USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 44
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Writing in 1908, the late A. W. Robb, of Muskogee, gave the following reminiscences of the building of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway through the Indian Territory, and of some of the men who were prominent factors in pushing the enterprise to a suc- cessful conclusion :
"I was connected with the road from the time it commenced doing business in the Indian Territory, in April, 1871, until it reached the Arkansas River. The road at that time had its termi- nal station two miles south of Vinita. Robert S. Stevens, of New York, was general manager; O. B. Gunn, of Kansas City, chief engineer ; and John Scullin, of St. Louis, laid the rails. The grad- ing was done by various contracting parties. The stations, depots, etc., were built by George Melville. S. G. Eddy was division su- perintendent.
"The business of the road was at first very light, but it increased as the construction was pushed farther south. The first station after leaving Vinita was at Chouteau, where the road received its first shipment of cattle in the Indian Territory. From that point on south, the cattle shipments increased very rapidly. The next stop was at Gibson Station, where the first shipment of cotton was received. By this time the business had grown to be quite large, consisting of military supplies for Forts Gibson and Sill and gen- eral merchandise for many parties.
"The road opened its station for business at Muskogee, about three-fourths of a mile north of the present station, on the first day of January, 1872. The location of the depot was changed on ac- count of the grade about the first of April following to the present location. From Muskogee south the business increased rapidly, though I do not know so much about it personally."
After the railroad reached Muskogee it was for a time the near-
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est shipping point by rail to Fort Smith. Some Fort Smith mer- chants had goods freighted by wagon from Muskogee and a stage line made regular trips between the two places for the transporta- tion of passengers. The coming of the railroad to the valley of the Arkansas marked the beginning of the decline of river navigation on that stream.
There was some hesitancy on the part of the railway company about establishing a division at Muskogee on account of the quality of the water, but Maj. J. A. Foreman met the required conditions by constructing an artificial pond for the collection of surface water.
J. H. Beadle, a correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, visited "the end of the track" on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway while it was under construction. His observations and de- scriptions which follow give some idea of the conditions prevailing near the end of the new railroads then being built in the West.5
"The 'growing season' seemed fairly set in Southern Kansas, fast tinging the prairies with a rich shade of green, and farmers everywhere were busy with the spring crops. We stopped for twen- ty-four hours at Parsons, the terminus of the Sedalia Division of the M., K. & T., and, we are positively informed, 'the future metrop- olis of Southern Kansas,' 'railroad center,' etc. For particulars see land circulars and the columns of the Parsons Sun. We ran thence down the M., K. & T., passed Chetopa just at dark, and by midnight were ninety miles from the border at the new town of Muscogee, then the terminus of the passenger division, though the road was completed to the Canadian River.
"I opened my eyes the next morning upon a long, straggling, miserable railroad town, the exact image of a Union Pacific 'city,' in the last stages of decay. Some two hundred yards from the rail- road a single street extended for nearly a quarter of a mile; the buildings were rude shanties, frame and canvas tents and log cabins, open to the wind, which blew a hurricane for the thirty-six hours I was there. If Mr. Lo, 'the poor Indian,' does in fact 'see God in the clouds and hear Him in the wind,' as the poet tells us, he has a simple and benign creed which gives him an audible and ever-pres- ent deity in this country, for the wind is constant and of a char- acter to prevent forgetfulness. *
"We ate in the 'Pioneer boarding car,' and slept in another car
5 "The Undeveloped West, or Five Years in the Territories," pp. 366-72, 396-9 and 401-3.
1
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attached; five of them being placed on a side track, anchored down and converted into a pretty good hotel. Here and about the depot were the citizens employed on the road. Of the town proper, the majority of the citizens were negroes, with them a few whites of doubtful 'rep' and perhaps a dozen Indians. The negroes were for- merly slaves to the Indians, but slavery here was never severe, and they are little more their own masters than they were before. They earned a precarious subsistence, the women by washing and the men by teaming and chopping, and all were sunk deep, deep in poverty and ignorance. Here, as at Vinita, I saw no farms, no signs of cultivation. The Indians live off the railroad, in the timber and along the streams. * Around the town, far as the eye can reach, extend fertile prairies of rich green, rivaling Ohio mead- ows in May, while five miles northeast a heavy line of timber marks the course of the Arkansas.
