Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History
Project for Oklahoma
Date: August 26, 1937
Name: W. A. Welch
Post Office: Shady Point, Oklahoma
Residence Address: Same
Date of Birth: August 11, 1866
Place of Birth: Van Zandt County, Texas
Father: David R. Welch
Place of Birth: Ireland
Information on father:
Mother: Sarah E. Welch
Place of Birth: Texas
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Gomer Gover
W. A. Welch was born in Van Zandt County,
Texas, on August 11, 1866 and came to Indian Territory with his parents when
he was two years of age. The family settled at the old Brazil Stage Station,
in what is now LeFlore County, where his father engaged in a general
merchandising business.
He attended school only eight months in
all his life.
As a youth he assisted his father in his
store. This gave him an excellent opportunity to study the Indian character,
as the principal part of their trade was with the Indians.
Like all others who had occasion to have
business dealings with the Indians, Mr. Welch says of them that when once
their word is given they feel honor bound to carry out the terms of any trust
bestowed upon them: the spoken word being as binding as the most expertly
drawn legal document.
He recalls that on one occasion, an Indian
whose name was Douge LEFLORE had an unpaid account at the store of something
over eight hundred dollars which he finally paid to the last penny.
In that period embracing the late
seventies and the eighteen eighties, Mr. Welch relates that the Stage Station
(Brazil) was on the Fort Smith and String Town Road and that during the terms
of the Federal Court at Fort Smith vast numbers of people from the interior of
the Choctaw Nation would travel this route, and that it was a favorite camping
ground for travelers as well as being a point where provisions could be
bought. He has seen as many as two hundred people assembled there, some going
and some coming.
There being no railroad accommodation
available all federal prisoners from the interior would be brought overland
through this point by the Federal officers and, as may well be imagined, many
notorious characters who were on their way to Fort Smith would be chained
together and securely locked to a tree under which blankets would be spread
for beds, where under the watchful eyes of the officers, they would spend the
night. Hacks were used for the conveyance of prisoners and when the
conveyances were found to be inadequate to accommodate all the prisoners which
had been captured, the surplus number would be chained to the rear of the hack
and forced to walk, sometimes there being long strings of such surplus
prisoners.
All feared the sort of justice meted out
by the famous Judge Parker. Sometimes, however, the dignified court of Judge
Parker would be outwitted, as is illustrated in the outcome of a charge of
murder which had been lodged against one Captain REYNOLDS, a very close friend
of Green MCCURTAIN and of Mr. Welch's father. Captain Reynolds had been
incarcerated at Fort Smith awaiting trial for the crime. Green McCurtain and
the elder Mr. Welch secured his release from prison through habeas corpus
proceedings, after which a trial before the Choctaw District, presided over by
Judge Noel HOLSON, at the old District Court House near the present village of
Summerfield, was speedily arranged, which ended in the acquittal of Captain
Reynolds, and having once been placed in jeopardy he could not again be tried
for the same offense. All of which tends to show that law was more a matter of
expediency than the administration of justice.
An old council house had once been
established at a point about two miles southwest of the Stage Station, but
accounts of the activities into which it entered are not remembered beyond the
fact that it served as a council house at some remote period and later was
converted into a dwelling house.
It is related that about 1875, a white man
whose name was RUNNELL, came with his family from the state of Iowa and
occupied the old building. In the family were two daughters who were noted in
the community for their beauty. Several Negro families lived in the community
then, as they do today. There being but few young white men, the daughters
took up with the Negroes, one of them living with a Negro, the other committed
suicide at the home of Mobile BOYD because his mother, a Negro woman, objected
to her son, Mobile, keeping her as his wife.
The Welches, both father and son, had ever
been close friends of Green McCurtain and had supported him in all his
undertakings and it was with great consternation that the younger Mr. Welch
received an eight-page letter from McCurtain in which he complained in no
uncertain terms that it had come to his ears that he, W. A. Welch, while
avowing true friendship, had at the same time acted traitorously. A like
letter was sent to Captain E. J. Reynolds. This occurred soon after Mr. Welch
had moved from the Brazil Stage Station to the city of Poteau and after the
Jones-Locke-Jackson campaign, probably in 1893.
The brothers, Adam and Noel JAMES,
Choctaws, were particular friends of both McCurtain and Welch. They had done
all their trading at the Welch store at the Stage Station and upon its removal
to Poteau continued to trade at the store. The two brothers went to Poteau
with their wagon to get a bill of goods from the store. It was their custom to
spend the night at the store on these occasions as the distance was too great
to make the round trip from their homes in one day. Mr. Welch apprised the
brothers of the receipt and the contents of the letter from McCurtain. On the
following morning when Mr. Welch supposed the brothers would be getting ready
to return to their homes with the goods which they had purchased, neither of
them could be found. Mr. Welch could not imagine where they had gone without
the goods. To his delight they drove in late at night after making a trip of
more than fifty miles to Sans Bois, where McCurtain lived at that time, where
they had gone for the sole purpose of defending their friend, Mr. Welch,
against all false accusations which had been the cause of the charge of
unfaithfulness by Green McCurtain. The assurance of these two faithful friends
that the rumor which had inspired the writing of the letters was groundless
and had been circulated with the hope of causing disaffection in the ranks of
the progressive element of which McCurtain was the leader was sufficient to
fully restore the close friendship which had been so nearly destroyed through
the circulation of a false rumor. Mr. Welch kept this letter for a number of
years but it was destroyed in a fire which at the same time consumed his home.
The particular complaint made was that an organization was being formed at
that time for the purpose of bringing about the death of McCurtain because of
his activity in the contest for the office of Principal Chief, which had just
closed, and that Mr. Welch and Captain E. J. Reynolds were members of that
organization.
After spending several years in the
mercantile business at Poteau, he moved his business to Shady Point, where he
still conducts it.
SUBMITTER COMMENTS:
W. A. Welch is a half-brother to Robert Anderson Welch. Douglas Welch secured
the interviews, transcribed them and Carole Welch Griffin transcribed them for
the Indian Pioneer Paper Interviews. Douglas and Carole are the children of
Jack Welch who was the son of W. A. Welch.
Transcribed and submitted
by Carole Griffin <caroleg@1starnet.com> January 2001.