Trail of Tears Stories That Should Not Be Forgotten

From The American Native Press Archives and Sequoyah Research Center

Woodall, Bettie

September 20, 1937
James R. Carselowey
Interviewer
An Interview with Bettie Perdue Woodall
Welch, Oklahoma

Old Indian Days

My name is Elizabeth Perdue Woodall, but I have always been called "Bettie". I was born near Westville, Indian Territory, December 6, 1851. My father's name was James Perdue, a half-breed Cherokee Indian. My other, Dollie Thornton Perdue, was a white woman. Both were born in Georgia. They were married in 1838, and came immediately with the eastern emigrants over the Trail of Tears to their new home west of the Mississippi, settling in Going Snake District, in the new Cherokee Nation.

The Trail of Tears.

Some histories say that on the Trail of Tears all the women and children were allowed to ride; but my mother told me that not a single woman rode unless she was sick and not able to walk. My mother walked every step of the way over here.
The Government furnished green coffee in the grain for the Indians along the route. Many of them had never seen coffee and did not know how to make it. Some of them put the coffee in a pot with meat and were trying to cook it like beans when my mother came along and some Indian woman said, "Ask her, She white woman." My mother said she just had to laugh the way they were trying to cook that coffee. She took some of the green coffee, roasted it in a pan over their fire, put the parched grains in a cloth and pounded it up, and made them a pot of coffee. They all liked it and said she was a smart white woman.
She also showed them how to cook their rice. It seems they all thought everything had to be cooked with meat, but in this way the young white woman became very popular and much loved by her newly made friends.
My mother told me about many of the hardships and privations she and the rest of the women suffered while on their way from Georgia. Some of them were almost unbelievable, yet I know they are true, for my mother would have had no motive in telling it if it had not been so.
On one occasion she told of an officer in charge of one of the wagons, who killed a little baby because it cried all the time. It was only four days old and the mother was forced to walk and carry it, and because it cried all of the time and the young mother could not quiet it, the officer took it away from her and dashed its little head against a tree and killed it.  

Alexander, Jobe

May 3, 1938
Jesse S. Bell-Investigator
Indian-Pioneer History, S-149
Interview with Jobe Alexander
Proctor, Oklahoma
I am a full blood Cherokee Indian born in Going-Lake District, Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation, March 10, 1854, and raised there. My father, Dun-Ev-Nall Alexander was born in Georgia and was driven West during the immigration. All the Indians were gathered up or rounded up by Federal soldiers and put in pens and guarded until ready for the move; they were gathered up by the "Clans" and left their gardens and crops, and some of the old homes of the Cherokee are still standing in Georgia.

The last group that was rounded up revolted; the leader gave the signal to revolt and all turned on the guards and took their guns away and murdered the guards and they made for hide aways in the mountains. That is why the Indians are back in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. They never were found or hunted much.

Anderson, Lilian

August 20, 1837
Margaret McGurie
Field Worker
An Interview with Lilian Anderson
Eufaula, Oklahoma

Life story of her grandfather, Washington Lee, Cherokee Indian

In 1838, my grandfather, Washington Lee, came to the Territory and stopped at Westville. He was driven from his home in Georgia over the Trail of Tears with all the other Cherokee Indians and while on the trail somewhere he lost his father and mother and sister, and never saw them any more. He did not know whether they died or got lost.

The Cherokees had to walk; all the old people who were too weak to walk could ride in the Government wagons that hauled the food and the blankets which they allowed to have. The food was most always cornbread or roasted green corn. Some times the men who had charge of the Indians would kill a buffalo and would let the Indians cut some of it and roast it.

The food on the Trail of Tears was very bad and very scarce and the Indians would go for two of three days without water, which they would get just when they came to a creek or river as there were no wells to get water from. There were no roads to travel over, as the country was just a wilderness. The men and women would go ahead of the wagons and cut the timber out of the way with axes.
This trail started in Georgia and went across Kentucky, Tennessee and through Missouri into the Territory and ended at Westville, where old Fort Payne was. Old Fort Wayne was built to shelter the Indians until some houses could be built.

Aunt Chin Deanawash was my grandmother's sister and she came from Georgia on the Trail of Tears. Her husband died shortly after they got out of Georgia and left her to battle her way through with three small children, one who could not walk. Aunt Chin tied the little one on her back with an old shawl, she took one child in her arms and led the other by the hand; the two larger children died before they had gone so very far and the little one died and Aunt Chin took a broken case knife and dug a grave and buried the little body by the side of the Trail of Tears.

The Indians did not have food of the right kind to eat and Aunt Chin came on alone and lived for years after this.

Chambers, Jennie McCoy

Mary D. Dorward,
Field Worker
Jennie McCoy Chambers
A Biographical Sketch
From a personal Interview with the Subject.
(1530 East 14th Street; Tulsa, Okla.)
(The subject of this sketch was very difficult to interview, for, while she was very willing to talk, she is very deaf, is eighty-three years old, and her mind seems to wander.)

Jennie McCoy Chambers was born April 24, 1854, in the Koo-wee-skoo-wee (her spelling) district of the Cherokee Nation, near the town of now Claremore. The house, a log cabin, still stands. It is at the north end of Claremore Lake on Dog Creek, has two large rooms and a small room downstairs and a room upstairs. Has clapboard doors.

Mrs. McCoy is about half Cherokee (which she calls Cher o 'kee, just as she says Tahl ee 'quah), her mother, Mary Hicks, coming over the Trail of Tears from Alabama when a child. Her father, Joseph McCoy, was a rancher and the family lived on the place near Claremore until the Civil War when they went over near Saline, and "refugeed" in the Cherokee Nation until the close of the War. Evidently they did not remain at Saline because she said that she and her sister many times walked from Tahlequah to Fort Smith and back for supplies from the Government, and many times they almost starved. Her people sympathized with the Union.

Incidents of the Trail of Tears

Mrs. Chambers' grandfather and grandmother Hicks, together with her own mother, came in the emigrant train over the Trail. On the way they picked up to children who were lost. One, a boy whose people had all died of smallpox, came to them when they were encamped along a creek. He was known as S. S. Stevens and never knew but what he was an Indian. The other child was a little girl who knew no name but Polly. When she grew older she married and was known as Aunt Polly Myers.

Cook, Wallace

March 17, 1937
Cook, Wallace
Grace Kelley, Field Worker

When my grandfather, Emeithle Harjo, was twenty-five or thirty years old, he was removed to the Indian Territory, from Alabama. The boat that he was to cross the Mississippi in was a dilapidated affair and sank in the Mississippi River. He swam pretty near all night saving the women and children. They were all brought here and turned loose like something wild. He had to walk from here to the Fort Gibson to get the axe and gun that the Government promised and gave to him. He built his home across the highway from here. There are some house there but they are not the ones he built, they burned, and rotted down

Jones, Joanna nee McGhee

July 15, 1937
Interview with Mrs. Joanna Jones nee McGhee
128 K, N. E.
Mrs. Thos. Walker
Miami, Oklahoma
Mannie Lee Burns, Interviewer
Indian-Pioneer History S-149
Grant Foreman, Director
My mother was Susie Beck, a Cherokee and the daughter of Charlotte Downing and Ellis Beck and she was born in Georgia. My father was Albert McGhee. I do not remember the dates of their births.

Removal to Indian Territory

My mother was about twelve years old when they were forced to leave Georgia and I have heard her say that before they left their homes there that the white people would come into their houses and look things over and when they found something that they liked, they would say, "This is mine, I am going to have it", etc. When they were gathering their things to start they were driven from their homes and collected together like so many cattle. Some would try to take along something which they loved, but were forced to leave it, if it was of any size. The trip was made in covered wagons and this made many of the women sick, but they were forced along just the same. When they reached streams and rivers, they did not want to cross and they were dragged on the boats.
Grandmother always remembered it and I have often heard her say, "Some day you will be taxed out of your homes here just as we were."  

Lewis, D. B.

Thomas and Lewis Stories
An interview of D. B. Lewis, age 36, of Eufaula town
 Henryetta, Oklahoma.

The story of a singing river was told by an old man by the name of Holly Thomas who use to live three or four miles southeast of Eufaula, but he has been dead for some years. His father and mother had come over to the new country from the eastern home during the removal and so the story had been told to Holly of the sorrows at the time of the removal and what the conditions were at that time. He was a small child during that time but he was told all stories about the times when he had become a young man. Those old folks never could cease from talking about and telling of the hardships they experienced along their trip often known as the Trail of Tears.

This story of the singing river was told to Holly by his father. It is not exactly known whether the incident connected with this story happened in the Mississippi River or the Tennessee River but it was the Creek Indians that it was told about. This was told as it actually happened but it was a very strange incident. As some of the Indians had been brought to the river to be put aboard the ships that were to carry them part of the way by a water route, some began to form ideas that they did not fully want to leave their old homes and further, some resolved never to set foot on the ships so that they couldn't be forced to suffer any more hardships.
They thought it would be best to end all relations with their superior officers so that they began to fight them. In the attempts to check the rebellion the officers had to use weapons and some of the Indians were killed as they tried to run off into the woods. Seeing the rebellious attitude of the Indians the white officers grabbed any Indian and pushed or forced them into the ships. The officers readily killed any Indian on board the ships that seemed to be in a rebellious attitude, but there were some Indians who did not take part in the uprising but they were the eye witnesses to those Indians who were killed on board the ships and thrown overboard into the waters of the river. Some of them that were left unharmed said, "Even we will die here but not by guns." With this, they took hold of one another's hands and stepped off into a large suck hole that was in the river and went to their deaths singing a song. It is told that many years later, the words of the song which had been sung by those Indians could be heard at certain times so that many people from foreign countries and people from different places in this country have made trips to this vicinity in attempts to record the tune and words of the song, but no one has ever been successful. 

Lewis, S. R.

