Sarah Jane Lambert Paul
When Sam Paul was
released from federal prison, he returned to Indian Territory, and within a few
months he had divorced my great grandmother, Sarah, and married another woman,
Jennie Talbot. Custody of the children, my grandfather Bill and his brother
Buck, was awarded to Sam by a Chickasaw jury.
The whereabouts of
Sarah during Sam's imprisonment are a mystery. She never gave any plausible
explanation herself. Bill and Buck probably knew, but they never talked about it. The
only evidence comes from a hearing held in 1904 after Sam's death regarding
Sarah's status as an intermarried Chickasaw Citizen.
At the time of the
Dawes Commission, there were many fraudulent claims to Chickasaw citizenship by
white people wanting Indian land, so the Chickasaws and Choctaws requested and
received permission to set up their own commission to question claims. Sarah's
claim was one of those questioned so there is a record of the proceedings.
Apparently Sam
divorced Sarah because he thought she had been unfaithful to him. Rumor was
that she had run off with Sam's co-defendant in the murder of John Harkins, Jim
Ross, the man who, after spending ten months on death row in Ft. Smith with
Sam, convinced the jury to convict Sam instead of him. (See post of September 3, 2011, Sam Paul, Part Four)
Here's part of the
testimony of Hugh Campbell, a friend of Sam's who testified to the rumor:
Q: Do you know anything about the separation of Sam Paul and Sarah J.
Paul?
A: Well, nothing only that --- Sam and I were very intimate --- what he
told me.
Q: Did Sam go off to the penitentiary?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: And while he was gone did she marry another man?
A: I don't think they were ever married.
Q: Did they live together as man and wife?
A: I don't know that. He was there in the house all the time; lived with
her all the time; he would be gone off and on, hardly more than two or three
days.
Q: What was his name?
A: Jim Ross
Q: He was a Cherokee?
A: Well, he was a Cherokee by birth but a Choctaw by marriage; he
married his wife's aunt.
Q: Did they stay here together, Sarah and this man Ross?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Did she move to the Cherokee Nation?
A: I hear that they went to the Cherokee Nation.
Q: Do you know whether they lived away from her a year, or not?
A: I think she came back inside of a year.
When the commission
questioned Sarah about the matter, she was clearly uncomfortable with the
questions and inconsistent in her answers. In one session she was asked:
Q: Did you, while your husband was in the penitentiary, live in the
Chickasaw Nation with one James Ross?
A: I did not.
Q: Did you ever at any time live with Jim Ross?
A: No, sir.
But during another
session she hedged a little:
Q: Did you ever live in the Cherokee Nation?
A: No sir, I have never made that my home.
Q: Have you been there?
A: I have passed through there.
Q: How long have you been there at any one time?
A: I don't remember
Q: How often have you been there?
A: I passed through there once or twice.
Q: How long would you stay when you passed through there?
A: Not long.
Q: About how long?
A: I don't remember.
Q: About a week?
A: Maybe so.
Q: Longer than that?
A: (No response)
Q: What were you doing in the Cherokee Nation?
A: Nothing in particular.
Q: Did your family live there?
A: No
Q: Why did you go there?
A: If you don't want to put me on the roll you needn't to.
Q: (What ) We want to find out, madam, is (if) you should be put on,
that is all
A: This has always been my home.
Q: Do you know a man named Ross?
A: No sir, no man by the name of Ross.
The Commissioners
kept after her:
Q: Mrs. Paul, did you at one time, when Sam Paul went to the penitentiary,
marry a man named Jim Ross and went to the Cherokee Nation?
A: I did not
Q: Was your husband, Mr. Paul, ever sentenced to the penitentiary?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Were you living with him then?
A: Yes sir
Q: No separation at that time?
A: No sir
Q: How long after your marriage was it that he was sent to the
penitentiary?
A: It was just after we were married
Sarah was getting
flustered here, because she had been married to Sam Paul for ten years when he
was sent to prison.
Q: Up to the time he was sentenced you lived with him continuously?
A: I did
Q: Had been no separation up to that time?
A: There had not
Q: Did he die there?
A: No sir
Q: How long after he went to the penitentiary before you got a divorce?
A: After he came back
Q: How long have you been divorced?
A: It has been fifteen years I guess, I don't know just how long
It had been twenty years
Q: When did Mr. Paul die?
A: I think it was in '91; I am not sure.
Q: How about this Ross man, did you ever live with a man named Ross?
A: No sir
Q: Did you know any Cherokee, or any man, by the name of Ross?
A: I have heard of him, yes sir
Q: What do you mean by "heard of him?"
A: I have heard the name
Q: Just heard the name?
A: Yes sir
Q: Don't you know any person by that name
A: No
Q: You say you don't know a man named Jim Ross?
A: No sir
Q: Never knew any such man
A: I have heard of him, yes
Q: Ever see him
A: I believe I have
Q: Where did you see him?
A: Ft. Smith
Q: Arkansas?
A: Yes sir
Q: Were you ever married to Ross?
A: No sir, I tell you I was not.
I apologize for
quoting all this testimony, but I'm just fascinated by the words. It's like
having a window, or microphone rather, into the past.
Up to this point it sounds like there
was a romance between my great grandmother, Sarah Paul, and Sam Paul's posse
man, Jim Ross. Ross, it seems, testified against Sam Paul to get himself off,
and then he and Sarah took off to the Cherokee Nation where they lived together
until Sam got his pardon. Then Ross got scared that Sam would come looking for
him and he left Sarah, forcing her to return to live with her sister in Pauls
Valley.
That's what Sam Paul and most of
the community thought too, because when Sam returned he was granted a divorce
by the court, as well as custody of his sons. He also made a will that excluded
Sarah from any inheritance.
My mother knew Sarah Paul, and
she thought all of this was ridiculous. Sarah lived right across the street
from her when she was a girl, and she said her grandmother was a timid woman,
"scared of her own shadow." She said that there was no way Sarah would
have had the nerve to run away with another man, whether or not her husband was in
jail.
So what do you think? You'll be surprised when you
hear the rest of the story.
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