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David W. Vann
Vol. 5, p. 1876
Photo

David W. Vann.  Among the well known merchants and farmers of Marshall County, one
who for fifteen years has assisted in maintaining a high standard in both commercial
and agricultural affairs is David W. Vann, of Woodville, a citizen universally
respected in his community by reason of his strict business integrity and high order
of citizenship. He belongs to a family around which romance and history entwine in
the Cherokees and Chickasaws. Gen. Stand Watie, the noted Cherokee general, who
displayed such gallant courage in behalf of the Southern Confederacy during the
Civil war, and who was known as Degatugo in the Cherokee tongue, was the commander
under whom William Vann, the father of David W. Vann, served during the war between
the states. At Cabin Creek William Vann helped to take 600 wagons and teams from the
Union troops; at Pea Ridge he marched away in defeat without the lead of General
McCullough, who was killed. Belle Starr, the noted woman outlaw and desperado was
captured and her gang broken up on the Canadian River through the efforts of William
Vann, who was at that time sheriff of the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation.
Dick Triplett, another noted Cherokee outlaw, who has escaped the clutches of the
law was captured by Deputy Sheriff Vann after Sheriff Stand Gray had refused to make
the arrest because of fear. William Vann replace Sheriff Gray and the older
residents of that section still remember the bravery and absolute fearlessness of
this officer who operated in the desperate days following the close of the Civil
war.

The Vann family, preceding the war between the North and the South, had been
considered wealthy Indians; they had about seventy-five Negroes as slaves and cattle
whose increase was enough to bring in a splendid yearly income. After the war, their
home was destroyed, their property gone and their nation devastated, William Vann
and his family went South into the land of the Chickasaws. Here he found among the
people of his adoption a faithful helpmate in Miss Lottie Willis, sister of Holmes
and Britt Willis, and daughter of J. Hamp Willis, who with his brother, Britt left
their Tennessee home to marry among the Indians. Britt uniting with a Choctaw girl
and J. Hamp with a Chickasaw girl. Thus the two families of Willis: one Choctaw and
one Chickasaw.  Gabe E. Parker, of Muskogee, superintendent of Indian Affairs, is
the grandson of Britt Willis.

In the spring of 1868, William Vann moved with his Chickasaw wife back to the
Cherokee Nation, and it was after this removal that he became sheriff and succeeded
in breaking up the many bands of outlaws that infested the Cherokee country. After
his service as sheriff, he served for ten years as a member of the Cherokee Council,
and when finally defeated in election again returned to the Chickasaw Nation. Here
he died March 15, 1911, and his widow died November 21, 1915. Six children were born
to William and Lottie (Willis) Vann, all of whom are living: David W., of this
review; Ellen who married a Mr. Graves, a farmer near Wilkinson, Oklahoma (Cherokee
Nation); James who is associated with his brother David W. in the mercantile
business at Woodville; Mrs. George Lynch who is one of the popular and efficient
school teachers of Marshall County; Lulu and William reside at home.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Marti Graham, May 2003.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An Authentic Narrative
of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1916).