Pauls Valley Beginnings

Pauls Valley is a little town in south central Oklahoma. It was born as a farming community, and later there was a little oil boom there, but for the last 30 or 40 years it's been getting smaller instead of larger. When you drive down Paul Avenue, the main drag, you don't see any new buildings. If people stop there, it's usually just to get gas or a snack on their way to Dallas.

 

Pauls Valley is still a pretty little town though. It's one of those towns where the tree branches form an arch over the streets which are still paved with bricks in some areas. I never lived in Pauls Valley, but I visited my grandmother there every other weekend for most of my childhood, so I feel at home there. The other reason it's special to me is because it was named after my great great grandfather, Smith Paul.

 

I think I've told the story of Smith Paul before, how he ran away from home and joined the Chickasaws, and then came with them from their homeland in what is now Mississippi on their "Trail of Tears" in 1837. In about 1844 he married my great great grandmother, a full blood Indian woman named Ela-teecha.

 

The Chickasaw settlers were threatened by the "wild" Plains Indian tribes who thought of them as invaders, so they lived close to forts for protection. In 1845 they moved next to Fort Washita, and when Fort Arbuckle was built in 1851 they moved close to it. It was in about 1858 or 9 when Smith and Ellen - that's how Ela-teecha was known in the family - moved to the present location of Pauls Valley.

 

Pauls Valley is located where Rush Creek flows into the Washita River, which was large enough in Smith Paul's day to float a pretty large boat. Smith Paul had always wanted to farm on a large scale, and the land in the Valley was the best he had ever seen. The grass on the prairie was so tall it could hide a man on horseback, and Smith's farm yielded 30 to 40 bushels of corn per acre without cultivation. More recent studies have shown that the topsoil there is 17 to 20 feet thick.

 

Smith and Ellen spent the Civil War years in the valley, without much company other than the friendly Indian tribes who would supply them with meat in exchange for corn. After the War others came to the valley and formed a settlement there which became known as Smith Paul's Valley. The main road west went through the town and carried supplies to Fort Cobb and Fort Sill.

 

Ellen Paul had been married before, to a man named Jason McClure who had died in 1843 of hydrophobia, or rabies, and she had two children by McClure: a boy, Tecumseh, and a girl, Kathrine. She and Smith Paul had three children together: a boy Jesse, who died as a young man; a girl, Mississippia, and my great grandfather, Sam. They all remained in the valley after they married and raised their families there.

 

In the early days Smith Pauls Valley was part of the Chickasaw Nation, which had its own government and its own laws. The main issue of the time was over whether or not to allow intermarried white settlers the right to vote. Many of the Chickasaws were not happy with the changes that the whites had brought. They preferred to live as they had always lived, in small family groups, using only what they needed. They saw the desire of the white man for wealth and possessions as a threat to their way of life.

 

Smith and Ellen's children were split over the issue. Sam Paul was a Progressive, in favor of welcoming the white man, and working toward eventual statehood for the territory with a joint Indian - white government. His older half-brother Tecumseh, on the other hand, was a member of the "Pull-back" Party, and was dead set against allowing whites any more influence.

 

The issue came to a head with the coming of the railroad. Most Indians were against building a railroad across the Territory, because it represented more whites, more businesses, and more towns. They were already outnumbered seven to one by whites in their own country. After the Civil War, the U.S. Government used the fact that most of the Indians had supported the Confederacy as an excuse to demand reparations. It didn't make any difference that the Indians were more or less forced into the War by being occupied by Confederate Troops. One of the concessions demanded of the Chickasaws and Choctaws was that railroad lines be built across their Nations. One line would cross east to west and the other north to south.

 

Footnote: The Chickasaws, Arrell Gibson, P 276 describes the post Civil War treaty , and p 284 gives the dates, names, and locations of the railroads.  

 

The first line, the M.K. & T. was built in 1872. It crossed the southern part of the Nation, and although it brought with it more settlers, laborers, gamblers, prostitutes, and liquor, just as the Indians had feared, it was a long way from Smith Pauls Valley. The real problem came in 1887 when the north - south line was built by the Santa Fe Company. It was to come right through the Valley.

 

Naturally the railroad wanted to locate a depot in Smith Paul's Valley, now a major settlement, but Tecumseh McClure refused to release the land. According to Chickasaw law, a person could not own land, but he could use all the land that he needed, and the place selected for the depot was on land that Tecumseh controlled.

