Notice of Copyright. Citing Resources from the Western History Collections

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1 Notice of Copyright Published and unpublished materials may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Any copies of published and unpublished materials provided by the Western History Collections are for research, scholarship, and study purposes only.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 Citing Resources from the Western History Collections For citations in published or unpublished papers, this repository should be listed as the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.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 BRIGGS, CASSINS tf. INTSRVZSW / 10E63 ' 1f-.?

3 Form A-(S-149) BICOHAEIY FORM PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION Indian-Pianeer History projeot fcr Oklahoma BRXQGS, CAS3INS 1HTSRVIKW forke#»s name This report made on (date) r-j» h Post Office* Address ^ Brlasa p- j*th*nv 3. Residence address (or location) 4. DATE OF PIRTH: Month 10 Year Place of birth 6. Name of Father Jtsh» ^?. -Name cf Mother UfiT7 Tftno Cther information abjut mother Place of birth Ohlp D«coBber ef birth. 15, ma in 1844) <N B obfttii fftth Notes or complete narrative by: the field worker dealing with the life and story of the persojj interviewed. Refer to Manual fcr suggested subjects and questions.' Continue on blank sheets if necessary and attach firmly to this form. Number of sheets attached

4 15f3 HUGOS, CASSINS M. INTKHVIEW * Nora L«Investigator, Karen 9, 1938* An' Interview with.<x. Casaina & Brlgga, I Bethany, Ckl&hoiaa* t I was barn on a farm in Cedar County, Iowa,on the 10th / day of Jamary,' the youngest of tax children* Father / moved to Harrison County, Missouri, in 1861; he died June 30, 1880 and tether died In 1864* On February 25, 1883* I was carried to Delia Spermcn. In tho ^11 of V 83, ay wife and I altarted far southern Kansas in a covered wagon with all our woirlaly goods, consisting of two no res, one set of Lather harness, and one wagon, accompanied by ay wife's father, mother, tiro brothers and two sisters, rt e arrived at Harper, Kansas in threo weeks* In the Spring of '84, we moved on onr claim fourteen miles northeast of Medicine Lodge in Barber County, Kansas, and lived there jfur four yoars., farming* Our crops burned out every year. :in Fall of V 88, I lost the claim because of a mortgage andj stood to Klows., Kansas,and on April 19 f 1889, my father-in-law, two brotixaro-in-lew and two neighbors ceaae in two itagons headed for OkLahoma* On April 22,,

5 ft. < ' 156 HRIGG3, CASSINS U. INTERVIEW at ten A*Ji*^w arrived east of Concho Schools* Ae oaw a line of teams and horses down in the river bottom ao we waited there with about twenty outfits to make the Race from there.?je got a dais on Uncle John's Creak, twelve miles northeast of SI Reno* He built a sod house on my claim then I went after our goods, but I got a Job in Medicine Lodge, Kansas,and I worked there until June* hat I had c pony that wouldn't pull the/off your head* I hod turned it out in a ten thousand acre pasture south of Klowa* I got my pony end she ma so poor that her.backbone was as sharp ea a knife* I had no saddle so I stropped a blanket on my pony^ using a one-fourth inch, rope doubled for stirrups* I rorto her from Klowa to El Seno, a hundred and forty miles in two days In the Fall* I did not have the money to file so when the six months were up I sold my sod house for v40*00*' That Winter we hunted and trapped and gathered bones for a living* In 1890, I started out afoot to the south looking for work* At El Heno I found an Indian going to Anadarko in a spring wagon* I went with him to Anadarko and went from there to Rush Springs*

6 157 EEIOOS, CASSIAS U. IHFSH7IXW 10S63-3- I got work with Tom Burke, a oattlsman, for 4X8*00 per oonth plowing corn. I plowed barefoot and poisoned ay feet until 1 could hardly walk Aftsr I bad worked for^hree weeks. I got a letter froik ay wife saying that they \ all down lick in bed and tbvt I would hare to COM X had to walk all that distance on feet swollen until could not get mj shoes on. I was two long days in June making the trip* \, In July I worked at a aawadll northwest of\yukon, with ay fret so bad I could hardly walk* I w*s hawing s chill erery day* At that Urns I was so sick, I wrots\ to my folks in Missouri for SOBS money to buy medicine. They sent so railroad tickets to cone back there as I had a cousin who waa a doctor. He cured as all right* He said ths cure was arsenic but I guessed at the dose once and it came near killing me* Hy wife earns back in the Spri^j we flids't bare aoney for both so I bad to work ay way back. In\'W, I got a deia three sdlea northwest of the Concho school. \ I sxnred onto it with my wife, four children, no horses nor obwm, no hogs> not eren a chicken. We ted a gftgeat close to an Indian trail* The dugout was covered with htash and dirt*. It bad one door

7 158 SHOOS, CASSHIS M. unsarai \ \j \ we covered \ and DO windows and/the calling with gunny sacks to keep the s ' \ \ dirt from sifting through* ^ % \ My father-in-law loaned vp a pony to rids looking for 1 j \work. \ I spent a wask riding to 1 Beno. Ths last day a ' storekeeper, who still has a etare n 1 ^cno, gate ma a twwty-fite pound sack of flour, if I would cony a carload of floor off ths sidswalk to the back of his store and stack it there* Tha flour wsa sexlinp for 40 oants a pound so I was glod to get It. Our boy* -rcora «p hungry, thay could not wait until ay wife could gat it wet with water. 3e had no *> ard nor milk and tha wfitar was oo.,gyppy that you could not -> break it even with lye. «e built a house out of native oottonwood Xuober, twelve by^ fjourtaen feet and we built a *dobe kitchsn. &e sold twenty-eight acres to the Cement Company for &\»50 an acre* It cost $ to prove up on the land and #2Q0*00 to boy a team and cow, chickens, and a pig* We were lucky to land in a friendly neighborhood* When the neighbors butchered a hog, thay said^nc<xoe and help" then they would send enough, asat to last a weak. One neighbor gave us all the akiotoad milk that we wanted, often as sneh \

8 \ BRIOOS, CAS3H& M* IOTISVIEH 102fiS da three gallons a\doy. If it tad not hare been for this \ \ aid we would hove had io gire up sooner than wo did* My father-in-lsw wanted to \MOT > to town and offered me his place and fourteen milk cows so we novtd on his place and pot lit wheat*»e raised obe crop of cctrn on the place and got tvelre Imndrtxi^that with ny stock gare ne th«money to build the shell of a housvlm-the^fotlr lots I got out of our clala. W«aored to 1 &*no in *98. I went to work fit ny trcde of tlnn«r that I learned in the '70a. X got 110,00 per week. 3e finished the boose and reised o family of five omur«n on the $2P«00 per vaek* When the last boy was born I got a raise to $12*00 per week* So that onto the da in, but this is not all ^ just some of the heights of our experiences. In February, 1884, a taaxa of mle* ran off with m and and burled ma out of the wa^on/the hinfi\wheel ran OTST ay I had to l i e to HQT wife so thai I could drive them again* in itaalf* The way I bad to work those dples was a tale In February of 1910 I was handling SOBS gutter on the light plant in i l Reno and toadied a ^are wire with \

9 160 BHIGOS, CiSSINS U. ISZTSTTZBT ay tar* I got a abode of twenty-two hundred volta. It knockad me off o ftmrtecn foot ladder onto th«from ground, that wad oil that farad aa.that Use.