Interview #9000
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty
Date: October 23, 1937
Name: J. M. Gist
Residence: Route 1, Mill Creek, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: August 24, 1868
Place of Birth: Missouri
Father: James Gist, born in Kentucky
Mother: Annie Meek, born in Texas
My parents were James H. Gist and Annie Meek
Gist, born in Kentucky and Texas. Father was a farmer.
There were two children. I was born August 24, 1868, in Missouri
I came to the Indian Territory in 1887. I had an
uncle living at Berwyn and I came to see him. Father and Mother
lived in Arkansas in the swamps and Father was in very poor health.
I decided that Indian Territory was the ideal place for him. He
enjoyed hunting and fishing so I saddled a horse and went to move
them here.
We moved in a covered wagon. We came through
Sulphur and there was nothing there but an old log ranch house and
the old Gum Springs. We camped at this spring. We had
no bread and the man (Col. Froman?) who lived in the log house had his
wife bake us some corn bread.
When we got to Berwyn we had no house to move
into, so we camped under a large cottonwood tree until we could cut
poles to make a log house. We built our house on the bank of the
Washita River and drank river water. I went to the Creek Nation a
short time after we moved here and went to work on the Bar-B-Q
Campbell Ranch east of Okmulgee.
I was working here when the Buck Gang stole several
steers and burned their brand on them. This was done by a group of
six Indians and one negro headed by Rufus Buck, a Creek Indian.
They were very wicked. Human life meant nothing to them and they
killed several women before they were captured.
They took these cattle near the F. S. Ranch.
A posse of cowboys and ranchmen were searching for this gang when they
found these steers from the Bar-B-Q Ranch and knew that the gang was not
far away. They found their hiding place and a lively shooting fray
ensued, without the loss of life.
Just as both sides were about out of ammunition, the Creek
Lighthorsemen arrived on the scene and some United States Marshals
arrived shortly afterwards. The Buck Gang saw that they were
caught so they surrendered peaceably.
Two of the gang escaped, however. One was wounded
and was hidden in the brush and couldn't be found and the other ran
away. They were chained together and loaded into the prisoners'
wagon and taken to Okmulgee. When they arrived everybody
began shooting to signal all the parties hunting for the desperadoes to
come in as the desperadoes were captured and the team hitched to the
prisoners' wagon became frightened and ran away. Then there was
some more excitement. But the team was stopped without the loss of
a prisoner and the Buck Gang was put in jail at Okmulgee.
The next day before the officers started to Muskogee with
the prisoners an old squaw brought one of the escaped members of the
gang in. She had him rolled up in a feather bed in a wagon and he
was nearly frightened to death. It was a number of days before
they found the wounded outlaw. He finally came in and gave himself
up. These men were taken to Fort Smith and tried. They were
hung according to law and thus ended one of the worst gangs of cattle
thieves in the history of territorial days.
One night a crowd of our boys went to a Creek stomp
dance. They heard that the Buck Gang was coming so they left to
avoid trouble. The cowboys hated the Buck Gang and there was
always shooting when they encountered each other. I was
just a boy and I stayed to see what would happen. When the Buck
Gang rode up, they began shooting and tried to frighten the Indians, but
the dancers paid no attention to them. They soon became tired of
their sport and rode away.
When our boys started across Elk Creek there was only a
small cow trail down the bank to the creek and when one started down he
must go on as there was a thicket on each side and it was impossible to
turn around.
Just as the leader got to the bed of the Creek he saw
Rufus Buck on his buckskin horse. He couldn't turn around and he
couldn't warn the boys behind him, so the cowboys proceeded across the
creek without giving any sign of recognition to the Buck Gang, who stood
and watched our boys ride away.
After Buck and his gang were captured he was asked why
he didn't kill the Bar-B-Q boys that night and he said the gang had used
all their ammunition at the dance or they would have fired at the
cowboys.
The cattle on our range were very wild. If a
person went across their range walking instead of riding, the whole herd
would get after him. They paid no attention to anyone riding but
they certainly permitted no walking on their range. Some of
the cattle had horns four feet long.
One day I was in Checotah when a very funny
incident occurred. An Indian man named Gentry had a store
there and his brother, Bill, drank a great deal. Bill would sit on
the porch of this store and his favorite pastime was shooting between
the feet of cowboys and making them dance. On this day a cowboy
stepped up on the porch where Bill was asleep. He suddenly awoke
and began shooting at the cowboy's feet, commanding him to dance.
The cowboy said that he couldn't dance, but Bill told him he would kill
him if he didn't dance. So the cowboy danced until he was almost
exhausted. He went into the store and purchased what he wanted.
When he got ready to go , he came out of the store and Bill was
asleep again. He stepped over to his saddle, got his gun and shot
between Bill's feet. Bill sat up in astonishment, asking what he
meant. The cowboy took his gun and told him to dance. Bill
said, "I can't". The cowboy told him that he would kill
him if he didn't. Bill began to dance and the cowboy continued to
shoot. He made Bill lie down and roll over like a pet dog.
Then the cowboy made Bill dance some more. He had him doing all
sorts of tricks with the towns people looking on. When the cowboy
got through putting Bill through these antics he had him a sober man.
The cowboy got on his horse and rode away amid the cheers and whoops of
the onlookers. That cured Bill of making cowboys dance. He
decided it wasn't much fun when he had to do the dancing instead of the
cowboys.
Bill enjoyed playing jokes. One day a drummer came
into the store and Bill was drunk as usual. He had a very fine
buggy and mare. He asked the traveling man to go riding with him.
The man unsuspectingly climbed into the buggy and away they went up and
down the street and around the town. The traveling man thought he
was seeing the town. There was a lake southwest of town which
covered about four acres of ground. The mare would do anything
Bill told her to do. He started to the lake. Just before
they reached it he gave the mare a cut with the buggy whip and commanded
her to go to the lake. Then Bill rolled out of the buggy and
dropped the lines on the ground. The mare jumped into the lake
with the buggy and the drummer. The drummer couldn't get the lines
and the water came up into the buggy and almost drowned him before he
could get out.
I was married to Georgia Ray, near Center, in
1893. We have two children. I have lived in Johnston County
since 1918.
Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief,
December, 2000.