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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 7, 1937 
Name: Hiram Quigley
Residence Address: Chickasha, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: June 15, 1856
Place of Birth: Warren, TX
Father: Isaac Quigley
Information on Father: Born in KY- killed in the Civil War
Mother: Loretta Leachman
Information on Mother: Born in KY
Field Worker: Thad Smith, Jr.

Hiram Quigley was born June 15, 1856 in Warren, Texas. His parents were Isaac Quigley, from Kentucky (killed in the Civil War) and Loretta LEACHMAN, from Kentucky.

I came to Oklahoma in the year 1866 when I was ten years old. My mother and step-father settled near Boggy Depot in the Choctaw Nation.

There was an Indian School at Boggy Depot, taught by Miss Eddy. White children were allowed to attend this school by paying a tuition of two dollars per month, per child. I attended this school for three years, getting my entire education there, with the exception of one month of school that I attended in Texas before we moved to Oklahoma.

The schoolhouse was built of logs. As the building was a long one, the logs had to be spliced on the sides, thus making the building two logs long. The benches were made of rough two-by sixes, and only the smallest children had desks. There were fifty-four children going to school there in 1866.

My step-father ran a blacksmith shop at Boggy Depot, and I sometimes helped him with the work.

At the age of twenty-one, I rented a farm from G. W. HARKINS, a Choctaw Indian lawyer, who at that time was doing work in Washington D. C. That year I raised 300 bushels of corn and six bales of cotton. The cotton sold for four cents a pound. I think I sold the corn for one dollar a bushel.

Captain HESTER ran the mercantile store at Boggy Depot, freighting his supplies from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Sometimes he would send as many as ten wagons and teams for supplies at one time. Some of the wagons would be loaded with deer, coyote, beaver, and skunk hides which would be sold or traded for groceries there in Fort Smith. I have seen the wagons come back loaded with barrels of flour. Fort Smith was 160 miles east of Boggy Depot.

In the year 1880, I quit farming and hired out to a cattle outfit. I started to work for fifty cents a day and my board. After about six months, the boss raised my wages to twenty dollars per month.

Charlie LEFLORE owned a toll bridge that spanned Boggy Creek. He had a charter that prevented anyone from fording the creek for several miles each way, that is, non-citizens. Citizens of the Choctaw Nation could cross the bridge without any charge. The regular charge was twenty-five cents for each conveyance. I have seen as many as 300 northern people cross the toll bridge in one day on their way to Texas.

I worked for the cattle outfit until the year 1895 when I quit and located near Pensee. This was a post office on the Washita River about two miles north of the present site of Chickasha.

When the Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo country was opened for settlement, I drew a claim eighteen miles northeast of Lawton.

There were a few deer here then. Also, lots of wild turkeys. I have killed a good many turkeys, but never killed a deer.

When the city of Chickasha was marked out and lots were sold, I bought five lots for $20.00 each. I still own these lots and live on one of them.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Ruth Atterbury-Adams, April 2001.