Ottawa County Genealogical Society Copyright 2011 A quarterly publication of the Ottawa County Genealogical Society, established 1975 Volume 33 Summer 2011 Three Federation of Genealogical Societies Convention The annual gathering of members of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and genealogists from around the world took place September 7-10 th, in Springfield, Illinois. Numerous programs were presented in several different tracks and presenters included well-known professionals to first time speakers. A large exhibit hall was made available to all those attending the event, held in the Prairie Convention Center, and included all kinds of books, genealogy software and hardware, organizational and society materials, publishing companies, and professionals specializing in many areas. Northeast Oklahoma genealogists, historians, librarians, and societies were well represented at the event. At a quick glance, members of the Ottawa, Delaware, Muskogee, and Tulsa County Societies were easy to spot. They were busy going to class, speaking, volunteering with the Federation, Genealogical Speakers Guild and Association of Professional Genealogists. The Oklahoma Genealogical Society and the Oklahoma Historical Society were also represented by members. As usual, it was great to see Oklahoma Genealogical Librarians attending Librarian s Day activities. This type of true interest in genealogical and historical research and the latest items available to genealogy collections are of utmost importance to their continued efforts to provide for the researching public.
2011 Officers Shirley Carter, Quapaw - President Luretta Williams, Narcissa - Vice-President Shirley Ratliff, Miami Recording Secretary-Treasurer Ida McMillan, Miami - Corresponding Secretary Unless otherwise specified, all meetings will take place on the third Monday of each month Society Notes The renewed Smoke Signals was launched, in January 2011. It is hoped you enjoy the new look of our quarterly. Until finances warranted it, members received monthly postings by email. The society is now in a position to print the Smoke Signals for members and will begin doing so with this issue. Additionally, you will find a Smoke Signals Facebook page at www.facebook.com/#!/pages/smoke-signals. This social networking page is an effort to better network the society and, perhaps, gain new members. Friend us! Do you have a program idea or presenter? If so, call Luretta Williams at 918-533- 8964. By presenting interesting programs, the board hopes to not only help the membership learn, but to attract new members. Be a part of this goal! Last, but certainly not least, visit the Ottawa County Genealogical Society website at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okocgs. Judy Good has handled this page for some time and will, no doubt, have plenty to share on the site in the coming months. Should you have any queries, news items and/or ideas, please feel free to submit them to the Smoke Signals. The address is fredrea@gregathcompany.com. Don t forget to share any upcoming genealogical or historical events. The information will be added to the calendar. 2
Meetings.. Members of the Ottawa County Genealogical Society enjoyed some very enlightening program during the past few months. As we continue to have enlightening programs, our membership continues to grow. Plan to attend upcoming programs and bring all your friends! Society members and guests have learned about the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPA) and preponderance of evidence from nationally known speaker, Carrie Ann Cook, Genealogical Speakers Guild. Jordan Boyd, a history major at Pittsburg State University, shared his record keeping techniques with the group. With a huge interest both genealogy and archival studies, he brought a fresh view with his approach. There has even been a great Brick-wall workshop for members and new members. This workshop was conducted by the officers of the society and open to the general public, free of charge. The Ottawa County Genealogical Society announces the publication of Index to Marriage Announcements in Afton, Oklahoma Newspapers, 1894 1986. The lion s share of the research was done by Hildred Hughes Ables. A well-known, local educator and genealogist, Mrs. Ables spent countless hours researching the Afton American; Afton Climax; Afton News; Afton Advance and other papers. She also searched the Mt. Hope Cemetery stones and death records found at the Afton City Hall, to amass these marriage announcements. The American was one of the earliest newspapers established in the county. In large format, the book is presented in an easy to use soft cover and is available in very limited supply. The cost for the 218 page book is $30.00, plus $5.00 S&H. The book may be ordered from the society by making checks payable to OCGS, P. O. Box 1383, Miami, OK 74354. 3
