Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:
Name: Thomas Benjamin Wall
Post Office:
Date of Birth: 21 September 1881
Place of birth: Near Cameron, Oklahoma
Address: Charlotte, NC
Name of Father: Thomas Jefferson WALL
Place of birth: Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory
Name of Mother: Elizabeth RIDDLE
Place of birth: Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory
Field Worker: 
Interview: #

MR. WALL’S STORY

My parents were born in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Father was born in what is now LeFlore County and mother was born near Tomaha in Haskell County.

Grandfather Wall came from Miss. in 1831 or immediately after and settled in LeFlore County.

Grandfather Tom Wall built the first water mill on James Fork Creek about 3 1/2 miles from Cameron, Okla. previous to 1847 and operated a grist mill there. His father Tom Wall, or at least I have reason to believe it is the same Tom WALL, was one of the signers of the Dancing Rabbit Treaty.

An interesting episode about my father Thomas Jefferson Wall is that he belonged to the Eagles Party in the Choctaw Nation, the leaders being chiefly whites who had intermarried, and mixed blood Choctaws. The Bussard Party was supposed to be the party of the full blood Choctaws.

Due to political differences, father’s life was threatened. The only laws at that time in the Choctaw Nation were the Choctaw Laws, and, by treaty with the U. S. the officers U. S. Government were permitted to arrest violators of U. S. laws. The Choctaw courts had no jurisdiction over U. S. Citizens.

My father, fearing arrest or trouble with Choctaw authorities, went before the U. S. court at Ft. Smith, Ark. and was naturalized as an American citizen. He did not lose any of his rights as a Choctaw citizen, but gained his protection of a U. S. citizen living in the Choctaw Nation. He served in the 1880s as a U. S. Deputy Marshall.

Another amusing episode of my father, when the Atoka agreement was signed, there was considerable speculation as to the division of the land to be made. Some reasoned the more Indian blood one had, the more land one would have allotted to him. Father believe this and was enrolled as a full blood Choctaw, at least this is my recollection. When the allotments were made, and all enrolled citizens shared alike and the regulations governing the sale of one’s allotments were fixed, father found his enrollment as a full blood (it may have been half blood) were inconvenient. He wanted to sell his land. He was a Federal soldier of the Civil War, drew a pension, knew Senator Charles Curtis (was a Republican) and Mather (?) Bickford, an attorney of Washington, D. C. who specialized in pension matters. Father took the train to Washington, called on Senator Curtis, got his old lawyer friend, called on the sec’y of Interior, and convinced the Department that his enrollment was in error, and succeeded in being one of the first to ‘have his restrictions removed.’ He was a strenuous character, never went to school, but was self educated, an excellent penman, and always drew up his own legal contracts.

Also, under the old Choctaw Law governing mineral deposits, he traced out the veins of coal deposits between the Poteau River and Ark. line, some small shafts, or dug slopes, built log pens as ‘improvements’ one mile apart to establish his claims, and controlled before allotment, the coal deposits in an area lying between Ft. Smith, the Poteau River and west of the Frisco Ry [railroad] in LeFlore County.

I organized the First National Bank of Poteau, Okla. in 1904, the First National Bank on extreme east side of the state.

I secured leases, and drilled in the first gas wells in the field known as the LeFlore County Gas Field in 1910, piped the gas into Poteau, and induced the first glass plants to come in there on extreme east side of the state.

I organized and helped furnish the Capitol to build the first electric light plant on extreme east side of old Indian Territory in 1906. Hugo, Wilburton, and Ft. Gibson [were the] only towns east of the M. E. T. which had electric lights at the time.

Immediately after the Civil War my mother’s brother, Jesse Riddle, an enrolled Choctaw citizen, obtained a permit to operate a toll gate on Back Bone Mountain on what was then known as the Texas Road, leading south out of Ft. Smith, Ark. to Paris, Texas. Only improved road in Choctaw Nation.

Additional information by Thomas Benjamin WALL

Nathaniel FOLSOM, from Virginia, married the twin daughters of a Choctaw Chief. One of Nathaniel’s daughters married Noah WALL and while I could never get the exact information on it, my impression is that this was the Noah WALL who signed the Treaty, as had my grandfather, or great grandfather. Grandfather WALL was married to Katie (or Catherine) HALL. One report is they were married in Georgia, another, in Mississippi. Grandmother WALL (Katie) was a sister of Aunt Margaret MONCRIEF, of Purcell, Oklahoma. Her son, Sam MONCRIEF, was a prominent citizen there. Her daughter married Tom GRANT, a banker of Pauls Valley. Both were about Father’s age. Mrs. Ed PERRY from Oklahoma City, formerly Clara LEFLORE, is in New York and when I get back there, I will try and find out from her about the MONCRIEF children’s names and addresses. She knew them quite well. Incidentally, the members of father’s side of the family were related to the LEWIS and BYRD families of the early days. LEWIS was a famous lawyer and BYRD was Governor of the Chickasaws.

On Mother’s side, since I could not check back completely on the HALL family, I tried my hand on the RIDDLEs. George RIDDLE lived near Wilburton. He and Mother were first cousins. His cousin, William MICKLE, lived near him. He used to come to see us when I was a boy and called Mother "Cousin Betty." Well, at Camden, South Carolina, I located his branch of MICKLEs. Some of the family still reside on the old homestead, a part of the grant from the Crown of England. They were married into the RIDDLE family. Part went to Mississippi. I traced back those who went, by old newspaper clippings in the library at Camden, and powers of attorney given in connection with the execution of land deeds. The Camden RIDDLEs were related to Dr. ALEXANDER, who presided over the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. ALEXANDER, William RIDDLE, and Aaron BURR attended Princeton together, so data in library there show. William WALL in his will named Dr. ALEXANDER, his "good friend and cousin," as executor of his will. I could never trace the ancestry through on the RIDDLEs as the missing data had to be dug up in Mississippi, near Columbus, but the fact that the RIDDLEs and MICKLEs were related in South Carolina, that some went to Mississippi, and would up in Oklahoma, living near each other and still claiming kinship is proof they were originally from South Carolina.

In the old family Bible Great Grandfather Noah WALL was supposed to have been born in Rosa (Rowen) County, North Carolina, in 1795. At that time Rowen County extended west into Tennessee and took in several of the present counties in North Carolina.

There are dozens of old Tom WALLs in North Carolina but I could never find a Tom born in 1795, who married Katie HALL. I have a card index of WALLs, and RIDDLEs born previous to 1850, over five hundred of each and have furnished complete data to several WALLs and RIDDLEs, but could never connect up completely the particular WALL or RIDDLE I am interested in.

Submitted by Sandi CARTER  SandKatC@aol.com 
MONCRIEF relative