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 Henry C. Meigs

(See Grant and Ross) Henry Clay Meigs, born at Park Hill, Tahlequah District November 16, 1841, married January 11, 1868, Josephine L. Bigelow, born August 27, 1843, in Flint District. Mrs. Meigs died January 15, 1895. They were the parents of Caroline Few, Annie Stapler, Robert Henry, James McDonald, Alice Maud, and Josephine L. Meigs. Mr. Meigs who served in the Confederate Service in 1861-2, is a grandson of Chief John Ross, has many of the amiable traits of his distinguished ancestor. He was elected clerk of Illinois District August 1, 1893, and Judge of the same District on August … 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: James Clayton and Earl B. Pierce. 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 Phyllis Petite

Person Interviewed: Phyllis Petite Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Rusk County, Texas Age: 83 I was born in Rusk County, Texas, on a plantation about eight miles east of Belleview. There wasn’t no town where I was born, but they had a church. My mammy and pappy belonged to a part Cherokee named W. P. Thompson when I was born. He had kinfolks in the Cherokee Nation, and we all moved up here to a place on Fourteen-Mile Creek close to where Hulbert now is. ‘way before I was big enough to remember anything. Then, so I been … 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.

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Jesse McLain

(See Oolootsa and Ghigau)-Margaret, daughter of Samuel Houston and Nannie (Brewster) Benge, born Wednesday, March 2, 1870. Educated at Fort Gibson and Female Seminary. Married July 17, 1885, Jesse, son of Calvin and Charlotte (Martin) McLain, born in February, 1855, educated in the Cherokee Public Schools and Male Seminary. They are the parents of: Nannie Lee, Samuel Houston, Calvin Cross, Eliza Jane, George Washington and Charlotte Benge. Calvin C. was in the A. E. F. in France for seven months and his younger brother, George W., was preparing to embark at the time the Armistice is signed.

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Berths Rogers

(See Oolootsa, Ross and Gosaduisga) Lewis Ross, son of Florian Haraden and Fannie (Vann) Nash, was born April 15, 1864, married May 15, 1890 Emma Beck, born January 21, 1871. She died May 5, 1896. They were the parents of Fairy Fawn and Edgar Ross Nash. Mr. Nash married November 24, 1897 Berths McSpadden, born January 16, 1877, and they were the parents of Dorothy Margaret and Clarence E. Nash. Mr. Nash died and Mrs. Nash married Hugh Morgan Rogers, born Sept. 16, 1864. They were the parents of one child and Mr. Rogers is now deceased. Mrs. Rogers is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Sue Austin

(See Cordery)-Sue, daughter of Charles Harris and Pearl Victoria (Haas) Sisson, born December 14, 1898, at Ft. Gibson; educated at Ft. Gibson, Muskogee and Claremore. Married at Claremore June 5, 1920 Ervin F. son of Henry and Sallie Austin. Mr. Austin is engaged in wholesale dry goods business at Clarmore. Thomas Cordery, an Irishman married Susannah, a full blood Cherokee of the Blind Savannah Clan. Their daughter Nannie married Parker Collins and they were the parents of Jennie Collins who married Charles Harris of Spartanberg district, S. Carolina Charles and Jennie Harris were the parents Narcissa, born in 1841, married … Read more

Slave Narrative of Nancy Rogers Bean

Person Interviewed: Nancy Rogers Bean Location: Hulbert, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Boggy Depot, Oklahoma Age: 82 I’m getting old and it’s easy to forget most of the happenings of slave days; anyway I was too little to know much about them, for my mammy told me I was born about six years before the war. My folks was on their way to Fort Gibson, and on the trip I was born at Boggy Depot, down in southern Oklahoma. There was a lot of us children; I got their names somewheres here. Yes, there was George, Sarah, Emma, Stella, Sylvia, Lucinda, … 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

Biography of J. C. Bushyhead, M. D.

One of Claremore’s pioneer citizens, who has tirelessly devoted his energies to the development of the town along the various lines is Dr. J. C. Bushyhead, who first located here some thirty-one years ago. During the long period of his residence here he has been engaged in the active practice of his chosen profession and has won for himself an enviable position among the foremost physicians and surgeons of northeastern Oklahoma. A native of Indian Territory, he was born at Fort Gibson on the 29th of June, 1870, a son of Dennis Bushyhead, who was chief of the Cherokee Indians … 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

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.

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 T. Mounts

(See Thompson and Thornton)—Evaline, daughter of Lawson and Elsie Jane Martin Runyan, born near Fort Gibson in 1882. Educated in the Cherokee Public Schools and Female Seminary. Married at Fort Gibson in 1912, John Thompson, son of David Albert and Caroline Harriette (Thompson) Mounts, born Thursday February 26, 1880. They are the parents of Thelma J. Mounts.

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 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 Thomas F. Cunningham

(See Ross, Sanders and Ghigau)-Thomas Francis, son of William Ross Cunningham and Eliza Colston, was born at Fort Gibson on Avril 21, 1880. He was educated at Fort Gibson and Bacone University. He married January 29, 1902, Emily Harnage, daughter of John Stringer Scott and Loretta Beldora Harnage, born August 16, 1882, and was educated in Fort Gibson and Bacone University. They are the parents of John Calhoun, born June 2, 1904, and Frances Marion Cunningham, born October 28, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham are residents of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.

Biography of Francis Marion Crowell

Afton owes much to the enterprising spirit and business ability of Francis Marion Crowell, whose identification with the town dates from the time of its establishment, and he is now conducting one of the leading department stores in this part of the state, displaying marked executive force, energy and determination in the control of his interests. He was born on a farm in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, March 14, 1859, his parents being Dr. Marion and Nancy A. Crowell, the former of whom was born at Mecklenburg, North Carolina, February 15, 1830, while the birth of the latter occurred in Henry … Read more