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INDEX CARDS: " Opening-Cherokee Strip Perry Reservation Otoe Customs Red Rode Old Trails - Outlaws DUNHAM, A.smim / - 8 - . / ' Form A-(S-149) I BIOGRAPHY FORM TORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION Indian-Pioneer History. Project for

eld Worker's name John C.

report made on (date) June 11 193 7

Name Samuel *• Dunham / Post Office Address Perry/oiclahoma / Residence address (or loc^ion) 615 Ho Hey DATE OF BIRTH: Month November Day ji Year 1874 7 f Place of birth Menden7, Missouri.

Name of Father Peytosyl/on Randolph Dunham Place of birth

Other information about father i

Name of Mother Almarinda Davis Place of birth w»at Virginia

Other information about mother tes or complete narrative by the field worker dealing with the life nnd j>ry of the person interviewed. Refer to Manual for suggested subjects I questions. Continue on blank sheetr- if necessary and attach firmly to Ls/form. Number of sheetr. attached ' , DUNHAM. SAMUEL A, INTERVIEW

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PIONEER LIBS

Related by Samuel A. Dunham Jfchn G. Kerr, Field Worker

On September 16, 1893, Peyton Randolph Dunham nade

the reoe into the Cherokee Strip and located on. a farm

twelve miles nortlfof Perry, Oklahoma, llth him wae his

son, Samuel A. \punhaa; who was not old enouth to get a

homestead, being,at this time only nineteen years old.

The farm Mr. Dunham seoured was on Red Rook Isjreek, on \ which was quite a lot of timber. Samuel helped &is father

cut logs of Elm, Cototonwood and Haokberry, whioh they haul-,

ed up Red Rook Creek wight miles to a saw mill. They used

three yoke of oxen fon hauling. Their house and a shed

bam were constructed out of this native lumber. The house

is still standing on this place.

While they were doing this improving! they lived on

the creek bank under several large Oak trees in a tent*

The aides of the tent were boarded up to the eaves, with

what was called slabs, this being the first or outside cut

off of the logs and had /the bark on. This was their home

for ever a year. /

This plaoe they/secured in the run was two miles

from the Otoe , seven miles from the DUNHAM, SMIUKL A.

-2- Indian trading post, and fourteen miles from the Indian Agency* There were no roads to these different places „ just trails leading across the country. All the creeks had to be forded, except right at the Indian Agency where there was a> toll bridge built by the Government. This bridge was run by Qua Ladue, a Frenchman, and his squaw, a full-blood Otoe Indian. Mr. ladue was of short stature- and weighed around 350 pounds. They had to make a speoial casket for him when he died* At this tine the Indians lived in camps, although the Government had built them some houses on their differ- ent allotments. The Indian Agent would order them to live in their houses and they would go to their allotments, stay one or two nights mostly out side in their tepees, and then they would all gather together again and establish another camp. .At this time the Government would issue them cattle for'beet and the Indians would chase these cattle like they used to the buffalo, shoot them and butcher them where they fell. They would take the beef to their oc..^ and have a feast, the whole camp oooking and eating like one big family. DUNHAM, SAMUEL A. _.

276

-5- Th«se feasts would generally occur on some holiday, such as as Christiana, July 4th, or when some Indians from another trib© would visit then. Gifts of ponies and other things were exchanged at suoh visiting time* Always on the death of an Indian there was also a feast. - *

Then horse races were run to see who would get the dead Indian's beat pony. lir. Dunham states ho has attended these celebrations on several occasion^ and has taken part in their various sports. v At this time the town of Red Rock .consisted of two box cars, used as a freight room and depot. The trading post was a large frame building. It, as well as the.livery stable and lumber yard, was owned by one man, A Mr. Phillip

Witherspoon, who had a Government Permit* Mr. Witherepoon also had a lease on the entire Otoe Indian Reservation, v where he grazed hundreds of cattle. This was quite a hang- out for lots of cowboys. As a rule they were al}. very nioe fellows.

The Indians were paid their allotments at the Otoe

Agency, sewn Biles east of Red Rook town. They vrers paid quarta^iyand the8* payments sometimes wore as muoh as sixty thousand dollars, whiclTwas spent for wagons, harness, DURHAM, SAM02L A. XNTZRVIOT.

' ' , . ,277

-4- blankets, and supplies; also in gambling and horae reoing. Old Charley Whit* Borse was chief of the Otoe tribe at this t V

for amusement, they had picnics, dances and box sup-

pers*

The country continued to improve and after the first two yea^s, crops were better* There was as old trail, start-

ing at Red Book leading to Pawnee, over which all supplies were hauled, there being no railroad at Pawnee* The hauling was done by wagon over this trail and the trail led diagon- ally across the country. Another trail leading from Arkansas

City, , to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, came through Bad Book, crossing the 8alt Fork River at the 101 Ranch, and cross-

ing the toll bridge at Red Rook, passing on down through the

Otoe Indian reservation, south and west. This tretil was uaed for freighting and was travelled by hundreds of cover- ed wagons, coming to and leaving all parts of Oklahoma,

Camp yards and livery stables were very numerous, as were horse traders and fortune hunters*

On March 17, 1900, there occurred one of the otitatand-

ing robberies of those days* At the Red Rock trading post, two men cane in. one dressed as a woaan, having «n an old aother hubbard dress and a sunbonnet. The robbers* names DUNHAM, 8mm, A. BWEHVIW

278

-5- wert : Ben Cravens and 8ort VJelty. They lined up thirteen

Men, aoat of them employes of the Post; Cravens standing * guard while Welty was gathering the noney. At this time

Mr. Alvln Betomsn who was poataaaster and bookkeeper came

In a&d he thought a joke was being played, and so he did- n't line up. When he saw It was a real hold-up he pulled his gun, shot Welty hitting him In the thumb, the bullet ranging up his asm and lodging in his shoulder. Welty shot Batsman twice through the breast and Crayons shot him three times also, killing hiax on the spot* Cravens and ?Jelty got away with about $700.00, overlooking $1300. in the safe. They went south and east through the Otoe country. Tho$ were surrounded in a farm house close to

Lela, Oklahoma, in Pawnee County. Welty was captured. °

Cravens shot his way out and escaped. Welty was brought to Perry, Oklahoma, where abb law was cheated by the quick thinking of George Foster, sheriff. There was a mot gathered of about a thousand nan from all over the north part of Noble County but Sheriff Foster slipped Welty from the jail, took his down to the aouth edge of'Perry, where these was a Santa Fe coal chute, and -caught the train there, taking him to the Federal jail in Guthrie. Welty DUNHAM, SAMUEL A. INTERVIEW.

27f)

j -fi- nes convicted, sentenced to prison for life, and later pardoned• Betenan'e mother nae one of the signers for hie pardon* Cravena vas captured in Missouri, charged with < etealing horses and convicted on this charge* After serv- ile ing hia time in the Missouri penitentiary was/brought to Guthrie^eonvioted in Federal Court of robbing a United

States post office, in Red Book, with Bert Welty and woo sentenced to prison for life.

On February 14, 1900, ttr. Dunham was a&rried te

Mias. Hally C. Saundere of Cedar Bapids, , They have five living children. Mr* Dunham has s^rredieight years ma a peace officer in Noble County.