Chauncey O. Moore, Supervisor
Indian-Pioneer History S-14
Lawrence D. Hibbs
Field Worker
Interview: S. R. Lewis

Old Timers

Major Ridge, a full blood Cherokee Indian, who married a white woman and his son, John Ridge, who also married a white woman, came to what is now Delaware County, Indian Territory, from Georgia in the year of 1835. John Ridge, the son, had a college education and both men were considered rich men.
They opened a trading post near the Arkansas State line. (This store may have been called Ridge's Store.) They employed one, William Childers, as a clerk in this trading post. Later they gave William Childers $8,000.00 to go to New Orleans to buy supplies for this store. He made the trip by way of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, buying the supplies and returning to the trading post.

The Ridges, father and son, were signers of the Treaty of 1835, and which, later, was the cause of their deaths.

After the general removal of the Cherokees to Indian Territory in 1838, the two Ridges (Major and John) were assassinated by their own tribe, the reason being that because these two men signed the treaty disposing of the Cherokee country east of the Mississippi River for land in Indian Territory, the tribe thought they had been betrayed and sold out by their supposed friends. They were killed in different sections, but on the same day. Major Ridge was killed somewhere near the Arkansas State line, on the same day a relative of theirs was killed near Parkhill, which is about six miles south of Tahlequah.
The wives of the two Ridges, being white women, feared for their lives after the death of their husbands and they moved to Arkansas, remaining there until their deaths.

Mann, Richard

RICHARD C. MANN
by
O. C. Davidson
I was born Jan. 20, 1872 in the Going Snake District of the Cherokee Nation, at Oaks, one of the two oldest towns in the Cherokee Nation. I am a full blood Cherokee; my mother, Elizabeth Miller came from Georgia in the Trail of Tears in 1832, when the Indians were driven out of Georgia at the point of bayonet and brought here like live-stock.

They came here by boats, landed at the mouth of the Verdigris River. A rock with the date of their landing carved on it still marks the spot of their landing.
Upon their arrival here the Creek and Cherokee tribes separated. The Creeks going west of Grand River and the Cherokees settling east of the Grand River.

Upon coming here the Cherokees were permitted to take claims at the land they wanted, anywhere east of Grand River. The stipulations of the treaty were that this land was to be theirs as long as grass grew and the waters run. But later, the white mans greed for this beautiful and valuable country became so strong that, they went to work and legislated laws in Washington where by this country might be surveyed and divided up, allowing each Indian just so much land as a homestead and certain allotment of surplus other than their homesteads.


The full blood Indians never did agree to this allotment system but were forced to accept it.

Payne, Mary

May 10, 1937
Miss Ella Robinson
Research Field Worker
Mrs. Mary Payne
521 South Third
Muskogee, Oklahoma

Life and Experience of a Cherokee Woman

My father was David Israel, a full-blood Cherokee and my mother was Martha Jane Miller Israel, a quarter Cherokee. They were born in Georgia. My mother in 1836 and my father in 1837. They were brought to Indian Territory by their parents over the "Trail of Tears" when the Indians were driven from their eastern homes by the United States Troops.

They were too young to know of the tragedies and sorrows of that terrible event. My aunt, who was 15 years old at the time, told me of the awful suffering along the journey. Almost everyone had to walk as the conveyance they had were inadequate for transporting what few possessions they had and their meager supply of food. Only the old people and little children were allowed to ride. They died by the hundreds and were buried by the roadside. As they were not allowed to remove any of their household goods, they arrived at their destination with nothing with which to start housekeeping

Pennington, Josephine

October 12, 1937
D. W. Wilson
Investigator
Interview with Mrs. Josephine Pennington
Hulbert, Oklahoma
The scene of this story as given by Mrs. Pennington starts far back in the dawn of Cherokee history. It deals with her forefathers before wrongs were done to these proud Cherokee back in Tennessee and Georgia; with their weary journey westward over the Trail of Tears. The Cherokees' first constitution according to the Cherokee laws; the Cherokees' first Principal Chief, John Ross; stirring events of the Civil War; the coming of the wild bands of painted Indians from other parts of the United States brought by the Government into the Indian Territory to occupy a part of the Cherokee lands that they were compelled by the Government to sell for this purpose.
Progress is to be noted in Mrs. Pennington's recital, for they builded schools and churches, towns and cities, from savagery among the wild Indians to our present great state we have today.
Every individual has back of him things of which they are justly proud and Mrs. Pennington is proud to know that she is a direct descendant of the principal characters of the Cherokees.
After the Ridges made this treaty and those who favored it moved west. Chief Ross and his band of 12,000 still refused to move and they met abuse and troubles indescribable and finally the United States Soldiers were sent to move Chief Ross and his people.

The Migration

After the soldiers appeared, they began to build stockades to house the Cherokees until they could get them moving. All over the Cherokee country they went, bringing in all of them, old and young, male and female and their babes, the sick, the lame and the halt. They hunted them down like hunting wild beasts and when they found them, they drove them under threats and blows like cattle to these stockades. These stockades were over crowded, disease broke out among them and many of them died with dysentery. Poor food and poor water, no doctors and no medicine.

In due time parties were started west, under the charge of soldiers. These parties were driven through like cattle. The sick and weak walked until they fell exhausted and then were loaded in wagons or left behind to die. When streams were to be crossed if not too deep all were compelled to wade. The water often times was to the chins of the men and women, and the little children were carried high over their heads. If the water was over their heads they would build rafts and cross on them.

Chief Ross and the Council begged the Government to let them take over the moving after a few parties had been moved by the soldiers and this was agreed upon. They began to establish camps and their health got better. It was only a short time until Chief Ross had worked out the details for the removal and he moved his people in groups through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and then into the Indian Territory. This journey was called the "Trail of Tears".

Unlike the moving by the army, arrangements were made whereby the old, sick and afflicted and the babies rode on the wagons hauling provisions and household goods. The others walked or rode horseback. These wagons hauling provisions were Government property.
Even with these arrangements many died on account of cold and hunger enroute and were buried in unmarked graves.
One of those who died on the Trail of Tears was Jim Ross Jr., the son of Jim Ross who was the son of Chief John Ross as aforementioned.
Jim Ross Jr. was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere near the present town of Aurora, Missouri.
Those who survived the hardships of the long trek, finally came to meet the Cherokees west. After they arrived here all that they possessed were a saw, an axe, a very little bedding and a big-eyed hoe and a small amount of corn, enough possibly to plant an acre of ground.

Having located in the Ozarks of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, many of them dug caves or dugouts in the hillsides in which to live until with their axe and saw, they built a little log cabin. They lived on wild fruits and berries. They made themselves bows and arrows to kill their game.

Some were a little more fortunate for they had a horse and with a deer tongue of wood and the big-eyed hoe they planted their corn in little clearings.

Chief John Ross and his family settled and builded their first home near the west bank of the Illinois. 

Vann, E. F.

March 20, 1938
D. T. Wilson
Journalist
An interview with Mr. E. F. Vann; Muskogee, Oklahoma

I am the son of Turnip and Martha Vann and I was born in the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation of the Indian Territory, June 20, 1870. The present location of my birthplace would be in Adair County near the present town of Stilwell. I am a full blood Cherokee Indian and am now the day jailer at the Muskogee County jail in Muskogee.

My father was born in North Carolina about 1825, and my mother's name was Martha Hood before her marriage and she was born in Georgia, September 14, 1835. My father is now dead and is buried some few miles south of Stilwell. My mother is also dead and is buried in McIntosh County, near Chocotah.
In 1890 I married a white woman of the name of Alice McTheney who was born in Crawford County, Arkansas, June 6, 1874.

My father and grandfather moved to Georgia before the removal of the Cherokees to the Indian Territory from North Carolina and my mother's parents lived in Georgia. There has been much told to me by my parents and grandparents as to the way in which the Cherokees were treated and were driven from their homes in Georgia, all of which history has recorded; however I feel that I should say my parents were of two different clans or factions. My mother's parents were favorable to the Treaty or the Ridge Party and on account of a treaty made with the United States Government, my mother's people were moved west by the Government, by steamboat and wagons and settled in Western Arkansas, north of the present town of Fort Smith, in 1835. Mother was but a baby two years old at this time. These Cherokees were called emigrants or the Western Cherokees.

My father's people would not abide by the treaty and were known as members of the Anti-treaty or Ross Party who refused to leave their homes back in Georgia, because the land was fertile and had many improvements and furthermore because their loved ones were buried there. In all, the members of the Ross or Anti-treaty party were satisfied and content in Georgia and did not care to take up new homes in a country of which they knew nothing. All the story of their sufferings in Georgia and across the Trail of Tears has already been written. My father while only thirteen years old came on the Trail of Tears with his parents and while on this trail, he lost one of his brothers. Father's people settled in the Flint District where I was born. It was in 1838 that this removal occurred and it was only a few years until my mother's people who had settled in Arkansas were again compelled to move into the confines of the Indian Territory. They settled in the Flint District where Father and Mother grew up and were married.


I have heard my grandparents and parents say, that after the troublesome times of enforced migration and settlement in their new lands in Indian Territory, there followed at last a period of peace and prosperity among the Cherokees. The younger Indians such as Father and Mother became reconciled to the change but my grandfather never did.

Walker, Henry J.

Interview with Henry J. Walker
Welch, Oklahoma, Star Route
James R. Carseloway, Field Worker
My name is Henry J. Walker, and I live at Welch, Oklahoma, Star Route. I live on the farm my father settled on, when the Kansas line was re-established, located on Big Cabin Creek.
My father's name was George Washington Walker. My mother's name was Mary Jane (Harlow) Walker.
My grandfather was Timothy Migs Walker, and my grandmother was Elizabeth Neely (Adair) Walker.
My father was born in Tennessee in 1823 and came to the Indian Territory when a boy 12 years old with his parents, brothers and sisters, along with the eastern emigrants, from Georgia about 1838.

Men and Boys Walked

My father told me that all the men and boys walked all the way from Georgia, and the women and children were allowed to ride in the ox wagons. It was a long hard journey and many took sick and died on the road. It took so long to make the trip, longer than the government had figured, that about all the money the Cherokees were given to live on after they arrived was used up on the way.

