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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: August 2, 1937
Name: Bill Duncan
Post Office: Guymon, Oklahoma
Residence Address: Route 4, 17 miles N. of Guymon
Date of Birth: August 5, 1891
Place of Birth: Decatur, Texas
Father: J. W. Duncan
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Missouri Duncan
Place of birth:
Information on mother: Named after the state of Missouri
Field Worker: Carl H. Mayfield
Interview #:
 
Mr. Duncan came to No Man's Land with his parents at the age of twelve, in the Fall of 1903, from Decatur, Texas. His father built the third house in the Funk addition to Guymon that Fall and lived there until the Spring of 1904.

In the spring of 1904, they moved to a claim 17 miles north of Guymon, near the Wild Horse Lake. The claim was in the northeast corner of the big pasture. Several bands of wild horses and a few antelope ranged near the lake until 1906.

In the Spring of 1904, Stonebraker shipped in several thousand head of Texas cattle from the border country. They were about as ugly as a cow brute could possibly get and the only feature about them was the brand, 7HL. When Mr. Duncan moved to this claim in 1904, the country was covered with the carcasses of cattle that perished in the blizzard in the brakes north of the Beaver River. Mr. T. B. HOWELL was the only other Nester on the flats at that time.

In the Fall of 1904, Mr. Duncan's father was coming home one evening in a spring wagon. He sighted a small band of antelope on a slope and started around the hill to get close enough for a shot. When he was going around a bend in the draw, he jumped a band of wild horses and, when the horses started to run, they scared the antelope. It was his last chance to get to taste antelope meat, as they left the country soon afterwards. In the summer 1905, the cowpunchers from the Anchor Dee and Golf Creek ranches rounded up the last of the wild horses. They started them southeast of where Elkhart, Kansas, is now, and by running them in relays, brought them to Wild Horse Lake and about a mile east of Mr. Duncan's claim, then south to the stockyards at Guymon. He did not remember what became of them.

The first wheat Mr. Duncan saw in this country was raised by Windy JOHNSON. He only had about 20 acres but it was a good crop. As there were no threshing outfits in the country at that time, they tried to thresh it with an old chain broom corn seeder. They did not have much luck and later tried to beat it out with pitchforks. They never did know what it made per acre. The first threshing outfit in that section of the county was brought in by Earl and Euel DIXON, in 1912.

The principal crops were cane, maize and broomcorn. The cane and maize were used for feed and the broomcorn as a cash crop. Mr. Duncan still lives on his father's claim in Section 17-5-15 and owns the house his father built in the Fall of 1903.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Donald L. Sullivan <donald.l.sullivan@lmco.com> 07-2000.