"Muscogee, or, if spelled as pronounced, Mooskokee, is the ab- original name for the tribe we call the Creeks, and, having decided to thoroughly inspect these Indian sovereignties, and their relations with the General Government, we begin with these.
" 'Brad. Collins is on a big spree, ain't he ?'
"' 'You bet he's chargin'.'
" 'Killed anybody yet ?'
"'No, only had one fuss. Him and two other Cherokees went into the car last night with cocked six-shooters and scared some east- ern fellers dirned near to death.'
" 'Mind the time he shot that ar marshal ?'
" 'I reckon! Killed him right in front of this car. Shot him twice afore. Fetched him dead that time. Then came in next day and give himself up. Tuck him down to Fort Smith and turned him loose in a little while. Lord, that court don't amount to nothin'.'
" 'Marshal's got a good thing, though.'
" 'I see you; best place to make money in the United States. These deputies are the biggest rascals in the country. That court is a disgrace to the American people and 'll ruin us here yet.'
"Such was a small part of the conversation we heard our second morning at the table of the dining-car in Muscogee. It was any- thing but encouraging to a man of peaceful proclivities. A few days after I had my first view of this somewhat notorious Bradley Collins. I was sitting in the tent of an old Cherokee woman in Muscogee, listening to her account of the expulsion from the ‘old Nation in Geawgey,' when shots were heard not far off and an
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athletic, rosy-featured young man came running by the tent with a pistol in his hand. The old woman merely said, 'Bradley's got his shooter; there's a fuss some'ers,' and went out for a look. It proved to be nothing but some freedmen practicing on a stray hog, a wanderer from the Creek farms, which they brought down after a dozen shots! Collins walked back with a marked air of disappoint- ment, muttering : 'If I couldn't hit a hog first shot, I'd throw away my pistol;' and the old lady entertained me by his story which has since been verified by others. He is nearly white, an outcast from the Cherokee Nation, a smuggler of whisky, a desperado and a dead shot. It is said that he has been known to throw a pistol in the air, causing it to make half a dozen turns, catch it as it fell, bring it instantly to a level and hit an apple at thirty paces. He is reported to be 'so quick on trigger' that all the other 'shootists' in the coun- try have an awe of him. He is known to have killed three men and was then under bond of one thousand dollars to appear at the May term of the Federal Court in Fort Smith, for shooting at a United States marshal with intent to kill. Many excuse him in the case where he actually killed a marshal, as it was a private quarrel, in which both had sworn to 'shoot on sight.' Associated with him were a dozen or more young 'White Cherokees,' who were suspected of being robbers, and known to be drunkards and gamblers. A
dozen such men can do the cause of Cherokee independence and na- tionality more harm than all of the Rosses and Downings and their able compeers can do it good. But we must take all we hear on the railroad with this important qualification. It is the interest and policy of these railroads to belittle the Cherokee government, and make its officers appear as inefficient, and its few criminals as des- perate and dangerous as possible. And the roads themselves have added a vast amount of evidence in favor of their indictments against the Indian governments. The records are simply horrible. During the few weeks that the terminus and stage officers were at Muscogee and Gibson, sixteen murders were committed at these two places, and, in a very short time, five more were killed at the next terminus. One man was shot all to pieces just in front of the din- ing-car at Muscogee, and another had his throat cut at night, almost in the middle of the town. It is true, strangers, travelers and out- siders are rarely if ever troubled. These murders are upon their own class and new-comers who are weak enough to mix in, drink and gamble with them. But a few days after our arrival, a Texan reached Canadian Station with the proceeds of a cattle sale. He mct these fellows at night, was seen at 10 o'clock, drunk and gener-
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ous with his money; a few days after his body was washed ashore some miles down the Canadian. And yet I am assured, and I be- lieve it, a man with a legitimate business, and who will let whisky alone, can travel through this country as safely as in Cincinnati. The better class of Cherokees regard these railroad towns with per- fect horror and are never seen about them.
