OKGenWeb Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This material may not be included in any compilation, publication, collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission.
The creator copyrights ALL files on this site. The files may be linked to but may not be reproduced on another site without specific permission from the OKGenWeb Coordinator, [okgenweb@cox.net], and their creator. Although public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in which they are presented, the notes and comments, etc. are. It is, however, permissible to print or save the files to a personal computer for personal use ONLY.


Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: March 17, 1938
Name: J. J. Walker
Post Office: 
Residence Address: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma 
Date of Birth: December 8, 1959
Place of Birth: Missouri
Father: Samuel Walker
Place of Birth: Tennessee
Information on father:
Mother: Iona Terral
Place of birth: Tennessee
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson 
Interview #10244

I was born in 1859 in Missouri. My father and mother moved to Texas from Missouri in 1868 and settled near Fort Jacksboro and when the Texas Rangers were organized, my brother, Doris Walker, joined them and he had eight or ten Indian scalps braided on his saddle and bridle.

I went to work on the old Pickett Ranch for Mr. Ohio Robertson when I was eleven years old and while working on this ranch, I went through several Indian raids and when the Indians would make a raid on the ranch it meant that everyone who was large enough to shoot a gun took part in trying to drive the Indians off or to kill them. I can't say that I have killed any Indians but I have done plenty of shooting at them. I remember the last raid that took place on the old Pickett Ranch. Several Indians made a raid on a farm house located a short ways from the Pickett Ranch. A white woman and her two little girls were killed. A cowboy got the word about it before the Rangers did and the cowboys put in after the Indians. I happened to be with the cowhands at the time they overtook part of the Indians before they had gone ten miles and these Indians put up a fight but soon gave up and the man I was working for, Ohio Robertson, had the men put their ropes around the Indians necks and the seven who surrendered were hanged to the same tree.

Many a day Mr. Robertson would come over into the Indian Territory and pay his permit to live here, then we would drive from a thousand to two thousand head of cattle across Red River where there was plenty of grass.

In the early days grass was knee high and plenty of it. We would herd the cattle around in the Indian Territory until market time, then sometimes the cattle would be taken back to the home ranch and separated into smaller bunches and driven to market. I have helped drive several bunches, with from three to four hundred in a bunch to Stringtown in the Choctaw Nation. I remember on one trip we stopped at Tishomingo on our way back to Texas. It was in the Fall of 1881. They had a whipping post at Tishomingo at that time and that was why we stopped there that day. Three Indians had been sentenced to be whipped so we stopped and watched this take place and believe me, the man sure did whip them.

I moved from Texas to the Indian Territory in 1906, a year before statehood and settled near Elmore City on a farm and have lived in this country since. I now live in Pauls Valley.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate.