Indian Territory

Biography of Hon. Jesse Cochran

Hon. Jesse Cochran was born on Beaty’s creek, Delaware district, Cherokee Nation of the Indian Territory, November 27, 1847, and died November 11, 1905, on his farm on which he had resided since 1878, six miles west of Chelsea, Rogers county, Oklahoma. He was a three-quarter blood Cherokee Indian and a son of Jesse Cochran, Sr., and Nancy (Proctor) Cochran, who were natives of the old Cherokee Nation in the state of Georgia and emigrated to the Indian Territory under the removal of the Cherokees to west of the Mississippi. Mrs. Nancy Cochran died December 8, 1847, and Jesse Cochran, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Robert D. Knight

Robert D. Knight was born March 25, 1846, at Chouteau, Cherokee Nation, the youngest son of J. S. Knight, a Marylander, and a Cherokee lady, daughter of William Rogers, one of the old settlers. Robert attended several schools in the State of Pennsylvania, after which he spent three years at the academy in Bridgeton, New Jersey, finishing his education at Newtonia, Missouri. Leaving school in 1861, Robert entered the Confederate service, and served until the close of the war. After devoting ten years to farming, Mr. Knight moved in 1876 to Vinita, and there began the business of architect, contractor … Read more

Biography of Dr. Morris Frazee

The subject of this sketch was born September 8, 1838, at Chandlersville, O. He is the eldest son of W. F. Frazee and Isabella Mahon, from County Armagh, Ireland. Morris attended the public schools until sixteen years of age, when he entered Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., and there remained until, in three years, he completed his sophomore course, after which he read law with Messrs. Muse and Gaston, at Zanesville, Ohio, for one year. Returning to his home at Warsaw, Illinois, he studied medicine until the outbreak of the war, when he joined the Federal service as a second lieutenant, … Read more

Treaty of February 27, 1867

Articles of agreement concluded at Washington, D. C., on the twenty-seventh day of February, 1867, between the United States, represented by Lewis G. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, W. H. Watson, special commissioner, Thos. Murphy, supt. of Indian affairs for Kansas, and Luther R. Palmer, U. S. Indian agent, duly authorized, and the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, represented by their chiefs, braves, and head-men, to wit: Mazhee, Mianco, Shawgwe, B. H. Bertrand, J. N. Bourassa, M. B. Beaubien, L. H. Ogee, and G. L. Young Whereas the Pottawatomies believe that it is for the interest of their tribe that a … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles Gates Moore

Charles Gates Moore was born in Montgomery County, Missouri, being the son of J. W. Moore, a merchant of Readsville, Missouri. At an early age Charles Gates was place at school at Fulton, Missouri, and at the age of fifteen commenced clerking in the same town. Later on he acquired a thorough knowledge of drugs, and in 1887 moved to Eufaula, in the Creek Nation, where he established a drug store at his present stand. Mr. Moore carries one of the largest stocks of goods in the Indian Territory. Some time ago he opened a branch house at Checotah, and … Read more

Biography of Hon. W. A. Palmer

The subject of this sketch was born near the mouth of Little River, Creek Nation, in 1856; the son of Palmer, a half-breed French and Creek, who came from the old country in 1833 and died at Fort Gibson in 1865, only surviving his wife (Watey Palmer’s mother), about two weeks, she dying rather suddenly, close to Fort Scott, Kansas. At the outbreak of the war, the subject of out sketch went with his parents, who refugeed for three and a half years among the Sac and Fox Indians in Kansas. When ten years of age, after the death of … Read more

Biography of T. E. Bertholf

T. E. Bertholf, farmer, stock raiser and chicken fancier, was born in the old town of Norfolk, in the Creek Nation of the Indian Territory, December 25, 1868. His father, Marcus Bertholf, was a native of Illinois and came to the Indian Territory in 1840, at which time he took up his abode near Tahlequah. At the outbreak of the Civil war he went to Texas as an enlisted man, working at the wagon-maker’s trade during the period and thus aiding in supplying the need of the Confederacy for wagons. When hostilities had ceased he returned to the old town … Read more

General History of the Western Indian Tribes 1851-1870 – Indian Wars

At the Sand Creek Massacre

Up to 1851, the immense uninhabited plains east of the Rocky Mountains were admitted to be Indian Territory, and numerous tribes roamed from Texas and Mexico to the Northern boundary of the United States. Then came the discovery of gold in California, drawing a tide of emigration across this wide reservation, and it became necessary, by treaty with the Indians, to secure a broad highway to the Pacific shore. By these treaties the Indians were restricted to certain limits, but with the privilege of ranging, for hunting purposes, over the belt thus re-reserved as a route of travel.

