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George B. Carr |
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| Carr, George B.
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: My father was George W. Carr, born October 19, 1834, in Alabama. He was a farmer and gin man, and a sheriff in Arkansas for several years. Mother was Susan Milen Carr, born in Tennessee, October 8, 1841. She was part Cherokee Indian. I was born in Arkansas, January 23, 1872. We moved to the Indian Territory from Denison, Texas, in 1882. We crossed Red River at Colbert's Ferry and settled near Tishomingo in what was then Tishomingo County, on a cotton farm. We came in a covered wagon and camped one night at the noted camp ground called "Robber's Roost". This was a camp ground at the foot of Twelve Mile Prairie in a strip of timber, three miles wide and twenty-one miles long, where many people camped because of a fine spring where they might water their stock and themselves. There was a band of robbers near who often stole the camper's horses. Grandfather awoke just as a man was creeping up to his wagon to get his horses and sent the robber scurrying back to his hiding place. It was necessary to lock the horses with a chain and lock to the wagon wheels and even then they would be stolen during the night. We lived in a log house and drank water out of a creek. The water in the creeks was clear in those days because there was no plowed ground nor loose dirt to wash into them. The land was all turf except the cow trails which led to the streams. The winter of 1883 was very cold. Wild hogs froze to death and lay in piles. One day the mail carrier's team came into Tishomingo and walked up to the door of the post office and stopped. Everybody waited for the mail carrier to get out of his cart and when he didn't appear they went to look for him and he was sitting in the seat, frozen to death. I remember when they began using barbed wire for fences. They made blinds of boards which were hewed out of timber and nailed these to the top wire between the posts to keep horses and cattle from cutting themselves on the wire. I worked for cattlemen most of the time until I was married. I wore a large white hat, spurs, high heeled boots and a bright silk handkerchief around my neck. I always carried a Winchester on my saddle, as did everybody in those days and it was customary to shoot three times when returning home as a friendly greeting to the family. We used grease lamps which we lighted by sticking rags which served as wicks in fire. We cooked in dinner pots and a skillet and lid on the fireplace, and out of doors on a camp fire. We used flint rocks to start the fires, as we had no matches. I went to school at Stonewall in a log house three months out of the year and paid a tuition fee of ten cents a day. We sat on hewed log benches with no backs and held our books on our laps. The closest court was the United States Court at Fort Smith. The United States marshals had a very tedious way of catching prisoners. They drove through the country in wagons pulled by large mules which wore harness branded U.S.. When they arrested a man they handcuffed him to another prisoner and put a ball and chain on them, then chained them to the wagon. When they got a wagon load they returned to Fort Smith and kept them in jail until time for court. I was married to Sallie Tomlin in 1896, and we lived on Pennington Creek near Reagan. While I was here I attended the Chickasaw Court held in Brown's Valley, east of Pennington Creek. They met under the shade of a tree and settled their difficulties with outlaws, murderers and thieves. The thieves were tied to the whipping post and whipped. The murderers were shot and the outlaws were usually shot. A Chickasaw Leader by the name of Kelton Lewis did the executing. He had a particular spot where he buried the men he executed, without a coffin or funeral. They were dragged off and buried like animals. I have seen the burying ground and many of the boxes were exposed because they were buried in such shallow holes. I helped to hunt two outlaws one day. There was quite a mob after them. An Indian came to me and said, "Go get something red for me to put on my face and I'll get him." The Indian custom was to paint their faces with red to show they were going to kill their victim, when they were at war or hunting outlaws. I went to Reagan and got some red ink. The Indian put a spot on each eyelid, on each cheek and on his chin. He found the outlaws and with help captured them. If an Indian likes a person, he will do anything for him, but he is reluctant about making friends. If an Indian boy liked a girl, either white or Indian, he was very jealous of her whether she went with him or not. While I was going with the girl I married, an Indian boy, who was a rough sort of boy, decided he liked her. She never spoke to him, but one day as I was riding home from her house, he met me and was prepared to kill me because I had been to see the girl he liked. I finally got away from him by telling him I had been elsewhere. I had a fine team of horses and they were stolen by some cattle thieves. They asked for a ransom of $50.00. I refused to pay it and they shot my horses. An old Indian came to me and said, "I tell you how to make the mean man who killed your horses die." I asked him how and this is the Old Indian custom he told me. "Go find a tree which has been uprooted by a cyclone. Get some water and pour into the hole until the clay is soft enough to handle. Make a mud man by the side of this hole and when a storm comes and blows him over or when it is melted down by the rains the man for whom you have named the mud man will die." Tom Teel, who was a bad Indian, had a fine red saddle which was the envy of all Indians who saw it. One night at a Pashofa dance an Indian woman and her son decided to take the saddle. So they got Tom drunk and took him out in the woods and killed him. They tied his body to an outlaw horse called "Scufflin S.B." and turned the horse into a pasture. The horse stumbled and fell and couldn't get up with this body on his back. The next morning, a dog found the dead Indian tied to the horse, and his fierce barking brought his master on a run. When he saw what his dog had found, he got on a horse and rode to Mill Creek for help. Not long after this another Indian killed this woman's son, so he was never tried in court. I can remember the Indian payments in Stonewall. The Indians came by the hundreds to receive their Chickasaw Government checks, which were issued for money collected from permits and coal lands. They spent this money freely and the merchants enjoyed a short period of prosperity. The merchants didn't hesitate to increase the price of their goods at this time, especially the things which appealed to the Indian. I had a new wagon and a good team in 1898 and I helped haul the poles for the telephone line from Mill Creek to Tishomingo. I moved to Sulphur twenty-five years ago and have been in the fruit and produce business here since. Transcribed by Brenda Choate & Dennis Muncrief, May 2001
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