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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: August 27, 1937
Name: M. W. Maupin
Post Office: Durant, OK
Residence Address:  
Date of Birth: September 20, 1852
Place of Birth:  William B. Maupin 
Place of Birth: Kentucky
Information on father:
Mother:  Jane Natin
Place of birth:  Missouri
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Lula Austin
Interview # 7428

I was ten years old when the Civil War broke out and was living at Shawnee Town, Kansas. The Union soldiers were camped near our town. I often rode the soldiers' horses to Turtle Creek and watered them.

I came to the Indian Territory in 1893, settling at Blue, where Armstrong now is. I was working on the railroad as a section foreman from Armstrong to Caddo. Later I operated the pump station at Armstrong where all trains stopped for water.

In those days thirty cars were a load, with seven men a train crew. The trains would often stall on the grade the other side of Blue, and would have to back up and get another start.

I operated a grocery store in a one room log house, supplying the Patton and Gibson crew that built the double track on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. They also raised the bridge seven feet. They were a year building the bridge but the trains were never stopped.

I had a short-order counter in my store and fed many people. I also served as banker for the working men cashing their checks, charging them ten percent.

Mr. Sexton controlled 1100 acres around Armstrong and I was the only one allowed to operate a store. My business was so good that I had to build a larger store and I made lots of money.

After the railroad was finished I moved to Durant and operated a grocery store there until a year ago.

[Submitters note:  A. N. Leecraft's wife was a first cousin to Mr. Maupin.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Dennis Muncrief  mudman@brightok.net August 2001.