2011 Events Calendar The events calendar lists those submitted to the Smoke Signals September 23-24 Ozark Genealogical Society Conference Springfield, MO dbcorbin@swbell.net September 24 October 29-30 Cowskin Prairie Book Festival Grove, OK jgb@okdivudc.com www.okdivudc.com Back to Basics Retreat Sky Ranch at Cave Springs www.gregathcompany.com/workshop/2011 Always consider attending various events to learn more! IF you know of other events, please contact the editor. Two members of the Ottawa County Genealogical Society attended the annual Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Springfield, Illinois, September 7-10. Carrie Ann Cook, Fairland, Oklahoma and Fredrea Cook, Wyandotte, Oklahoma both presented programs for the event. They were joined by Jean Bohannan, Grove, of the Delaware County Genealogical Society. Carrie presented an interesting program dealing with the use of PowerPoint and Fredrea discussed contract negotiation for professionals. Both enjoyed attending various educational demonstrations and programs. Both women are genealogists, educators, published authors, lecturers, archivists and historians. They have guided genealogical and historical research tours to a many locations. Both have taught genealogy, history, writing and computers from the Technical School to University levels. 4
The following oral history was provided by S. W. Abrams, well-known personality of the northern part of the county. This transcribed interview form the soon to be released book, Indian Pioneer History Collection Oral History Interviews of Ottawa County, is used with permission of the author and the Oklahoma Historical Society. S. W. Abrams Miami, Oklahoma From a personal interview with Nannie Lee Burns July 2, 1937 Indian Pioneer History Project Reproduced with permission of the Oklahoma Historical Society My father s parents were Josiah and Mary Abrams from New York. My grandmother Douthitt, a part Cherokee, made a widow by the Civil War and all means of a livelihood destroyed, was given transportation for herself and her children, William A. and Melissa J., to Illinois and here she became a demonstrator for the Singer Sewing Machine Company and with the trend westward came with her children from that state in 1880 and settled near Fulton, Kansas. My parents were Abner Walter Abrams and Melissa J. Abrams, nee Douthitt. Father was born February 14, 1847, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and mother at Louden, Tennessee, October 8, 18_0. They were married at Fulton about 1893. Father s Early Life Grandmother Abrams died when father was four years old and his mother when he was fourteen. His uncle, Benjamin F. Toussey, became his guardian. Till the death of his mother, he attended the local schools which were no doubt rude log buildings, and was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic; but he was a reader and at his death he possessed a very valuable library. After his mother s death, father joined the army but because of his youth, his uncle secured his release. He ran away, however, and succeeded in enlisting again, this time at Fort Scott, and served through the war in western Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas in the Second Kansas Battery. During his service he made a friend that was to be of much help to him in later years namely, Samuel J. Crawford, future governor of Kansas, and later and attorney in Washington, D. C. After the war closed, father proved up on a claim in Wilson County and worked some time at a sawmill near Saint Joseph, Missouri, but soon drifted 5
back to Fulton. Here he went into the general merchandise business and later also became interested in a sawmill in Colorado. Uncle Ben Tonssey Uncle Ben was a Baptist missionary to the Indians. He knew several Indian languages. He came first to the Quapaw country to preach and soon the Quapaws began telling him their troubles. Their land was coveted by the cattle barons and they had no way of earning living for themselves, and most of their people had already gone to the Osage country. Uncle listened to them and suggested that they talk to my father, as he was a much younger man than he; so they began coming to Fulton to see my father, sometimes on foot and sometimes riding their ponies. But father was established in business and did not like the idea of leaving there and bringing his wife and small children to this new country; and so it continued this way till one day father was at the sawmill in Colorado when he saw in an old paper that congress was considering the Dawes Bill, which would give each Indian eighty acres and throw the rest of their land open to settlement. He began to think of the Quapaws and soon he wired mother and told her if she was willing they would sell their holdings and move to the Indian Territory. She agreed and by the time he disposed of his mill and reached home she had already sold part of their property in Fulton. Knowing that he would have to depend on farming here he traded what property he could not sell for young stock, among which was sixteen shorthorn cows, good horses, new wagons, and a buggy, farming implements. This, I think, was in 1887. There was not a suitable house for