Muskogee Co, OK

Turning Back The Clock

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

Muskogee Publishing Company, Box 1331, Muskogee, OK 74402

Snippets # 19

(Pgs 150 & 151) Jonathan Mulkey And Great Granddaughter Beulah Mulkey Morse of Wagoner has a rich heritage. Her great grandfather, Jonathan Mulkey was a brother-in-law of Chief John Ross.

Mulkey married Mariah, the baby sister of John Ross. He and Mariah, accompanied by three small sons, James, Lewis, and William and little daughter, Mollie came west on the Trail of Tears but fatigue, poor nourishment and inclement weather food their toll, and Mariah was one of the victims. She died and was buried at Cane Hill, Ark.

Jonathan brought his four children on to Park Hill where they lived with Mariahs sister, Eliza Ross and her husband, John Golden Ross.

Jonathan served as clerk of the Council of the Cherokee Nation in 1839.

After the death of little Mollie, Jonathan took his three Sons to San Saga, Texas, where he taught the children of soldiers.

The three sons eventually became Texas Rangers. Their father came back to Indian Territory. He died in 1865 and was buried on the bank of the Verdigris River near Fort Gibson.

Louis Mulkey, the grandfather of Mrs. Morse, and his wife, Adelaide, came to Indian Territory in 1887, accompanied by some of their children. They settled near Warner. They came in covered wagons, bringing "several hundred sheep, cattle, horses, and their dogs through hundreds of miles of wild, unsettled country."

They were later enrolled by the Dawes Commission and were allotted land near Warner.

Beulah Belle Mulkey was born July 13, 1902 near Coontown, two and a half miles southwest of Warner. She was enrolled as 1/16 Cherokee and was allotted the Taylor property which had improvements consisting of a house, barns, orchard, pond, deep dug well, and farmland.

... Her mother, Mary McAnally Mulkey died in 1906, and she lived with her grandparents, Lewis Andrew and Adeline Goins Mulkey from 1906 until 1922.

In 1919 Beulah sold her farm and bought a home for her grandparents in Checotah.

... In 1922 Beulah married Clay Ryan, a young attorney who later was assistant county attorney of Pittsburgh County. He was still in office when he died in 1934. He was a veteran of World War I, serving as an artilleryman in France for several months.

In 1943 she married Loren J. Morse, a member of the Air Force. Mr. Morse is the author of a book, "Civil War Diaries of Bliss Morse" and will soon publish a revised edition of this work. Bliss Morse was his grandfather. ... [photos of Jonathon Mulkey and Beulah Mulkey Morse]

(Pgs 152 & 153) Milly Francis - The Greek Pocahontas [this story is published elsewhere in the book] ... [an almost unreadable photo of Milly Francis' head stone]

(Pgs 153-154) Old Time Wagon Yards. Have you ever spent a night in a wagon yard?

I had such an opportunity. In 1920 ... Plainview, Texas, where I stayed all night in the last such facility in those parts. In doing so, I felt that I was coming in contact with an institution that was passing, never to return.

Ora Reed, the editor of Twin Territories Magazine, gives us a picture of this unique facility of the Southwest. [Drawing of a wagon yard]

"The wagon yard was the result of the expansion of the services of the livery stable. Prior to the automobile, livery stables were as necessary as filling stations and garages are today.

"The livery stable provided feed for horses, rented horses and buggies and often boarded horses both for local residents and travelers.

"Some enterprising livery stable operator realized that hotels could not always accomodate all of the travelers, and sometimes the rates were above the budget of some of the individuals. He offered to permit them to stay inside the enclosure of his livery stable in buggies or wagons, or to permit them to sleep on the hay in the loft. The idea caught on, and many communities had one or more wagon yards. Sometimes they even provided beds with sheets in nearby rooms. As time passed, the operators provided shelter, pots and pans and facilities for cooking.

"Farmers took advantage of the situation and often made the wagon yard their headquarters where horses were fed and members of the family gathered after finishing their shopping."

Mrs. Arch Buster, the great-granddaughter of the Rev. Samual A. Worcester, a citizen of Muskogee until a year or so ago when she moved to California to be near her son, tells of staying in a Muskogee wagon yard after having an accident in which their wagon was overturned in a rainstorm. They welcomed the protection and warmth of the wagon yard and were glad they did not have to "camp out".

"There was a great deal of visiting among the customers and in many cases, they gathered around a campfire to exchange accounts of their travels. Buster remembered the sounds of people talking around the campfire as she went to sleep and was awakened by the noise of people getting ready for another day's travel and the smell of bacon frying on the open fire."

Dr. M.F. Williams, an uncle of Alice Robertson, tells of one of his experiences in a wagon yard:

"A man called on me one cold, stormy night to attend his sick wife in Cherokee Street Wagon yard. She was a very, sick woman, and at first, I had little hope of saving her or the baby she was about to bear. There was no hospital in town then. She was too sick to move anyway. The wagon yard manager provided extra comforts for her - an oil stove, heated bricks to keep her warm. Other women guests of the yard were helpful also. We were with her all night, and toward the morning, a fine baby boy was born. The mother, too, was saved. A happier couple I never saw.

"Twenty years later a young man came into my office, extended his hand and said, 'I don't reckon you remember me, sir. I am the baby that was born in the wagon yard 20 years ago. I promised my folks I'd come back some day and thank you for that. You did me a right good turn and I thank you - you and all the good folks who helped us then. He put some greenbacks into my hand.

"I told him there wasn't any charge - that I was glad he proved worthy, for he certainly was a fine young man. I had an emergency call just then, and he promised to wait. However, when I returned, he had gone, leaving the money on my desk. I have often wished to see him again, but I never have."

I am sure there are many untold stories of interest that happened in the wagon yards of the Southwest.

[Picture of a Scene at Hyde Park]