Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: June 24,
1937
Name: Julius P. Ward
Post Office:
Hugo, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of
Birth:
Place of Birth:
Father:
Information on Father:
Mother:
Information on
Mother:
Field Worker: Hazel B. GREENE
From a personal interview with
the subject, at Ward's beer and
cold drink establishment, next door to
Belmont Hotel, Hugo, Oklahoma
Sketch about Pioneering
Julius P. WARD is now sixty-seven
years old. He moved from Bowie County, Texas, to Paris, Texas, in 1886,
where he engaged in the furniture and hardware business. He was in the
habit, from then on, of coming over into the Indian Territory on hunting
trips. A bunch of them; sometimes his family and another family or
sometimes just a bunch of the businessmen of Paris, would load up a camping
outfit and come over and maybe spend a couple of weeks at a time hunting,
anywhere from Red River, around Roebuck Lake on up to Cloudy and Rock Creeks
and Caney Creek, over in beyond Corinne.
"We would cross the river at Arthur's ferry at Arthur City;
from there to Grant, it was "fierce". It was awful the first mile and a
half, boggy, swampy, trees across the so-called road, maybe where high water
had carried them, or that had been felled by storms. There was so little
travel over the roads in the Indian Territory, that there was no pretense of
up-keep. In the Red River bottom, north of Arthur City, we would
frequently get one wagon over a bad place by hitching both teams to
it, then go back and double the team to the other one, and that way take it
by hitches till we would get through the bottom. Hot, and the flies and
mosquitoes would nearly eat us up before we would get through, and we
would get covered with ticks and chiggers, too. Sometimes it would
take us four days to get up to where we would want to camp on Cloudy Creek,
two miles north east of where Rattan is now. There was no Rattan
then. The roads were so bad that we got so we would ride the "local"
freight train over to Grant, have all our bedding, food, guns and everything
packed up, then get off and hire some old fellow with a wagon and team to take
us to Roebuck Lake when we wanted to hunt down in there.
"And, resumed Mr. WARD," we could find nearly any kind of game one
would want in the wilderness around Roebuck Lake. There was an
abandoned cabin there, of cedar logs, supposed to have been the home of one of
the ROEBUCKs. It was a pretty good cabin, and we used to camp in it and
thought ourselves lucky to have such excellent shelter. There were deer,
turkey, squirrels, prairie chickens; and spoonbill cat fish and gars, in the
lake, that would weigh a hundred pounds. I have a mounted, stuffed gar
that is seven feet six inches long, that I caught in Roebuck Lake when I was
game warden in Kiamichi County, after I moved over here. They said there
were bear in the mountains, but I never saw one alive. I saw plenty
that had been killed up about Clayton and Talihina. I saw three bears at
once that were killed up about Clayton. There were panthers, too, up
there.
The first year I was in Hugo, I saw hanging in a meat market, on
West Main street in Hugo, six deer, thirty turkeys, and a bear. The
meat was for sale.
After the roads were better, along toward 1890 and
on, we could drive from Paris, Texas, to Goodland railroad station by good
dark, if we would start early and the day was long. We did that once,
and got to Dr. KENDRICK's place by dark. Next day we went on and crossed
Kiamichi River at the Birdsong ford and went on up on Cloudy Creek.
Grant then consisted of one little shack, about 18' X 20', belonging to Basil
GOODING. He was Postmaster and store keeper. He had about a dozen
cans of sardines, a box of crackers, a few boxes of snuff, etc. We did
not buy anything of him much, we usually brought with us everything, even
"snake bit medicine."
Some times we would run out of something and try
to get it at Grant, but could hardly ever get what we wanted, he handled so
few things. That must have been in about 1885 or 1886 or 1887, not long
after the Frisco Railroad came through here. GOODING was the first
postmaster of Grant. Of course that is a matter of record.
Oh
yes! There was a rundown orchard at this cabin at Roebuck Lake and there
was usually some ripening fruit there for us to feast upon. They used to
have all day big meetings, and sometimes weeks of protracted meetings at
Goodland Mission church, and we would some times go over there on Sundays, if
we happened to be over in here within reach. And of all the good things
to eat, they would have them at those dinners on the ground. That first
church and dormitory were of logs, and one sixteen foot room was
plastered.
I claim that I have pioneered along with the oldest. I
rode the first mule street car ever operated in Dallas, Texas. I built
the first two story house in Hugo, the original town of Hugo, then called
Raymond. I had my lumber shipped from Paris, Texas, to Goodland
station and had it hauled by wagons, and had six carpenters come over from
Paris with it, in order to get my house quickly built. It was a two
story house, furniture, hardware and undertaking establishment down stairs,
and the upstairs was used for church, school, lodges, and even dances. I
built the stairway outside and
left it open to the public. At the
same time, J. J. THOMAS of Talihina was selling goods in a big old tent, I
believe, before my store was built. Hugo was on the boom then. Bailey
SPRINGS was postmaster, first. An attempt was made to name the town
Raymond, officially, but there was another Raymond, or something similar in
Oklahoma or Indian Territory, so Mrs. W. H. DARROUGH, Sr., name it Hugo for
the writer, Victor HUGO, I believe.