My father said each head of a family was given $100.00 in money to live on until they could get started up in their new homes, and that the soldiers in charge of the movement were given feed and food enough to carry them through. It ran out long before the journey's end was reached and the government officers had to borrow from the Indians to buy food and feed to continue the trip. By the time the Territory was reached about all the Indians money was used up, many of their families were reduced by death, and they were here without a thing to live on.

My father said the Government men in charge of the "Trail of Tears" promised to turn in their claims and pay back the money they borrowed from the Cherokees on the way over here, but they never did. I am told that the Cherokees now have in a claim against the government for this money with 5 per cent interest from 1838.
My grandfather, Timothy Walker, was a full blood Cherokee and settled with his family near Tahlequah in 1868, where he lived until his death several years later.

My father, George W. Walker, was almost a full blood Cherokee, and spoke languages fluently. 

Waterkiller, Ellis

Interview with Mr. Ellis Waterkiller

Mr. Waterkiller was born in the Cookson Hills of Eastern Oklahoma, near White Oak School, in Cherokee County, Oklahoma and now lives six miles east of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, near the present Perkins School in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, on highway #62.

He is a full blood Cherokee Indian and 73 years old.

All of his known relatives were buried in the Cookson Hills of eastern Oklahoma, near the White Oak School. No markers mark their graves.
Father - Waterkiller - Born North Carolina (year unknown) Died 1870.
Mother - Nancy Parsons Waterkiller, born Cookson Hills 1873 and died 1890.
Grandfather - (First name unknown) last name, Parsons. Born North Carolina, (date unknown) Died 1840.
Grandmother - Sallie Parsons, born North Carolina (date unknown) Died 1885.

Migration

Don't know much about Father's people. Grandma (Parsons) tell me lot, like I tell you.
Grandpa and Grandma leave North Carolina, in old country, come Georgia, that old country too, stay there year. . . . 1837, soldiers drive um West. . . . Grandpa and Grandma no want come. Soldiers say go or kill you. Stick bayonet in you. They get things one night, skillet, pot, dishes, clothes, bedclothes too. . . . got dish grandma bring. I eat beans out em, I boy. It was an old piece of pottery, highly polished. Bowl was fashioned with handles, handles broken off, but designs on it were beautiful. See bowl, is over hundred years old. Next day soldiers drive um out. Easy first day. Make soldiers feel good. Every day worse. Just drive um like cattle. Grandma say she walk, grandpa walk too or soldiers run bayonets through um. They walk, wade creeks to chin, lots mud some places. Cross rivers in canoes. Soldiers save canoes, sometimes hollow logs, made um boats, go cross river. Yuh, soldiers have wagons. Feed um two times some days, sometimes feed um one time. Soldiers eat all time, take care horses better than my grandma-grandpa. Yuh-they bring skillet some things grandma had. Yuh - lots die, lots sick, lots die, two week walk, they die, bury em where they die, any place. Yuh - clothes bad, tore em, dirty too, clothes all gone when get here. Throw lot way on road, no good.

They get here, lots timber, land no good in hills, all right in valley Yuh - Grandma hate white man. Give all land, good land, in old country meaning North Carolina and Georgia. . . . white man say "Trail Tears", she say: "Trail Death". . . . grandpa die next year, mother born. (meaning his grandmother died one year after the birth of his mother.)

Life and Customs after Migration

Grandma say, her and grandpa come in hills. Soldiers say live, work, die.
Soldiers give em, ax, saw, big eye hoe, flint makin firs, corn, cotton, beans, mellon seed. Some soldiers give em nothin. (He had in his mind that some of the emigrants received nothing after their arrival, but was promised they would get theirs later). My folks lucky. Others never get nothin. .......

Watts, Elizabeth

April 27, 1937
Mrs. Elizabeth Watts
A Biographic Sketch
Route #2, Box 168, Muskogee, Oklahoma
By L. D. Wilson, Field Worker
Indian-Pioneer History

Source of Information received from a personal interview.

Mrs. Watt's maiden name was Elizabeth Miller. She was born in 1859, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation and is a full-blood Cherokee Indian. Her first marriage was to a Mr. Whitewater, now deceased, and in 1894, she was married to Mr. Watts. Each marriage was consummated under the Cherokee Laws.

Her mother was Mrs. Nancy Tony - Miller and she was born on the East bank of the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, in 1837. Her grandparents were enroute from Georgia on the "Trail of Tears". They camped at the river several weeks waiting for the river to recede. Disease broke out among them and many died, but Nancy was born and she, at least replaced one of those who died.

Mrs. Miller died in 1876, and is buried in Goose-Neck Band neighborhood, east of Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Her father, Wilson Miller, was born in the Cherokee Nation. Was an orphan. He was reared by Uncle Joe Robertson, who was the father of Miss Alice Robertson, late Congress-woman from Oklahoma. His home was with the Robertson's at the old Tallahassee Mission, in the Creek Nation at the present town of Tallahassee, Oklahoma. He knew little of his parents, and likewise, Mrs. Watts knew nothing of her grand-parents on her father's side. He is buried three miles south of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Grandparents on Mrs. Watts' mother's side were named Richard and Nellie Tony and they came to the Indian Territory in 1837, due to the removal of all Cherokees west of the Mississippi River.

The Removal as told to Mrs. Watts by her Grandparents

The Cherokees owned a large acreage in Georgia. After Jefferson was elected President by the United States, he had agents to come to the different Tribes to induce them to come west. Their inducement was much more land than they had there. They had lived there in Georgia for years and years. They had good land, that was left, for already the white people had encroached and taken much of their land. Naturally, most of them did not want to leave and go out into the wilderness and start life anew. To do so, was like spending a nickel these days for a grab bag, or like the saying, "Buying a cat in a sack". They did not willingly want to do this. Time passed. The War of 1812 came, and removal was delayed. A new President, Madison, was elected and he traded land in Arkansas, north of Fort Smith, for their land and agreed to move them and give them supplies, guns, clothing, ammunition, and utensils. A few of them agreed and came. The most of them still refused. This greatly separated the Cherokees. Those that came to Arkansas, had trouble there. The Government then moved them to what we call the Strip Country.
Those left in Georgia began building larger homes, put in larger crops, planted orchards, and advanced by leaps and bounds. It was during this period the Cherokees adopted the Sequoyah alphabet in Georgia. Sequoyah also came west to the ones in the Strip country and taught it there.

The white people used all means to get the Indians out of Georgia. Claimed they were barbarians, and they, the Cherokees, made new laws, just like the ones we had here in the Nation. John Ross was elected Chief of all the Tribes of Cherokees. Ross did all he could to get to stay there, but the Georgia white man passed laws and more laws, and law or no law, they destroyed the Indian's fences, and crops, and killed their cattle, burned their homes and made life a torment to them.

The Cherokees began to think of joining the West Cherokees. They simply could endure no longer. Like everything, it took a leader, and Major Ridge, his son, John Ridge, and two nephews, Elias Boudinot and Stan Natie became leaders. Of course, John Ross was the Chief and they all got to squabbling. Ross did not want to move his people, but by some hook or crook, Boudinot and Ridge signed a treaty to move, and claimed it was the will of the majority, but it was not, and the Government united a little while and sent Gen. Scott and two or three thousand soldiers. The soldiers gathered them up, all up, and put them in camps. They hunted them and run them down until they got all of them. Even before they were loaded in wagons, many of them got sick and died. They were all grief stricken. They lost all on earth they had. White men even robbed their dead's graves to get their jewelry and other little trinkets.

They saw to stay was impossible and the Cherokees told Gen. Scott they would go without further trouble and the long journey started. They did not all come at once. First one batch and then another. The sick, old, and babies rode on the grub and household wagons. The rest rode a horse, if they had one. Most of them walked. Many of them died along the way. They buried them where they died, in unmarked graves. It was a bitter dose and lingered in the mind of Mrs. Watts Grand-parents and parents until death took them. The road they traveled, History calls the "Trail of Tears". This trail was more than tears. It was death, sorrow, hunger, exposure, and humiliation to a civilized people as were the Cherokees. Today, our greatest politicians, lawyers, doctors, and many of worthy mention are Cherokees. Holding high places, in spite of all the humiliation brought on their forefathers.

Yes, they reached their Western friends and started all over again.

Lands promised, money promised, never materialized only with a paltry sum, too small to recall, for what they parted with and the treatment received

Whitmire, Eliza

February 14, 1938
Interview with Eliza Whitmire (Ex-slave woman), Estella, Oklahoma

Giving her experience on the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia and other experience of Pre-War Days.

My name is Eliza Whitmire. I live on a farm, near Estella. Where I settled shortly after the Civil War and where I have lived ever since. I was born in slavery in the state of Georgia, my parents having belonged to a Cherokee Indian of the name of George Sanders, who owned a large plantation in the old Cherokee Nation in Georgia. He also owned a large number of slaves but I was to young to remember how many he owned.
I do not know the exact date of my birth, although my mother told me I was about five years old when President Andrew Jackson ordered General Scott to proceed to the Cherokee country, in Georgia with two thousand troops and remove the Cherokees by force to the Indian Territory. This bunch of Indians were called the Eastern Emigrants. The Old Settler Cherokees had moved themselves in 1835 when the order was first given to the Cherokees to move out.

The Trail of Tears

The weeks that followed General Scott's order to remove the Cherokees were filled horror and suffering for the unfortunate Cherokees and their slaves. The women and children were driven from their homes, sometimes with blows and close on the heels of the retreating Indians came greedy whites to pillage the Indians' homes, drive off their cattle, horses and hogs, and they even rifled the graves for any jewelry, or other ornaments that might have been buried with the dead.

Divided into Detachments

The Cherokees, after being driven from their homes, were divided into detachments of nearly equal size and late in October 1838, the first detachment started, the others following one by one. The aged, sick and the young children rode in the wagons, which carried the provisions and bedding, while others went on foot. The trip was made in the dead of winter and many died from exposure from sleet and snow, and all who lived to make this trip, or had parents who made it, will long remember it as a bitter memory.

