Mayes County County Seat - Pryor
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Ewing Markham

Microfilm #IPH-2
Volume #4, page #395-397
Microfilm #IPH-25
Volume #76, page #57

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:
Name: Ewing Markham
Post Office: Pryor, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: April 6, 1883
Place of Birth: near Locust Grove, Oklahoma
Father: James Markham
Mother: Beatrice Markham
Field Worker: Pauline Smith

 

 

 

 

Volume #4, page #395-397

Mr. Ewing Markham was born in 1883 and is of the age of fifty-four years. He was born near Locust Grove, Oklahoma. He is a halfbreed Cherokee. His wife is Lucy STARR.

Mr. Markham went to school at Bacone at Muskogee, Oklahoma, and also at Seminary at Tahlequah.

Mr. Markham tells of an old Indian stomp ground at which a fire was kept burning all the time. It was a religious belief and was located between Locust Grove and Murphy. The fire was carried from the Illinois river four miles east of Tahlequah on horse back. The fire was kept burning all the time. The ones that lived nearest it kept it burning. They believed if the fire was allowed to go out that a member of their tribe would die. Mr. Markham was about fifteen years old at this time.

STRIP PAYMENT

Mr. Markham was nine years old when they had an Indian payment. It was at the Saline Court House about ten miles east of what is now Locust Grove. They went in wagons and went prepared to camp until the payment was finished. It lasted ten days and each Indian drew three hundred and sixty dollars ($360.00). They paid in cash and not in check. The money was hauled in a wagon from one payment to another.

CHURCH

Mr. Markham tells of one church located one and one-half miles southwest of Rose, Oklahoma, by the name of Arcadia Church. They had a preacher who read from an Indian Bible written in Cherokee and he read a text like our preachers of today. He was a read man and the tribe believed in him. He was their counselor, the doctor of their souls and they loved him.

Mrs. Ewing Markham was born in Flint District near what is now Evansville, Arkansas, on August 31, 1883. Her mother was a fullblood Cherokee Indian and her name was Martha LOCUST. Mrs. Markham went to school at the Seminary at Tahlequah.

Emmet STARR, a cousin of Mrs. Markham's, wrote a history of the Cherokee Indian but died before he finished it.

The Markham's have an iron kettle used in making salt.
 

(Volume 76, page 57)

Ewing Markham, Pryor, Oklahoma. Born, April 6, 1883, Locust Grove, Oklahoma. Parents, James and Beatrice Markham. Indian (Cherokee).

MR. MARKHAM'S STORY:

The following events and places in Mayes County are worthy of mention:
Pipe Springs at Locust Grove, battle fought in the Civil War;
Hogan Institute, Locust Grove, Presbyterian Mission;
Saline Court House;
salt licks, Murphy and Salina;
Cherokee Orphan Asylum, Salina;
Cherokee Strip Payment held at Saline Court House;
Choteau, Pryor, pioneer towns;
Indian Stomp Ground at George Potatoes near Murphy, Oklahoma, at which the fire was kept burning until a few years ago;
ferries, Riley, Markham and Lewis;
McCraken Ford on Grand River, 5 miles east of Choteau;
Mounds-Brushy, Round;
Roads-Coal Gap Hollow, east of Choteau;
Military Fords, Cabin Creek, Pryor Creek and Rock Creek.

Transcribed and submitted by Sandra Bennett 
<ssbennett@mindspring.com> 02-2000

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