Indian Pioneer History
Project for Oklahoma
Date:
Name: Thomas Benjamin Wall
Post Office:
Date of Birth: 21 September 1881
Place of birth: Near Cameron, Oklahoma
Address: Charlotte, NC
Name of Father: Thomas Jefferson WALL
Place of birth: Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory
Name of Mother: Elizabeth RIDDLE
Place of birth: Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory
Field Worker:
Interview: #
MR. WALL’S STORY
My parents were born in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.
Father was born in what is now LeFlore County and mother was
born near Tomaha in Haskell County.
Grandfather Wall came from Miss. in 1831 or immediately after
and settled in LeFlore County.
Grandfather Tom Wall built the first water mill on James Fork
Creek about 3 1/2 miles from Cameron, Okla. previous to 1847 and
operated a grist mill there. His father Tom Wall, or at least I
have reason to believe it is the same Tom WALL, was one of the
signers of the Dancing Rabbit Treaty.
An interesting episode about my father Thomas Jefferson Wall is
that he belonged to the Eagles Party in the Choctaw Nation, the
leaders being chiefly whites who had intermarried, and mixed
blood Choctaws. The Bussard Party was supposed to be the party
of the full blood Choctaws.
Due to political differences, father’s life was threatened. The
only laws at that time in the Choctaw Nation were the Choctaw
Laws, and, by treaty with the U. S. the officers U. S.
Government were permitted to arrest violators of U. S. laws. The
Choctaw courts had no jurisdiction over U. S. Citizens.
My father, fearing arrest or trouble with Choctaw authorities,
went before the U. S. court at Ft. Smith, Ark. and was
naturalized as an American citizen. He did not lose any of his
rights as a Choctaw citizen, but gained his protection of a U.
S. citizen living in the Choctaw Nation. He served in the 1880s
as a U. S. Deputy Marshall.
Another amusing episode of my father, when the Atoka agreement
was signed, there was considerable speculation as to the
division of the land to be made. Some reasoned the more Indian
blood one had, the more land one would have allotted to him.
Father believe this and was enrolled as a full blood Choctaw, at
least this is my recollection. When the allotments were made,
and all enrolled citizens shared alike and the regulations
governing the sale of one’s allotments were fixed, father found
his enrollment as a full blood (it may have been half blood)
were inconvenient. He wanted to sell his land. He was a Federal
soldier of the Civil War, drew a pension, knew Senator Charles
Curtis (was a Republican) and Mather (?) Bickford, an attorney
of Washington, D. C. who specialized in pension matters. Father
took the train to Washington, called on Senator Curtis, got his
old lawyer friend, called on the sec’y of Interior, and
convinced the Department that his enrollment was in error, and
succeeded in being one of the first to ‘have his restrictions
removed.’ He was a strenuous character, never went to school,
but was self educated, an excellent penman, and always drew up
his own legal contracts.
Also, under the old Choctaw Law governing mineral deposits, he
traced out the veins of coal deposits between the Poteau River
and Ark. line, some small shafts, or dug slopes, built log pens
as ‘improvements’ one mile apart to establish his claims, and
controlled before allotment, the coal deposits in an area lying
between Ft. Smith, the Poteau River and west of the Frisco Ry
[railroad] in LeFlore County.
I organized the First National Bank of Poteau, Okla. in 1904,
the First National Bank on extreme east side of the state.
I secured leases, and drilled in the first gas wells in the
field known as the LeFlore County Gas Field in 1910, piped the
gas into Poteau, and induced the first glass plants to come in
there on extreme east side of the state.
I organized and helped furnish the Capitol to build the first
electric light plant on extreme east side of old Indian
Territory in 1906. Hugo, Wilburton, and Ft. Gibson [were the]
only towns east of the M. E. T. which had electric lights at the
time.
Immediately after the Civil War my mother’s brother, Jesse
Riddle, an enrolled Choctaw citizen, obtained a permit to
operate a toll gate on Back Bone Mountain on what was then known
as the Texas Road, leading south out of Ft. Smith, Ark. to
Paris, Texas. Only improved road in Choctaw Nation.
Additional information by Thomas Benjamin WALL
Nathaniel FOLSOM, from Virginia, married the twin daughters of a
Choctaw Chief. One of Nathaniel’s daughters married Noah WALL
and while I could never get the exact information on it, my
impression is that this was the Noah WALL who signed the Treaty,
as had my grandfather, or great grandfather. Grandfather WALL
was married to Katie (or Catherine) HALL. One report is they
were married in Georgia, another, in Mississippi. Grandmother
WALL (Katie) was a sister of Aunt Margaret MONCRIEF, of Purcell,
Oklahoma. Her son, Sam MONCRIEF, was a prominent citizen there.
Her daughter married Tom GRANT, a banker of Pauls Valley. Both
were about Father’s age. Mrs. Ed PERRY from Oklahoma City,
formerly Clara LEFLORE, is in New York and when I get back
there, I will try and find out from her about the MONCRIEF
children’s names and addresses. She knew them quite well.
Incidentally, the members of father’s side of the family were
related to the LEWIS and BYRD families of the early days. LEWIS
was a famous lawyer and BYRD was Governor of the Chickasaws.
On Mother’s side, since I could not check back completely on the
HALL family, I tried my hand on the RIDDLEs. George RIDDLE lived
near Wilburton. He and Mother were first cousins. His cousin,
William MICKLE, lived near him. He used to come to see us when I
was a boy and called Mother "Cousin Betty." Well, at Camden,
South Carolina, I located his branch of MICKLEs. Some of the
family still reside on the old homestead, a part of the grant
from the Crown of England. They were married into the RIDDLE
family. Part went to Mississippi. I traced back those who went,
by old newspaper clippings in the library at Camden, and powers
of attorney given in connection with the execution of land
deeds. The Camden RIDDLEs were related to Dr. ALEXANDER, who
presided over the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of
Independence. ALEXANDER, William RIDDLE, and Aaron BURR attended
Princeton together, so data in library there show. William WALL
in his will named Dr. ALEXANDER, his "good friend and cousin,"
as executor of his will. I could never trace the ancestry
through on the RIDDLEs as the missing data had to be dug up in
Mississippi, near Columbus, but the fact that the RIDDLEs and
MICKLEs were related in South Carolina, that some went to
Mississippi, and would up in Oklahoma, living near each other
and still claiming kinship is proof they were originally from
South Carolina.
In the old family Bible Great Grandfather Noah WALL was supposed
to have been born in Rosa (Rowen) County, North Carolina, in
1795. At that time Rowen County extended west into Tennessee and
took in several of the present counties in North Carolina.
There are dozens of old Tom WALLs in North Carolina but I could
never find a Tom born in 1795, who married Katie HALL. I have a
card index of WALLs, and RIDDLEs born previous to 1850, over
five hundred of each and have furnished complete data to several
WALLs and RIDDLEs, but could never connect up completely the
particular WALL or RIDDLE I am interested in.
Submitted by Sandi CARTER
SandKatC@aol.com
MONCRIEF relative
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