Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: June 16, 1937
Name: S. M. Abbott
Post Office: Skiatook, Oklahoma
Residence Address: Hillside Mission, Skiatook, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: April 22, 1853
Place of Birth: Fulton, Illinois
Father: 
Place of Birth: 
Information on father:
Mother: Sarah Moreland Abbott
Place of birth: 
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Effie S. Jackson
Interview #6295

HILLSIDE MISSION AND ITS HERMIT

I was born in Fulton, Illinois, April 22, 1853. My father died when I was thirteen. My mother, Sarah MORELAND Abbott, and I made our way to Kansas and then planning to raise cattle we came to the land of the Osages in 1879. I have written the story of that trip and our experiences living with the Osages during the year 1879. It is there in that manuscript, written in detail in my best handwriting, almost hand-printed. There are four hundred and fifty pages of it. I have been years writing it, and it has been my prayer to have it published so I could have a little royalty from it. I wrote it for the State Historical Society. Do you think they would buy it? You may read it, I am sure you will find it interesting.

You see I am an old man now, 84, crippled and almost helpless, but my mind is clear and I am glad to talk about the 58 years I have spent here in this vicinity. The first year, 1879, my mother and I lived with the Osages, then we built a temporary log hut. In 1882, we built our home, a dream home, for I dreamed the way it should be built was in the shape of a cross, five large rooms, one a center room (drawing of cross is here). There we lived until ten years ago when my mother passed away. I was so proud of that house. I wanted to have the largest house in the whole country side. The "Star House" it was called and people came from afar to see it.

If you follow this winding road by the Mission three miles northwest you will see it as it stands in ruins today. It is on the bank of Tyner Creek. The Tyner family, Osages, lived in this vicinity when I came here. The old Tyner cemetery is across the creek from the "Star House", but this cemetery is abandoned. There are some twenty or thirty graves there, overgrown with brush. Do not try to visit it. It is infested with snakes. (I found the old "Star House". It is used as a barn, filled with hay. It stands in the center of a corn field. The outer rooms are in a fair state of preservation but the fireplace has been removed from the center room causing the building to sink in the middle.)

I remember one day in 1883, I had gone to a knoll near my home to look after my cattle, and imagine my surprise to see a hack approaching driven by a white man. He drove up and said, "I am John Murdock, sent by the Philadelphia Quaker Society to teach the Indians". I referred him to Dr. Lloyd who lived near. He was a white man, who claimed some Cherokee lineage. That's what is left of his home, that old log house there on the ridge south of the Mission.

Mr. Murdock called the Indians to their first meeting in a grove near Squirrel Creek near here and then proposed building a church. So the Indians gathered and built the first church, 10 X 20, of logs hewn on two sides, made a lime kiln, chinked in the crevices, puncheon floor. They made a poor selection of a location in the lowlands where the mosquitoes were deadly.

The next year (1884) they chose this spot on a hillside. They used what they could from the first church. The Philadelphia Society sent two missionaries to see what progress Murdock had made. When they found that he had obtained 76 members in one year they were so pleased that they sent him a signed check-book. With the financial aid a real Mission was started. I remember they took three wagons and went to Coffeyville, 65 miles away, our base of supplies, to get lumber. A deluge came, the Caney was up to high they had to camp for three weeks on their return trip. They built the south wing of two rooms, two stories high and also built the south wing of two rooms, two stories high and also built the church. What could be used of this early church was torn down later and put in that White Hillside Baptist Church you see there on the northeast, adjoining these four acres.

Admission was free to Indian children. Cherokees, Osages and Shawnees attended. The number in attendance, who lived at the Mission were seventy-five to eighty in its prime. In keeping with this attendance, rooms were added from year to year until the mission eventually had twenty-four rooms, four stories high counting the basement and attic. The basement was arranged for recreation; the second floor had the dining room, kitchen, supply room and teachers' quarters; the third floor and attic had dormitories, the boys on one side, the girls on the other. The class rooms were in an adjoining building. I am living in the only habitable rooms left. These three were formly teachers' quarters. This room with the bay window was Superintendent Watson's room. John Watson with his wife, Liza, and two daughters were sent by the Philadelphia Society to take charge of the Mission after John Murdock was sent west on duty by the Society. John Watson was superintendent until the Mission was abandoned.