I was a member of the first Council
in Hugo, Indian Territory. It was in August, 1901. My family and
another family came over here on a hunting trip, stayed a few days, and on our
way home, we got permission to camp in a new house up on the hill; about where
Leslie BYRNS' home is located in the south part of town, at that fine well of
water. This house was being built by Uncle Billy SPRING, and was not
completed but our baby was little, and we wanted to camp that night in the
house for some reason, maybe a cloud came up or something. Uncle Billy
was living in his old log house still, and nearer to the well. There
was no sign of any town or prospect of one then. We went on home and, in
a day or two, I read in the paper that a right-of-way was being surveyed for a
railroad from Ardmore to Arkansas. I got on the train, came over to
Goodland station, hired a team and buggy, drove down here, and I looked the
desolate, grass-covered, haw-thicket prairie over. I saw no sign of
anything unusual. I saw sitting in my buggy, which I had hired at the
livery stable of J. J. TERRY, and looking across the prairie. Across the
north was a hill, with an Indian hut or two on it. That is now Terry
Hill in Hugo. To the northeast was a cotton patch, just about in front
of the present City Hall, down past WATSON's blacksmith shop, and to the site
of the Courthouse, about ten acres in all, and just about where the first
Baptist church now stands was one of the most beautiful grove of trees I ever
laid eyes upon, and a pretty good house, belonging to J. C. KIRKPATRICK.
Whether or not he lived there I do not know. North of that was
KIRPATRICK's pasture fence, just about where the high school now stands,
extending east and west. The balance of the view was open glade, I still
saw no sign of a railroad. I was in the shade of some bois d'arc trees,
just looking, about where second ward school building now stands, when I saw a
man coming across the prairie. He came on to my buggy, and told me that
he was lost. I told him that I was also. Then he told me that his
name was Enoch NEEDHAM. That was the way we met. His
brother-in-law, J. J. THOMAS of Talihina, had sent him down to see
about this purported town.
In a few weeks, the railroad was actually
under construction, the railroad station or depot was moved down here and
building begun.
Enoch and I were members of the first council, and he
was the second Postmaster. Bailey SPRINGS' father, Levi SPRINGS, claimed
the land which is now Ward 1 of Hugo, and Bailey sold it out in lots at from
$25.00 to $50.00 each and just gave the purchaser a quit claim deed.
(I have some of my old ones now). Then the town grew up like a mushroom,
almost over night. J. J. THOMAS soon built a store building and then
when the town moved over to the east side of the railroad, he moved it over
there and it was the old Freeman Hotel. The first hotel was the Eagle,
and was operated by Frank HOPKINS, a white man, who married an Indian
girl. The hotel was composed of a number of tents. The
construction crews had their own tents, but some of the workmen had to board
elsewhere. Anyway Hugo was soon a "boom" town.
J.C. KIRKPATRICK,
Joel SPRING and John HASTINGS started the townsite on the east side of the
railroad. The Eagle Hotel was just about where the Hugo Bottling Works
is now located. Then they had a big political fight as to the location
of the post office. It was located on West Main Street in what is now
Ward 2, in a two story store building made of sheet iron which was afterward
moved to the east side and was the J. J. THOMAS building, and it was turned
into the Freeman Hotel.
Old man Jim URSERY was County Judge of Kiamichi
County, Henry SANGUIN was Sheriff and Lee RATLIFF was a deputy, I
believe. They would ride into town each day and hitch their horses to
the hitch rack in front of my store and sit on my store porch all day. I
always had company. There was a big watering trough in the middle of
Main Street just as soon as we got water works. For a long time we
drank well water, and some enterprising men made livings hauling water from
wells and selling it out by the barrel. Scores of people had homes and
no wells for a long time. Some never did dig wells because we got the
water works.
At heart I am a pioneer. I love pioneering, I get a
thrill out of it. I am a collector of relics. I have six pair of
native deer horns mounted; one set of Mexican deer horns; two mounted heads, a
collection of several guns of different makes and ages, among them a muzzle
loading shot gun of 1836; a combination tomahawk and peace pipe, which
belonged to Governor DUKE; another peace pipe made of a very large cob, and
curved cane stem; another one with cane stem and a carved, ugly Indian
head. I don't know the history of many of these things, I bought the
most of them. I have two plaster of Paris Indian heads, suppose to be of
Indian Chiefs. I don't know that they are. I have a Russian poison
dagger. My father bought it from some Turks who were with SELLS Brothers
show, and it was supposed to have been used in the Armenian trouble, and
was very old then. I have a short dagger that an Indian boy made for me,
in a beaded scabbard. I also have a stone hammer, tied on to the handle
with a raw-hide thong. I also have an old knife that looks to be of
Spanish or Mexican make, which was found on the South Canadian River, south of
Purcell, at the opening of the Johnson Ferry, during the Sac and Fox "run" in
about 1889. It is a great long hunting knife, and is certainly
antique. It has a horn handle and looks like a steer or cow horn.
