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A B C D E F G H I J K L M Mc N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: June 22, 1937
Name: Mr. Perry Lanham
Post Office: Wynnewood, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: 1865
Place of Birth: Texas
Father: P.G. Lanham
Information on Father:
Mother: Manda Anderson
Information on Mother:
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Interview #4610

I was born in Texas in 1865.  I came from Texas to the Indian Territory in 1882, and settled at Tishomingo in the Chickasaw Nation.  I went to work for Mr. FISHER; he owned a supply house, where he sold nearly everything you wanted to buy or trade for.  I worked and saved my money so that I could start a ranch and in 1888, I had saved up enough money, I thought, to start a small ranch, so I went over on Spring Brook Creek to a place called Cross Roads. There was no store there at that time I built a log house, and by the last of 1889 I owned about three hundred head of cattle and a few horses.

A Mr. MCGEE put in a gin there in 1889, and later built a store and named it McGee. I helped Mr. McGee establish a post office and by 1895 we had everything going along fine.  I had at that time six sections of land fenced and about three thousand head of cattle.  Of course, I had been selling a few along to make money to buy others with, and also to make money enough to live on.  I would buy every cow I could get money enough to pay for and in this way I raised most of my cattle.  There were lots of wild horses on Rock Creek below where Sulphur now stands.

I have paid two to three dollars a head for those wild horses which were broken to lead.  There were several men who made a living by catching wild horses and breaking them to lead.  I have bought several horses for five dollars a head and they were broken in to ride, this way I got my horses very cheap.  I would break them to work to a wagon or plow.

Before I sold my lease and cattle, I had twenty men working for me.   I sold out in 1899 and moved to Wynnewood, where I have lived since.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate <bcchoate@yahoo.com> November 2000.