Interview #4610
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: June 22, 1937
Name: Mr. Perry Lanham
Residence: Wynnewood, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1865
Place of Birth: Texas
Father: P.G. Lanham
Mother: Manda Anderson
I was born in Texas in 1865. I came from Texas to the Indian
Territory in 1882, and settled at Tishomingo in the Chickasaw Nation. I went to work
for Mr. Fisher; he owned a supply house, where he sold nearly everything
you wanted to buy or trade for. I worked and saved my money so that I could start a
ranch and in 1888, I had saved up enough money, I thought, to start a small ranch, so I
went over on Spring Brook Creek to a place called Cross Roads. There
was no store there at that time I built a log house, and by the last of 1889 I owned about
three hundred head of cattle and a few horses.
A Mr. McGee put in a gin there in 1889, and later built a
store and named it McGee. I helped Mr. McGee establish a
post office and by 1895 we had everything going along fine. I had at that time six
sections of land fenced and about three thousand head of cattle. Of course, I had
been selling a few along to make money to buy others with, and also to make money enough
to live on. I would buy every cow I could get money enough to pay for and in this
way I raised most of my cattle. There were lots of wild horses on Rock Creek below
where Sulphur now stands.
I have paid two to three dollars a head for those wild horses which were
broken to lead. There were several men who made a living by catching wild horses and
breaking them to lead. I have bought several horses for five dollars a head and they
were broken in to ride, this way I got my horses very cheap. I would break them to
work to a wagon or plow.
Before I sold my lease and cattle, I had twenty men working for me.
I sold out in 1899 and moved to Wynnewood, where I have lived since.