Woodall, Bettie

September 20, 1937
James R. Carselowey
Interviewer
An Interview with Bettie Perdue Woodall
Welch, Oklahoma

Old Indian Days

My name is Elizabeth Perdue Woodall, but I have always been called "Bettie". I was born near Westville, Indian Territory, December 6, 1851. My father's name was James Perdue, a half-breed Cherokee Indian. My mother, Dollie Thornton Perdue, was a white woman. Both were born in Georgia. They were married in 1838, and came immediately with the eastern emigrants over the Trail of Tears to their new home west of the Mississippi, settling in Going Snake District, in the new Cherokee Nation.

The Trail of Tears.

Some histories say that on the Trail of Tears all the women and children were allowed to ride; but my mother told me that not a single woman rode unless she was sick and not able to walk. My mother walked every step of the way over here.

The Government furnished green coffee in the grain for the Indians along the route. Many of them had never seen coffee and did not know how to make it. Some of them put the coffee in a pot with meat and were trying to cook it like beans when my mother came along and some Indian woman said, "Ask her, She white woman." My mother said she just had to laugh the way they were trying to cook that coffee. She took some of the green coffee, roasted it in a pan over their fire, put the parched grains in a cloth and pounded it up, and made them a pot of coffee. They all liked it and said she was a smart white woman.

She also showed them how to cook their rice. It seems they all thought everything had to be cooked with meat, but in this way the young white woman became very popular and much loved by her newly made friends.

My mother told me about many of the hardships and privations she and the rest of the women suffered while on their way from Georgia. Some of them were almost unbelievable, yet I know they are true, for my mother would have had no motive in telling it if it had not been so.

On one occasion she told of an officer in charge of one of the wagons, who killed a little baby because it cried all the time. It was only four days old and the mother was forced to walk and carry it, and because it cried all of the time and the young mother could not quiet it, the officer took it away from her and dashed its little head against a tree and killed it.

Grandparents Who Fell From Quaker Grace

Ann Beeson Lewis, Wife of David, My 5th Great
 Grandmother,  Born in 1789 in Hopewell, VA and Died
 in 1812 in Anderson, SC

David Lewis, Husband of Ann, My 5th Great
Grandfather, Born in 1747 In Guilford, NC and
Died in 1822 in Anderson, SC

David Lewis and Ann Beeson met and married in Guilford County, North Carolina.  Ann's parents, Benjamin and Elizabeth (Hunter) Beeson, were staunch Quakers.  The record of the Society of Friends (Quakers) of New Garden, Guilford County, show that Ann Beeson 'married out of meeting' on January 30, 1768.  This meant that she chose a husband who was not a Quaker, which resulted in her dismissal from fellowship.

 From April 12, 1781 until April 12, 1782, David Lewis served in North Carolina's 10th Regimental Line, helping the colonies win their independence from England.  After the American Revolution, David and Ann Lewis bought considerable land in Pendleton County, South Carolina, where they raised eight sons and five daughters.  Ann (Beeson) Lewis died in 1812 in Pendleton District (now Anderson County, South Carolina), David Lewis subsequently married Penelope?, who is named in his will.  David made his will on January 19, 1820, in Pendleton/Anderson County, South Carolina. He died there on June 23, 1822 at the age of 75. 

Before coming to South Carolina, it is certain that the Lewises lived in Guilford and Randolph Counties, North Carolina.  The Benjamin Beeson family, came to Randolph County area with many other Quakers around 1760.  Unlike the peace loving Quakers who would not bear arms for any reason, Randolph County annals record that the Lewis family had a reputation for dealing with conflict in very physical and sometimes violent ways.  Early stories of Randolph County describe the Lewises as tall, broad, muscular and powerful -- 'the lions of the county'.  It must have been a great sorrow to Benjamin Beeson when his daughter, Ann, chose to marry outside her faith and into a family rather famous for fighting.

The Lewises lived in Virginia prior to coming to North Carolina.  Records seem to indicate this family of Lewises came to American from Wales around 1640.


 Indian Trader Ellis Harlan 1731 Fell Out of Grace

Indian traders were the first to penetrate Indian Country. They were white men living on the edge of civilization, or in some cases, living among the Indians and very often taking an Indian wife.

Ellis Harlan (1731 -1819), another 5th Great Grandfather was one of these - an Indian Trader who married a full-blood Cherokee woman, Ka-ti Kingfisher daughter of Kingfisher a famous chief and Nanye'hi - the beloved woman. 

Ellis Harlan was evidently a person of great personal charm and vigor, who endeared himself in later life both to the pioneers and the Cherokees. He must have been a person of deep and abiding loyalty to his friends and relatives. But not, however, to his staid Quaker community. We find the following entry in the “New Garden Monthly meeting 10-6-1764” London Grove preparative meeting, Complains of Ellis Harlan for drinking to excess and quarreling, and while under dealing by that meeting has gone as apprehended to Carolina.”

 From the Draper Collection of Tennessee and Kings Mountain Papers at the University of Wisconsin we know Ellis Harlan in 1777 already was much at home with the Cherokees, and seemingly trusted by whites and Indians alike. When the Transylvania Company and the Cherokees held a great council fire at Sycamore Shoals on March 17. 1775 to consider a sale of Cherokee land, Ellis Harlan was one of the white traders present to act as an unofficial interpreter for the Cherokees, and see that the official interpreter furnished by the Sylvania Company truthfully translated the term offered by the white promoters.

My Cousin Henry George Starr 1873-1922

Henry Starr Wounded a Few Days Before He Died

Thrilling Events Life of Henry Starr by Henry George Starr

• I was born near Fort Gibson, I.T., on December 2, 1873 and am of Scotch-Irish-Indian ancestry.  My father, George Starr, was a half-blood Cherokee Indian; my mother, Mary Scott, is one-quarter Cherokee.  There were three children by their union - Elizabeth, the eldest, Addie, the second, and myself, Henry George Starr, the youngest.  I might mention that I was born in a cabin, the inevitable log-cabin, close to Fort Gibson, one of the oldest Forts in the West.  It was here Sam Houston came when he fled from his beautiful wife and the governorship of Tennessee, and later married the fair Indian maiden, Talihina. Sam Houston was also famous for his ability to put much “fire-water” under his belt, and his accomplishments along that line were the envy of every Indian and soldier in that region. This is the first Chapter taken from the Book “Thrilling Events Life of Henry Starr” written by Henry Starr.  He wrote his life story while he was imprisoned in the Colorado State penitentiary.  This book was published in 1914.

  
  

From the Oklahoma Historical Society

He was an author, a movie producer, and a star, and maybe because of genetics, he was an outlaw, a bank robber, and a murderer. Henry Starr, just before he died from gunshot wounds suffered in his last bank robbery, claimed to have robbed more banks than anyone else in America. Henry Starr, this week on Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.

Around the turn of the last century, before we became a state, the eastern part of Indian Territory was a haven of outlaws and criminals. One of them was Henry Starr. Starr was born near Ft. Gibson in 1873. Early on he developed a liking for illegal activities and the lure of easy money. Starr maintained a lengthy streak as a bank robber and is considered one of the first transition outlaws, those that began on horseback but ended their careers using cars.

When he was 16 years old, Henry was working on a ranch near Nowata when he had his first run-in with the law. He was driving a wagon to town one day when two deputy marshals caught him with whiskey and arrested him for "introducing spirits into territory." He went to court and plead guilty to the offense, although he always maintained that he was innocent because he had borrowed the wagon and didn't know the whiskey was in it.

Back at Nowata, working as a cowboy, he had his next brush with the law. He was arrested for stealing horses, another charge he denied, and was thrown in jail at Fort Smith. His cousin paid his bail, but Henry jumped the bail. Now he turned to the life of an outlaw, joining with two other men, began robbing stores and railroad depots. Two U.S. Deputy Marshals were hot on the trail of Henry near Nowata again. In a shoot out with one of the marshals, Henry killed him and now was wanted for murder.

With the law on his trail, he started robbing banks, first in Caney, Kansas, then in Bentonville, Arkansas. Headed to California, Henry was captured in Colorado Springs and returned to Fort Smith to stand trail for killing the marshal. It was during this stay in jail in Fort Smith, awaiting trial, that one of the most amazing deeds was accomplished. A fellow prisoner, Cherokee Bill attempted a prison break with a gun smuggled him by a trustee. There was a gun battle in which one of the guards was killed. Henry was a friend of Bill's and offered to disarm him if guards would in turn promise not to kill Cherokee Bill. The promise was made, and Henry entered the cell where Bill was at and retrieved the weapon. Because of this, he was released.

A few years later, Starr, again in prison, wrote his autobiography. Again released from prison, in 1915 he and his gang went to Stroud and robbed both banks there at the same time, successfully. But Starr was wounded in a gun battle that ensued and was arrested. Again, he won parole. Starr moved to Tulsa, produced a movie about the Stroud bank robbery, and was offered a job in Hollywood. He seemed to have given up the life of crime, but he hadn't.

In February 1922, Starr drove into Harrison, Arkansas, to attempt to rob the bank there. He was shot, captured and died a few days later. It is believed that it was the first time a fast car was used in a robbery and the first time a machine gun was used in a robbery. Before he died, he boasted that no one had robbed more banks than him.

Sam and Belle Starr

Samuel Starr, Son of Thomas Starr (Goodman or Badman? Post) 

Born in 1859 in Cherokee Nation West  and Died at Age 27 in 1886  -  My 3rd Cousin 3x Removed  -  Married the Bandit Queen, Belle Starr   

Haskell County Historical Society

Franklin Pierce West and Sam Starr

Back to Biographies

Original Link to this story: Franklin Pierce West and Sam Starr - "Cherokee Nation" by Karen West Sanchez

"The Trail of Tears was a Cherokee holocaust. Less than half the people arrived in Indian Territory alive.

"Indian Territory was home to other Native American tribes, including Apache, Choctaw and Comanche. These tribes had to share their land and resources with the Cherokee. The white encroachment on Indian lands was spreading further and further West.