I remember how they used to send a hack around to gather up the Indian children. They brought them whether they wanted to come or not. Always took them to the wash room upstairs and had such a time getting them cleaned up. You see the Pennsylvania Society sent clothes out here by the hogshead (used garments), so, getting washed and dressed were first steps in their training. Both boys and girls attended, ages from 6 to 18 or 19, grades from primary through what would be 8th today; in those days it was according to readers. White children were allowed to attend but had to pay a tuition of $8.00 a month, which included all expenses.

I used to come to the Mission every week. I sold two beeves a week to the Mission. I courted the girls there and when I was 43 I married one of them, Roxie Bennett, 17 years old. I have four children, two sons living in Oklahoma City, William and James, two daughters living with my wife at Ramona, Oklahoma. Four acres were set aside for this Mission. I owned the surrounding 100 acres and these four acres, but the loan company has foreclosed, so I have nothing left.

I remember John Murdock said, "We have a church and a school, so we must have a cemetery", so three acres adjoining the Mission grounds on the northeast were set aside for the Hillside Cemetery (1885). The first grave dug there was for a white boy, 14 years old, Jesse Pebbermet. There are over two thousand graves there now, leading Osages, Shawnees, Cherokees, intermarried citizens and whites. The most imposing monument you will see is that of W. C. Rogers, last chief of the Cherokees. He was a fine man, he came to my house-warming in 1882, and made a speech to the Indians.

Be sure to look for the grave of Aunt Susan Fox. Her grave stone is called the "Monument of the Madonna". There are many legends about it. It is called the "Angel of Vision", etc. It is the work of an Italian sculptor and was made in Italy. When Aunt Susan died five years ago, her husband, Ed FOX, a prominent Osage, bought it for her grave, at a price of $1900. I have been sexton of this cemetery for 40 years, until eight months ago. Checking with E. N. Holmes of the Tulsa Monument Company, he said this statue was of Carrara Marble, made in Carrara, Italy, purchased in Pawhuska from A. P. Boyles.

Yes, I know of three abandoned cemeteries in this locality. I have already told you of the Tyner cemetery across the creek from the "Star House", my old home. There are only a few headstones left to mark the 20 or 30 graves there, an old barb-wire fence partly encloses it. It was used as a burial ground for the Tyner family. An old abandoned Shawnee cemetery is one mile north of Skiatook on U. S. Highway #1. It lies 1/8 of a mile east in the midst of a corn field; is, in fact, a part of the corn field. The land is owned by T. Furse. As I remember there were about 50 graves there.

On the slope of a hill at the mouth of Panther Hollow is an abandoned Osage cemetery. Follow Highway #11 north from Skiatook for about 9 miles to Bird Creek, from there one-half mile southwest (as the crow flies) is Panther Cave. About 1885 or '86 Antoine Rogers, a prominent Osage Indian, wishing to cultivate the rich bottom land of Bird Creek, had 20 or 30 bodies moved from a lowland graveyard across to the bench of the hill at the mouth of Panther Hollow, near Panther Cave. I used to hunt deer there. Rogers paid an old farmer named Mack Carr $20.00 a piece to move each body, Carr had to make a coffin for each body. The cemetery has been abandoned for the last 20 years. There are more than one hundred graves there. It has been fenced three times but prairie fire always destroys the fence. There are many prominent Osages buried there, among whom are Judge Perrier of the Rock house, John Collins and Scott Antire, prominent cattlemen, inter-married Osages citizens.

