Interview #
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date:
Name: Mr. W.B. Flick
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: June 10, 1867
Place of Birth: Kentucky
Father:
Mother:
Mr. W.B. Flick left Texas with his father, mother and one brother.
They were in a wagon, working two horses and two oxen. They stopped six miles
north of Marietta, then in Indian Territory, now in Oklahoma, in 1888. He and his
father farmed there one year.
In 1889 they moved to Overbrook, south of Ardmore, Oklahoma. While
Mr. Flick was living at this location he went to Gainesville, Texas to get a marriage
license and was married to Jane Davie, July 13, 1889, at Overbrook. The next day he
and his wife moved under a wagon sheet for a home, about one mile from his father's home.
He said they had a mattress made of straw and a few pots and pans.
He bought a lease from Tom Love, a Chickasaw Indian, and built a log house
on it, bought two oxen from his father and started to farming. He raised about 500
bushels of corn that year.
In 1890 he sold that lease and house back to Tom Love and bought another
lease from Mrs. Anna McFarland, who had bought the lease from Tom Love. He only
stayed there about three months and gave this lease to his father-in-law, J.I. Davis.
He then moved to Nebo and went to work for an Indian woman named Lou
Brown, in 1891. She had married a white man and the Indians did not like this so
they killed him. This was about a year before Mr. Flick went there.
A few nights after he and his wife moved in with Mrs. Lou Brown, seven or
eight Indians on horseback surrounded the house and began shooting into the house.
He saw that they were all going to be killed so he got his Winchester and ran out
in the yard and began firing at them. Soon after this the Indians left. The
next morning he found one dead horse about a hundred yards from the house. He
doesn't know if any of the Indians were killed. Mrs. Lou Brown, the next day, went
to see some Indians and told them that Mr. Flick and his wife were only working for her.
She had several horses and cows left to her by her husband, Frank Brown, who was
killed by a group of Chickasaw Indians. Mr. Flick said that he was never bothered by
the Indians after that.
In 1893 his father moved to Nebo, north of the Arbuckle Mountains, near
Dougherty, Oklahoma, and set up a saw mill. He went in partnership with his father.
He worked one year and sold out to his father. He and his brother, Jim Flick,
went to breaking wild horses for Fryback and Frost. These two men owned several wild
horses and they gave Mr. Flick and his brother $3.00 to $5.00 a head for breaking them to
ride. He and his brother worked at this job and helped their father until 1896.
In that same year he left there and went to a location which is now
Maxwell, Oklahoma and bought him a ten-year lease. Only stayed there one year and
sold it to Ed. Cotton. He took this money and built a store at Maxwell.
Stocked it with general merchandise and it was named the "General Store."
He operated this store for two years and in 1899 he sold the building and moved his
stock of merchandise to Seven Shooter, seven miles east of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma and
started a store there. Only stayed one year.
In 1900 he sold out and went back to Maxwell. There he bought and
sold farm leases.
In 1902 he moved to McGee, Oklahoma. Farmed and bought and sold
leases until in 1910.
His present home is now in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where he has lived for
several years.
