Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 9, 1938
Name: Ed Hicks
Post Office: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: January 1, 1866
Place of Birth: Fort Gibson, Indian Territory
Father: Daniel R. Hicks
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Nancy Rider
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Hattie Turner
The First Telephone
The
Cherokee telephone company which placed in operation the first line in Indian
Territory, now Oklahoma, came into existence in 1886. A franchise authorizing
the erection of the line was granted by the Cherokee National Council at
Tahlequah in the autumn of 1885. Work was begun the following year and before
its close the first telephone line was a reality, connecting Tahlequah with
Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation, and with Muskogee in the Creek Nation.
Before the completion of the line much
delay was experienced in communicating from Tahlequah with the Union Indian
Agency at Muskogee, and also with business men by other business men at the
Cherokee capital. E. D. Hicks, a young business man of Tahlequah began
thinking of the great convenience and value of more direct communication and
suggested to a number of the leading men the convenience and feasibility of a
telephone line. Much interest was aroused among those to whom he talked, with
the result that a franchise was requested of the Cherokee National legislative
bodies.
The route selected for the telephone line
lay through some rugged and densely wooded sections. There was no surveyor.
Contrary to the belief of many the route did not follow that of the old and
long-used road lying between Tahlequah and Fort Gibson, but led over heights
and ridges, through flat woods and down steep-sloped valleys. In order to get
the proper direction it was often necessary to ascend a hill and carefully
observe the sylvan scene. There were times, too, when the weather conditions
were bad, heavy rainfalls, resultant mud, snow and sleet, and gloomy days when
the wind blew coldly from the North. But steady progress was made. No one
sought to impede the workers, and eventually completion of the preparation of
the route was realized. All that was necessary was to make correct
connections.
No one of the workers had ever seen
connections made, for this was the first telephone being completed in all the
vast Indian Territory. The workers were nonplussed, but in their time of
difficulty a blue-coated soldier from the fort upon the hill arrived. He had
learned back in Ohio how the connections were made and offered his services,
which were gladly welcomed. With a rather brief period the telephone was in
working order so far as the office at Fort Gibson was concerned, but the same
connection must be made over at Tahlequah, twenty-three miles eastward over
the telephone route. No one at the old capital knew anything about telephones,
so a good-sized picture or diagram of the parts which were to be assembled and
connected with the wire was placed in the hands of Manuel SPENCER, a large and
very black Negro, and mounted on a horse, Manuel set out for Tahlequah. He was
several hours on the road but he finally arrived at the store of J. W. STAPLER
& Sons and handed the diagram to James S. Stapler. The latter carefully
studied the diagram, then set to work, and soon had the proper connections
made. Talking was in order between Tahlequah and Fort Gibson.
The bell rang. From Tahlequah came the
query from James S. Stapler: "Who is this?" From Fort Gibson went
back the reply from E. D. Hicks: "The devil, and I'm coming after
you."
In the beginning of the efforts to secure
permission from the Council to operate the telephone line there were some who
had misgivings, for there were some very conservative members of the Council.
but several of the leading native members were consulted and they decided that
the franchise should be granted. A short "sample line" was utilized
by two notables in testing the powers of the telephone. George SANDERS,
usually called Soggy Sanders, a large man, weighing probably 300 pounds stood
at one end of the line, and another leading Indian of the name of Smith at the
other. These men held an animated conversation in their native tongue. At
conclusion of their talk Sanders laughed and remarked that the telephone was
all right. "It talks in Cherokee," he said.
The Cherokee Telephone company was in
operation until 1896, when E. D. Hicks and W. P. THOMPSON established an
exchange in Tahlequah and the name, the Tahlequah Telephone Company superceded
the original name. This name was retained until 1905 when the exchange was
sold to the Southwest Bell Telephone Company. During the years the manager of
the telephone under its several designations was E. D. Hicks, whose retirement
after forty-eight years and six months of service is of comparatively recent
date.
Edward D. Hicks is a member of historic
Cherokee families. He is the son of Daniel R. and Nancy RIDER Hicks, and was
born at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, on January 1, 1866. In his youth he
attended the Tahlequah schools, later studied at the Cherokee National
Seminary, and spent the years 1880-81 at the University of Arkansas at
Fayetteville. Except for brief periods his lifetime was principally spent in
Tahlequah, which he always regarded and called his home town.
