Day 21 – Oklahoma
The
western portion of the state had many farms and ranches. Some extended as far
as the eye could see.
It’s
funny how you have an impression of a place based on movies or novels. That was
the case for us with regard to Oklahoma. We had heard of the Oklahoma Land Rush
of 1889, but always pictured it as a flat dry desert land. However, the land we
travelled was green and verdant.
Interestingly,
my maternal great grandfather had a life story that could have been the basis
for western novels. His name was Charles (Chaz) E. Guernsey. According to an
interview of him by a field worker on Indian History for the University of Oklahoma,
he was an Indian agent for the Sac and Fox tribe, he participated in the land
run of 1889, and he had a cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle. I had also heard
that he was a Texas Ranger, but I don’t have confirmation of that.
Hmmm,
maybe I should try my hand at writing a western novel based on great grandfather Chaz.
**The
following are notes from an interview with Chaz Guernsey, on April 17, 1937**
I was born in Niles, Michigan, in
1849 and while I was still a boy we moved to Illinois and later to Iowa. I was
living in Iowa when I heard that the government needed men to help move the
Indians out of Kansas, so I sent in my application, and was accepted. I went to
Lincoln County and went to work in 1869 when I was twenty-one years old.
I went to the new Sac
and Fox Agency in the Indian Territory in March of 1870. The Sac and Foxes had
been moved to their new reservation in the fall of 1869. Through a mistake,
they had located too far east and were really in the Creek country. Thee Creeks
protested and asked for a new survey, in the spring of 1870.
The Sac and Foxes moved further west and the agency was located in a big horse-shoe bend of the Deep Fork River about six miles south of the present town of Stroud.
Miller, who was the Indian Agent and Dr. Cook, the Government Doctor for the Indians, and I lived in a long log house and kept “batch” that first year.
One time while we were
eating, an Indian by the name of Chuck-a-ho (Shack-a-ho) came along. I had learned
enough Sauk [another name for Sac] to talk a little with thee Indian, and
Miller told mee to invite him in to eat with us. While we were eating Miller
asked Chuck-a-ho why he didn’t wear pants? I did the interpreting. Chuck-a-ho asked
Miller if he would give him some pants, and Miller said that he would. So
Miller told me to go down to John Whistler’s store and buy a pair of pants for Chuck-a-ho.
The next time we saw him, he was wearing them like leggings. When asked why he
had done that, he said that they choked his seat.
That first year the
Government provided the Sac and Foxes with rations which were issued every
other day. They were given salt, pork, flour, lard, green coffee, and tobacco.
I remember being a dinner guest at an Indian camp one time, and as a special
delicacy they melted a cup of lard and gave it to me to drink.
There was a company of
soldiers stationed at the Sac and Fox Agency, about one hundred, I believe. They
were given rations every other day, but on the alternate days for the Indians.
When I first went to the
Agency we hauled supplies from Kansas City. We had a great big wagon with six
mules to the wagon. I remember one time we went after potatoes. The weather was
cold. We took some hay with us but that didn’t last so after that we cut down
cottonwood trees and let the mules eat the tiny branches. However, we did have
grain for them. We loaded up six wagons with potatoes and started toward home.
When we were near Ottawa, Kansas, the weather turned extremely cold and all of
the potatoes froze. We hauled them along and they began to rot. When we got to
Honey Falls we dumped the whole load.
Sometimes we would be six weeks making a trip. Later the Government made
an arrangement to buy supplies by contract in Arkansas and they were delivered
by the seller.
There was a great deal
of sickness among the Sac and Foxes that first year. I believe there were about
six hundred died between the first payment and the second payment. Dr. Cook was
the first doctor for the Sac and Foxes and was succeeded by Dr. Williams.
One of my duties at the
agency was to drive the Ambulance. It was not the same as an ambulance these days.
But was somewhat like an old stage coach or a hack. The drivers’ seat was
raised above the others. The seats for the passengers were a long ways of the
coach and faced each other. We usually hitched four mules to it.
I believe it was in 1870
and thereafter for several years that the Government tried to get all the
tribes of the Territory together for a council. They met at Okmulgee. I drove
the “Ambulance” that hauled the Sac and Fox chiefs to that council in 1870 and
1871. There was Miller, the Agent, Keokuk, Check-a-shuk, Potaquaw and several
others of the tribe who were braves. Some of them rode horseback. I remember
very well thee first year that I was to meet them in a grove of trees just east
of the Mission School at sunrise.
Okmulgee was not much of
a town at that time. There was only about seven stores. One of them was the
Patterson Store.
The Kiowas, Caddos, and Apache
didn’t want to come to that council but they finally agreed. However, they went
into camp on a creek just west of Okmulgee and refused to go any further until
they had a feast and smoke a pipe of peace. So they were provided with a big
barbecue and all joined in a big smoke. Afterward they went into the Council.
They hesitated to go to this Council because they had had trouble with the
other tribes with whom they were going to meet.
There wasn’t any Post
Office at the Sac and Fox Agency in the beginning, and I had to go on horseback
to Okmulgee to get the mail. I didn’t go at any regular time, just about once
in two or three weeks. It was fifty-two miles to Okmulgee.
While I was at thee
Agency they made a brick yard about one and a half miles south of the Agency. I
hauled bricks from that yard over northwest of the Agency across Deep Fork where
they were building a house for Keokuk. They also build the first school house
of bricks from that brick-yard. It is still standing today as a part of the
class rooms at the Sac and Fox Mission School.