them and they were allowed to live on the government farm about one and a half miles northeast of the present Sunnydale School. He made a living for his family by selling butter and cordwood at Baxter Springs. Quapaw Affairs After his arrival, father visited the Indian Agent and tried to secure his cooperation but there seemed nothing to do. Most of the Quapaws ere gone and a clause in their treaty provided that when they had vacated their reservation for so many years, their land reverted to the government. So in the company of Frank Valliere and another Quapaw, he went to the Osage country and visited the Quapaws there to show them the necessity of their return if they wanted to save their land. Immediately after they came here my father was adopted into the tribe and this was to be his pay for the help that he hoped to be to them. They had no money and this was all they could offer. Mother became secretary and during father s absence kept in touch with things. Father selected as his residence the present family home located on 6
what was then known as the Ponca Hill, and now known as the Abrams Hill; and here shortly after he came, with the help of the tribesmen, he erected a two-story log house, 20x40 feet. Although the house has been added to and modernized, this part still stands as a part of the building. The first two trips to Washington were unsuccessful. On the third trip my father was talking to his old friend, Ex-Governor Crawford of Kansas, and he told father to go home and take possession of the country and to put the people on a self-supporting basis. Father accordingly returned and employed J. G. Hogden of Galena, Kansas, to survey the country and to run the lines. The party would leave in the morning with a load of sandstone picked up from our hill and these they used as corner stones to mark the locations. Maps were made and then father would get them around the map spread most likely on the floor and get the Indian s consent to locate at such a place. Of course, most of them wanted to locate in the timber but he reasoned with them that this would not be good farming land and that they must have land to make a living, saying You take forty acres here to live on, and then you take the rest cut on the prairie and I will get you a man to farm it and make you a living. So this was done and then father went to Fulton and went among the renters there and persuaded a number of families to move here. Among them were the Binghams, the Beths, the Harbers, and others who have since become prominent families. As a part of this contract, each tenant was to erect a small house and buildings. The prairie being covered with an excellent growth of bluestem grass, father reasoned that this should be a great hay market. He began, therefore, to work towards securing a railroad. But all was not going smoothly during this time; every outside influence possible was being used against father s plan, for if he succeeded the cattleman would loose out. The early chiefs not realizing the seriousness of what was being done were easily persuaded or paid to sign something they did not understand, and this would mean a trip to Washington to undo what had been done. Often mother and father would get an uneasy feeling at night and would get in their buggy and drive to the home of someone of the tribe, and possibly have to talk to him a long time to find out what was being done or said, for it was not always easy to get the Indians to talk event to them. Mother besides acting as secretary for the tribe, spent much time among them, stressing the need of schools and later persuading them to send the children to Haskell or Carlisle, persuading them to build houses for themselves, and suggesting methods of improving the home and its surroundings. 7
The Chief was elective, I think the first Chief after father came was Jim Medicine, followed by Charlie Quapaw Blackhawk, but I have often heard him say that Peter Clabber, who remained chief till his death, was the most helpful to him and seemed to understand most fully the importance of what they were trying to do. Father s Indian name was White Eagle. By 1895 father, with the help of the tribesmen and by following Governor Crawford s advise, had things going pretty much as he wanted; so with Frank Valliere and possibly others, they took their maps to Washington and with the influence of Crawford and others whom father had met his many trips there succeeded in getting the maps they had made accepted by the government as the official allotment maps for the tribe. Looking forward, father thought that the allotments should be protected against alienation, and was instrumental in getting a twenty-five year restriction clause in the allotment act. He thought in this time that the Indians should be competent to take care of themselves against the grafter. In March, 1896, the Quapaws were delivered their patents at Wyandotte, all signed by Grover Cleveland. As soon as all the allotments were approved, General Blair, a Frisco official with whom father had been