Muskogee Co, OK

Turning Back The Clock

By: C. W. "Dub" West (c) 1985

Muskogee Publishing Company, Box 1331, Muskogee, OK 74402

Snippets # 1

(Pg 1 & 2) Three Forks - Forerunner of Muscogee: Three Forks, near Okay and 11 miles north of Muskogee, is the cradle of Oklahoma's Civilization and the forerunner of Muscogee, according to Dr. Grant Foreman

Some historians have indicated that Salina was the first permanent settlement in Oklahoma, but Foreman produced records indicating that Col. August Pierre Chouteau did not come to this are until 1817; whereas Joseph Bogy obtained a license in 1806 and began his operations at Three Forks in the winter of that year.

Robert Mosby French and Samuel Rutherford (the great-grandfather of Mrs. Frances Rosser Brown) obtained the right to trade in this area in 1817, according to J D Benedict. They sold out to Hugh Glenn and Nathaniel Pryor (who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition) in 1819 and Col. Chouteau acquired the right in 1825, establishing the Osage Agency in this area.

Foreman was interviewed June 3, 1949, on his 80th birthday by Bob Foresman for the Tulsa Tribune. It was the culmination of a project which the famous historian had asked yours truly to carry out with a group of Boy Scouts in an endeavor to determine what caused this settlement to be abandoned.

Washington Irving in his "Tour on the Prairies" indicated that he visited Col Chouteau at Three Forks and there were several structures when he passed that way in 1832.

Foreman said there were records of a flood in 1844, destroying the structures on the west side of the Verdigris River. Structures on the east side were on higher ground and were not destroyed. In was his opinion that a fire had destroyed the buildings on the east side and he asked me to take some Boy Scouts out there and determine if there was evidence of a fire.

Sure enough, we did find that the foundation rocks of the former buildings showed evidence of having been burned, thus confirming Foreman's theory. Many articles of iron and broken china were collected at the site.

Incidentally, L R Kershaw had picked up numerous Spanish coins dated 1718, 1886 and 1797 from his property on the west side of he Verdigris.

Foreman said money was often put in nail kegs and strapped on the back of burros. It was his opinion that the animals were raveling on the Texas Road, which crossed the river at this point, and the coins had sifted through the cracks in the kegs. It is unfortunate that the Three Fork area was destroyed by dredging for the McClellan-Kerry Waterway.

We do not exactly when Three Forks ceased to exist, but we do know that much activity between 1835 and 1853 was shifted to the newly established Creek Agency, located 2 1/2 miles south of old Three Forks. So the second forerunner of Muscogee was at this location.

For some reason, the Creek Agency was moved in 1853 to a location across the Arkansas River near Fern Mountain. Several of the early settlers of Muscogee were businessmen in this area around what was later to be the Garfiled Buell or Susman place.

This was the third forerunner of Muscogee. The coming of the Katy railroad in 1872 caused several of the residents to move to the new town on the railroad - Muscogee. The union Agency was established in 1876, and the Creek Agency along with the settlement disappeared. <complete>

(Pg 2 & 3) Honey Springs Battle Most Important in Indian Territory. ... the battle of Honey Springs was fought July 17, 1863 ... Fort Davis, a Confederate stronghold, situated north of present Bacone College, was captured in December 1862. Maj William Steele, commander of the Confederate forces in Indian Territory, ordered the capture of Ft. Gibson, selecting Honey Springs site for a supply depot.

Honey Springs was 25 miles from Ft. Gibson. Creek Indians had established a trading post there to serve local residents and travelers on the Immigrant Trail, later known as the Texas Road. The springs had become widely known for their abundant water supply and excellent camping facilities.

... Union spies informed the commander of Ft. Gibson of the Confederate buildup .... The Union forces consisted of 3,000 troops. The Confederates had 6,000 troops but on the day of the battle Stand Watie had taken 1,500 men to intercept Blunt ... The brave Confederate troops held the line as long as possible, but after two hours, they saw they faced a hopeless situation. ... The Confederate troops retreated toward Briartown.

