Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma 
Date: July 1, 1937 
Name: Bose Scott 
Residence Address: 525 Spaulding Blvd., Muskogee, Oklahoma

Story of George W. Scott 
Given by Bose Scott 
615 Spaulding Boulevard 

George W. Scott was one of the large land owners of the Creek Nation in the vicinity of Checotah, McIntosh County. He was born near Jefferson, Marion County, Texas, and is a son of James N. and Mattie Drew Scott. James N. Scott was known as Captain Scott. His wife was one-fourth Cherokee and was a daughter of William and Delilia McIntosh Drew. Captain Scott's father, John W. Scott, was a white man of Scotch-Irish parentage. He settled in what is now Scottsville, Texas. Captain Scott grew to manhood near Jefferson, Texas, and was educated in Kentucky. 

He was married soon after leaving school and at the beginning of the war raised a Company for the Confederate service. He was elected Captain of his Company and was with the Colonel LeRoy Morgan Regiment of Cavalry. He served in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. He was in the Federal raid on Shreveport when they secured most of the cotton in the warehouses and the homes of the farmers. 

At the close of the war, he returned to his family and engaged in farming and stock raising. 

In 1872 when he moved to the Creek Nation, Captain Scott settled on land now owned by his son, George W. At that time there was no railroad or settlement at Checotah. The nearest dwelling was that of Mrs. Drew, which was about two miles north of Checotah. A few families lived from three to eight miles out. At Henry Springs were two small stores; and the country around where Checotah is today was known as the Elk Creek Settlement. At that time there were not the large herds of cattle roaming over the country as there were later. However, there were plenty of deer, turkey and prairie chickens. 

Captain Scott erected a log house and weather boarded it with clapboards. He dug a well soon after locating here as it was summer and water was getting hot and scarce. This well was on the south from other states into Texas and was known as the old Texas Trail. Other settlers knew Mr. Scott's place as one where they could get good cold water in the summer time. For this reason Mr. Scott became one of the best known men in that part of the country. In the summer time the people traveled by night, as the days were so hot and the green-headed stock flys were troublesome to the stock. This fly is not in this country today and the small stock flys which we have now were not in this country then. They came out of Texas when they commenced driving and shipping cattle into the Territory. 

A few years later, Mr. Scott moved to the North Fork of the Canadian River which was called Wells Switch at that time. Today it is known as Cathy, and here he lived until his death. 

As a white man he could hold no official position, but was a man of considerable influence with the people of the country who were citizens and with white settlers who were moving in. 

George W. Scott received his education at Tahlequah and Asbury Mission at Eufaula. 

At the age of twenty-three he commenced farming on his father's place which is one mile east of Checotah. Mr. Scott was among the early brakemen of the Missouri-Kansas and Texas Railroad Company and in the spring when cattle shipping started out of Texas he would often work 36 to 48 hours without rest or sleep. One of the first race tracks of Checotah was a three-quarter straight track in the pasture of Mr. Scott's. Among the race horsemen of that time were Robert Gentry, Mr. Moore of Brush Hill, Herman Van of Starrville, Cub McIntosh, Captain John C. West of Porum and Frank Vere of Webbers Falls. 

In 1888 Mr. Scott married Cora, the youngest daughter of Dr. Barney Evans and to this union were born two sons, James G. and Frederick T. 

Mrs. Scott died in Checotah in 1905. 

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BOSE SCOTT

 SECOND INTERVIEW #7408 
GREEN CORN DANCE (CREEK) 
Field Worker: Carl R. Sherwood 
August 3, 1937 

Bose Scott, Creek Indian, 
525 Spaulding Blvd.
Muskogee, Oklahoma. 

Creek Green Corn Dance 

The only religious ceremony of any great importance among the Creek Indians was the Busk or Green Corn dance, an annual festival similar in purpose to our Thanksgiving. When Indian corn was grown, the ripening of the grain constituted an important era in the year. The whole band usually assembled to celebrate this feast. 

It was the custom at that time to produce fire by rubbing two sticks together, and the fire thus produced was sent from band to band as a token of friendship. 