"We are off from Muscogee at 7 o'clock a. m., to see the remain- ing forty miles of road completed, then a little south of the main Canadian. We cross the Little Canadian, or North Fork, within a mile of the Methodist Mission (Asbury Manual Labor School), which is reported to be in a flourishing condition, but we lacked time to visit it. Two miles down the river is situated North Fork Town, an important Creek village. We hear that a white man has just been mortally wounded in an affray there, all the parties being railroad followers. Between the two Canadians the piece of road is some seven miles long, and midway thereon was then the nominal terminus and the station for the El Paso Stage and Mail Line. We pause here an hour. Dusty and travel worn pilgrims are coming in from all points in Western Texas, and spruce, clean look- ing people from civilization, starting out on long and toilsome jour- neys through the sandy plains between here and the Rio Grande. Thence to the Main Canadian we traverse a dense forest; all the point between the two rivers is heavily timbered and choked with underbrush. The main stream is now wide and rapid, apparently thick with red mud and sand; but after standing a few minutes, it is sweet enough to the taste, and close examination shows the stream to be tolerably clear, the red showing through the water from the bottom. The bridge here was finished several months before, and about the time the track was laid the southern abutment gave way. It was found that the stone used, from a neighboring quarry, was entirely unfit, falling to pieces in the water; and the entire pier had to be rebuilt. We went over on the first locomotive that crossed ; hitherto construction cars had been shoved across singly by hand. After our passage the engine brought over a very heavy train loaded with iron, and the bridge was then officially pronounced safe.
"We observed, with a slight uneasiness, that Brad. Collins and his party came down on our train, and it was generally known that they had a cargo of smuggled whisky in the baggage-car. At the town on the river they met a dozen more of their sort; the whisky was opened and passed, and when we returned from viewing the bridge three of them were galloping about the town, brandishing pistols and yelling like demons. My companion took a brief look
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and suggested, 'This is a devilish queer place; let's get out of it.' This suited my humor admirably, so we crossed into the Choctaw country and spent the day. Two miles through the heavy forest brought us to a beautiful farm, tilled and improved as well as the average in Ohio, which we found to be the residence of Tandy Walker, Esq., Choctaw and nephew of ex-Governor Walker, of that Nation. Mr. Walker occupies a rather pretentious 'double log- house,' built in Southern style, with open porch or passage between. Here we took dinner and found him a gentleman of unusual intelli- gence and enterprise. He tells us that he is the only Choctaw in the district who is in favor of sectionizing and admitting white immi- gration ; and there are probably not a hundred in the Nation who favor it. He was once a leading man, but is now almost ostracized for his vote and opinions. He has five white men in his employ and, like Logan, who had 'none to mourn' he is 'pointed out as a friend of the whites.' By the laws of these nations, white men can reside here by being employed by a legal citizen, in which case the citizen is responsible for their misdemeanors ; or he can pay a license and take out a 'permit' for his white employes, and the nation takes the responsibility. *
"While we were 'locating tracks' through the Choctaw Nation, the Secretary of the Interior and his party came to inspect the rail- road, remaining one night at the Canadian. Being in the interior, we failed to see them, but, on our return, found the community jolly over the party's rich experience.
"The day they reached the end of the M., K. & T. track, a man was seized at 4 p. m., near the cars, by four robbers, and relieved of eighty dollars in gold; and that night one was shot dead within a hundred yards of their sleeping car. Mr. Woodard, the superin- tendent of the road, accompanied the party, and was rather lively in his jokes upon his employes for complaining of these ruffians and asserting there was danger on the road. That night one of the party was taken sick, and Mr. W. started out to look for a doctor. By mistake he poked his head into the tent of a gambler, named Calla- han, who happened to be a little out of humor. He thrust a six- shooter into Mr. Woodard's face, and exclaimed rather pointedly : 'Air ye lookin' for me ? I'm ready if y'are.' Of course such inten- tion was promptly disclaimed, and the superintendent made good time off the ground.
"The Secretary was considerably stirred up, and issued some stringent orders against 'intruders in the Indian country.' A lieu- tenant was sent to the terminus with a squad of cavalry under orders to notify the 'intruders' and shoot all who refused to leave
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within twenty-four hours. All the railroad business had been moved from Muscogee to Canadian River and all the roughs who were able had followed.