The first school was in
a log house and a Miss Honeysuckle was the first teacher. She had about sixteen
or seventeen pupils. She taught there for two years. Among my many other duties
I had to substitute for Miss Honeysuckle for a few days.
When the new school was
built, they had a big barbecue and invited all the Indians. Each child that was
going to school was given two suits of clothes.
The governor bought
cattle for the Indians but most of them died with ticks (Texas Fever). The
wolves were bad to kill the calves. However, the colts suffered the most from
the wolves. They would ham-string a colt and eat just a little and leave the
rest. Even so, there were lots of wild horses in the country. I remember of
counting sixty-four in one herd.
There was a cattle trail
near the Agency. There would be about two thousand five hundred head in a herd,
with about seven cowboys and one cook for each herd. I have seen as many as fie
herds go by in one day. They were being driven to Montana.
One of these herds
belongs to a man by the name of Chisholm. I don’t think it was the famous Jesse
Chisholm, but it was some relative of his. He had a ranch down on the Canadian
River. I asked him what he would take for one hundred head of them and he told
me four dollars a head, for the good ones.
So I said, “Cut ‘em out”.
After he and his men had cut out the one
hundred head, he said, “I will give you one more for good measure.”
I had been saving my money and had the cash to
pay for them.
The Sac and Foxes
objected to my grazing my cattle on their land. They said that I should be
adopted into the tribe and become one of them. I didn’t want to do that, so I
sold the cattle to John Whistler.
One time when the
Government was making payment to the Sac and Foxes a man by the name of Enoch
Hoag who was the agent for the Southern Division, made a speech to the Sac and
Fox Council. It was a long talk and he told them that he wanted them to become civilized
and live like white men, that he wanted them to become Christians and love
Jesus Christ.
When he had finished, one of the Sac
and Fox Chiefs by the name of Cheek-o-skuk got up and replied angrily, “What do
you mean – love Jesus Christ like white man. White man killed Jesus Christ.
Indian didn’t kill Jesus Christ”
Another Sac and Fox Chief was
Pa-ta-qua who had three wives at that time. Keokuk was another chief, and he
had two wives at that time.
As a result of the Civil War, the
Indians attached to the Sac and Fox Agency had a lot of claims against the government.
Finally the government agreed to settle and sent a lot of forms to be filled
out by thee claimants. The agent gave me a bag with about twenty-five pounds of
those forms and sent me down to old Shawnee town to get the claims written up.
I went on horseback. When I got to the North Canadian River, it was in flood.
After a while an Indian swam the river pulling a kind of boat behind him. It
was made of green buffalo hides stretched on a frame-work of poles. The Indian told
me to leave my horse on the north side of the river, that it would be taken care
of and to ride across the river in the boat. Which I did. The Indian swam and
pulled the boat across.
I was there about six weeks getting the
claims all fixed up. About sixty per cent of those claims were paid. At that
time there was an Irishman running the store at Shawnee Town. I think his name
was Clay. The store was the typical Stockade kind used so much in those days as
stores.
In Decembre of 1871 I took the Sac
and Fox Chiefs and some braves to Muskogee in the ambulance. They were on their
way to Washington to see president Grant. They took the first passenger train
that went north from Muskogee. After they arrived in Washington, they had to
wait days and days. Finally they were granted an audience and went to the place
appointed. They sat in chairs along the wall and waited a long time, when a man
came and motioned for them to follow him.
When they were ushered into Grant’s
presence he said, “Well, what do you want? I can only see you twenty minutes.”
Grant proceeded to have things
investigated. I don’t know whether the Sac and Foxes got what thy wanted or
not. It was on this trip that one of the Sac and Fox braves by the name of
Qui-quan-a-Peek-qua took sick with pneumonia and was taken to the hospital. The
chiefs reported that he was given a nice room and excellent care. He died and
was buried at the Arlington Cemetery.
I remember one time, that a large
company of soldiers were moving from Fort Sill to Fort Gibson. They had one
wagon with about five tons of bacon on it. The mules got stuck in the river, so
they captain had the mules unhitched from the wagon and a long rope fastened to
the wagon tongue. He then ordered the soldiers to strip and get into the water
and pull the wagon out. It was winter and the water was very cold. They surely
hated to do it, but they got the wagon out.
I worked for the Sac and Fox Agency
about five years and then went up into Kansas to take up land. I married soon
after that. In 1889 I left Kansas and moved to the Texas panhandle for my wife’s
health.
When the Cheyenne and Arapaho country
was open in 1892, I made the run and secured a farm where the present town of
Strong City now stands, however, I had nothing to do with starting the town. I
was living in Roger Mills County. A man by the name of Lum Baker and I were
partners in the ownership of a ranch in the Texas panhandle of fifty-six
sections of land. We had about three thousand head of cattle on that ranch. Our
brand was the Bar HX (a horizontal bar above and cross thee top of the two
letters like this: HX) It was made with a running iron. I remember on deal I
made shortly after the opening of the Cheyenne and Arapaho country when I sold
a man in Montana eight hundred head of cattle for sixteen dollars a head.
The Buffalo Grass in that country was fine cattle feed. It would bee a great thing if they could get enough Buffalo Grass seed to put that country back into grass. There are lots of people who think that Buffalo Grass does not have seeds but it does. They grow close down to the ground.”
The End
**There is a footnote on the document this transcript came from that at the time of the interview Charles (Chaz) E. Guernsey was 89 years old. The interviewer, Don Whistler (Whose Father is mentioned in the article), was at that time a field worker on Indian history for the University of Oklahoma.**
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