in touch, came to our home and with the help of gather and those who had worked so faithfully with him, secured a right-of-way across the Quapaw country. Father, in appreciation for his service, received from the Frisco a life annual pass, but after many years it was removed by them. One of the conditions of his helping the railroad secure the right-of-way was an agreement to establish a station in the territory, which was called Quapaw. In the contract, this stipulation was overlooked and no provision was made for an agent at Quapaw, but the matter was adjusted later with the establishment of Quapaw and the sidetrack called, a shipping point was provided for the abundant hay grown here. Land had been set aside for the Quapaw Mission School and the government had been conducting a school for some years. This was a mile east of Quapaw. The Catholics had also requested land for school purposes, so forty acres in the section south and east were assigned to them. However, they did not establish a school there till after the closing of the Quapaw Mission. One incident that I might mention before I leave this subject. The day as father was ready to return home from Washington, he met at the station W. E. Lykins, who said, Abrams, I m licked. Father asked him what he meant and he said that he could not get the approval for the sale of the townsite of Miami from the Ottawas. Father replied that they needed the town and asked him to give him his papers; then calling a cab, he returned to the capitol and with the aid of Crawford and others that he had met there through is frequent 8
trips, in a couple of hours had the necessary signatures. He returned the signed papers to Lykins, who had been unable to get results because he was not acquainted there. Ex-Governor Crawford took a great interest in the affairs of the Quapaws, and often visited my father at our home. The Quapaws, in appreciation for what he had done, said that when they could they would remember him for his assistance. This opportunity did not present itself till after the discontinuance of the Quapaw Mission School, then the tribe by agreement deeded him eighty acres of the mission site. Father, feeling that his work was now done, began to give much of his time to leasing hay land and extensive farming operations. Our Early Home Life There were four of us children; I had two brothers, Harry and Earl B., and one sister, Maud Elizabeth. At first as there were no public schools, father built a small building in one corner of our yard and hired a teacher for us and any other children that wanted to come. Here we attended school till 1900. There were never less than eight or ten pupils in this school. Mrs. Nell Wells, nee Stewart, was our last teacher. My parents were interested in education and gave each of us the opportunity for a good education. I was sent to Baxter Springs, next to the military school at Columbia, then to William Jewell, and later to Saint Marys. My father was guardian for several of the Quapaw children, and was always sure that they were in school while under his care. One girl I remember, Mary Lane. When she graduated rather than let her come home father told them at the Loretta Academy to teach her music, and kept her there as long as he could. We had three tenant houses on the farm, which consisted of our six allotments of twelve hundred acres on the prairie. One of them needed a well, so father hired Ollie M. Youse of Baxter Springs, to drill it. One evening, Youse called my father up and told him that he had a Jack mine for him. They drilled two more holes and both showed ore. Mining From Galena, he hired men who knew mining and sunk a shaft. Than, he organized the Iowa and Oklahoma Mining Company, to develop our land, and 9
leased other land east of Section 30. Most of the ore was found on my sister s land, where the White Eagle, the Sunnyside, the Dark Horse, the Strong Bow, and the Last Chance mines were afterwards opened. Other mines that father helped develop were: Sunbur, Omahe, Hobo, Good Luck, Lancaster, and others. Sunnyside A town called Sunnyside sprang up three-quarters of a mile south of the present school of that name and continued until 1910. It even had a hotel. Earlier Mining This successful mining had not been father s first venture, for he had an interest in mining and was often around the Galena fields, knew ore, and was always watching for it. In 1891, having to haul water for home use a mile and a half, he hired Robinson and Steelman to drill him a well at the home where the windmill now stands. This was drilled to the depths of sixty feet, but later it was deepened. With Governor Renfrow, father formed the Tar Creek Oil and Gas Company, which leased a large part of the Quapaw acreage. They were interested in oil then, because of the fact that Tar Creek gets its name from an oily tar found near it. They drilled a few shallow holes and became discouraged; so they turned their acreage as a wildcat proposition to the Pennsylvania Company of that state who needed some acreage to fill in. The