The first white member of the Hicks family
was Nathan Hicks, who, in the "Old Nation" east of the Mississippi
river, married a daughter of Chief BROOM, for whom Broom's Town was named. It
was at this old town or settlement that the first written law of the Cherokees
was made in 1888 (?). It was somewhere near the American Revolutionary War
period that Nathan Hicks became identified with the Cherokees. His oldest son
was Charles R. Hicks, the first educated Principal Chief. For thirty years
before he assumed the office of Principal Chief, Charles R. Hicks had wielded
great influence. He was a penman of ability and about 1826 was elevated to the
highest office in the Indian Nation, but his tenure of office was brief for
his death occurred within a year. He was succeeded briefly by his brother,
William Hicks, and the latter in 1828 was succeeded by John ROSS, who was to
hold the position until his death nearly forty years later.
Another notable man of the early days was
Elijah Hicks, son of Chief Charles R. Hicks. Of Elijah Hicks it is recorded
that he was educated in South Carolina. His wife was Margaret Ross, a sister
of Chief John Ross, and their son was Daniel R. Hicks, to whom reference has
been made. Thus E. D. Hicks is the grandson several times removed of Chief
Broom; the great grandson of Chief Chas. R. Hicks; the grandson of
"Acting Principal Chief," old Elijah Hicks, and a grand nephew of
Chief John Ross.
Note: Elijah Hicks served for a period as
editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, first Indian newspaper, at New Echota,
Georgia. He was a leading man in the Nation in Indian Territory, delegate to
Washington, besides occupying other important positions. On an occasion when
Chief John Ross was absent from the Cherokee Nation Elijah Hicks served as
Acting Principal Chief. [This note was added by Hattie Turner, the
interviewer]
Indian Pioneer History
Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 9, 1938
Name: Ed Hicks
Post Office: Wagoner, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: 1 January 1866
Place of Birth: Fort Gibson, Indian Territory
Father: Daniel R. Hicks
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Nancy Rider
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Hattie Turner
The Ross Cemetery in the Park Hill
locality had its origin in 1841, when John McDonald Ross, twenty-one year old
son of Lewis Ross, died at the home of his uncle, Principal Chief John Ross,
and was buried on an eminence due south of the home of the Chief. Lewis Ross
erected a handsome marble monument at his son's grave, the top of the monument
being broken to represent his unfinished life. He enclosed the plot in a low
stone wall which supported a high iron fence. At the middle of each of the
upright iron rods was a globular ornament composed of pure lead.
In the course of time other interments
were made in the private burial ground of Lewis Ross, Senior. Among those
buried within the iron fence was Minerva Ross Murrell who died in 1855. Lewis
Ross, about 1843, removed to a distant section of the Cherokee Nation, but in
after years when he and his wife died, they were buried in the enclosed plot
with their relatives. As time passed people who had no knowledge of the origin
of the burial ground began to refer to the Lewis Ross plot as the Murrell
plot, and almost generally that is the designation today.
While the Civil War was raging and the
Cherokee Nation was the scene of some of its ravages, the leaden ornaments on
a large portion of the iron fence were removed and utilized, it is said, in
the making of bullets for the weapons of soldiers of the Confederate Indian
force under command of Stand Watie. In this connection there have been some
who contended that deer hunters removed the ornaments, but there have been
others who personally recalled that a number of the Confederate Indians spent
a portion of a day at the old burying ground and asserted that the lead was
then removed.
A graduate of "the college at
Princeton" (now Princeton University) in 1841, young John McDonald Ross
had reached the home of his parents probably in July. He had come back to be a
big man among his tribe, or so his parents hoped. Early in September he called
on chief John Ross, his uncle, fell suddenly ill, lingered a while and died.
The broken column at his grave is symbolic of the brevity of his life.
As the years passed by many interments
were made in the vicinity of the graves of the members of the family of Lewis
Ross, Senior and for some decades it was known as the Ross Cemetery.
