Indian Territory

Biography of Herbert George House

Herbert George House, conducting a bond business and fire insurance agency, has won many clients, by reason of his thoroughness, his progressive methods and his unfaltering enterprise. Muskogee has reason to class him with her representative citizens, recognizing his value as a factor in the commercial and financial development of the city. Mr. House came to the southwest from Ohio, his birth having occurred in Cardington, that state, on the 3d of September, 1870. His parents were Richard Johnson and Mary June (Cook) House, the former a banker, now deceased. Herbert G. House became a student in the University at … Read more

Biography of Mack S. Edmondson

Except for looking after his land and other interests of a varied and important nature, Mack S. Edmondson is living retired in Pryor, enjoying the fruits of a life spent in diligence and industry. He was born on the 9th of September, 1853, a son of Van and Laura (Denman) Edmondson, both natives of Georgia. They came to this state after the Civil war but subsequently removed to Texas and located at Kaufman. The mother’s demise occurred there and soon afterward the father removed to Delaware county, Indian Territory, where he engaged in farming and stock raising until his death. … Read more

Biography of Ellis Buffentan Childers

Ellis Buffentan Childers was born January 10, 1866, the third son of Napoleon B. Childers and Sophia Melford. N. B. Childers was a half Cherokee and white man, adopted by the Creeks at the termination of the war. Ellis’ mother was one-fourth white and three-fourths Creek, while his grandfather, on both sides, was of English descent. The young man went to school at the old Tallahassee Mission in March 1877, where he remained three years. Afterward he went to the Government School at Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he remained three years and a half. During these years he acquired … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas Rogers Knight

The subject of this sketch was born in November 1845, in the Cherokee Nation, oldest son of Joshua Knight and Mary A. Rogers. Thomas was sent to Attleberry Academy, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and there remained three years, after which he went to Neosho and Newtonia, Mo., where he remained until 1858. Returning home he went to the Baptist Mission School, and there studied until the outbreak of the war, when he joined the Confederate army and served until the close. On his return home he embarked in stock-raising and agriculture, and carried on the business until 1884, when he moved … Read more

Death of Cyrus Kingsbury

Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury

Early in the year 1820, an English traveler from Liverpool, named Adam Hodgson, who had heard of the Elliot mission when at home, visited the mission, though he had to turn from his main route of travel the distance of sixty miles. He, at one time on his sixty miles route, employed a Choctaw to conduct him ten or twelve miles on his new way, which he did, then received his pay and left him to finish his journey alone. Of this Choctaw guide Mr. Hodgson, as an example of noble benevolence and faithful trust, states: “After going about a … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. S. Fuller, M.D.

J. S. Fuller was born November 19, 1850, in the State of Arkansas. He is the third son of W. A. Fuller, of Tennessee, and Miss M. Morgan of the same State. James attended county schools until he was twenty years of age, when he went to Cane Hill College, and Cincinnati, Arkansas. He began the study of medicine in 1883, and attended the medical college in St. Louis, since which time he has been practicing in Fort Gibson, while he is also in the mercantile and drug business. In October 1888, he married Miss Rosa Percival, daughter of William … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William M. Merrill

The subject of this sketch was born May, 1865, in Saline County, Missouri, second son of Asa C. Merrill, a prominent farmer of that State. William’s mother was a Miss Akres, also of that State, whose father is now residing in Kansas City. William attended public school until fifteen years of age, when he began assisting his father, and remained on the farm until that parent’s death in 1885, which he and his brother assumed charge of the property for their mother. In 1886 William took the responsibility upon himself, and with his family, in 1888, moved to Vinita, Cherokee … Read more

Biography of Douglas H. Johnston

Douglas H. Johnston was born at Sculliville, Choctaw Nation, October 13, 1856. He is the son of Colonel John Johnston, Sr., a white man, who immigrated with the Six-Town Choctaws to the Indian Territory form Mississippi. Colonel Johnston acquired his title in the Seminole War, and was a cousin of General Joseph E. Johnston, of Confederate fame. He was a land speculator and a prominent lawyer of Mississippi. On coming to the territory, he was married to the widow of Isaac Moncrief, a half-breed Chickasaw lady, sister of James S. Cheedle, by whom he had four sons, viz.: William, Franklin, … Read more