"On the afternoon of a rather sultry day, my companion and I left the abandoned town and struck out afoot northeastward for Fort Gibson. Three miles out brought us to the old Texan road, original wagon road and cattle trail from Western Texas to Kansas City and Leavenworth. Here we were overtaken by a grizzly, weatherbeaten old Texan, with a light load for Baxter Springs, Kansas, who politely asked us to ride. As we dropped valises in the wagon, he asked, with what sounded like an eager tone :
" 'Got any whisky in them ?'
" 'No,' was the answer with expressed regrets.
" 'If ye had, ye'd walk, you bet; wouldn't have you get in here with one pint of whisky for five hundred dollars.'
"This radical temperance platform in this latitude exeited our astonishment, and we called for an explanation. He gave it thus : 'A burnt ehild dreads the fire. One pint, yes, one dram o' whisky'd cost me this hull load. These deputy marshals d- the thievin' rascals, I say - they'll seareh y'r wagon any minit, and, if they find one drop, away goes the hull load to Fort Smith, and d- the haight of it d'ye ever see again. One trip, a niee lookin' chap enough asked me to ride. He got in, and pretty soon pulled a flask. 'Drink,' says he. 'After you,' says I. Well, in less 'n ten minutes eomes the marshals and grabbed us. If they find a drop, even on the man as is ridin' with you, they take everything and nary dollar do you ever git. Why, that feller was in with 'em, of course. They seize everything they can git a pretense for, and then divide. There won't anybody but a scamp or a rough take such an office as deputy marshal in this country. They're all on the make and in with these roughs. That's what I say.'
"I would fain hope the old man was mistaken in his general esti- mate of Federal offieers in the Territory, but there is too much evi- denee of this nature to permit me to believe the charge entirely false. That most outrageous frauds have been perpetrated by these fellows, I cannot doubt; I ean only say that the people generally both white and red, eredit a few of the marshals with honesty and official probity."
THE COMING OF THE "KATY" IN THE CHOCTAW COUNTRY
The following reminiscenees, hitherto unpublished, concerning the arrival of the railroad in the Choctaw Nation, were written some
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years ago by Rev. Dr. Joseph S. Murrow, the veteran missionary of the Baptist Church, who first came to the Indian Territory in 1857 : "When I first came to this Territory, if anyone had told me that I would live long enough to see a railroad built through this coun- try, my reply would have been, 'If the good Lord will let me live as long as Methuselah, that might be the case.' Well, I am not yet as old as Methuselah, and yet I see many many railroads and big cities and towns and the country full of white people and compara- tively few Indians.
"In 1870, it was the common talk among the Indians that two railroads were being built down from Missouri, and which ever one should strike the Indian Territory line first, would build its road through the Territory and into Texas. The Indians did not like this. They were very much afraid of the coming of the white people, as indeed they had great cause to be.
"The 'coming of the railroad' was the subject of conversation at many of their gatherings. I remember hearing one old full-blood haranguing a crowd of his people on this subject once. He made a forcible talk, bringing out many good reasons to prove that the rail- road would be a detriment. Finally, he wound up with the follow- ing 'clincher':
" 'I have ridden on those railroads east of the Mississippi. They have little houses on wheels-whole strings of them. One string can carry several hundred people. Those little houses can be shut up and the doors locked. If we allow that railroad to come, the white men will give a picnic some time by the side of their iron road and will invite all the full-bloods to attend. They will get the men to play ball, off a piece. Then they will get our women to go into the little houses on wheels and will lock them up and run off with them into Texas or Missouri. Then what will we do for women ?'
"But the railroad came all the same. I well remember when it reached Atoka, in July, 1872. Mr. J. D. Davis and Mrs. E. A. Flack owned all of the land about the place. The officers of the road desired to build a depot at Atoka. They wanted double the amount of land allowed them by law for their side-tracks. They accordingly asked Mr. Davis and Mrs. Flack to meet them in con- ference concerning the matter. Mrs. Flack was a fine old Indian woman. When Messrs. Stevens, Scullin and the chief engineer (Maj. O. B. Gunn) made known their wishes, Mrs. Flack asked many questions, all of which were satisfactorily answered. Finally, she said :
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" 'You will build us a nice depot house out of lumber ?'
" 'Yes Ma'am,' they replied.
" 'You must paint it white,' she continued.
