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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: August 16, 1937
Interview: General Lee Shawver
Post Office: Tonkawa, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 407 East Grand Ave.
Date of Birth: April 1st 1865
Place of Birth: Nebraska
Father: Alexander Shawver
Place of Birth: West Virginia
Other information about father: 
Mother: Narcissus KIRBY Shawver
Place of Birth: Iowa
Other information about mother:
Interviewed by: Robert W. Small 
Interview #8432

Soon after the birth of General Lee Shawver, his father moved from Nebraska to Missouri, thence, in 1868, to Chautaqua County, Kansas, where young Shawver grew to manhood and at the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in Oklahoma he made the race for a claim, starting at a point about thirteen miles west of Arkansas City, Kansas.

He made the "Run" on a strong, young, active horse. Not having been in the new country prior to the day it opened Mr. Shawver had no favorite section in view but he decided to look as he rode onward. When he reached the Chikaskia River just below the present site of Blackwell, he found steep inaccessible banks that prevented his crossing; he followed the meanderings of the stream until he came to a place where he could cross and after crossing pursued his southerly course ten of twelve miles until he came upon the banks of the Salt Fork River where he encountered the same difficulty in crossing that he has experienced a few minutes previously on the Chikaskia River and again he rode along the river's bank until he found a trail where cattle had crossed and he safely forded the stream and a few miles beyond he drove his claim stake on the Northwest Quarter of Section #2, Township 24 North, Range 1 mile west.

Later ninety-three oil wells yielding millions of barrels of oil were discovered on Mr. Shawver's claim.

After spending the night, which was lonely except for flickering lights at a few distant points, he saddled his horse and rode to Perry, as distance of about thirty miles to file on his claim. Because of the great crowd which had assembled at Perry for the same purpose, Mr. Shawver was compelled to wait for several days to file. Returning to his claim, he began to look about for water somewhere near but found none that was good, closer than the Chikaskia River. He went back to Kansas where he had prepared more provisions and secured tools to work with and returned to his claim and dug a well or hole four feet deep in a ravine and found plenty of good water. He then made a dugout to live in and windbreak for his stock and a short time later moved down to his claim to live permanently.

After breaking forty acres of sod land he planted it to kaffir and wheat, both of which made only fair yields.

The second year forty acres additional were broken and he planted this to wheat and kaffir except ten acres which he planted in flax. At harvest time he had about seven or eight bushels of flax with no sale or demand for it; the wheat and kaffir made fair yield, but here was not demand for kaffir corn at any price; the wheat was hauled to Ponca City, a distance of eighteen miles and sold for thirty-seven cents per bushel.

The second winter Mr. Shawver and his wife when to Kansas to get work; they stayed till early spring when they had saved up twenty dollars and then retuned to the homestead and put out another crop which made a better yield than former crops had done and each succeeding year thereafter the crops were better.

Mr. Shawver began to make more substantial improvements on his homestead and the country in general began to improve.

When Mr. Shawver was making the run the day of the opening of the "Strip" he had not gone from the starting point till he observed a man driving two good mules to the rear wheels of a wagon, upon which the man had a good sized box filled with provisions, frying pans and other cooking utensils, feed for his team and other things. This man had driven across the prairies with so much speed that the two wheels of his wagon were bouncing high in the air at frequent intervals and he had strewn his provisions and cooking utensils over the prairies for some distance before he noticed it and when he stopped his team to gather up the scattered pieces so many in the race had passed him that he decided he would stake the claim he was then on. He did so and it later developed that he had staked one of the choicest farms in the country.

Mr. Shawver traded chickens, hogs, and ponies to the Tonkawa Indians , near his homestead, for wood and post; at one time he traded a pony for four hundred posts, hauling them about three miles to this farm.

On one occasion a niece from Kansas was making a short visit with him and soon after her arrival, Mrs. Shawver and he were discussing the question of tying to fix up something a little extras to eat while she was visiting as they had nothing in the house to eat but cornbread and molasses. At last they decided to try to find some neighbor who would spare them a pound of butter and Mr. Shawver set out with a determination to find something. He found a neighbor who let him have a pound of butter and he returned home in high spirits to find that his wife had killed five or six little half-grown chickens that had been running around the house and they all had a feast that, in their opinions, was second to none.

Most all the people who settled in the Cherokee Outlet were poor people but generally were honest and hospitable. Neighbors borrowed from each other and helped each other in every conceivable way. They visited each other often and lived happily though poor. They often had neighborhood gatherings in the Spring and Summer months where each family would take its dinner and all would eat in some grove or shady nook an spend the day happily. At Christmas time, before church or school houses were built in the communities, the neighbors would gather at the house of one of them and enjoy the occasion in the fullest sense. Neighbors swapped work with each other and visited the sick and distressed with unfailing punctuality.

The greatest disturbance that visited their communities were cyclones and windstorms. Upon one occasion a tornado came through Mr. Shawver's neighborhood and roared directly across his farm, tearing the barn door from its hinges and rolling it like a ball on its four corners and the it struck the kitchen part of his house and went directly through it, breaking every dish they had in addition to tearing a hole in each side of the building.

Almost everyone had a storm cellar or place of refuge from the storms which were so frequent in Oklahoma in the early days and many lives were saved by these storm caves.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb and submitted by Todd A. Murray toddmurray65@msn.com  December 2001.