"The West family settled in Canadian District of Indian Territory near the Canadian River. Whitefield, Stigler, Porum and Briartown are several of the towns that were established in this area. John and Ruth West were given an allotment of approximately 40 acres to homestead in Briartown. They built a three bedroom home at the top of a hill facing southwest. This house is still standing. Here, they raised their children, William, George, Martha, John Calhoun, James, Kiamitia, Ruth and Franklin. They owned horses and cows and had a garden in which they grew potatoes, tomato's, beans, carrots, strawberries, and grapevines. Pecan trees grew wild on the land, and many of them are still producing today.

"Franklin Pierce West, youngest child of John and Ruth, was born in 1852. He married Nancy Ella Brewer, born 1853 and died 1909. They had three children, John Brewer, Richard and Ruth Ella. He and Nancy built a home for their family down the hill from the old homestead. This house is no longer standing, but in it's place is my Aunt Lucy's home. She still lives on the land that was left to her by her grandfather, although only 10 acres of this land is West land.

"Franklin West was a deputy marshall in the Indian Territory Sheriffs Department. His cousin, Sam Starr and his wife, Belle, were notorious outlaws in the Old West.

"Sam and Belle Starr also settled in the Briartown area, naming their homestead Younger's Bend. Younger's Bend became a haven for outlaws. Ironically, Frank West lived only a few miles away. Sam and Belle were arrested in 1882 when deputy marshalls found stolen horses in their stables. Sam was arrested on many counts of hold-ups of US Mail hacks and post offices. Belle was indicted for Larceny in stealing horses and robbery. She often wore mens clothing in her raids and was dubbed "gang leader" after a robbery in Cache of horses and about $40.

"Sam Starr and Franklin West met often on opposite sides of the law. On September 16, 1886, Franklin West, Sheriff William Vann, Deputy Robinson and police officer John Toney spotted Sam in the Canadian Bottoms. West shot and wounded Sam, killing the mare he was riding. Vann and West hurried to a nearby farm house to get help for the wounded Starr. Deputies Robinson and Toney were left to guard Starr. They moved an unconcious Starr to a wooded area for cover from the rest of Starr's gang. When he regained consciousness, Sam cunningly disarmed both deputies, siezed Robinsons' horse and escaped. As he rode away, he shouted "Tell Frank West he'll pay for killing Belle's mare".

"Starr holed-up at one of his brothers' homes. Belle cared for her wounded husband, convincing him to surrender before he was killed. Sam was taken into custody and arraigned on a grand jury indictment for breaking into a post office. Belle posted his bail and Sam was released. His trial was scheduled for February 1887. He wouldn't make it.

"On December 17, 1886, Lucy Surrant, a Choctaw native who had settled in Whitefield, gave a Christmas dance at her home on Emachaya Creek, which was named after her father. She was affectionately known to locals as "Aunt Lucy". Belle and Sam decided to attend the dance. Frank West happened to arrive shortly before them.

"Frank was warming himself by a log fire, alongside a 12 year old boy named J. Daniel Folsom. Sam Starr angrily stormed over to where West was, began cursing him and demanded he leave the dance. West refused and more heated words followed. Sam went for his gun at the same time Frank drew his weapon. Gunshots rang out, and both men fell to the ground. The young 12 year old boy was struck by a stray bullet in the face. West had been hit in the neck and died within minutes. Sam was shot in the chest and struggled for a few moments before passing on. Belle raced to the fireplace, knelt beside her dead husband and cursed Frank West. Sam was just 27 years old while Franklin West was 34.

"Sam Starr is buried in the Starr Cemetary located in Younger's Bend. The Starr homestead is no longer standing. To reach this cemetary, one must drive through a maze of trees and shrubs on a winding dirt road.

"Franklin Pierce West is buried in McClure Cemetary, one of many cemetaries where West family members are interred.

"(information sources on Sam Starr for this article from "Sam Starr, A Short and Violent Life" by Michael Koch).

"***(Editor's Note: 4-2-00 - I have been informed by a reader that J. Daniel Folsom, the 12 year old boy at the Christmas dance, did not die. He became a sheriff of Haskell County OK.  I apologize for and have amended this error.**

Myra Belle Shirley (Relationship only by Marriage to Sam Starr)

Murderer Blue Duck and Belle Starr

Belle Starr 

FULL NAME: Myra Belle Shirley

BIRTH DATE: Feb. 5, 1848.

BIRTHPLACE: Carthage, Mo.

EDUCATION: Attended the Carthage Female Academy, where she excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, deportment, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music-learning to play the piano.

FAMILY BACKGROUND:  Father John Shirley was a wealthy Carthage innkeeper, mother Elizabeth "Eliza" Pennington Shirley. Belle moved with her family to Sycene, Texas shortly before Carthage was burned to the ground by Confederate guerillas during the Civil War in 1864. That same year her older brother John "Bud" Shirley, who fought for the Confederacy with William C. Quantrill's guerillas, was killed by Union troops in Sarcoxie, Mo.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: In the legendary period of American history known as the Old West, the law of the whole nation had yet to tame that frontier which was spottily settled. This resulted in lawlessness seen in the personage of those known as outlaws-lawbreakers whose notorious reputations often exceeded their very person to mythical proportions. Belle Starr was one such outlaw.  From her association with outlaws such as Jesse James and the Younger brothers, she reached a level of fantastic notoriety that today leaves the facts of her life not always distinguishable from the fiction.

As a teenager during the Civil War, Belle Shirley reported the positions of Union troops to Confederacy.  One of her childhood friends in Missouri was Cole Younger, who served in Quantrill's guerillas with Jesse and Frank James. After the war these men (and later Cole's three brothers, among others) turned to outlawry, primarily that of robbery of banks, trains, stagecoaches, and people. In their flights from lawmen they would sometimes hide out at the Shirley farm, through which Belle became very tight with the James and Younger gangs. Their influence would be part of the reason Belle would turn to crime herself.

In 1866, Belle married James C. "Jim" Reed, a former guerilla whom she had known since her childhood in Carthage. Their daughter Rosie Lee "Pearl" (who was later rumored to be Cole Younger's child) was born in 1868 and their son James Edwin "Ed" was born in 1871. While Jim initially tried his hand at farming, he would grow restless and fell in with bad company in that of the Starr clan, a Cherokee Indian family notorious for whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), as well as his wife's old friends the James and Younger gangs. Then in 1869, Jim shot in cold blood the man who supposedly accidentally shot his brother in a quarrel. Wanted by the law, he fled to California with Belle and Pearl in tow. Here two years later Jim again ran afoul of the law for passing counterfeit money and with Belle, Pearl, and newborn son Ed fled to Texas.

In November 1873, Jim Reed with two other men robbed Watt Grayson, a wealthy Creek Indian farmer in the Indian Territory, of $30,000 in gold coins. Belle was named as an accomplice, however, there was very little proof of her involvement.  Nonetheless, they both went into hiding from the law in Texas: Jim in the town of Paris and Belle and the children with her family in Sycene. Allegedly, she took Pearl and Ed and went to Dallas, where she lived off the gold from the Grayson robbery. She wore buckskins and moccasins or tight black jackets, black velvet skirts, high-topped boots, a man's Stetson hat with an ostrich plume, and twin holstered pistols. She spent much her time in saloons, drinking and gambling at dice, cards, and roulette. At times she would ride her horse through the streets shooting off her pistols.  This wild behavior was among what gave rise to her rather exaggerated image as a pistol-wielding outlaw.

In April 1874, Jim held up the Austin-San Antonio stagecoach and robbed the passengers of about $2,500. A price of $7,000 was placed on his head and he went into hiding. The law caught up with him near Paris, Texas on Aug. 6, 1874, when Jim Reed was shot to death while trying to escape from the custody of a deputy sheriff.

The young widow of an outlaw, Belle left Texas, put her children in the care of relatives, and took up with the Starr clan in the Indian Territory west of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Here Belle immersed herself in outlawry: organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free her cohorts from the law whenever they were caught. When she was unable to buy off the lawmen, she was known to seduce them into looking the other way. All of the aforementioned confirmed Belle's status as an outlaw and her reputation would supersede her with the sensationalistic writing of the day. During this period she married Samuel Starr, a member of the infamous Starr clan, in 1880.

Judge Isaac C. Parker, a.k.a., "The Hanging Judge," of Fort Smith became obsessed with bringing Belle Starr to justice, but she eluded him at every turn. Then in 1882, charges of horse theft were brought against Belle and Sam by one of their neighbors in the Indian Territory. The jury returned a guilty verdict for each and in March 1883, Judge Parker sentenced Belle and Sam to a year in the House of Correction in Detroit, Mich. During her prison term Belle proved to be a model prisoner and won the respect of the prison matron, whereas Sam was more incorrigible and was assigned to hard labor. Nevertheless, they were both released after nine months and returned to the Indian Territory. In fact Belle proved not to have been reformed at all by prison for she-as well as Sam-almost immediately returned to their villainous ways. Belle's unrepentant attitude was best expressed in a comment to a Dallas newspaper reporter: "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw."

Over the next several years Belle Starr would continue to find herself arrested for charges of robbery, however, Judge Parker would be forced to release her for lack of evidence. A particularly memorable such arrest was in 1886, when Belle was charged with robbing a post office while dressed as a man.  That same year Sam Starr was killed by a longtime family nemesis. Shortly afterward Belle provided the legal counsel for Bluford "Blue" Duck, a Cherokee Indian indicted for murdering a farm hand.  To Judge Parker's ire, the death sentence he imposed was commuted to life imprisonment. And in 1888, when her son Ed was arrested for horse theft, her lawyers contacted President Grover Cleveland, who overturned Judge Parker's seven-year prison sentence with a full pardon.

The notoriously unlawful life of Belle Starr came to a violent end on Feb. 3, 1889, two days short of her forty-first birthday. While riding from the general store to her ranch near Eufaula, Okla., Belle was killed by a shotgun blast to the back. Suspects included Edgar Watson, with whom Belle had been feuding over the land he was renting from her (Watson was a fugitive and Belle had been told by the authorities that she would lose all of her land if caught harboring fugitives and for once she was obeying), her lover a Cherokee named Jim July with whom she had recently had a quarrel, and her son Ed, with whom she had had a strained relationship. However, the identity of the murderer of Belle Starr was never identified.  Belle Starr was buried on her ranch with a marble headstone on which was engraved a bell, her horse, a star and the epitaph written by her daughter Pearl which reads:

"Shed not for her the bitter tear, Nor give the heart to vain regret; 'Tis but the casket that lies here, The gem that filled it sparkles yet."