The memoranda for this manuscript was
procured in part from: Mr. Ed Hicks who was born at the close of the Civil War
and whose address is Box 155, Tahlequah. Mr. Shorey W. Ross, aged 65, of Park
Hill. Mr. Blake Ross of Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Indian Pioneer History Project for
Oklahoma
Date: April 9, 1938
Name: Ed Hicks
Post Office: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: January 1, 1866
Place of Birth: Fort Gibson, Indian Territory
Father: Daniel R. Hicks
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Nancy Rider
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Hattie Turner
Tahlonteesky
The capital of the Western Cherokee Nation for nearly ten years was
Tah-lon-tee-sky, near the mouth of the Illinois River which was named for a
head chief of the Western group that preceded the main body of Cherokees to
the west for a number of years. Most important of the chiefs who once lived at
Tahlonteesky was John JOLLY, noted as the friend of General Sam Houston. When
Houston arrived from Tennessee in 1830 he stayed a while with Chief Jolly at
Tahlonteesky, a picturesque place atop a high ridge where were the home of
Jolly and the houses of the Council. In the thirties of the last century the
Western Nation had three chiefs, designated as first, second and third chiefs.
In case the first chief died or was killed, the second succeeded, and in the
event this successor was removed by death or disability, the third chief
became the head chief.
Some important acts were passed by the
Council at Tahlonteesky, one of the most interesting being an act passed
October 31, 1831, which admitted to Cherokee citizenship Sam Houston, the
former governor of Tennessee. In these days there are many persons who
erroneously believe that Sam Houston was a Cherokee citizen by intermarriage
but this noted character was never married to a Cherokee, as has been
mistakenly asserted by many. In the event he had been so married the Act of
the Council would not have been necessary, for marriage to a Cherokee would
automatically have made Houston a Cherokee, so far as citizenship was
concerned. Several months after being adopted by Act of the Council, Sam
Houston took his departure (1832) never to return. The Act of the Council was
passed at the request of Chief Jolly, who had known Sam Houston as a youth in
Tennessee. As mentioned in biographies of Sam Houston, he once spent several
years among the Cherokees in their country east of the Mississippi River.
Indian Pioneer History Project for
Oklahoma
Date: April 9, 1938
Name: Ed Hicks
Post Office: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: January 1, 1866
Place of Birth: Fort Gibson, Indian Territory
Father: Daniel R. Hicks
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Nancy Rider
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Hattie Turner
Barbecued Fish
A custom long prevalent among the full blood Cherokees was to visit the banks
of the steams in the summer season and capture large numbers of fish which
were slowly roasted or barbecued over fires kindled beneath the shade of the
nearby trees.
In order to procure the fish the roots of
the buckeye shrub were bruised and beaten into a great mass of pulp and in
shallow places above long and deep stretches of water the pounded buckeye was
"planted" and weighted down with heavy stones. The water below was
in consequence vitiated and soon numbers of fish arose to the surface, not
dead but stupefied from the effects of the buckeye. The men and boys and
sometimes the women and girls, then entered the water and engaged in picking
up the fish. In the deeper water men in boats used spears or gigs and tossed
the larger fish into their canoes or boats but the fish which were too small
to be used were allowed to float downstream and upon reaching the pure waters
soon recovered and swam away.
When enough fish had been procured
everybody went to the shady spots and engaged in cleaning the fish, after
which the barbecuing began and the barbecued fishes were delicious. Other
eatables were provided, but corn bread, made from fresh Indian corn meal and
cooked after the Indian manner, and fish were the principal articles consumed,
except that strong black coffee, the favorite Cherokee Indian beverage, was
provided and drunk in abundant quantities. After the feast the women sat down
and talked together and the men did likewise, smoking their pipes in great
enjoyment.
There have been no fish barbecues in many
years, the fish and game laws prohibiting the adulteration of the streams with
buckeye or other deleterious substances. But in the interval before the laws
protected the streams, great damage was done the fish population by men who
exploded dynamite in the rivers and creeks.
In one locality near the Illinois River
lived two young men who were owners of two very useful dogs and these dogs
assisted in bringing fish to the shore when barbecues were held.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Wanda Morris Elliott
<jwdre@intellex.com>.