" 'Well, we do not know about that; we do not usually paint our depots white,' was the response, to which she immediately rejoined :
" 'Oh, you must paint it white; my husband was a white man and I like white houses.'
"The road brought many blessings. We missionaries eould afford to buy two or three calico dresses each year for our good wives, where we could afford but one each year before. The railroad brought many evils also-a class of tramps and adventurers, came with and after the road was built, that for several years constituted a demoralizing element.
"Just as the full-blood Indians predicted, the coming of the railroad opened up to the whites a knowledge of the wonderful re- sources of their country and was soon followed by the demand to 'remove the restrictions.' This demand has grown more persistent and imperious each year since, and now, poor Lo has in many in- stances nothing before him in this world but pauperism and the grave.
"I well remember many interesting incidents connected with the eoming of the 'Katy.' In 1872 or 1873, the management of the railroad gave a free exeursion to the Choctaws. A great train-load of them were taken from Caddo, Atoka, McAlester and other points, to Parsons, Kansas, and to Sedalia and Booneville, Missouri. Those cities welcomed the excursionists and made them very happy. Speeches were made by several of the Indian men. At Booneville, old Mr. Forbis Le Flore (long prominent in the public affairs of the Choetaw Nation) made a great hit and was loudly applauded. He said that the white people wanted the Indians' land when the whites already had more than they were using. He then commented upon the fact that the white people regarded the Indians as un- eivilized and superstitious, yet, when he was in a bank, in Sedalia, that very day, he had noticed a horseshoe nailed up over the door. He had inquired what it meant and the banker had told him that it was 'to bring good luck and keep the witches off !'
"At first the railroad charged seven cents per mile, passenger fare, but this was later reduced to five cents per mile, at which figure the fare remained until a few years before statehood, when it was reduced to three cents per mile. Some of the early eonduetors were very unaceomodating. I was once put off six miles south of Perry-
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ville (now Chambers) and had to walk that distance up the track under a broiling, noonday, summer sun, although I begged to be allowed to pay sixty cents more and get off at Perryville. However, most of the early conductors were very nice men. I learned to think a great deal of W. H. Maxwell, John Hill, Chick Warner, Ben Brown and others.
"The 'Katy' is a great railroad and always has been. When it was first built, Mr. Bob Stevens, who had superintended its con- struction, said that he had performed a railroad construction feat unapproached in the history of railroad building, namely, that he had built the M., K. & T. road through a tunnel, two hundred and fifty miles long-meaning, of course, that it passed for that distance through the Indian Territory, which he regarded as unproductive of railroad revenues. But, bless your soul, the old Indian Territory has been and still is one of the most profitable regions tributary to the lines of the M., K. & T. railway system. It is doubtful if the road has found any more profitable business in any state penetrated by its trunk or feeder lines than it has in Oklahoma.
"The equipment of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway of today is, of course, far superior to that which was used in the early days. Today it has the finest coaches that can be built and the road- bed of the 'Katy' is reputed to be the best in the Southwest. In olden days, a trip over the 'Katy' was almost a sure cure for dyspep- sia, but now it is a pleasure to take a trip on its elegant trains over its splendid roadbed."
COAL MINING
The building of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway across the Indian Territory led to the opening of the first coal mines in Oklahoma. Coal had been known to exist in various parts of the territory, but, up to that time, but little effort had been made to utilize it, wood being plentiful and cheap, and, besides, there was no demand as yet for fuel for other than domestic purposes. The story of the development of the first coal mines, as related by Col. James J. McAlester, who was one of the pioneers in that industry, is substantially as follows :
"When I left the Confederate Army, at the close of the War in 1865, I went to Fort Smith to attend school. While I was there, Capt. Oliver Weldon gave me a memorandum book which had been kept by a geologist who had been a member of a Gov- ernment exploring party which had passed through the Indian
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Territory many years before." The preliminary survey of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway was made in 1869. I was then employed as a clerk in the store of Harlan & Rooks, at Stonewall. This firm had several stores and trading establishments scattered over the Indian Territory. When I heard of the proposed rail- road construction, I determined to go into business for myself. I still had in my possession the geologist's notebook. Although it was somewhat discolored by age, the writing was still legible. In it was recorded the fact that the best coal was found in the immediate vicinity of 'the Cross Roads,' which was the place where the Texas Road (i.e., the wagon trail followed by emigrants en route to Texas, by way of Springfield, Missouri, and Fort Gibson, to Preston and Dallas, Texas) was crossed by the Califor- nia Trail, from Fort Smith to Albuquerque. As the railway line was following the Texas Road very closely, I determined to select a location at 'the Cross Roads.' This crossing was where the Sixth Ward School House in McAlester now stands, was near the center of what is now known as the McAlester Coal Field.