Bill LITTLE, Deputy United States Marshal for the Eastern District of the
Indian Territory, gave it to me. The combination tomahawk and peace
pipe, which belonged to Governor DUKE, is of steel or iron, hickory hollow
handle, and cane mouth piece. The hammer part is the pipe bow.
I have a pair of Indian ball sticks, too. I have a cane which was carved
by an eighty-six year old Indian, W. A. SOLON, of Battiest. He made it
and gave it to me. I've had it twenty-five or thirty years. The
head of the stick is the image of an ugly face. Deer heads, a steer
head, heart, spade, diamond and club, a square and compass, and his name and
age decorate this hickory stick. I have mounted ringed-neck Chinese
pheasants, a cockerel and a hen; also giant hornet and wasp nests. Then I have
a lot of beaded souvenirs. A wampum belt, or that is what they called
it, about a six inch band of white beads, to go around the neck. The ends
connect with a sort of an apron, made double to form a pocket. It is all
beaded in vines and flowers, twenty pounds of beads. A lady's belt,
beaded with catgut. And a beaded buckskin suit, made by Comanche
Indians. Coat, chaps, moccasins and war bonnet of Eagle feathers.
The
stuffed gar-skin that I have, which is seven feet six inches long, I caught in
Roebuck Lake in 1912, and there are plenty of them in there yet; also plenty
of the hundred pound spoonbill cats.
Now about that Post Office
fight. The Post office was in the back of J. J. THOMAS' store on West
Main Street in the original Hugo. Bailey SPRINGS had the appointment,
and Enoch NEEDHAM was acting Postmaster. In front of the store was a
stock of general merchandise. THOMAS, himself, had a bank and was
president of it, on the corner west of the store. No doubt, J. J. THOMAS
was a leader in the affairs of Hugo. Farris was the name of his youngest
daughter and that was the name submitted for the town, as was also the name of
Raymond. But there is a Farris in the Indian Territory, and a Raymond,
or something similar, so they were not seriously considered.
The
Indians had a custom, it might have been courtesy, or a law, I don't know
which, that they would not settle a place within a quarter of a mile of
another. They would "give each other elbow room", so to speak.
Well, Old Uncle Levi SPRING owned that meadow where Ward town is now.
J. J. TERRY up on the hill north of that, and J. C. KIRKPATRICK had his cotton
patch and pasture to the east. So some enterprising "slicker" got to
KIRKPATRICK and told him that the east side of the track was the logical place
for a town, and how he could get rich by promoting a townsite on the east
side, but he would have to "line up" with them. KIRKPATRICK demurred for
quite a while, remembering the courtesy due Uncle Levi SPRING, but they
showed him how progress necessarily made obligations, such as the
quarter
mile one, obsolete. So he line up with them. R. L. OVERSTREET,
John HASTINGS, Joel SPRING and others banded together and built the town on
the east side of the Frisco Railroad tracks.
But, continued Mr. WARD, a
town is not much of a town without a post office, so then they began to scheme
to get the post office over on the east side. Naturally the people on
the west side did not want it moved so they opposed the removal. One
night some one stole the post office and took it over to the building about
where the Hugo Daily News Office is now located. A post office Inspector
came and ordered it returned. Of course nobody knew who brought it over
here, but Joel SPRING obligingly took it back to where it belonged. Then
the promoters of the East Side town conceived the idea of buying out J. J.
THOMAS, the "Bell Weather" of the flock. They bought his store, goods
and all; and his bank, brought it over and established it in a building on the
lot north of WARD's Ice Cream Plant. Made J. J. THOMAS President.
The post office was then ordered moved over here. They cut the old
big store in two and brought it over; and everything went lovely after
that. THOMAS' family resided in the big old store building for a while;
then an ambitious lady took it over and converted it into the Freeman
Hotel. A new president was put in the bank and THOMAS returned to his
neglected real estate business at Talihina.
The old passenger depot had
been moved down here on a couple of flat cars and served as a passenger
depot here for several years. That old thing was full of history and
bullet holes that were made when Bill LUTHER was shot to death in it.
There was also a bench out on the back side of it that was used to hold
obstreperous prisoners. This bench was made on a couple of cross ties
set upright in the ground and sunken so deep that the bench was just
about the right height to sit upon. Then holes were bored in the
top of each and an iron bar was run through both. Then the bench was
above that. Old Dick ROEBUCK, a negro Deputy United States Marshal,
would arrest negroes and Indians and shackle them to that iron bar, and that
served for a calaboose until one was built in Hugo. That old depot
served for a Union depot until our fine brick one was built. Then it was
used again after the new one burned and another one was under
construction. But before the new one burned and after the second one was
built it served as a freight depot. It was demolished about two years
ago.
We old-timers hate to see land marks disappear. That old
store building of J. J. THOMAS' on the west side of town was partly built out
of the old Harvey House at Talihina.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Gay Wall <t31892@wind.imbris.com> November, 2000.