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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: June 14, 1937
Name: William West
Post Office:   
Residence Address:   
Date of Birth:  1817
Place of Birth:  Washington County, Arkansas
Father:  Alva West
Place of Birth:   
Information on father:
Mother:  Elizabeth West
Place of birth:   
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Gus Hummingbird

William (Bill) West, a pioneer white man, was born in Washington County, Arkansas, in 1817. His parents were Alva and Elizabeth West. The family lived in Arkansas until Bill was nine years old.

Alva West was an old cattle man and did lots of trading with the Cherokees at that time. They did not live very far from the Cherokee Nation line. The West family was well acquainted with the Cherokee people.

At that time, one of the cattlemen in the Cherokee Nation was Lew Williams who lived about a mile east of the present town of Westville, Oklahoma. The Cherokee Nation had permitted the said Williams to enter the Indian country because he owned a saw-mill. This was one thing that the Cherokees did not own. They figured that this would be a help in developing their country. They said Williams did a good business with the Cherokees in dealing with livestock. Mr. West had plenty of experience in cattle buying and was employed by this man. The Wests remained near Westville for about three years. Then they moved to Delaware District, where Alva West bought cattle for Lew Williams.

After five years Mr. West moved back to about a mile east of the present town of Westville. Bill at that time was seventeen years old.

The Kansas City Southern Railway had gone through the Cherokee Nation and there was at that time a town site laid out, which is now Westville, Oklahoma.

Bill West helped build the first building that was put up in this town. The building was erected by Eli Alberty, a Cherokee. This building was for a lumber yard. Mr. West built the third building in this town a livery stable. At that time West was twenty years old. He was in this business for about two years and he married a Cherokee girl named Still. He had a livery business for several years at Westville. Mr. West had six drivers for his business and at that time the business was good. Tandy Folsom and Gill Marrs was the most trusted drivers he had on the job. Folsom at a later date was sentenced to serve in the penitentiary for killing Pat Dore, a merchant at this place.

Among the early day merchants are Bill Alberty, the Craigs and the Andersons.

Westville grew fast into a good size town. Among the Cherokees that lived near Westville were Thomas Corntassel, Job Alexander, who is still living, a very old man, John Alberty, Eli Alberty, John Hammer and Sam Ball.

Politics

After his marriage to a Cherokee girl Mr. West was allowed to vote. He remembers the first election he voted was at Westville. The people voted by calling the name of the person they wished to vote for. There were only two parties at that time, the Downing Party and the National Party. He voted the Downing ticket because his folds had been a life long Democrats in Arkansas. The Downing Party was the same as the Democratic Party in the Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee people voted at eighteen years of age. He remembers the election in 1890. Ben Knight was elected Sheriff of Goingsnake District. West afterwards lived on the farm of the said Ben Knight.

In 1898 Mr. West left Westville and moved to the country near the Goingsnake Court House which was located then on Peacheater Creek, about six miles west of Westville. It was when he was living at this place he became interested in Cherokee Nation politics. He ran for Councilman from Goingsnake District and was elected. Many Cherokees voted in this election. He being a white man did not make any difference.

He operated a boarding house at Goingsnake and he witnessed many trails in Court there. He heard the trail and was a juror in the trial of Walker Berk. The said Berk was convicted and hung for the murder of Johnson Reese. He also heard the trials of Fred and George Dunowosa, twin brothers, for killing Wesh Lee? on Ballard Creek near Watts, Oklahoma, now. These tow boys were also convicted and hung. He was personally acquainted with several US Marshals.

Cattlemen

Lew Williams, Cale Starr of Evansville, Vol English of Dutchtown, Richard Wolf of Proctor and Jonthan Whitmire were the big cattle men to that time. Williams and English did the shipping, the others bought throughout the Cherokee country and sold to these two men.

Mr. West, at present a stock dealer, lives in the extreme northwest corner of Adair County, near the Illinois river. I interview this man but parties, he was expecting to arrive, interrupted.

He advised that I come some Sunday. He was recommended to me as knowing early history and he does.

We will have more from Mr. West later. We are working forty miles from Stilwell in the hill country.

Subscribed for OKGenWeb by Ina Jackson <injac@airmail.net>, July 2002.