' CRUDT/P, H. L. INTiKyiinV 6784^0 INDBX GAED3: Chickaaaw Nation Kud Creek Ryan Court House Chickasaw Militia isvans Ferry //olaey

' CRUDT/P, H. L. INTiKyiinV 6784^0 INDBX GAED3: Chickaaaw Nation Kud Creek Ryan Court House Chickasaw Militia isvans Ferry //olaey

V- 8 - J CRUDUP, B. L. INTERVIEW. Form A-(S-149) 6784 BIOGRAPHY FORM WORKS FROCRESS ADMINISTRATION Indi'an-PionSer History Project for Oklahoma Field Workrar's name Lula Austin This' report made on (date) July 19 195 y 1. Name R. L. Crudup 2. Post Office Address ^ Durant, Oklahoma.. 3. Residence address (or location) 50)1 Iforth 8th. 4. DATE OF BIRTH: ' Month March 28.. Day 28 Year 1861 5. Place of birth Texas 6. Name of Father Bobert Crudup Place of birth Tennessee Other informat ion about father (Legislature ) member in Tennessee and Texas-. ' 7. Name of Mother Aimedia Barron Crudup Place of birth Old Independence, Texas Other information about mother Notes or corcplt.te narrative by the field worker dealinr r, *"r^ Ji.';. cud story of the %r^on intoryiewed, Rofer to Manual for su.*>,c. M "* j< c J^s and questions. Continue on blank sheets if necessary and ' ".ac 1! firmly to this form. Number of sheets attached 3

GRUDUP, B. L«INTERVIEW. 6784. Lola Austin, Interviewer, \ July 19, 193?., \ An Interview with Mr. R. L. Crudup,. Burant, Oklahoma., t I came from Waco, Texas ; to the Indian, Territory in 1890, locating in the Chickasaw'Nation in what was called Big Valley, south of Mud Creek. I farmed and raised cattle. We had considerable cattle stealing in early days at Ryan, a small settlement on the prairie. People who ran butcher shops would go out at night and butcher a fat steer, they didn*t care who it belonged: to, and the next morning have it hanging in the shop for sale. They established a Court Bouse at Ryan, Judge Kilgore was the judge and he came and^organized the court about sixty days before court convened. I was in the first jury * panel of that court. The cattle thieves all but one left the country and we sent.the one who stayed to the pen. Capain Bill Boeland was Captain of the Chickasaw Militia it whose business7was to cut down wire fences and leave the country open and deport all people who didn't have a permit. He would load them into wagons with all their belongings and take them across Red River at the Old Evans

CRDDUP, R. L. * INTERVIEW. 6784. - 2 - a ferry and put them on/ sa X&.* bank on the Texas side. Sometimes the families would beat him back bd the territory, The Old Evans Ferry was just above the Old Spanish JorV which -was on the northside of the River in the Indian Territory. At this fort it is a belief that Mexicans buried gold. J. W. Sharp made an ex* cavation around the mound and found the graves of three children, guns and tools. A place has caved in that looks like the entrance to a'cave. One little incident that happened while I lived at Wolsey* Therefore only a few houses and a post office at this little prairie settlement. A boy about eighteen, son of a respectable family in a spirit of fun,held up a resident of the town who had sold some cotton. He put a bandana handkerchief over his eyes and pulled out his gun saying "shell out the money" the man handed it over and he rode on but after he realized the maa^ didn't recognize him he didn't know how to return the money and explain he did it in fun, so he kept the money and thought

CRUDUP, R, L. INTERVIEW. 6784, - 3 - how easy it was to get. After that he held up several others but one day, he decided to rob the post office then Uncle Sam stepped in and located the thief tried him and he told the story which I have told you. I moved to Durant in 1897 and have been living here since* I was' on the first-school board of this town and served as Mayor. A 1 few days after I moved to Durant, Bob Mitchell who was Deputy United States Marshal, shot it out with. John Carter^a notorious cattle thief m wounded Carter and took him to the home of Dizon Durant t l went there as did all in town, %hile I was there, Carter's wife came in she said, "well, Mitchell^you shot my husband ;'ii I had been there it would have been a double tragedy / as I would have shot you* _ * father died in Austin, Texas. He was a member of the State Legislature at the time of his death.