Biography of Elias C. Boudinot

The late distinguished lawyer and statesman, E. C. Boudinot, was born August, 1835, near Rome, Ga., and was the son of Kille-kee-nah, a Cherokee descended from a long line of chiefs. Elias was first educated for a civil engineer at Manchester, Vt., but finally concluded to adopt the law as a profession. He was admitted to the bar in 1856, and practiced in the State and Federal Courts. One of his first cases was the defense of Stand Watie, defendant in a murder case, in which it is recorded that young Boudinot made one of the most effective and polished … Read more

Treaty of April 28, 1866

Articles of agreement and convention between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Indians, made and concluded at the City of Washington the twenty-eighth day of April, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, by Dennis N. Cooley, Elijah Sells, and E. S. Parker, special commissioners on the part of the United States, and Alfred Wade, Allen Wright, James Riley, and John Page, commissioners on the part of the Choctaws, and Winchester Colbert, Edmund Pickens, Holmes Colbert, Colbert Carter, and Robert H. Love, commissioners on the part of the Chickasaws. Article 1. Permanent peace and friendship are … Read more

Biography of H. W. Adams

The subject of this sketch was born in April 1837, being the son of John Adams, mayor of St. Charles, Missouri, who died in 1868. John Adams was the youngest brother of Robert H. Adams, United States Senator, who died during senatorial service. H. W. Adams was first instructed by his father, a man of superior education, and after some years’ study joined his parent in agricultural pursuits. In 1855 he left home, and worked at the carpenter trade in Arkansas. In 1859 he moved to Skulliville, Choctaw Nation, and was soon appointed architect contractor for Fort Coffee and New … Read more

Biography of John C. Asahl

John C. Asahl, a resident of Ramona since 1903 and connected with its mercantile interests throughout, the period, has also figured prominently in connection with public affairs of the city and no man has labored more earnestly, zealously and effectively to bring about public progress, reform and improvement than he Mr. Asahl is a native of Missouri, his birth having occurred in the city of California, March 7, 1870. His father, Charles Asahl, was a native of Germany and came to the United States in 1850, settling in Chicago in the year of the yellow fever plague. He was a … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Leroy L. Crutchfield

Leroy L. Crutchfield was born in Collin County, Texas, October 25, 1844, second son of John Crutchfield, from Alabama, who married Miss Mary E. Ladd, of Tennessee. Leroy attended private schools till 1861, when he entered the Confederate service joining the Fifteenth Texas Calvary, under Col. G. H. Sweet, and was in continual service till the close of the war. IN 1870 he went into the cattle business with his father, and was then elected sheriff of “Jack” County, in which capacity he served five years. Afterward he engaged in merchandise in Jacksborough, and continued it till November 1887, when … Read more

Ponca Indians

The Ponca Indians were located on the right bank of the Missouri River at the mouth of the Niobrara River.

Biography of John E. Ingram

The proprietor of the Forest House, Eufaula, was born in Harrison County, Texas, in December 1839. He commenced his education in the neighborhood schools at the age of ten years. At fourteen years of age he left school, and assisted his father on the farm until 1855, when he came to the Creek Nation and renewed his studies at Tallahassee Mission, having the right of citizenship through his mother who was a Creek Indian. After three years at the Mission, young Ingram undertook the charge of a herd of cattle for a widow lady, and in the capacity remained five … Read more

Biography of Henry Dunzy

The subject of this sketch was born June 13, 1837, and is the second son of Frederick Dunzy, of German and English descent, who came to Illinois in an early day, where Henry afterwards went to the neighborhood schools until he was sixteen years of age. After this, Henry commenced running an engine at Farmington, Missouri, at the Valley Ford Iron Works. There he remained for two years, when he took the position of engineer for Mr. Casey, retaining that office eighteen months. At the age of twenty-one he came to Arkansas, settling close to Fort Smith, where he assumed … Read more

Biography of Alfred Mason Gott

Alfred Mason Gott is quietly passing his days in the home of his niece, Mrs. D. D. Howell of Nowata, and around him are many relics, showing that all of his days have not been as quiet and peaceful as at the present, for he is numbered among the old Indian fighters of this section of the country and has passed through all of the experiences and hardships of pioneer life and the later era of progress and development. That his business affairs have been carefully managed is indicated in the fact that he is now one of the largest … Read more

Biography of Jas. O. Callaghan, M.D.

The subject of this sketch was born November 1860, at Sulphur Springs, Texas. He is the eldest son of Judge S. B. Callaghan, present Chief Justice of the Creek Nation, who is the son of Oliver Callaghan of Scott county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. S. B. Callaghan (Dr. Callaghan’s mother) is the daughter of Rev. Wm. Thornburg, a minister of the Methodist Church, who came from Mississippi to Texas and died in that State about the year 1845. Up to the age of fourteen James received his schooling at Sulphur Springs public school, after which he went to the Alley High School, … Read more

Appropriation Act of March 3, 1903

32 Stat. L., 982 For salaries of four commissioners appointed under acts of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, twenty thousand dollars : Provided, That said Commission shall exercise all the powers heretofore conferred upon it by Congress. Expenses of commissioners and necessary expenses of employees, and three dollars per diem for expenses of a clerk detailed as special disbursing agent by the Interior Department while on duty with the Commission, shall be paid therefrom; for clerical help, including secretary … Read more