Even in her lifetime Belle Starr had become a legend through the yellow journalism of her day. This status would be reinforced through the years by-in addition to the press-dime novel literature and the Hollywood motion picture industry. The result is that today historians continue attempting to decipher the facts of Belle Starr's life from the fiction.

DATE OF DEATH: Feb. 3, 1889, age 40 (shot to death).

PLACE OF DEATH: near Eufaula, Okla.

PORTRAYED BY:

WEB SITES: 

• History Site Index: Belle Starr
• Article from Wild West: "Bandit Queen Belle Starr"
• Wild West Women: Belle Starr
• The Ballad of Belle Starr

This page may be cited as: Women in History. Belle Starr biography. Last Updated: 5/8/2011. Lakewood Public Library. Date accessed 5/8/2011 . .

The Tree for the Unfolding Starr Outlaws

James Starr 1796 (Trail of Tears)
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Son Thomas Starr (Outlaw Or Good Guy?)1819                       Son (1820)  Fields Starr                                                                   |                                                                                   |

                                Grandson                                                        Grandson

Samuel Starr 1859 Outlaw and Husband                                 (1844) George Hop Starr                                                            of the Bandit Queen                                                    |
                                                                                                      Great Grandson

                                                                                               (1873) Henry Badman Starr

                            

The "Outlaw" Tom Starr 1819 - 1890 Good Guy or Outlaw?

The Son of James Starr and The Grandson of Caleb Starr My 2nd Cousin 4x Removed

 The Civil War Tom Starr served in the Confederate Army in the First Cherokee Mounted Volunteers. He was a scout for General Stand Watie and was acquainted with William Quantrill. After the war some of Quantrill's raiders would visit the area around the Canadian River near Tom's ranch. The visitors included Cole Younger and his brothers. This area became known as Younger Bend.

 Taken from "100 Oklahoma Outlaws, Gangsters, and Lawmen" 1839 Tom Starr, a Cherokee rebel, opposed to the Ross faction, Starr took land between Briartown and Eufala on the Bend of the Canadian River, sired Sam Starr, and reportedly entertained such notable crime figures as Jim Reed, Jack Spaniard, Felix Griffin, Jim French, the James’s and the Younger’s. He reportedly named Younger’s Bend for Cole Younger and occasionally sheltered the James brothers following the Civil War, Starr killed his own brother-in-law, reaping a $2,000 reward after presenting the severed head to the Cherokee chief and treasurer as proof of death.

  This next story is long but well worth the read. It is an amazing story and from everything I have read about Tom, it is true. 

MUSKOGEE DAILY PHOENIX MONDAY OCTOBER 21, 1901 HISTORY OF TOM STARR. STORMY CAREER OF THE CHEROKEE RIDGE PARTY LEADER

 Organized Band and Started War Against Anti-Treaty Full Bloods to Avenge Murder of His Father

 - On The War Path Many Years Special Correspondence to Phoenix. Vinita, Iud. Ter., October 19.—

 Many people in the Cherokee Nation remember quite well the Tom Starr war and the many incidents that are connected with it. After the removal of the Cherokees west of the Mississippi river the Cherokees divided into two parties known as the Ridge and Ross parties. The Ridge party was known as the treaty party and the Ross party as the anti-treaty party. When the Ridge party came west they settled in the Cherokee Nation under their chief, John Jolly, and the Ross party followed later after the treaty of 1835 having been moved west by the United States troops. As soon as the anti-treaty people landed in the Cherokee Nation they stirred up dissension and strife out of which grew the Tom Starr war. The anti-treaty was very much dissatisfied with the new country and were mad at the Ridge party for making the treaty with the United States and undertook to kill all the members of the Ridge party and bands of full bloods armed themselves and went in bands all over the country to murder any member of the Ridge party that they could find; they deposed Chief John Jolly and elected John Ross as chief of the Cherokees and then followed the declaration of war between the two powerful parties and the anti-treaty people declared that they would kill every man who had signed the treaty with the United States . The anti-treaty people started the blood to flow by killing the leaders of the opposite party. The full bloods rode up to the home of old-man Boudtriot and old man Ridge one morning early, shot him down in cold blood and afterwards tied John West to a tree and stripped him of his clothing and gave him one hundred lashes on the bare back. The man who executed this command of the anti-treaty people tied West to a tree and cut ten young hickory sprouts one year old and would give him ten licks with one switch and throw it down and give him some water and then take another switch and give him ten more licks and then give him water and continued in this way until the hundred stripes were applied. After this, times became very quiet until about a year later when more serious trouble followed. It soon became quite apparent to the followers of the Ridge party that they would not be permitted to live in peace with the anti-treaty Indians and they resolved to give up all their possessions in the Cherokee Nation and go west and find a new location. Accordingly, Ezekiel Starr, one of the prominent leaders of the Ridge people, gathered together a large delegation of the treaty party and secured a sufficient number of pack mules and started west to find a new location for another Cherokee Nation. They found plenty of game and what they thought was a good country. They returned in about six months and held a general council of the treaty party and it was there resolved that a delegations be sent to Washington to take the matter up with the United States and lay before the department their complaint and try to make a treaty.whereby the treaty party of the Cherokees could select their Nation in Colorado. Ezekiel Starr was selected as a delegate to go to Washington and look after their part of the matter. The Cherokees were very poor in those days and they could not afford to send a number of delegates to Washington so they selected Ezekiel Starr and sent him to Washington to confer with the government. Ezekiel Starr went to Washington in January, 1816, and remained until the following May when he took sick and died and was buried in Washington. Negotiations were under way when Ezekiel Starr died, after which the Cherokees were unable to be represented at Washington the National capitol and being without a leader they were left in total darkness. Had Ezekiel Starr lived his efforts to establish a Cherokee Nation for the treaty party in Colorado would no doubt have proved successful and there would have been two nations for' the Cherokees. The Ridge party were without a leader and they soon became disheartened in their attempt to locate in Colorado and finally they abandoned their idea and decided to take the best of a bad bargain with the anti-treaty party they could. While Ezekiel Starr and his crowd were.in the west looking for a new location the rest of the treaty party became refugees and fled to Arkansas for protection. Gen. Arbuckle with United States troops was located on the Arkansas line for the protection of the people and to preserve the peace, but his efforts proved futile One morning early while the homemakers were still in'the west, and James Starr, father of the notorious Tom Starr, was preparing to go to White river' in Arkansas on a hunting trip a band of full bloods rode up to his house and shot him down on his porch arid his son Buck Starr, ran away and; they pursued him and shot him. several: times, but he lived about a month and died. From the Starr home the full bloods, went to the home of Pollie Rider and killed Sewell Rider in his own yard. When Sewell Rider fell to the ground mortally wounded a full blood by the name of Stan jumped over in the yard and plunged his big knife into the wounded mans heart and a few minutes later the full bloods met Wash Starr in the road and opened fire on him, he fled to the woods desperately wounded but made good his escape and afterwards recovered. Wash Starr was a brother, of the notorious Tom Starr. This occurred in Goingsnake District and the women and children of the treaty party fled to the State of Arkansas, where they received rations from Gen. Arbuckle, and the full bloods who were doing this killing fell back to their headquarters at Tahlequah, from which place their.future operations were directed.

 When the killing occurring in Goingsnake District Tom Starr was living about two miles from his father's house and when his father was killed a younger brother named Creek Starr ran as hard as he could to the Tom Starr residence and conveyed the sad news to Tom Starr. Tom Starr, and his older brother fled to the woods and could not go to his father's funeral. Tom Starr had twenty-one brothers and sisters and the younger brothers and sisters attended the funeral but the older brothers dare not attend because they would be killed by the anti-treaty people. Upon hearing of the death of his father Tom Starr a few days later visited the burying ground and over the grave of his dead father he made a solemn vow that he would avenge his father's death and that he would kill every full blood who had anything to do with the death of James Starr, his father. Tom Starr organized a band of followers composed of his brothers and cousins and a white man named Gerring and started out on his career as an outlaw to avenge his father's death. Tom Starr and his band heard of the full blood Stan, who killed Sewell Rider by stabbing him to the heart after he was mortally wounded Stan was located at an Indian dance and Tom Starr took a man by the name of Wheeler Fought, who was friendly to both parties, to the dance. Tom Starr and his band hid out some distance from the place where the dance was and instructed Wheeler Fought to go to the place and give Stan a drink of whiskey and to continue drinking with him until he got well under the influence of whiskey, and then to tell him that there was a jug of whiskey hidden in a certain top of a tree that had fallen and to persuade Stan to go there and get the jug. The scheme worked and later on in the night Stan came up to the tree top in search of the jug of whiskey and met Tom Starr and his band. Stan was shot from his horse by Tom Starr's band and then stabbed to death in the same manner that Sewell Rider was killed by Stan. On the morning following the killing of Stan the full bloods gathered and held a council of war and accused Wheeler Fought of being a member of Tom Starr's band and had him arrested, and they gave him a speedy trial out before their council fire the next night and he was hung the following day. Tom Starr heard of what was going on and tried to get up a band of at least thirty brave men and and make a wild rush into the full blood camp and rescue Wheeler Fought but he could not get enough men together to justify the attempt and Wheeler Fought paid the penalty with his life.

