agent he was forced by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to pay out of his little salary this amount of money to the Department in favor of a much less meritorious claim of Doctor Richie, who had accompanied Major Chouteau on a western trip.
Death of Governor Stokes
Governor Stokes either did not accept or did not serve out his term as Register of the Land Office at Fayetteville, and was superseded by another. On the eighth of September, 1842, he was by the President appointed sub-agent for the Seneca, Seneca and Shawnee, and Quapaw at a salary of seven hundred fifty dollars per year. 10 On the fourth day of November, 1842, he died in Fort Gibson at the ripe age of eighty-two.
Governor Stokes’s body was interred at Fort Gibson with military honors as was befitting this distinguished public servant and veteran of the Revolutionary War. All the troops of the garrison were turned out and Captain Boone’s company of dragoons formed the escort. A large concourse of citizens from the surrounding country attended and immediately after the funeral obsequies, the officers and citizens assembled and adopted fitting testimonials to his memory from which the following is taken: 11
“The deceased has filled a large space in the history of this country. In his boyhood, he engaged in the struggle for our National Independence, with all the ardor and zeal which characterized his whole career in after life. He was one of the victims of British cruelty on board the Jersey prison ship, and was in confinement on that odious vessel for more than a year. After the war his adventurous spirit led him to different quarters of the globe as the captain of a merchant-man… He has filled probably the duties of more different offices than any man of his day, and in all of them displayed the highest order of talent… He was, without intermission, a member of the College of Electors from his state, from the days of Jefferson to Jackson’s last term – the last three elections being president of the College…
“From his extensive intercourse with nearly all the eminent men of the United States of the last century, his great observation and a most extraordinary memory, he had stored his mind with the prominent facts in the history of our country, its politics, and great men, rendering him at all times one of the most agreeable and instructive companions either for the old or young…
“Although far from any kindred, he received during his last illness all the kind attention that children would bestow upon a father. His last hours were soothed by the presence of many of his friends and his exit was without a struggle.”
A man of large experience and extended observation, Governor Stokes saw many opportunities for improvement and he labored incessantly to help. He wrote many letters to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of War trying, vainly it would seem, to impress them with some of the information concerning the West which he possessed and of which Washington officials were in appalling ignorance.
Citations:
- Herring to Stokes, March 8, 1836, Indian Office, Letter Book 18, p. 150.[
] - Stokes to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, August 20, 1836, Indian Office, Cherokee West S 39-54.[]
- Kappler, op. cit., vol. ii, 154.[]
- Rosalie Chouteau made affidavit, March 17, 1842 [Indian Office, Osage Reserve File B. 1463], that she was the widow of A. P. Chouteau and mother of some of his children, and that her sister Masina was the mother of two others, Augustus and Paul. Anthony, who was deceased, was her brother.[]
- When in 1840, the Secretary of War ordered the Cherokee Nation under the military control of Colonel Arbuckle, Governor Stokes was suspended from office.[]
- Stokes to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, October 26, 1841, Indian Office, 1841 Cherokee File S. 3036.[]
- Pierce M. Butler, born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, in 1798, was appointed second-lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry on August 13, 1819, and transferred to the Seventh Infantry on the 13th of the following December and served at Fort Smith and Fort Gibson. He was made first-lieutenant March 1, 1822, and captain in December, 1825. On May 26, 1826, he was married at the home of E. W. duVal of Crawford County, Arkansas, to Miss Miranda Julia duVal, formerly of Washington, D.C In 1827 he was in charge of the construction of the military road from Fort Gibson to Little Rock. In 1829. while engaged in recruiting work in South Carolina, he was elected cashier of the Branch Bank of South Carolina at Columbia, and October 1, he resigned his commission as captain in the Army.
He served as governor of South Carolina from 1836 to 1838 and on September 17, 1841, was appointed agent to the Cherokee Indians, when he again took up his residence at Fort Gibson. In 1843 and again in 1846 Governor Butler was commissioned to negotiate treaties with the Comanche Indians. He was made colonel of the Palmetto Regiment of South Carolina volunteers on December 22, 1846; he was killed August 20, 1847, at the battle of Churubusco, Mexico.[
] - Stokes to Spencer, Secretary of War, November 20, 1841, Indian Office, Cherokee File S 3070.[]
- Stokes to Crawford, November 5, 1841, Indian Office, Western Super-Intendency, S. 3068.[]
- Secretary of War to Stokes, September 8, 1842, Indian Office, Letter Book 32 p. 443.[]
- Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock), December 7, 1842, p. 3, col. 3.[]