At the place of assembly a large fire was kept up, and the warriors and women gathered around it dancing and singing songs of gratitude to the Great Spirit, for sparing them and their friends throughout the year. If famine had overtaken them or many of their people had fallen in battle, then these joyous songs were intermingled with wailing and mournful sounds. This was attributed to the crimes of the people and pardons were revoked. 

Before the feast commenced the "Black Drink" was handed around. This drink was composed of the leaves of a small bush known by them as "arsu." It was drunk in large quantities and being a powerful emetic, had the effect of cleansing their stomachs so thoroughly that they were in a fair way to do justice to the feast of boiled corn, which lasted for days at a time. 

If a criminal escaped from his bonds during the festival and made his way into the charmed circle of the dance, he was considered under the protection of the Great Spirit, and his pardon was secured. 

The Creeks did not look upon polygamy with any prejudice; on the contrary, it was adopted to a great extent by the leading chiefs and warriors, many of the more independent possessing three or four wives. Their choice in the matter was usually regulated according to their finances, and it was considered a grave breach of morals for a warrior to marry more wives than he could support in a comfortable manner. 

The male children of the tribe were taught the art of hunting at an early age. The blow-gun was the favorite weapon among young boys. This was a hollow reed about eight or ten feet in length, from which a small arrow could be forced by the breath. They could secure quite a number of small game; such as, birds, rabbits, and squirrels by crawling close. These guns are called in Creek language Cohamotoka. The boys were also very accurate with the bow and arrow. Their success in killing fish by this method was wonderful, it being nothing uncommon to see a small boy of eight or nine years catch a buffalo or cat fish almost as large as himself. 

When a boy accomplished an extraordinary feat or performed an exploit beyond his years, he was marked as having a superior spirit, which would distinguish him in after life. From this exploit he derived the name by which he was known among his people. 

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BOSE SCOTT

* THIRD INTERVIEW #7543 
SAM HAYNES' Biography. 
Field Worker: Carl R. Sherwood 
September 10, 1937 

Interview with Bose Scott
Muskogee, Oklahoma 

SAM HAYNES 

Sam Haynes was born in 1861 and was a son of John Haynes, a full-blood Creek Indian of the Bear Clan. His mother was Lucy Thompson. Sam attended school at Asbury Mission in Eufaula. Later his father sent him to school at Jackson, Tennessee, where, after two years' study, he completed his education. 

On returning from school he accepted a position as clerk in F. B. Severs' store at Okmulgee, Oklahoma. 

In the Spring of 1881 he went to work for T. M. Parkinson in the same town. After working here one year, he was elected an officer in Captain Freeman's Lighthorse. Here he served two years, during which time he took part in two fights in the Isparhechar war at Pecan and Pole Cat Creeks, which are west of Muskogee. During part of 1883 and 1884 he was Captain of the Lighthorse, after which he was elected clerk of the district court for two years. 

Later he was appointed as live stock superintendent of the Okmulgee district, and commissioned to collect one dollar per head on all cattle passing through his district. 

In 1884 he commenced the practice of law, and later was appointed Creek interpreter for the House of Warriors and for four years clerked for the judiciary committee. 

In 1884 T. M. Haynes married Sarah, daughter of E. H. Lerblance. T. M. Haynes had miles of grazing land fenced which he leased out each year to Texas cattlemen, and operated several bottom farms on Little Creek. 

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BOSE SCOTT 

* FOURTH INTERVIEW #13608 
Field Worker: Jas. S. Buchanan 
February 11, 1938 

Interview with Bose Scott 
116 Geneva Street, Muskogee, Oklahoma 

I was born May 9, 1862, in Muskogee District, Creek Nation. My father was James C. Scott, a native of Scotland. My mother was Lou M. Hawkins, daughter of Benjamin Hawkins, full blood Creek, and Rebekah McIntosh Hawkins whose father was William McIntosh, a full blood Scotchman, Chief of the Creeks, assassinated in Georgia and her mother was Susana Rowe, a full blood Cherokee. Due to the conditions that existed in this country at the time of my birth during the Civil War I was never able to learn very much about the movement of my people during early years of my life. I was told by my parents that they moved to Fishertown on the North Canadian River shortly after the close of the Civil War and my first recollection of life is of that old place. My father established a claim through the tribal rights of my mother at Fishertown, improved it and built a double log house with a stone fireplace at the north end, and it was in this house that they reared my two sisters, a brother and me. 

