, EZRA 3. INTERVIEW I 70 CARDS. Red River Chickasav? Nation Mad111 Henderson Ferry Ranching Farming

Transcription

1 , EZRA 3. INTERVIEW I 70 CARDS Red River Chickasav? Nation Mad111 Henderson Ferry Ranching Farming

2 KASLEY, EZRA S Form A-(S-149) 71 LIC-.taLiTijT 10 tm v/o.jrs i.^c-ij^s >:,.;i'istation In'3jan-Pi(.)no«-r His tor;, Project for Oklahoma Fie] d'worker's name Bobert B # Boat roan Trie report made on (date) August 20,193 7 Ezra S. Basley Post Oi'fics Ad^ren&_ Pole, Oklahoma 7,. Residence address (pr location) 4. BATE OF 1 BIRTH: I.Tonth July Day Year 1865, Placf3 of birth?«xas j c Nine of Father S. F. Eaelay #' Place of birth Mississippi Other ir.formation about father 7. N-rse of Mother Mary Ann Pin co of birth Missouri Othi2r informatior a x>ut :,iother Notes or complete narrative by the fieid worker dealing with 4.he life Ql tho pr)rson intorvlev:od. Reier to Manual for suposted subjects and Conti.iue on br'uik shoetg if necessary and attach firmly to this form. sh\,etj at tached. and story questions. Number of

3 EASILY, EZBA S. INTERVIEW 8555 Robert H. Boatman Interview, August, 20, 1937 An Interview with Ezra S«Easley Cole Oklahoma I was born July, 1865,in the s t a t e of Texas and grew up there as a farm boy. As my father was a farmer before me, I naturally knew nothing except farming and hunting. There wasn't much use in farming extensively for there was very little market for farm products. I cane to Indian Territory in When we needed food we could just pick up a gun, step out of sight of the house and kill a deer, turkey, buffalo, or ber.r. The buf-/ falo just ran in great herds. They were just slaughtered for their skins.* 1 have seen wagons loaded with buffalo/ hides six to eight feet high and from six to twelve yoke of o*en hitched to the wagon, hauling the hides to some market. The hides would sell from$.50 to $1.50 apiece. I UBed to hunt deer.oostly and remember one time I was out hunting a deer and looked out to one s i,i e o f me where the grass was waist high and saw a deer horn sticking up above the grass. Well, I knew he was taking his morning pun, so got down on- iy Lands and knees and crawled some fifty to seventy-five yards and when I finally I came ne; r there was no deer there, it was only a pair of twelve point horns that had been she^^by a buck. The deer shed their horns once every

4 EASLSY, EZRA S. v INTERVIEW year. Luter 1 was on another deer hunt and when I was- walk- I noticed ing along a trail near some trnber/a large tree top had fallen right over a small cave and the hind 2 leg of a deer was sticking up above the edge of the bank. I decided to pull him out and see what was wrong with him so 1 walked over todk hold of the leg and gave & pull. A big panther growled ;.t me. l.e had killed the deer and pulled him in the hole. 1 don't know how fa t or how far 1 ran, but I wasn't very :iuch interested in hunting for deer any more in that section of tne country. 1 married, and in 1894 brought my wife from Texas to the Indian Territory, traveling by vvafion and team. Tarpole vjagons were in use in those days. The reason t.«/ were- called tarpole wagoi.s was that the wheel was just run on the end of the axle with a -yin through the end of the spindle on the outside to "hold the whael on and tar «as used to grease the spindle. rfhen 1 crossed Red ^iver near Denison, Texas, it vstis by fording it. There wasn't a bridge on Hed River then. I entered the Territory and setiled in the Chickaaaw Nation, sorae twenty miles souta of where the town of ifedill is now Iocs ted. There was a post office there by the natoe

5 74 EASLEY, iizha. S. INTERVIEW ' ^ of Lark, one ana one-half miles from Red River and the postmaster kept a few supplies. The old post office is still continued, although it has bean iqoved elout one mile from vjlertf* it wa.- loc ted v».en I came to the Territory. Our trading post was ^enloon, Texas. Unaa we went to tov»n for supplies we crossed the river at Henderson Ferry. The river was too dee. to ford so a ferry was used and is stil^ there t-t the same jlace, though a good bridge has been built sorae few miles down the river. There wero thousands of head of beef c ttle in that section of the country. Jim Bounds was a big cow man. Cattle just ran on the open range and when he..as ready to market a bunch uf c. ttls La would alv<ays round up the number he wanted anu drive tl em across Red luver to t e Texas side and sell then. I took a lease on soqie land from a Chickasaw Indian, built a log house and beg<-n farming. Cotton and corn were trie j/rincipai crops raised then. The only roarket I had for corn was when soue cow wan would buy it. i'eople didn't know what a barn v>es then, so the corn wos'hbuled ana ricked in long ricks, about eight to ten fevfc at the base und rounding over at tne top. The ricks would cents often >.e 50. feet long. Corn sold at.5 to/ 2.0 per bushel.

6 gaslejy, EZRA S. INTERVIEV;; 8355 in harvesting of cotton', a basket was used to pick in instead of a sack and it w«is sold at from throe to five cents per pound. There was no sale for cottonseed at all, they were just thrown away. on them, Cattle would sometimes feed *, r I soon saw t)e agricultural development of the Territory was con.ng fast a id when in 1907 the Territory was admitted to the Union as Oklahoma, I moved to the northern part of McClain County, where I have since lived ami continued in the agricultural business. $