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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: March 18, 1938
Name: James Henry Hughes
Post Office: Broken Bow, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: March 7, 1864
Place of Birth: Arkansas
Father: Henry Hughes
Place of Birth: Alabama
Information on father: farmer
Mother: Susan Hughes
Place of birth: Kosie, Alabama
Information on mother: Housekeeper
Field Worker: Levina R. Beavers
 
Interview # 13251

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma Date: March 18, 1938 Name: James Henry Hughes Post Office: Broken Bow, Oklahoma Date of Birth: March 7, 1864 Place of Birth: Arkansas Father: Henry Hughes Place of Birth: Alabama Information on father: He was a farmer. Mother: Susan Hughes Place of Birth: Kosie, Alabama Information on mother: Housekeeper I was born in Arkansas in 1864. My mother was Susan Hughes, born in 1842, and my father was Henry Hughes, born in 1847, both born in Alabama.

My uncle, Jack CHILDERS, helped drive the Choctaw Indians to their homes in this country. My father's mother's brother was raised also in Alabama. My father's brother, Andy Hughes, wanted to come but he did not get to do so. I heard my uncle Jack tell about it. He helped cut out this Military Road into this Territory in McCurtain County. Many Indians died on the road and they did not have any way to bury them so they would dig enough so it would hide the body and then come on, leaving their dead.

I have lived on the Arkansas edge of the Territory eight miles from the place they call Dogtown. I know and saw many things that happened among the Indians. There were two white men came over to Indian Territory, James BAILEY and his son, Roy Bailey, sometime in 1897. Two Indian young men by the name of Wallace FOBB and Lewis BYINGTON saw the men having a gun and the Indians wanted this gun and they went out there where the Baileys were at work making staves and these white men did not want to sell this gun. Fobb and Byington just backed off and shot these men. When they began to shoot, Roy Bailey ran and got behind a tree and sat down. The two Indians followed him and shot him, killing him as he sat there. They then left and went home and it was two weeks before the Baileys were missed by the folks. An Indian by the name of David WILSON was out hunting for ponies one morning and found these dead men and came and reported to the County Sheriff, Daniel Hudson. After sheriff was notified he gathered up all the Indians and questioned them. These young Indians were there. One had his belt on full of cartridges.

The officers took one and it was the same size cartridge that killed these men. They were arrested and questioned and they owned up that they did the killing and were sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for 99 years. Lewis Byington died in the penitentiary after ten years. Wallace Fobb came back twelve years after but died with T B. shortly after. The men who were questioned included W. K. DOLLARHIDE, Calvin HOWELL, James EARNEST, Daniel HUDSON, Thomas AMOS and Joel DYER, all of whom are dead now.

There was lots of killing and stealing in those days but the sheriff would get everyone and never did have to kill any of the thieves or murderers. He would get them alive and turn them over to the United States Court at Antlers, Indian Territory.

I live on a place that is called Frank H. CLARK's five miles northeast of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, where I am farming, five miles from Beavers Bend.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Sharon Olive DeLoache <deloache@intellex.com> 04-2000.