We children attended the Creek National School at Fishertown, at that time a one room log structure. That old school building was destroyed by fire about 1880 and soon thereafter a frame school and church was built. The old "blue back" Speller, simple mathematics and the Third Reader were all we were taught in the Creek National Schools at that time. After we were through the Creek schools my sisters, Rebekah and Fannie, were sent to school in a Catholic institution at Jefferson, Texas, where they spent about four years. After they returned from school they both taught in the Creek National Schools for several years until they were married. 

Fishertown was started by William Fisher, a half-breed Creek who was born in Alabama and came to the Creek nation, Indian Territory, when he was a boy in 1847 and finished his education in the Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Leaving the Shawnee Mission in 1849 William Fisher returned to the Creek Nation and engaged in farming. In 1850 he was married to Sarah P. Lampkin, white and a native of Tennessee. In 1855 he established a small store at his place and that was the beginning of Fishertown. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War he had established a good business and had a large stock of goods, but was obliged to desert his home and business on account of the conditions brought on by the war and lost everything. He joined the Confederate army, under Colonel McIntosh and continued in the service until the close of the War, holding the positions of sergeant and first lieutenant through the campaign. 

Returning home after the war he re-established his business, continued his farming activities and later acquired more land and engaged in the cattle business. His ranch was situated about fifteen miles west of Fishertown. He built a sawmill and the first cotton gin in that part of the Territory, and during the late '70's and '80's Fishertown was the largest business center in that part of the Territory. When I was only a boy I went to work for William Fisher as a general work hand, doing anything that was to be done about the mill, cotton gin and the ranch and I remained with him for several years. In the family of William Fisher there was a daughter, Martha, and as the years went by we found ourselves in the company of each other a great deal. In 1884 when Martha was home on vacation from school which she was attending at Springfield, Missouri, we decided to get married. As the end of her vacation drew near, I went to Mr. Fisher and asked his permission to marry Martha. He thought the matter over very seriously and told me that the only objection he had was that we were both very young and that he would rather Martha would attend school another year. I left him, being very much discouraged, and soon found myself in a serious conference with Martha in which our plans for the future were formed. The end of her vacation was at hand and all preparations were made for her return to school at Springfield. The day of her departure arrived and her folks saw her safely aboard the train at Eufaula. But in the meantime I was on my pony making my way to Bend Switch, north of Eufaula, which was a flag stop for that train. Arriving there, I turned my pony loose, flagged the train, and Martha and I were on our way together. Though her ticket read to Springfield, our train ride terminated at Gibson Station, where I procured a horse and buggy from a relative of the name of George Shannon and drove to Fort Gibson where we were married under the Cherokee laws. I was twenty-two years of age at the time of our marriage and in the meantime I had acquired ownership of our old home place where I was reared and immediately after our marriage we returned to my home place where we began our life together. Mr. Fisher soon forgave us and everything was all right in a short time. Six children were born to us and they were reared in the same and only house I ever knew as home. That same old log house is yet standing, though I have had it weather-boarded and repaired in later years. My wife and faithful companion departed this life in 1907. 

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BOSE SCOTT

* FIFTH INTERVIEW #7823 
Field Worker: Carl Sherwood 
November 15, 1937 

An Interview With Bose Scott, 
Creek Indian, Muskogee, Oklahoma. 
625 Spaulding Blvd. 

THE GREEN PEACH WAR 

Esparhecher was born about the year of 1828, the son of Inlegarfe, by some called Yarteca Tushunegee. His mother's name was Kechahteh. 

His parents moved to this country, Opothleyahalo, in 1836, and settled on the Canadian River, but both died a few years after their arrival. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Esparhecher joined the Southern Creeks, under command of Colonel McIntosh, enlisting in Company 'K'. When the Confederates left the Creek Nation, he remained and joined the Union Army, in 1863, remaining in the Union Army until he was mustered out as sergeant, at Fort Gibson, March, 1865. 

Ten years before this, he had been married to Miss Pollkissut, a daughter of Poskofa, by whom he had three children, all of whom died in infancy. His wife only survived a few years. 

He next married Wahnaka Barnett, who died in four years, leaving one child named Scwanzey, born in 1869. 

Soon afterwards, he married Latissa, who died without issue. 

