Interview #
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: March 4, 1937
Name: Mr. Ed Miller
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1873
Place of Birth: Texas
Father: Bill People
Mother:
I came to the Indian Territory in 1886 with my
mother and step-father. Bill People, my own father, died when I was
about two years old. We settled at Davis, Indian Territory.
My step-father farmed there. The first wheat we raised there sure did make
good. We had ten acres in wheat and when cutting time came, my step-father cradled
it. We used wagon sheets to trash it out on. After we trashed it out he took
it to Denison, Texas, and traded it for flour. He got enough flour
to last us three years. I was about 13 years old at that time.
A bunch of men went over near Ada, Indian Territory to kill some deer.
They let me go along to look after the teams. They killed 33 deers and about
40 or 50 turkeys.
I was at Tecumseh, Indian Territory when they made the run in 1889.
The largest crowd of people that I have ever seen in any one place. I was at Carnegie
when they made the Cheyenne run and at the Comanche run,
at Wynnewood, Indian Territory. I did not take part in any of these
runs. I was a Perry when they made the strip run.
I used to work on the Trout Ranch. It was
located on Big Blue about four miles south of Roff,
Oklahoma. I was working when the United States Marshal shot George Trout.
I never did learn what he had done. One night the Marshal rode up to the bunk
house. He asked some of the boys if George was there. They
told him they had not seen him but his did not satisfy the Marshal. He began to look
for him. He found George Trout down by the corral asleep.
When he walked up on George, George started to run, and the
Marshal shot him in the leg. George Trout was taken to the hospital
in Wichita, Kansas and he died there in the hospital. I saw a
gunfight between Scarface Jim, who was an outlaw and Buck Garrett
who was a Deputy U.S. Marshal. One of the deputies who was with Buck Garrett,
got his hat shot off of his head, but no one got hurt. This was at Sulphur
Springs. Scarface Jim was a bad man. About a year
after this fight, he got killed in the Choctaw Nation in a gun battle with someone.
I used to haul corn from Beef Creek to Pauls
Valley, with three yoke of steers on two trail wagons. I would pile it on
the ground at the elevator. I believe there was more corn in that pile than there
was raised in Garvin County last year.
A Mr. Brock gave me $85.00 dollars to haul his tent
store and stock of groceries from Pauls Valley to Cloud Chief, townsite.
I used three yoke of steers and two wagons. It took me 16 days to make the
trip. Now with their fast autos one can drive it in two hours.
I knew Bob Moore, who was an outlaw. He was
killed by two U.S. Marshals. I was acquainted with James Dulin.
He told me that he was present at the noted Pease River fight,
where the famous Cynthia Ann Parker was recovered by her
friends after twenty years of captivity. she was the mother of Quanah
Parker, chief of the Indians. That was why he got the name of Parker.
I was acquainted with Chief Big Tree's death.
Quanah Parker was made Chief of the Comanches.
I have never been married.
Mr. Ed Miller now operates a blacksmith shop at Pauls
Valley (1937)