"Having selected a location, I went to Fort Smith, where I laid the whole proposition before Mr. J. T. Hannaford, then a prominent merchant of that place. We formed a partnership and, as licensed traders, opened the store at 'the Cross Roads.' We made money from the first. The road from the North to Texas was lined with wagons every day, and travel from Fort Smith to Forts Arbuckle and Sill was also heavy. All these travelers had to have provisions ; all had money and of course our business pros- pered. We remained in partnership for about a year and our profits in that time were about $5,000.00. I finally bought my partner out, married a Chickasaw girl and became a citizen.
"Before the railway was built there was no demand for coal and of course none was mined. Some was dug out occasionally and used instead of wood, but very little. In 1872, the railway line was completed to McAlester, as 'the Cross Roads' has since been known. When the railway reached that point, we began mining operations in a small way, though we were handicapped by many and trying difficulties. For two years, all the coal was mined from veins near the surface by the stripping process. The Osage Coal & Mining Company, which was organized when the
" The identity of the geologist who kept the notebook is unknown, but it seems probable that it may have been Dr. George G. Shumard, of Fort Smith, who was a scientist of repute. He accompanied Cap- tain Marcy on at least one expedition and maybe on others.
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railway was first built, engaged in developing deeper veins and, in 1875, this company built a switch, or spur track, out from the main line to its mine three miles distant. This work was done hurriedly, as was all of the mining work of those times. The company at that time had a contract with the National Agent, whereby it was permitted to do anything to facilitate the opera- tions in getting coal out of the ground. For this privilege it paid a royalty of one cent per ton to the Nation, the National Agent claiming the coal deposits to be the property of the Choctaw Nation. Meanwhile, individual citizens of the Nation claimed this royalty as their own. This resulted in litigation in which the individual citizens were successful.
"The Choctaw national authorities were not satisfied with the decision in favor of the individual citizens, however. Coleman Cole, who was then principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, deter- mined to put Robert Ream,7 William Pusley, Tandy C. Walker and myself out of the way and accordingly ordered his 'Light Horse' (a body of tribal militia) to assemble and proceed. to the mouth of Brush Creek. There Governor Cole stopped at the home of James Williams and sent his troops after the four of us with orders that we should be summarily executed. Pusley, Ream and myself were arrested, but I succeeded in getting word to Walker 8 and he escaped. After our arrest, Governor Cole caused a piece of ground to be cleared off, remarking that we were to be shot on bare ground and that not a drop of my blood should stain a blade of grass. However, before the date set for the execution, we succeeded in making our escape from the troops. These troops, as before stated, were designated as 'Light Horse,' and were under the command of Captain White, a white man, who was a very fine gentleman and a member of the Masonic Lodge, and who was opposed to the needless shedding of blood of his own people.
"Governor Cole was very much opposed to the mining opera- tions and it was on account of my activity in that line that he desired to have me put out of the way and thus discourage the mining industry and put a stop to mining altogether. However,
7 Robert Ream is said to have been a brother of Vinnie Ream, the sculptress. He died in Fort Smith in 1887.
8 Tandy C. Walker was a nephew of Col. Tandy Walker, com- mander of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Brigade, of the Indian Division, in 1864-65, and principal chief of the Choctaw Nation under the Skullaville Constitution. Tandy C. Walker died near Stonewall, in October, 1910.
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when the Choctaw people came to realize what my policies were and what the royalties meant in the way of added support for their schools, they ceased to oppose me. I then effected a com- promise, whereby the Choctaw Nation and the individual citizen who held the land were to share alike in the distribution of the royalties, each receiving one-half, after which the contracts received the approval of the Secretary of the Interior."
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