In 1844, while at Washington, Esparhecher married a white woman, but they soon separated. 

Esparhecher was elected to the House of Warriors in 1867, but resigned the office in one year to fill that of District Judge of Okmulgee District, which office he held a little over two years, when he was suspended by Chief Checote. It was twelve months before the council gave Esparhecher a hearing, after which he was honorably acquitted. 

During the term of his judgeship the surrounding country had been infested with outlaws and thieves, whom Esparhecher pursued in the endeavor to capture them or drive them from the country. 

On one occasion, when pressing some outlaws closely with his Lighthorsemen the outlaws resisted arrest, and in the melee that followed one of the outlaws was killed by the officers. 

Shortly afterwards, a sort of Brush Council or party meeting, was being held, when one of Esparhecher's officers arrested a man who was illegally carrying a pistol. The prisoner was afterwards turned over to the officers of another district who confined him in a building. This building was soon besieged by a mob of Esparhecher's enemies, with a view of rescuing the prisoner, which they succeeded in doing, not, however, until one of the officers lost his life. 

Reports of these occurrences reaching headquarters of government, and being exaggerated by the enemies of the district judge, Esparhecher was charged with creating sedition and was otherwise misrepresented. 

Messages were sent to Esparhecher that the Lighthorsemen were on their way to arrest him and his friends, and here the trouble commenced, for Esparhecher was discharging his duties, and had no notion of submitting to the indignity of capture. 

He, accordingly, went with his friends to the United States Agent for protection, but the latter refused to interfere, and thus the breach widened. 

Both parties were in the field for a short time, when they met near Springtown, in Deep Fork District. 

The Union forces were under the command of Captain James Lindsay. Here they had a fierce battle, which resulted in a victory for Esparhecher, without the loss of a man, while Captain Lindsay left ten men on the field. 

Esparhecher during the fight was absent, and after the engagement, went over to the Cherokee Nation, when he remained until he received a message of assurance from the Creek Government to the effect that he would not be disturbed if he returned home. 

He returned, but soon learned that the party was organizing militia to pursue him. Thereupon Esparhecher gathered up his followers and repaired to the Sac and Fox Reservation, pursued to the borders by General Porter and his command. 

The Sac and Fox Agent exhorted him to surrender to the Creek Government, but he refused, and continued his retreat to the Comanche country. Esparhecher had been invited to the Comanche country by the Comanche Chief, Asa Hobbs, to partake of the hospitalities of that tribe. 

After reaching the Comanche country Esparhecher explained the circumstances to this Chief, telling him of the persecution that he had received in his country and in Asa Hobbs Comanche chief found a true friend. 

That chief told him if he remained at the reservation till spring, he would furnish him with a band of warriors, lead them himself into the Creek Nation, and compel that government to respect Esparhecher's rights. Accordingly the refugees remained until the first of April, when a detachment of United States troops arrived to conduct Esparhecher and his followers to the Creek Nation, with the assurance of protection until a reconciliation could be effected. 

Asa Hobbs, however, doubted the assurances of the officer in command and opposed the removal of his friend, Esparhecher, by calling out his warriors, fully armed, and placing them in line of battle. 

It was a long time before the stubborn Comanche would allow Esparhecher to depart, fearing for his safety, but on the latter's advice, he finally disbanded his men, and Esparhecher returned with the troops to his country, where a settlement was soon effected by the Government's Peace Commissioners. 

Thus ended the Green Peach War. 

In the same year Esparhecher was one of the nominees for Principal Chief, his race being contested by J. M. Perryman. 

The latter, however, took his seat, as two of the strongest of Esparhecher's precincts were thrown out in court. At that council, however, Esparhecher was elected National Delegate to Washington, which office he held for many years. 

Esparhecher was about five feet eleven inches tall and weighed about a hundred and ninety-eight pounds. He was said by those who knew him, to be of a quiet and easy disposition. Esparhecher's home was near Tiger Mountain south of Okmulgee where he had a large farm and stock ranch and a mercantile store and a grist mill. 

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Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Lola Crane <coolbreze@cybertrails.com> March 2002.

[Submitter's Note: In the second interview there were two words that were difficult to read--'Busk' and 'arsu'. Hopefully, I have have the correct spelling.]