Interview #2092
Field Worker: E.F. Dodson, Chauncey O. Moore, Supervisor
Date: March 1, 1937
Name: Mr. J.W. Ferguson
Residence: Adair County
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Father:
Mother:
A Camping Place of the James and Younger Boys
In the year 1912, Cole Younger, one of the James
and Younger band, made a tour through this county (Adair).
A few days before he came to Stilwell, he wired to J.W.
Ferguson who was then city marshal of Stilwell, Oklahoma and who is now sheriff
of Adair County, Oklahoma, to engage a team and buggy and be ready to
accompany him on some trips out in the country near Stilwell, as he
wished to again see some of the places that he had visited in the early days when the
James boys, his brother and he had passed through there.
Mr. Ferguson made the arrangements and when Cole
Younger arrived he told Mr. Ferguson that back just after the
Civil War, the James and Younger band had camped near where
Stilwell now stands and that while here they matched a horse race with the Starr
boys (perhaps Buck and Zeke Starr) and that before the race they were told that
the Starr boys had said that they intended to take the money whether they
won or not. Of course, this was not true, but they made preparation to take care of
any emergency, as was common with them, but when time for the race came and the race
started, it was plain that Starr's horse would win as it led all the way.
The James and Younger boys paid off and of course
everything went off peacably.
As to the trips out around Stilwell, it had been several
years since they came to the place where they had camped. When they came to the
large spring on the property now owned by George Bradley, on the
northeast side of Stilwell, he readily recognized it as the place where
they had camped.
Cole Younger said that his old band had passed through
this part many times, especially when on their way from the north to the Younger
Bend on the
(Will have to look for the rest of this interview and will post it as soon
as it is found)