Well, come again soon and read this manuscript, I am sure you will find it interesting. It is true to fact. I cannot write any more, I am too nervous. I spend all my time reading the Bible. You see when I was a boy my father made me study the Bible. He wanted me to be a preacher and it gave me a dislike for the Holy Book, and I never read it again until the last few months. Now I spend all my time studying it. It is the most valuable book I have ever read. I am afraid I will not live long enough to complete my study of it. I only went to a country school for a few years. I got my education from my prized set of ten volumes of Ridpath and my study of Shakespeare. This Holy Book would have been my best teacher. Now I must study hard to make up for the lost years.

Comments: Surrounded by tall grass and weeds, enclosed by an old barb-wire fence, Hillside Mission is still imposing. Its weather beaten four stories facing the east are in a fair state of preservation, but the old wing on the west is fast falling into decay. The rooms, all empty, except the three in which Mr. Abbott lives are almost ghostly. Creaking floors, torn wall coverings, windowless openings, the home of bats and owls. From Mr. Abbott's description it is easy to imagine just what each room formerly was used for. The ingenious bath room looks almost as if it could be used, so well was it constructed.

Mr. Abbott, a cripple, is barely able to hobble about in the only three habitable rooms. He lives alone, a little kindly man, with a face as fresh as a girl's, manners gracious, a pleasant smile, a ready flow of conversation.

 

Field Worker: Effie S. Jackson
Interview #6530
Date: June 28, 1937

An Interview with S. M. Abbott
Hillside Mission, two miles north and three-fourths mile east of Skiatook on Highway #11.

I found Mr. Abbott even more feeble than at my previous visit, June 16.  He was very busy, studying his Bible and was very loathe to talk. When he did talk it was always the story of "long ago", the 70's and 80's. To him, as he sits in that little old rocker, in that bit of a bay window, with twenty-four rooms of an old mission crumbling around him, time stands still.

Yes, he would be glad for me to read his manuscript - there it was in that filing case, on top of that old chest of drawers - only one request, "Please do not mix the pages, they are loose-leaf." There they were, four hundred and fifty pages of them, heavy, yellowed (once white) sheets, legal size, written in ink, rather small writing, at time printed-phonetic spelling. As he recalled some of his experiences he became more "chatty". I talked with him about giving or selling the manuscript to the Oklahoma Historical Society. This did not interest him at all. In fact he seemed to take a childish glee in stating that he would soon have no use for it and would leave it to his children. (He has tried to have it published but it seems that it would cost him $700.00).

Finding that he was not at all interested in parting with it, I decided to spend a few hours reading it. He was very willing, inclined to interrupt as I read, wishing to insert even more detail. He states in the opening lines that the manuscript covers his pioneer experiences among the Osages, Cherokees and Shawnees in that locality during the year 1880. In reality he said the year was 1879, the year he and his mother came from Chautauqua, Kansas; but for reasons of his own, he preferred to call it 1880. The description of the preparation, loading three wagons with household goods, utensils and tools for making a home in the wilderness (as he called it) was interesting. He had chosen this area for its good hunting, (he had made a trip there previously). He detailed the journey, difficulty of passage, method of crossing streams, no civilization until they came to Silver Lake, mill and supply house of Jake Bartles.

He set up a home for himself and mother on the Tyner place. The six men who had accompanied him on his journey to help bring his household effects returned to Kansas. He must have a habitation for his mother, so he took a deserted "pole tent" Indian house, and made it into their first home in 1879. The "Star House" was not built until 1882. He had the help and devotion of an Indian, Harvey Big Fox, throughout the year. Mr. Abbott said, "Big Fox would rather be my dog than anybody else's slave."

Among the tools he had brought from Kansas (originally from Fulton, Illinois,) were an adz and a broad-ax. He still had these in his possession and insisted that we go to an old cupboard and get them out. He wanted to personally show them to us. The detail of re-building that first house was very interesting. You hewed each log with him, put in each wooden pin, smoothed each floor board. Then he built a snug fireplace and protected the outer covering to make it storm proof. The task done he was ready for the purpose of his coming-to hunt. And hunt he did for a year, with only Indians for his companions, oftimes alone, so goes his story.

