Fort Gibson Oklahoma

Biography of Edward D. Hicks

Edward D. Hicks is numbered among Tahlequah’s representative business men and is one whose life record should be a stimulus to the effort and ambition of others. He was born at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, on the 1st of January, 1866, a son of Daniel R. and Nancy J. (Rider) Hicks. His grandfather on the paternal side Elijah Hicks, was chief of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia and Indian Territory and died in 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks came with the immigration of Cherokees in 1837 and 1838 to Indian Territory and the father became a successful farmer and stock … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Ted R. Mounts

(See Thompson and Gusoduesga) Ada, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Cobb) Brown was born in 1887. Educated in the Cherokee Public Schools and Female Seminary. Married at Fort Gibson in 1911, Ted Ray, son of David Albert and Caroline Harriette (Thompson) Mounts born at Fort Gibson, Saturday March 29,1884. They are the parents of Mary Cherokee, Okla.; Billie Brown, Louise Ramona and Ted Ray Mounts. Mr. and Mrs. Mounts are representative citizens of Fort Gibson and are well known their public spirited citizenship.

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Walter Scott

(See Grant and Ross) -Nannie Ratliff born December 29, 1856, married Thomas Fox French, and they were the parents of Bernice Martha French who married James Milner Howard; Margaret French who married Charles McDonald, and Nannie French who married Lewis G. Girtley Sleeper. Thomas Fox French died and Mrs. French married Rufus Wyatt McCracken and they were the parents of Walter Scott McCracken. Mr. and Mrs. McCracken were divorced and she married Walter Scott. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are well-to-do farmers near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.

Biography of J. Homer McCall, M. D.

Dr. J. Homer McCall, physician and surgeon of Fort Gibson, was born in De Kalb county, Illinois, April 2, 1859, and is a son of Alfred and Catherine (Durham) McCall, who were natives of Ohio and of New York respectively. The father was of Scotch-Irish descent, while the mother came of German lineage. In early manhood Alfred McCall devoted his life to the ministry but later became a railroad promoter and was active in connection with the building of the Florida, Memphis & Columbia River Railroad, which is now a part of the Santa Fe system. He was also active … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. John C. Duncan

Duncan, Mrs. John C. (See Grant, Duncan and Sanders)—Joanna Coody Rogers daughter of Charles Rogers Coody and Nancy (Patton) Rogers was born in Cooweescoowee District in 1861. Educat­ed in the Cherokee Nation Schools, graduating from the Female Seminary, June 30, 1881. Taught school. In 1885 she mar­ried at Fort Gibson, John Clinton, son of John Thompson and Elizabeth Ann (Sanders) Duncan, born in 1859 in Flint District, Cherokee Nation. He was educated in the Cherokee Public Schools and Male Seminary. Fortunate in having splendid educations, discriminative and appreciative minds, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan have always been unobtrusive

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. William P. Pettit

(See Grant, Tyner, Adair and Riley)-William Percival, son of William and Nannie (Tyner) Pettitt, was born Sept. 20, 1867; educated at Fort Gibson and the Male Seminary. He married March 18, 1894, Mary Jane, daughter of Benjamin and Sallie (Guerin) Adair, born Thursday, January 1, 1874, in Illinois District. She was educated in the Female Seminary. They moved on April 17, 1894, from Illinois District to Cooweescoowee District, settling three-fourths of a mile north of the Cherokee and Creek line, where they lived until January 19, 1903, when they moved to their present residence at Inola. Mr. and Mrs. Pettitt … Read more

Slave Narrative of Johnson Thompson

Person Interviewed: Johnson Thompson Place of Birth: Texas Date of Birth: December 1853 Just about two weeks before the coming of Christmas Day in 1853, I was born on a plantation somewheres eight miles east of Bellview, Rusk County, Texas. One year later my sister Phyllis was born on the same place and we been together pretty much of the time ever since, and I reckon there’s only one thing that could separate us slave born children. Mammy and pappy belong to W.P. Thompson, mixed-blood Cherokee Indian, but before that pappy had been owned by three different masters; one was … Read more

Biography of Q. B. Boydstun

Q. B. Boydstun, attorney-at-law, practicing as a member of the firm of Mountecastle & Boydstun at Fort Gibson, Muskogee County, is a native son of Oklahoma, his birth having occurred at Caddo, Bryan County, December 8, 198. His parents were R. B. and A. R. (Massengill) Boydstun, the former a native of Tennessee, while the latter was born in Texas. The father is a rancher and stock-man, who came to the Indian Territory with his parents in the year 1872 and has since given his attention to the management of his ranch and to stock raising. For the past twenty-four … Read more

Slave Narrative of Harriett Robinson

Person Interviewed: Harriet Robinson Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Bastrop, Texas Date of Birth: September 1, 1842 Age: 95 I was born close to Webbers Falls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mary Grayson

Person Interviewed: Mary Grayson Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma Age: 83 I am what we colored people call a “native.” That means that I didn’t come into the Indian country from somewhere in the Old South, after the war, like so many Negroes did, but I was born here in the old Creek Nation, and my master was a Creek Indian. That was eighty three years ago, so I am told. My mammy belonged to white people back in Alabama when she was born, down in the southern part I think, for she told me that after she was a sizeable girl … Read more

