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Brown, E. Lee
Post Office: Sulphur, OK
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty
Date: May 5, 1937
Interview #: 1291
Address: Sulphur, OK
Born: April 5, 1877
Place of Birth: Dent County, Mississippi
Father: William L. Brown, born in Georgia, 1845
Mother: Jane Musgroves Brown, born in Missouri, 1849
My father was William L. Brown. He was born in Georgia in
1845. He was a farmer and a stockman. My mother was Jane
Musgroves Brown. She was born in Missouri in 1849. There
were nine children in our family, three boys and six girls.
I was born in Dent County, Mississippi, April 5, 1877. We
moved to Arkansas when I was a very small child and I was in the Indian
Territory many times before I moved here in
1890. I helped Father drive cattle here to market many times.
I was in Oklahoma City when it was only a rag town.
We camped on the banks of the North Canadian River on one of these trips.
Mother and Father had washed and my sister and I got a wash tub for each
of us and paddled across
the river and back. There were many rattlesnakes lying in holes in
the bluffs along the banks of the river.
One day when I was about ten years old Mother sent me to Scraper to
get some groceries. I had a find little brown pony which I rode. As
I was returning I happened to meet
Zeke Proctor, a full blood Cherokee Indian, and a bunch of Indians.
Zeke had the reputation of being very wicked. They were going in the
same direction as I, so there was nothing for me to do but to ride with
them. They were all drinking, and I was afraid of them. We were
riding along and they were teasing me. I guess they saw I was
frightened. Zeke pulled his gun and said, "Let's kill
him". Well, I left my horse and hit the ground in a run.
I was going for my life. Those Indians certainly did enjoy that
joke. They finally persuaded me to return and get my horse. We
rode along together again and there was no more said about my being
killed. This shows how the Indians did enjoy a joke, and also how
they like to frighten the white men who had robbed them of their rights.
I had a married sister living near Cushing in the Oklahoma
Territory whom I visited when just a boy. I did not know where she
lived so I asked someone to direct me there. I went to the
designated place and there was no house to be seen. I decided I must
have gone to the wrong
place when my sister appeared out of the ground. I couldn't imagine
where she came from but she took me with her into her and it was a
dugout. It was dug in the side of a hill. They had a glass door in front and a transom in the rear, which furnished
light. It was walled with logs, pointed with clay and neatly papered
with clean newspapers. This was a new experience for me but I
decided they had a very cozy place in which to live.
I had a brother at Grove, Indian Territory, who was a Methodist
Circuit Rider. I decided to come to Grove because he was there.
So about 1890 I got in a buggy and rode over to Grove. I got a job in the Gibson
and Bailey Brick Plant and worked at this for five years. I went
back to Arkansas and married Annie Allison, and brought her to the
Cooweescoowee District, which I thought was the finest country on
earth. A short time after I was married I went to work on the old Barber
Ranch near Oolagah. Alec Nugent was the manager.
I herded the cattle and helped round them up in the spring and brand them.
We got our supplies at Talala. We slept in a bunk house.
There were many vacant houses along the Verdigris River. There was
so much malarial fever in those bottoms that people couldn't live there.
One year while I was in Grove, Mr. Gibson, my employer, ran for the
Cherokee Senate which met in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee
Nation. Those were perilous times. The man who could pass out
the most whiskey usually got the most votes. Mr. Gibson and I went
back in the mountains and took a barrel of 'firewater' to the Indians.
On the voting day I stood outside the door and voted for these full blood
Indians. We had no booths in which to vote. We would hold the ballot against the building and mark it. Mr.
Gibson won.
Those Indians were fine friends. If they liked a person they were
loyal in every respect, but if they disliked a person, they had nothing to
do with him. If one offended a member of their tribe it was an
offense to the whole tribe.
I remember an incident which took place in Cushing after I moved there in
1900. One day I was in town and a full blood Pawnee Indian stepped
up to me and handed me a $10.00 bill with which to buy him some
'firewater.' I knew that it was strictly against the law to give or
sell whiskey to Indians and I was rather afraid to refuse to do as he
asked. So I decided that I would go and not get the whiskey for
him. I got in my wagon and started. I was letting
my team of mules trot leisurely along. When I happened to look back,
I never saw so many Indians as were after me. I hurried my team
along and they were gaining on me. I was never worse frightened, for
they were trying to avenge the wrong done to a fellow tribesman and I knew
it would probably be death for me if they caught me. I drove fast
enough to get out of their sight and when I got I drove my team
behind the barn and hid. I watched them as they
passed and I could tell they were very angry. But they lost my trail
and I never saw them again.
I have attended the Green Corn Dances many times. They would
last for ten days or two weeks. The Indians would camp in wigwams made of
poles and some sort of canvas. Many times the women would dance with
their papooses strapped to boards on their backs. They wore their
blankets and moccasins. They beat on something resembling tin pans
for their music and they sang as they danced. One of their favorite
sports at these dances was shooting at skeletons
hung on a scaffold. These were usually heads of dead animals and
they shot arrows at them. They were fine marksmen.
Another very interesting event in my youth occurred when I attended a
Cherokee payment at Flint District Courthouse, near what is now Westville,
in 1894 or 1895. There was every kind of a device there to get the
Indians' money. There were shows, street carnivals, traders and
merchants. It was a "Rag City", and there was much graft and
fraud there. This money was paid to the Indians by the Government
for the Cherokee Strip or No Man's Land.
The money was carried in a safe and in metal boxes and hauled in wagons.
These wagons were guarded by Indian Police. After the money was
safely inside the courthouse these guards took their places on the outside
of the building. They were on duty day and night as long as the
payment lasted. The Indians were paid their pro-rated share in money
or check as they desired.
The greater part of them wanted money. They paid them in silver,
gold or currency, whichever they decided.
I moved to Cushing in 1900. We lived there for fourteen years.
During the time I lived there, I attended several dances and parties where
there were outlaws. I have seen Bill Doolin, Frank James, and
Sam Starr many times. Their trail from Missouri to Texas and
Mexico ran near Cushing and they had a cave there where they stopped.
I moved to Murray County, near Sulphur, in 1914 and have lived here since.
My mother and father are buried at Cushing.
Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, November, 2000
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