Biography of Jesse McKnight

For thirty-nine years Jesse McKnight has resided in this community, having come to Indian Territory with the early pioneers. Left an orphan at the age of ten years, he soon afterward entered the business world to earn his living, and as the result of intelligently directed efforts, laudable ambition and unflagging courage has won substantial success. A native of Missouri, he was born on the 4th of February, 1866. Jesse McKnight acquired but a limited education in the schools of his native state and at the age of seventeen years made his way to Indian Territory. Locating at Muskogee, he … Read more

Biography of David Hester Cotten

David Hester Cotten, a native son of Oklahoma who represents the third generation of the family in this state, is numbered among the rising young attorneys of Miami, where since 1918 he has engaged in practice, and he has already won a well established position in the ranks of the profession. He was born near Ardmore, in that part of Indian Territory occupied by the Chickasaw Nation, on the 28th of January, 1894, his parents being David Oscar and Cora J. (Nesmith) Cotten, the former born at Tishomingo, Indian Territory, while the latter was a native of Birmingham, Alabama. The … 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

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

Biography of Charles J. Shawnee

Charles J. Shawnee, prominently identified with farming interests at one time but now practically living retired, making his home in Ramona, was born near Alluwe, in Coowescoowee in the Cherokee Nation, December 9, 1875. The name Shawnee was conferred upon his father during the Civil war but this was not really the family name, it being French. The father was John French, who was born at Spring River, near Seneca, Missouri, and he was of French, Shawnee and Delaware extraction. His people came originally from Sandusky, Ohio, and removed thence to Illinois and afterward to Arkansas. Still later they came … Read more

Biography of John L. Springston

John L. Springston is the son of Anderson Springston, half-breed, and Sallie Elliot, daughter of Jack Elliot, a white man, who married a quarter Cherokee. Anderson Springston was born in Tennessee, and after coming to this nation practiced law in the Delaware and Tahlequah districts. John L., the subject of this sketch, was born October 1845, and educated at the public schools, Delaware district. About the time he was ready to enter the Upper Alton Academy, the war broke out, and he joined the Indian Home Guards, Third Regiment, Company I, under Col. M. A. Phillips, Federal army. He entered … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Valentine Gray

The subject of this sketch was born November 14, 1833, in Jackson County, Mississippi, the fourth son of William Gray, of that place. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Frash. Valentine was sent to the public school until he was seventeen years of age. In 1852 he emigrated to California, where he became a farmer and stock-raiser. Here he remained seventeen years, coming east to Chouteau, I.T., in 1869, where he again embarked in stock raising and agriculture, and still continues the business. In 1875 he entered the mercantile and milling business, and after three years’ experience disposed of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harrison O. Shepard

Harrison O. Shepard was born in December 1865, at Mount Vernon, Indiana, the sixth son of Joseph W. Shepard and Mary E. Barter, an English lady by nativity. Harrison went to the public schools until sixteen years of age, and commenced the study of law at nineteen with Grove & Sheperd, of Anthony, Kansas. He remained with that firm for two years, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1887, when he became a partner with the above named firm, and practiced until the establishment of a United States court in the Indian Territory in 1889, since which time … Read more

The Choctaw Claim

1818 Melish Map of Alabama

Ever since the dispute between Texas and the United States commenced concerning the title to Greer County, the Choctaw Nation had two of its ablest men in Washington over hauling the old treaties and watching the movements of both disputants. The United States by the Doak’s Stand Treaty in the autumn of 1820 ceded all its territory to the Choctaw’s south of the Canadian River to Red River along the western line of the Indian Territory. The Cherokees had been ceded all north of the Canadian. Texas claimed that the Red River mentioned in the treaty of 1819 between the United … Read more

Act of February 28, 1902

32 Stat. L. 43 An Act To grant the right of way through the Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory to the Enid and Anadarko Railway Company, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Enid and Anadarko Railway Company, a corporation created under and by virtue of the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, be, and the same is hereby, invested and empowered with the right of locating, constructing, owning, equipping, operating, using, and maintaining a railway and telegraph and telephone line … Read more