\ rf/7 EVANS, W. A..43HRD INTERVIEW 5043, 373
FOR\* 374 Indat- T \';"..c >fjl. - TTlRD INTERVIEW 5043. Feld porker's Ths report wad'? on (ta^" February 1, I.)3 7. *V' ~" * "" "" "" 1.. Name JL!^-?!!! 1^^ * U^. u : 2.v Post Offce AG<1: >--r fcuskogee, Oklahoma» '3.. Resdence Rddra.-^ ('>r lo/aton). ; ' j 4.. DATEC-F BIRTH Month ' pay T«-.or 5.. Place of brth 6,, Name of. Father 7. Ywame of Vothor Place of brth v "Place of brth Other nformaton about mother Notes'or complete narrat.vo by. the f^ld porker dealng wth the l fe and st^ry of the -person ntervewed. Refer.tr. Manual fcr suggested "subjects aud "questons. - Contnue <^n blank sheets f necessary and attach frmly to ths fom.- Number o** sheets attached 4.,..
375 EVANS, IT.A. THIRD INTERVIEW. 5043. Jas. S. Buchanan, Feld Worker, February 1, 1937< Ulntervew wth W.A. Evans. Muskogee, Oklahoma*. I was-born at Gookspont, Texas, Aprl 17, 1864* My father was a whfe man who de d n 1880, and my mother was gtlf Cherokeu who ded about the year of 187E, X am unable to tell a ythng about my grandparents as my parents ded when I was young. I marred Laura Ffe n Texas n 1884 and I came to the Indan Terrtory n 1886 wth my lttle famly and settled about two mles west of Agency Hll*; I rented a 4 arm ^rom anan by the name of Douglas Bemo and farmed there two years, then moved to a fam two mles north of Agency Hjll where I fanned two years* Then I moved to a place just nbrth of Cheootah, a new place wth the sod unbroken, but I repted a pece of land adjonng the new place on the west from Bll Grayson, as t haj been broken and cultyated and I could rase corn on t. As you know new sod land s no good, for corn. Lots of game n ths country then # I have seen pra,lre chckens follow wthn thrty or forty feet behnd sod plows when we could be breakng new prare land wth ox teams;/ they would follow aloag n the furrow behnd the plows
J5L.A.- THJHD INTE. VIEW. j 5043, 376-2- n bg drovea, pckng up bugs and worms n the new plowed ground. I have seen as hgh as thrty or more deer n one drove n the valley near Tmber Rdge and Checotah; wld turkey, n fact, all knd of game was plentful n those days. I sold ths clam 'I had taken up near Checotah n the fall of 1891 and bought a clam from Col. D.N. Mclntosh about three mles nortp. of Oktaha whch conssted of 500 acres wth a about ffty acres n cultvaton andtlog house wth a box ktchen. I was on that place only one year and sold t to Perry Murphy n 1892. I f He was buyjng up pasture landtor a grazng syndcate and he pad me twce) the amount I pad for the land just one year before. I then rented a farm from Henry Carter, near Oktaha, farmed that yeur, and at the same tme mproved a clam of my own near that place to whch I moved n the fall of 1893. I remaned on ths clam untl 1900 when I leased t to Lafayette Brothers at Checotah for agrcultural purposes and m&ved to an allotment about four mles -southwest of Muskogee, whch belonged to one of my chldren. After two years X leased ths allotment to Allen Mddleton «* of Muskogee, then moved to Oktaha and bought a small tract of land - adjonng that town and bult a home where I lved foar fve years
377 EVANS/, W.A. ' THEto^NTERVIEW. 5043. 1,7 ' -3- t At the expraton of the lease I made to Lafayette tsrothers, whch I had made on my old clam, I left Oktaha and moved back to that land. J ' There was nothng but frame buldngs n Muakogee when I frst came to the Terrtory, a few old f$me busness houses just east of the Katy vrac^, J.A. Patterson & Co., John Cobb's store, J.E.Turner General Mercantle Store and Smon-Gavgan Drug Store were all frame buldngs on &an street, Scott & Company also had a general store where the Estes Buldng now stands and; F.B»Severs operated a general store on the corner of Man and Okmulgee where the Huber Hotel now stands. Mr. Severs* also owned a general store at the lown of Okmulgee and I hauled freght for hm to Okmulgee by wagon to supply the store at that place n the year 1888, for whch he pad me 40 cents per hundred pounds. The Turner Hardware company bult the frst brck busness buldng n Muskogee, and J.A. Patterson the second brck, twostory busness house across ^roadway from' the Turner uldngbn Man Street, both of whch buldngs were bult n 1887. I saw the cornerstone placed n 1:90 for the buldng of the old federal court house that stood where the Ralway Exchange Gldng now stands.