Interview #
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: 1937
Name: Mr. W.W. Howerton
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Father:
Mother:
Mr. W.E. Howerton, now assistant city clerk of Pauls
Valley, Oklahoma, (1937), came to the locality now known as Garvin county in 1889.
During the same year of his arrival to this country, Mr. Howerton
remembers that the first mortgage issued in Indian Territory was a cattle mortgage given
by Rag Jennings.
In 1895, Mr. Howerton recalls that a militia, composed of
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, came through the country to collect a fee of $5.00 from
those operating any kind of business. The spokesman of the militia was Dick
McGlish. Upon failure to pay the demanded fee, members of the
militia would take the individual across Red river. The militia, according to Mr. Howerton,
would come into a community and make camp. They would work in a vicinity about
twenty miles circumscribing the camp. After completing their work in one community t
hey would break camp and move to another location. Part of the militia would take
those individuals, who failed to pay the fee across the Red river. After
accomplishing their task, the members of the militia returned to their company. Mr. Howerton
lived by a family who had been taken across the river and had returned. Some
were successful in returning before the members of the militia had ample time to rejoin
their company.
The first killing in this locality that Mr. Howerton
remembers was in 1899. Kid Williams killed Bill Luke
over gambling. Mr. Howerton and five men held an inquest for Bill
Luke, although they had no authority to do so, only as citizens. One of the
five men that helped Mr. Howerton was Frank Childs, now
deceased. The next killing was in 1903. Jack Huffman shot
and killed Grant Bell over a drunken quarrel. The next morning
Huffman knew he had killed someone. He asked his son-in-law to bring him to
Foster, as he lived six miles from the town. They started to town in a buggy and had
a shotgun sitting at their feet leaning up against the dash board. His son-in-law
stopped to open a gate. While he was out of the buggy, the team started up and the
gun fell, discharged and killed Jack Huffman. These were the only
three men killed while Mr. Howerton was there.
Mr. Howerton believes the Cherokee Town, Wynnewood is the
white man's oldest burial ground in the country.
Mr. Howerton was postmaster at Foster,
Oklahoma, in 1898. He owned a grocery store and the post office was in the back of
the store. He said the mail was brought to Foster from Pauls Valley
in a buggy. He has witnessed several gun battles between whitemen while he was
postmaster.
He and his brother intended to make the Run, but due to an accident a few
days before the set time he was unable to do so.