Baxter Springs Home Mother decided that she wanted pea fowls and so went with father to the home of Mr. Cooper in the north part of Baxter Springs to get them and he offered to sell them his house. The purchase was made that day and the family was moved to Baxter Springs; but the farming operations were still carried on at the farm and father came down each day. We moved to Baxter Springs in 1900. While there father helped reorganize the Baxter National Bank. Mr. Brewster and the father of the late Charles Fribley of the city were his associates in this work. In 1905, he bought his first automobile, a Great Smith, made in Topeka, Kansas. In 1915, he became active in the mining field here in the Tri-State District, but he sold out in 1917. He spent his time as he chose, but much of it was with his books. Mother passed on the farm home December 21, 1934. 10
My Activities After finishing school, I secured a position on the road in connection with bank advertising and followed this till I decided that I wanted to be a rancher; so in Kansas City I purchased a load of cattle and shipped them home and followed them and remained here till I was selected as one of the persons allowed to go to Oklahoma University from this county for a short course in radio and engineering. From the University, we were sent to Camp Donophin and sailed for France, September 5, 1918; but were switched around and so did not see any active service. I left France for home on December 24 th. June 24, 1919 I married Ruby Nell McCall of Carnegie, Oklahoma, whom I had met at the University. We have since made our home in Miami, where I have been engaged in the mining business. We have two children, Jack and Gloria. Conclusion This brings to a close an interview with one who, though not himself active in the affairs of the Quapaws, knows from the oft repeated conversations in the home the difficulties that were met and overcome to give the Quapaws the broad acres and the rich mining lands that have been theirs. 11
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Both the previous and following Interurban articles were submitted by Fredas L. Cook, from his early historical newspaper project 13
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Some interesting research websites.. 15
The following page, dealing with oral histories, is reproduced with permission of Tim Pinnick, speaker at the 2011 FGS Conference. 16
Members on the move Recently, Fredas and Fredrea Cook, made a trip to the Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society, to meet with Bill Welge, Director. They carried 20 copies of The Rounder, for microfilming. These copies of the mid-teens newspapers from Cardin, Oklahoma, were shared by the Baxter Springs Museum in an effort to assist the OHS with their early Ottawa County Newspapers. While there, Mr. and Mrs. Cook toured the various galleries of the OHS Museum. They also learned much of the behind-the-scenes activity of the research division and library, their projects and needs. While at the OHS Library, Fredas contributed a copy of his book, Pictures From the Mining Era, Cardin Picher, Oklahoma Area. The book, now in second printing, was well received and accessioned into the research library. A few fundraising notes.. Taken from a presentation by Curt Witcher, Genealogical Center Allen County Public Library 17
Some Known Area Projects Do you know of others? If so, contact the editor. Quapaw Museum: Ardina Moore, Quapaw Tribal Cultural Committee chairperson, reports that the committee continues to work towards increasing the holdings of their new museum, located in Quapaw. If you have not visited, plan to do so, as they have a great start. Should you know of anyone with artifacts pertinent to the cultural committee, please make sure those involved are aware of each other. Let your interest in genealogy and history show through! Ottawa County Families Volume IV: Gregath Company, Inc. is working on the fourth volume of this series of books. If you would like your family included or have any questions contact book@gregathcompany.com. Indian Pioneer History Collection Oral History Interviews of Ottawa County: Fredrea and Carrie Cook, with the permission of the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division, have been diligently transcribing the interviews made of early Ottawa County residents. These were done by Nannie Lee Burns as part of a special WPA project, to record oral histories of the state. These interviews are of great historical and genealogical value. Queries Queries are always welcome! Please contact the editor. Henry Inman, 2324 Riverfront Parkway, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44221, is seeking any information on the following: Henry P. Inman (born 1851 died 1904), married Martha E. Nicholson (born 1853 died 1929). The marriage took place in 1877 in what later became Ottawa County, Oklahoma. After Mr. Inman s death she remarried to Elaja E. Masterson, in 1906 and he died in 1907/08. [Submitted by Shirley Ratliff, OCGS Secretary] 18