 After this a reign of terror followed and Tom Starr and his band were declared outlaws and the anti-treaty Indians chased them from pillar to post and the United States troops were scouring the country in search of them. When the full bloods would come to the conclusion that Tom Starr and his band were driven from the country the wily Tom would steal into the midst of the full blood settlement and in one night kill several of the leading full bloods who took a part in the murder of his father and then make good his escape and this continued for several years. A man would be killed some night and his house burned or some prominent anti-treaty full blood would be killed by the wayside and no one knew who did it. In this way Tom Starr waged his war with the full bloods until he was satisfied that every man who had anything to do with the murder of his father was killed. All efforts to capture him failed and he fought the Indians-in true Indian style

 Tom Starr heard of one of the men who took a leading part in the murder of his father and he rode one hundred miles to get to kill him. He waylaid him at his spring for two days before he got an opportunity to kill him. He could not get the man out so he decided to kill him in his house, so he crept up to the house and had a.man who was with him to hold the horse. Tom Starr stood by the side of the door, and gently knocked on the door. A.voice from the inside said who is there? Tom Stan replied "A Friend." The Indian on the inside shot through the door. Tom Starr seized a fence rail and broke the door in and entered the house with a drawn knife.. The Indian had three other men in the house with him and they ran under the bed for protection. Tom Starr killed the Indian with his knife and then went after the men {under the bed and killed all of them and mounted his horse and escaped.

It appeared to Tom Starr that his end was near at hand and he concluded to visit the Indian medicine man whom he called conjurers. He went to see a woman who was a conjurer to see what she could tell him. This woman advised him not to go north that he would get hurt, to go any course but north and he could escape. The next day he met two of his friends in the road with a jug of whiskey and they gave Tom Starr some whiskey to drink and wanted him to go north with them. Tom tried to beg off but his pleas availed nothing and they called him a coward for being afraid to go north. He became well under the influence of whiskey and concluded if his friends could make the trip he could too, so they set out and came to a narrow pass between a hillside and a fence. Tom Starr wanted his friends to go around that place, but they would not and started to ride through the pass when they were fired on by the Indians in ambush and the friends of Tom Starr were riding ahead and'escaped without injury, but Tom Starr's horse was shot from under him and he was wounded in the foot. His horse fell on his foot, but he extricated himself and climbed up the hill. While on the hillside, it being very dark, he would throw stones down the hill in another direction to mislead the Indians. Every time he would throw a stone down the hill the Indians would fire on the place where the stone would fall and in this way Tom Starr deluded them until he made good his escape in the darkness over the hill. He soon discovered that he was about to bleed to death and he stopped and bound up his wound with his handkerchief but this did not give him much relief so he went away from that place until he came to a place where he would not be discovered and built up a fire, end heated his knife and burned the wound and made it quit bleeding in that way. Tom Starr said that the only thing thing he regretted was having to ruin his knife by heating it and taking all of the temper out of it. The next day Tom Starr was lying sick in the top of a fallen tree and the full bloods rode all around him, searching for him but they did not find him, and afterwards went to a spring and finally escaped and joined his baud. He was not betrayed when he rode into the pass as one of the men with him.was a faithful brother. After this incident Tom Starr had some superstition about the conjurers and he believed in them to some extent.

The hill that Tom Starr had climbed on the memorial night that the full bloods fired on him. from ambush is located near Siloam Springs, Arkansas, near the state line and is known to this day as Tom Starr Hill. After leaving the Tom Starr Hill, Tom made his way to the home of Tom Rider, a friend of the treaty party and a peaceful and good citizen. Mr. Rider gave Tom the best horse he had and told him to make good his escape. The Indians came along in pursuit and some of them saw Tom Starr riding John Rider's horse. They decided to kill John Rider. A friend of Rider's came about midnight one night and told him to make his escape or he would be killed because the Indians knew he had furnished a horse to Tom Starr. Rider got right up out of bed and mounted his horse and set out for Fort Gibson to place himself under the protection of the soldiers. At daylight the house was surrounded by a band of about three hundred full bloods, and one full blood with a drawn pistol walked into the Rider home and searched for Mr. Rider, but the bird had flown. The full blood stepped out into the yard and gave a yell and the full bloods came up to the house from all directions. They took the trail and followed John Rider horse's tracks until they discovered the course he had taken and then set out towards Fort Gibson. Rider stopped at a blacksmith shop to have his horse shod and while this was going on the Indians located him and got in ahead of him and hid at a narrow pass in the road. Rider made a wild rush to beat them to the pass but to his surprise when he rode into the pass a full blood by the name of Glory stepped out and caught his horse" by the bit and stopped him, and the Indians, soon surrounded him. This pass was in Tahlequah District and the full bloods decided to take Rider back into the Flint District, a distance of about a mile to kill him. They used flint lock guns and it was a very damp day and Rider noticed the Indians commence picking dry powder into the fire pans of their guns and he knew that this meant that they were preparing to do some shooting, .and. while they were all busy at work he drew his big knife and made a stroke at Glory's bands which caused the big Indian to let loose of the horses bridle and then Rider put spurs to his horse and rode rapidly away amid a storm of bullets from the guns behind him. Rider was shot' in the.shoulder but kept going until he arrived at Fort Gibson and was out of danger. Rider at once joined Tom Starr and his band, and afterwards did his share in slaughtering; the full bloods who came so near taking his life.

 The full bloods, in order to carry out their declaration to hang or kill every man who signed the treaty of 1835, or took any active part in the treaty captured Jake West and sentenced him to be hanged by the neck until dead. A guard of five hundred full bloods Cherokees was placed over West until the time set for his execution, and they finally hanged him and those who saw the execution all say that a white dove lit on the gallows just as the trigger was sprung and West launched into eternity.

 Whenever Tom Starr and his band would find an enemy in the possession of slaves they would make a raid on them and take the slaves to Alabama or other places and sell them. When hard pressed Tom Starr and his band would go west and join the wild Indians. They found no trouble in joining the wild Indians but the trouble came when they wanted to leave them and come back to the Cherokee Nation. The wild Indians did not want to give up their friends, the Cherokees and wanted them to remain on the plains, but Tom Starr had not yet avenged his father's death and would occasionally make a dash into the Cherokee anti-treaty camps and kill a few of his enemies and escape to the plains again.

 While out on the plains with their wild Indians, Tom Starr had many ups and downs and he told the writer a few years before he died that on one occasion he and his crowd and a crowd of wild Indians were trying to capture a small buffalo and the the buffalo would run around a hill ahead of them and not leave the hill. Tom Starr hid by the side of the route taken by the buffalo and the rest of the crowd chased the buffalo around the hill. When the buffalo came in range Tom raised from his hiding place and took aim with his rifle, but his gun failed to fire and the buffalo showed fight and Tom ran for his life and some of the wild Indians shot the buffalo and saved Tom's life. The wild Indians made sport of him for having to run from the the buffalo so the next day a large buffalo came feeding along near their camp so Tom called out and the buffalo took after him and he ran for his life and jumped into a swollen creek near by, and the buffalo jumped in after him and while the buffalo was swimming around in the water Tom Starr got on his back and was joined by the wild Indians and they captured their buffalo alive.

 After the buffalo chase Tom Starr and his band, with the permission of the wild Indians, made a dash into the Cherokee Nation and killed some more of the Indians who were his enemies and started back to the plains. The full bloods were following in close pursuit, so close that one night Tom Starr and his men crossed a creek and went into camp, and the full bloods came up to the creek and camped within a half mile of the Tom Starr camp. The Starr men were out early after their horses and they found them mixed with the horses belonging to their pursuers. The Indians were riding good horses while the Starr crowd has poor ponies, so Tom Starr ordered his men to select the best horses that belonged to their pursuers and they did so and set out on their journey to the plains delighted to know that they has exchanged horses with their pursuers.

 Tom Starr's war with the anti-treaty full blood Cherokees over the murder of his father lasted about five years and the full bloods finally concluded that they could not capture him and his band and realized the full bloods would finally all be killed and they made overtures of peace which were accepted by Tom Starr and his men and the condition imposed was that Tom Starr ad his men all be pardoned and allowed to return to their homes and live in peace the rest of their days. This was agreed to and a treaty of peace was accordingly made and signed and a pardon granted to Tom Starr and his men in accordance with the terms of the treaty of peace. As soon as this was done Tom Starr and his men returned to their homes in Goingsnake district.

 They were not allowed to live in peace, however, because some of the half blood Cherokees took the matter up and in violation of the treaty of peace commenced a new war on Tom Starr and his men and made desperate efforts to kill them. Early one morning soon after the treaty of peace was concluded a number of half blood Cherokees went to the home of Mat Gerrings who had been with Tom Starr through his war, and killed him. The next day they came to the place where Ellis Starr was staying and called him out in the yard and killed him and from this place they went to Sallisaw and captured Washington Starr and took him out of his sick bed and returned to the very spot where they had killed Ellis Starr and there killed him. They then went to the Choctaw Nation to capture Creek Starr and Ike Gerring and when they captured these men Ike Gerring was killed and Creek Starr made a prisoner. They started to take Creek Starr back to Goingsnake district to kill him and while en route they stopped to feed their horses when Creek Starr mounted a fine horse and made a dash for liberty and escaped unharmed amid a shower of bullets and was afterwards killed in a duel with a Creek Indian. Afterwards the Cherokees made a disparate attempt to kill Tom Starr but all efforts failed and Tom Starr had enough of the war and he concluded not to make war on the half bloods if he could possibly avoid it. The half bloods found out that it would not pay them to try any more to take the life of Tom Starr so they finally gave up the idea and in order to avoid further trouble with these people who so flagrantly violated the terms of the treaty of peace, he moved west to the Canadian Rived in Canadian district on the west side of the Arkansas river where he spent the remainder of his days in peace and became wealthy. Tom Starr could slaughter an enemy with ease and did not think anything about it, but at home his only aim in life seemed to be to please his wife to whom he was thoroughly devoted and for whom he would do anything in the world he thought would afford her any pleasure. Tom Starr raised a large family on the quiet banks of the Canadian river, but his sons are all dead now and only two daughters are yet living. Sam Starr, a younger son, became noted because he married Belle Shirley who is it said to have at one time been the wife of Cole Younger. This woman was very desperate and soon got Sam Starr into trouble and he got killed and she was later assassinated near the Canadian river. Tom Starr lived few years longer than his wife and became a peaceable and good citizen During the last years of his life he lived with his younger son whose name was Thomas Starr Jr. and always slept with two six shooters under his head and every gun about the place was always in shooting order. Tom Starr took great pleasure in entertaining his friends in his olds days and recounting to them his daring exploits and hair-breath escapes. It has been only a few years ago since he passed over the river of death and now sleeps in the green cemetery on the beautiful banks of the Canadian river, where peace, and quiet, law and order reign supreme. J. C .Starr Good Guy or Bad Guy - Tom Starr? Blood revenge The blood revenge custom, an ancient Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni belief, was usually carried out by an older male of the victim's clan if it could not be taken by his oldest brother. The Cherokees believed that balance had to be restored in order to preserve the balance of forces between the two worlds, the spirit world, and the world of physical reality. Blood revenge was to free the soul of the victim and to let it pass from this world to the next. (It was the practice to avenge the victim by taking the life of the murderer himself, however, a close relative of the murderer would satisfy the revenge.) The Ancient Law of Blood Revenge was abolished by the Cherokee National Government on September 11, 1808. This act of abolishment was seen to have advanced the Cherokees in civilization, and it was universally accepted by the Cherokee People. When James Starr was assassinated, son Tom swore vengeance and carried out his oath with 20-plus murders. He was later pardoned because of a unique quirk in a federal peace treaty.

