Notice of Copyright. Citing Resources from the Western History Collections

Transcription

1 Notice of Copyright Published and unpublished materials may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Any copies of published and unpublished materials provided by the Western History Collections are for research, scholarship, and study purposes only. Use of certain published materials and manuscripts is restricted by law, by reason of their origin, or by donor agreement. For the protection of its holdings, the Western History Collections also reserves the right to restrict the use of unprocessed materials, or books and documents of exceptional value and fragility. Use of any material is subject to the approval of the Curator. Citing Resources from the Western History Collections For citations in published or unpublished papers, this repository should be listed as the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. An example of a proper citation: Oklahoma Federation of Labor Collection, M452, Box 5, Folder 2. Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

2 INDEX CARDS Coalgate - Coaltown Mines Civil War - Government blacksmith Choctaw Nation Lehigh Durant - Dixon Durant Arrowheads - manufacture Tom Fuller Byrd»a Mill Boggy Depot

3 INTERVIEW Grace Kelley, B'ield Worker Indian-Fioneer history June 15, 1937 Interview with John Andrews of Kenryetta, Okl&ho a. Lr. Andrews was born in 18o6 at I obile, Lissouri. in His father, John F. Andrews, was born1 aeon County, issouri. I'other, Nanny Hawkins, lorn in Duck town, Jeniessee. Beginning of Coalgute, Coal town jn 1888, when I was thirte n' ye&rs old, v;e bane by train to rhere Coalgete is nov;. The No. 1 Slope was jijst starting, no other mines were there until l&terl father res a blacksmith and I stood on a box to reach the hi-ncle of the bellows that I "blowec". ' e were vorkir} for the Southwestern Coal Company. Wade Hampton worked with father. He was cert v.-.ite, part Indian and pert negro end had nee been the slave of &n old Indian, SMgh' Fulton, One d&y, either before the Civil War ;-r close to the beginning of it, his owner left for, he thought, "..eshington o:i important Indian business. As soon as he was sure tnet he \rcs c one» V-8Ge «;ot liis owner's best saddle on his btst.orse, and Lis ovner's overcoat, gun and things he th:usht he voald nesed and left. He scouted u::til after the 6fer and 1 th:.nk ne said he wbnt to Kansas but I'm not sure. Eli&i Fulton o'fered a pood revard hut nobody co^ld find him. He a Government Slacksniith before ae vent to work with father.

4 INTERVIEW. That was celled open land, it belonged to the whole Ghoctaw "Nation and any Indian could fence in whatever land, he wanted without paying for i t. A white person had to pay twenty cents a month to stay or live there, but thet was all the taxes he had to pay. He could fence a fern:, keep four or five hundred cattle or fio any work for a living after paying that to the Choctaw Nation. The mining company checked that off of each person's check every month and paid it to the Indians. Sam Snvellwood, a well educated Choctaw, was the International weighman who" cane around to the irdnes and got the Royalty for the Indian Agency at Muskogee. v At first there was only one store at Coalgate and most o<" the tradi ~g was done at Lehigh. Lehigh There were twelve or fifteen stores of ell kinds, a pool hall, and a bank, it vas a pretty good sized town; now it is just a flag station without a Postoffice. Philips is another that is just on the map but not a town now. other V,uea Coalgate boomed, theplaces went down', at one time Coalgete had four bantta.» very two weeks the mining peyroll was from seventy-fire to a hundred thousand dollars,

5 i 1 I ' twenty-five thousand men were working"in the mines. It was made the County Seat when Statehood came in. Destructive Cyclone In the first part of Jftne, 1909, a cyclone carue from ' the southwest over the we's-'t or best residence part of town, went out to the northeast, leaving forty wounded and fifteen viio died from tjie injuries. Arrow Heads Dixon Durant, the Choc taw Durant was named Tor, told me how they made arixjws and he had a lot of arrows to show me, too. He was eighty years old then, a nice 3ap jst preacher, but hewas a bad young man. He said: They went way off atout Sallisaw, for there wts no rocks like they needed near Coalgate, and got round flint rocks and brought them- home. They were stacked in a pile with a lot of wood piled on top of them. A fire was riade to get. them right hot. Then the persons making the arrow, got an oat or yi'heat straw and a pan of water. The strew was dipped into the water then held over the rock which had been relred out?>f the fire, and the water dropping on the hot rock csiysed it to chip. They would keep dropping water where they wanted it to chip until it was the shape desired. Then they rot a stick about a foot end a half long and

6 AKDRSYB, JOHN.. INTERVIEW. 394 split it a-little way on both ends. The square edge was put into one end or split and buckskin was wrapped around them to hold them together d "raagjle like graft'i;^ G.I'.) \ ' ' ~" A feather.was found that was suitable and fastened in "he othejr end to make it ~o straight and hit the target.- I have the largest arrowhead I ever saw. It is three and a half inches across, of gray flint. of putting it in "he I.Ius ura at Oknml^ee. * have fhought I have s*e n them with stripes every color of the rai:bow ar. d they nvere surely * pretty. And to think that they were inade i t }-cv L tcols of any kii.d r.ibl:uc V.iai rxore -oi'derful.' Ton Fuller, Corn Recipe of G:.octc.v;s They would take a log and sav.' it o:.t about two feet hish and hollow it out, leavi.3 a good lotto'ni. Corn was put in this hole and pounded 1. iih a nallet to na!:e coarse. grit3, which were cooked with all ki;ds of rr.eat in great big pots, very good tastirg ana satisfying. lladge 3bage was a wealthy Choctaw (quarter-bl^od) who owned a tig ranch fjree r.ilos southeast of Coalgate -sad the :Iodge,I.xrca:.tile Conpsny store. The ol«l place is still there but the ground'is in farms now. The half and quarter breeds were the.".can ones, especially when they' were.drinking.

7 INTERVIEW, 395 j fullbloods, the old ones, hed no hem in them. Boggy.Depot and Bird's Mill V'hen looking for cattle for a rancher, I was at, these places but I cant give a very good, 1 ocation of them. Whenever we wanted to go enyvhere we just "set the course 1 * and hardly ever ftiled ~to coiue out just rig t for we knew the co aitry, but we never thought of fuiles and hardly ever,thought of the directions but used landmarks. There were no secti >ns and the only fences were some -Indian's corn patch which was usuelly on creek. Bird's Mil was near Atoka, southwest, of Coolgate and northeast of Tishomingo. There w&s a powerful spring there et the mill. It wes so powerful that it ran the mill and made a big creek, ' ' 'here is no tellir^ hon long it had been there. ; <:oggy?epot wes an old treeing p?«t nortnv.est of Co&lgete.