(Pg 4 & 5) Conditions in the Area in 1866. Alice Robertson in her "Memoirs" gives us a glimpse of conditions of this are in 1886:

"It was in the earlie Indian Territory days, way back in 1866, Father and Mother had only a few days before Christmas returned to their old missionary post in Tullahassee to find the large brick building which had been used for the boarding school in ruin.

Through much of the war time, this had been a hospital and rows of already grass-grown identations showed unmarked resting places of unknown soldiers of the Confederacy. Not a door or window remained in the building, and there were great gaps in the walls where quantities of brick had been torn away for use by the Federal Army at Fort Gibson to build bake ovens for the post. The attic had been floored with wide, rough planks as a storage room in old times, and some of the flooring remained.

"So, Father went to work with saw and hammer, for in those days, a missionary must toil with his hands unceasingly. Until windows could be boarded up and batten doors made, we camped in the yard, occupying the tent which had been our nightly shelter during the overland journey of 300 miles.

"Only the most meager supply of household necessities could be brought with us, and the sutler's store at Ft. Gibson afforded little more. Mother priced a tiny stove, but the cost -$100- was prohibitive. However, an oldtime heating stove, broken and battered, was found down in the orchard, where it had been gathering rust through the years of war, and on that we did most of our cooking Bread we had to bake in the Dutch oven out-of-doors.

"The calvarymen who had occupied the place had left several tons of hay the old barn, and ticks filled with hay made very acceptable beds, though Father and Mother had a feather bed as well.

"Father made a table and chairs and bedsteads, and we children were very proud to help by smoothing the round pieces of sassafras saplings with bit of broken glass. Father was in a hurry to get us all fixed up, as he was anxious to get among his Indian 'sheep without a shepherd,' who in their days of famine and stress returned to ruined homes and appalling poverty.

"So, Christmas Ever found us, Father, Mother, myself, 12 years old - the oldest child at home - for one Sister, pitifully young to be so far away, was at boarding school; a brother, 5; and the twins, 8 months old. Mother spread a fresh white cloth on the new table, and each of us placed a plate to see what the morning might bring.

"Sister and I whispered softly what we would like to have until the howling of a pack of wolves at the very door, which, accustomed though we were to the sound, never lost its horror and made us cling close together in shivering silence till we went to sleep.

"In the morning, now gaily we awaited the lifting of the cover from the table, and how bravely we rejoiced over the simple live tokens! Only the babies had new gifts from the store, but they flourished their bright tin rattles with gleefulness that made up to alt the rest of us. Mother had given sister and me my red Morrocco-bound copies of "Young Night's Thoughts' and "Pollock's Course of Time," valued treasures of her young lady days.

'I hated improving poetry then as I hate it yet, but I knew it was all Mother had to give, and I tried to like it. After breakfast, which I cooked - fried venison, corn cakes raised overnight baked on the top of the stove, with molasses for all of use and coffee for Mother and Father. There were family prayers when Father read, a always on Christmas, the wondrous story of the Nativity, and Mother played on her little old 'melodeon,' we all sang joyously 'While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night.'

"The babies wanted their rattlers during prayer time, but Mother thought that 8 months was quite old enough for babies to be quiet in prayer time, and they did not get them til we had all risen from our knees.

"Then the Christmas dinner was to come. What a grave responsibility rested upon me in following Mother's directions about that dinner. We were going to have 'mince pie'.

"True, the mysterious good things usually entering into the composition of mince pie we could not have, but we were sure that venison must be as good as beef, and the long soaking and careful mincing and cooking of dried apples surely would make them indistinguishable from fresh, and a mixture of nuts - hickory, walnut, and pecan - would be better than suet. From some secret hiding place, mother produced a little package of raisins.

"We could hardly wait for the pie to bake in the little Dutch oven out-of-doors. We were going to have raised biscuits, too, for the flour that costs 10 cents a pound, we could not afford on ordinary occasions. A cow or chickens, and milk and butter were impossible luxuries for us. Game was so plentiful and could be secured almost without effort." <complete>