INTERVIEW WITH A FORMER NEIGHBOR OF TOM STARR

On 15 September 1937, John Henry West (born 1866) was interviewed by a Historical-Indian Research Worker, Mr. James S. Buchanan. The interview covered many topics, including West's boyhood recollections of his infamous neighbor, Tom Starr.  Pertinent excerpts from that interview are as follows:

I, John H. West, was born July 31, 1866 two miles west of the present site of Briartown, on the Canadian River.

My father was John C. West, the son of John W. West, an Irishman who came with the Cherokees from Tennessee to the Indian Territory in 1832. His wife was a Cherokee by the name of Ruth Fields.

My grandfather, John C. West was considered the most powerful man in the Cherokee tribe. During the prime of his life the Cherokee Council passed a law forbidding him to hit a man with his fists for they were considered deadly weapons.

My mother was Margurette Elizabeth Hickey West. She was part Cherokee, the daughter of J. H. Hickey, a white man who married a Cherokee woman and came to the Territory with the Indians in 1832. ...

... When I was about three years of age, father established a new claim at the foot of the mountain, three-quarters of a mile southwest of where the town of Porum was later established. It was at this place that I, my brothers and sisters were reared. The old settlers of that community and neighbors were Tom Starr and his family, Sam Campbell and his family, Charley Lowery and his family, and the John Robertson family.

It has been written by misinformed writers that Tom Starr, during his early life, was a common outlaw and guilty of many crimes, which is untrue. Tom Starr was not guilty of anything except what he was driven to in the defense of his people or himself. I never knew a better man nor had a better neighbor. I knew Tom Starr from my earliest recollections until his death, which occurred when I was about twenty-three years of age.

All of the old settlers in this part of the country in those days were good people because they had to be good if they were able to stay here long enough to be Old Settlers.

In the early part of my life this was a wonderful country. It was sparsely settled, open range for stock, and the prairies covered with blue stem grass as high as a horse’s back. All kinds of game such as deer, turkey, prairie chicken, etc. were here. Wild fruit and nuts grew in abundance and the Indians and early settlers put forth every effort to protect those natural resources ...

 

INTERVIEW WITH DR. GEORGE WASHINGTON CULLEDGE RE TOM STARR

The Grant Foreman Collection contains a 1937 interview with a certain Dr. George Washington Culledge who practiced medicine in Briartown in 1894. He graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt University in 1885 and served as a intern assisting his brother-in-law, Dr. Robert Niddly at Silcam Springs, Arkansas, until June, 1886.  He had this to say about his practice at Briertown in Indian Territory and his acquaintance with Tom Starr:

I decided to embark on my own career in Indian territory, I rode horseback from Washington County, Arkansas, via Tahlequah, over the old stage road through Ft, Gibson to Muskogee, crossing the Arkansas River on a ferry at the mouth of Grand River,. Leaving Muskogee, I started south with Briartown as my intended destination. When I had ridden a distance over the open country which I thought should be near my destination, I saw a cabin near the trail so I decided to inquire as to the distance to Briartown. I rode up to the house and saw a man lying on a pallet by the door of the cabin. I asked him to tell me the distance to Briartown. He raised up and looked at me in amazement and said, "Mister you are right in the middle of Briartown."

To my surprise I learned that Briartown was a community, instead of a village as I had visualized it. This man, Lacy Crane, was my first acquaintance at Briartown. The Briartown post office at that time was in the home of Isaac Mooney, the postmaster. His place was situated about three quarters of a mile northeast of the present site of Briartown. I was fortunate on my arrival to finding lodging and board in the home of Jim McClure, about two and one half miles east of the present site of Briartown.

The country at that time was very sparsely settled and I was the only practicing physician in the territory between Texanna, Muskogee and Webber Falls. The few roads through the country were nothing more than trails. Many of my calls were several miles over which there was not even a trail. I practiced medicine there for two years, then I returned to Arkansas to marry Martha Williams.

Immediately after our marriage we started back to Indian Territory in a two-horse wagon. We were thirteen days making the trip of two hundred miles, which we enjoyed as our honeymoon. On my return to Briartown we boarded in the home of a Cherokee Indian by the name of Bill Phillips a short time, then moved to the home of Jeff Surratte where we boarded for three years. I continued my practice here until 1894.

I then returned to Vanderbilt where I studied for one year. I returned to Indian Territory, this time stopping at Whitefield, across the river from Briartown. I stayed one year in this community, then moved to the little town of Starvilla about three miles east of where Porum now stands. I lived and practiced Medicine there until 1901, then moved back to Briartown and continued my practice there until 1919.

I discontinued my medical practice and farmed in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas until 1931, when I returned to Briartown and resumed my medical practice until the present time (1937).

Tom Starr was one of my closest friends and I made professional calls to the home of "Uncle Tom" as he was familiarly known. Dr. Lindsey, who was a physician at Texanna for many years was Uncle Tom's family doctor. During the time I was located in Whitefield, I made many calls to his home.

There have been many exaggerated stories about the early life of Tom Starr. I would like to brand as false any story that gives the impression that Tom Starr was an outlaw at heart or that he had any criminal or cruel characteristics. I knew Tom Starr well, I never knew him to make a false statement. He told me of his early life and troubles after they moved to Indian Territory from the old nation in Georgia. The murder of his father, James Starr and his little brother, the burning of his mothers home etc. (The story Dr, Culledge told was much the same as told in the book, Belle Starr, so I won't repeat it here.) But Dr Culledge emphasized, "I am confidant that what he related was true."

Dr, Culledge went on to tell more about Tom Starr. He said Tom Starr was a very clever character, he also had a great sense of humor. He seamed to have a great influence over the superstitions of the Indians. On one occasion one of Uncle Tom's fat hogs that he was intending to kill for meat, suddenly disappeared. He waited three or four days, in his characteristic way of silently figuring things out, and yet the hog did not show up.

Finally Uncle Tom strolled over to the cabin of an Indian, who lived a short distance away. When he came in view of the cabin, where he was sure to be seen, he stopped and stood erect in the trail, looking toward the sky, taking long drafts from his pipe and blowing the smoke in the direction of the cabin. He repeated this several times before he reached the door of the cabin. The Indian had been watching and wondered what he was doing.

The Indian asked him in, Tom entered the cabin in a slow and mysterious way, took a seat near the cellar door in the floor of the cabin. He continued to take an occasional draw at his pipe. Finally he broke the silence by saying "The medicine I make through my smoke say to me my hog is in the cellar"

The Indian, in a state of superstitious fear confessed to killing the hog and begged to be permitted to pay for it. Uncle Tom at that time was fencing some land. He let the Indian make one thousand fence rails at $1.00 per hundred and every thing would be forgiven. Tom never lost any more hogs.

One trait I admired in Tom was that he would never speak ill or slander any woman, nor would he engage in conversation with anyone who was doing so. If he was talking to his closest friend and the friend happened to make an ill remark about some woman, Tom would immediately walk away from him. I remember one day when a bunch of men had been standing around in idle conversation, and some one made remark about a woman, Tom turned to me and said, "No man should speak evil of any woman, our mothers were women."

"Dying is but going home." is written on Tom's tombstone. He married twice. He married Caty Mouse. Caty was the daughter of Lacy Mouse and Caty. He married Catherine Reese about 1840 in Canadian District, Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation.. Catherine died 4 JUL 1884 at age 65. Her body was interred after 4 JUL 1884 at Starr Cemetery in Brairtown, Muskogee, OK.(2423). Thomas Starr II and Caty Mouse had two children and Catherine Reese and Tom Starr had 11 children. From all accounts "Old Tom" was a devoted husband. 

Garrett Lane (1820) My 2nd Great Grandfather And Father of my Grandmother Tennessee Almira James

The story of Tennessee's father Garrett Lane as told in the Pioneer Papers of Oklahoma

• Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
  

  Tennessee Almira Lane JAMES was born on the Cherokee Neuter Strip, four miles up from the mouth of Shoal Creek near Baxter Spring, Kansas, February 16, 1849, at her Grandfather, David M. Harlan's home.
  
  My mother was Jane M. HARLAN, a Cherokee.
  
  My father, Garrett LANE of English and French descent. They came with the Cherokee here from North Carolina, I think, and to the best of my knowledge were married near Maysville. When I was two months old, my father left my mother and a sister, two years old with my grandfather and in the Spring of 1849 started wagon-train overland to California. I am told that the people who composed this company had been gathering along waiting till the grass was old enough to feed their oxen, cows were taken along with the oxen. The trip took all summer and they reached California that fall, that is my father did but I had two uncles who died of fever on the way and were buried on the plains. My father with his Partner Ed Crutchfield, a half-breed Cherokee, worked two years together and then my father fell in the mime and was killed by the fall. My father's Partner made a division of their earning and mother received half of it but my sister and I did not get ours till we were twenty-one years old. It (our money) was handled by various public administrators and finally I was paid by a public administrator of Missouri after I was married. I only received $130.00 or $135.00.

  
  

Garrett's  father and mother are unknown. Little else is known about him except that he died while mining gold in California.