Slave Narrative of Chaney Richardson

Person Interviewed: Chaney Richardson Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Age: 90 I was born in the old Caney settlement southeast of Tahlequah on the banks of Caney Creek. Off to the north we could see the big old ridge of Sugar Mountain when the sun shine on him first thing in the morning when we all getting up. I didn’t know nothing else but some kind of war until I was a grown woman, because when I first can remember my old Master, Charley Rogers, was always on the lookout for somebody or other he was lined up against in the … Read more

Slave Narrative of George Kye

Person Interviewed: George Kye Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Age: 110 I was born in Arkansas under Mr. Abraham Stover, on a big farm about twenty miles north of Van Buren. I was plumb grown when the Civil War come along, but I can remember back when the Cherokee Indians was in all that part of the country Joe Kye was my pappy’s name what he was born under back is Garrison County, Virginia, and I took that name when I was freed, but I don’t know whether he took it or not because he was sold off by old Master … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. James H. Thomas

(See Foreman and Riley)-Eugenia, the daughter of Eugene and Jane (Riley) Triplett, was born at Fort Gibson in 1844; was educated in the Cherokee public schools, and the Cherokee National Female Seminary. She married at Wagoner on Dee. 25, 1892; James H. Thomas, born in Oklahoma in 1874. They are the parents of George H., born April 5, 1897; Arvol V., born June 10, 1899; Theron, born July 8, 1901; Gladys M., born January 16, 1905; Helen, born January 1909; Celia and Lewis Thomas, born June 20, 1911. Mr. Thomas is a member of the Knights of Pythias; and is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Henry C. Pennell

(See Grant and Duncan)-Dora Fannie, daughter of Thomas Fox and Helen Alice (Kell) French, born July 17, 1874. Educated at Fort Gibson and Female Seminary. Married December 6, 1893 Henry Camillius son of William and Caroline Pennel, born January 18, 1873 in Washington County, Ark. They are the parents of: Thomas William born October 5, 1895; Charles Columbus, born December 9, 1897; James Kell, born January 19, 1900; Bernice, born Feb. 27, 1904 and Thelda Pennel, born March 3, 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Pennel are member of the Holiness Church. They are farmers, near Hulbert, Okla.

Slave Narrative of Betty Robertson

Person Interviewed: Betty Robertson Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Age: 93 I was born close to Webbers Falls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph Vann bought him, so he never did learn to talk much … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. E. W. Gish

(See Colootsa, Cordery, Adair and Gosaduisga) Martin R. Brown, born February 27, 1858 at Fort Gibson. Married May 9, 1888 Nannie C. McNair, born in 1866. They were the parents of Catherine Brown born in 1891 at Tahlequah, married in Oklahoma City in 1915, Emmett W. Gish. They are the parents of Dorothy Louise Gish, age five years. Mr. Gish is a merchant in Oklahoma City. Mr and Mrs. Gish are members of the Presbyterian church.

Biography of Grover P. Watkins

Grover P. Watkins, engaged in the practice of law at Fort Gibson, was born at Carrollton, Arkansas, August 23, 1886, and is a son of Paschal T. and Eliza (Holt) Watkins, who were also natives of Arkansas. The father was a druggist and also a farmer, devoting his attention to the two lines of business at Carrollton. He served as a soldier throughout the Civil war with the Confederate forces and became an officer of the army. He died November 11, 1905, and is still survived by his wife, who makes her home in Green Forest, Arkansas. Grover P. Watkins … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Samuel Benge Jr.

(See Hildebrand, Ghigau, Oolootsa and Grant.)-Samuel Houston, son of Samuel Houston and Josephine J. (Walker) Benge, was born at Fort Gibson in 1898. Educated at Fort Gibson. Married in 1918, Margaret, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hildebrand. They are the parents of Samuel Houston Benge. Mr. Benge is a farmer near Fort Gibson. Samuel Houston, son of Martin and Eliza (Lowrey) Benge was born January 28, 1832. Elected Councilor from Sequoyah District Aug. 3, 1857, and elected solicitor of the same District in 1859. He was First Lieutenant of Company A, Third Indian Home Guards, and a signer of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. James M. Pierce

(See Cordery) Nancy Jane, daughter of Albert and Louisa (Cordery) Anderson, was born January 1, 1882; and married August 23, 1896. James Madison Pierce, born December 13, 1877, in Hall County, Georgia. They were the parents of Gertrude, born June 3, 1897; Mark, born November 7, 1898; James Clayton, born February 7, 1902 and Earl B. Pierce, born February 8, 1905. Mr. Pierce is one of the wealthiest cotton farmers of the Muskogee-Fort Gibson section, owning and operating hundreds of acres of valuable land, and several cotton gins.

Slave Narrative of Victoria Taylor Thompson

Person Interviewed: Victoria Taylor Thompson Age: 80 My mother, Judy Taylor, named for her mistress, told me that I was born about three year before the war; that make me about 80 year old so they say down at the Indian Agency where my name is on the Cherokee rolls since all the land was give to the Indian families a long time ago. Father kept the name of ‘Doc’ Hayes, and my brother Coose was a Hayes too, but mother, Jude, Patsy, Bonaparte (Boney, we always called him), Lewis and me was always Taylors. Daddy was bought by the … Read more