He depicts, as only a hunter can, the story of killing his first deer, but the look in its eyes as he killed it seems to be the haunting theme of the tragedy he weaves through the other pages, always there seems to be a presiding Nemesis. After the killing of the deer he seems to lose himself in Indian lore and legend and at times a touch of witchcraft. He picks up another bit of good description as he tells how he and Big Fox make their first canoe - from a cottonwood tree thirty feet long and three and one-half feet in diameter. He used his ever faithful adz to hollow it out.

The canoe made, he goes alone on a trip to unknown waters, as he tells it in his story. (In reality Bird Creek). Then he strikes another note of witchery. He kills another deer. According to Shawnee belief, if you partake of the blood of the first deer you kill (which he had done), you are under a ban and cannot kill another deer without suffering some punishment. He describes in detail the penalty he had to pay as imposed upon him by Chief Turtle Soup, a Shawnee. How he was ordered to plunge, stripped, into the icy water where the deer had fallen. Diving, he was to bring up whatever his hands first touched and lay it as a token before the Chief. Behold, he touched the fallen deer, which rose in a miraculous fashion to the surface; with super-human effort he dragged it to the waiting Chief.

Fact and fiction melt together as this gleaming spirit of revenge, now in the form of a gold and bronze serpent image, pursues him at every turn. He meets the Princess (an Indian maiden of French descent, and still says to this day that she was his one and only love). He finishes his story in the same vein. The avenging spirit of the deer he had killed, the deer, as he said, that had talked with him and begged for its life, appears as a serpent to destroy the beautiful Princess.

Whenever Mr. Abbott gave descriptions of constructions, building the home, canoe, mission, etc., he seemed very practical-minded, but the moment he entered the woods or approached a stream, he became "fancy-minded". He told me the woods always wove a spell over him.

While I was reading the manuscript, Mr. Abbott's son, William R. Abbott, wife and child (of 1112 Classen Boulevard, Oklahoma City), drove up. He had come to see his father. The son seemed to resent my presence. Accordingly I shortened by visit.

Earlier in the interview, while talking of the Historical Society, Mr. Abbott said he had given a bed that had belonged to his mother to the society. He described it as an old spindle top, four poster, rope bed she had brought from Illinois. He had also given a hand-made cradle. He asked me to dig into a cubby hole in the wall and get a little tin trunk. This trunk was about eleven inches long, six inches high and four inches wide, he said it was one hundred and fifty years old. It had belonged to his father, who had fought under Harrison in the Black Hawk War. His father had used it as a bank, filled it with gold and buried it during the Indian Wars. It is still well preserved. In this trunk Mr. Abbott keeps a parchment document about ten by fourteen inches. It is a land patent for one hundred and sixty acres, (twenty-five cents an acre) Fulton, Illinois, signed by James Monroe when he was president of the United States.

Field Worker's Note:

On my return to Skiatook, I stopped at the farm of A. T. Feree, one mile north of Skiatook on Highway #11. I talked with both Mr. and Mrs. Feree. I asked them about an abandoned Indian Cemetery in that vicinity. Mr. Feree said he had lived in the neighborhood thirty-seven years, had leased the farm he now lived on twenty years ago and had cleared it. He had leased it from "old man Tyner". Said he had never seen or heard of a cemetery in the vicinity. Mr. Feree said there was a pile of rocks, about where Mr. Abbott said the cemetery had been, but nothing to indicate a cemetery otherwise. He had cleared the ground and had it under cultivation.

He said that when he was farming on Quapaw Creek he frequently found lone Indian graves, or sometimes two together, cribbed and covered with logs. He said that it was customary to respect these graves. He said it was possible that there might have been an Indian cemetery in that region at one time. I told him what Mr. Abbott had said. He replied that all the people in the community had a great deal of regard for "old man Abbott" -- that they considered his memory good and his statements correct.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Moody Dawson, May 2002.