 

When Tecumseh's brother Sam found out about the dilemma, he contacted the railroad and offered to let them use his land for the depot, so the Santa Fe engineers took him up on his offer. Sam Paul's land was three miles south of the town so locating the depot there meant that the town had to be moved. Sam Paul, a true businessmen, immediately began selling town lots. By the time the depot was built, he owned the town. They say that it was the railroad that was responsible for shortening the town's name to Pauls Valley. The name Smith Pauls Valley was too long to go on the sign. 

 

Sam Paul's vision of the future eventually came to pass, even though the rift between him and his brother eventually led to Sam's death. Pauls Valley was a thriving and prosperous town for the next fifty years.  

 

Footnote: Uncle Haskell's notes tell about the conflict between Sam Paul and Tecumseh McClure.

 

 

 

                                      Santa Fe locomotive - Pauls Valley

 

Chickasaw Education, the Golden Age, 1867 - 1898

For information about Chickasaw education during earlier periods see posts of Jan. 16, and Jan. 29, 2012.

        

                                        Mississippia Paul Hull

During the Civil War Chickasaw society was disrupted, and the Nation's schools were closed. The Chickasaw Nation officially supported the Confederacy, but many wanted no part of the white man's war. Soon after the war started, the Confederate army took over Indian Territory and occupied Fort Arbuckle. My great great grandfather Smith Paul had the foresight to move away from the fort before the war started. He moved west, into the vicinity of what is now Paul's Valley. As my great aunt Sippia put it:

Just before the war broke out he had made a trip to the locality and realized that it was a wonderful place for farming. Very soon he had a home built for us, it was of hewed logs. The house was built of single rooms but close together …. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the friendly plains Indians came around the locality where my father had his farm. They were the Comanches, Caddos, Apaches, Cheyenne, Osages, and I think some Delawares. One mixed band located at Cherokee Town, another on my father's farm, a band of Osage across the river, and a band of Caddo Indian under old lady White Bead, five miles up the river. And the government realized that they must do something with and for these Indians, so they appointed my father as an agent, to issue them rations. This was one reason that my father did not have to go to war.  

So Smith Paul was appointed by the Confederacy, as Indian agent supplying rations to the plains Indians living the vacinity of his farm.

My great great grandmother Ela Teecha's older children, Tecumseh McClure and Catherine Waite, along with Ellen's brother Ja-Pawnee, went to Kansas with their families during the Civil War. They stayed with the Sauk and Fox tribe which remained unaffiliated with either North or South.

Aunt Sippia described her life during the war between the states:

During the Civil War we had to spin and weave all of our cloth, to make our clothes, and knit our hose. I was anxious to do what everyone else did and they let me, although I was only about nine years old, I wove enough cloth to make me a dress, even though it looked rather knottie, they made me a dress out of it. The cotton from which we spun the thread had to be picked from the seeds with our fingers, we usually did this work at night. The pecans grew in this locality in great abundance as they do today, and we ate nuts and picked the cotton off the seeds and my mother would tell us Indian legends. We learned by putting the cotton down by the fire and getting it warm, it was much easier to get the seeds out. It was during those early days that a man came through the country with what he called a miniature gin, similar to a cloths ringer of today, and this helped us to get the seeds out faster. Of course people came in to see how it worked and everyone wanted to try and turn the handle and my brother, boy like turned it and broke the handle off. My mother used to make straw hats for the boys out of wheat straw and in the winter they would catch coons and she would make them caps out of the skins. My father would make us shoes out of cow hide, he could do a little of everything, but this was only in war times. How I disliked them, and how glad I was when we could buy shoes ready made.

This is the kind of practical education Aunt Sippia got during the war. I wish she we could hear some of the stories her mother told her.

After the Civil War, the Chickasaw government was reorganized, and under the leadership of Governor Cyrus Harris a new constitution was written outlawing slavery. In 1867, with $65,700 released by the federal government from the Chickasaw trust fund, the Chickasaw Nation established 11 neighborhood schools. In 1876 that number was increased to 23, and also four academies, Bloomfield for girls, Wapanucka coed, Chickasaw Male Academy, and the Lebanon Orphan school were opened. These schools were operated by Chickasaw citizens, and most of the teachers were Chickasaw. The Chickasaw government provided $3 per student per month for the neighborhood schools, $200 per student annually for students at the academies, and $350 per student per year for 60 to 100 students selected to pursue higher education in the states.

This period of Chickasaw independence has been referred to as the "Golden Age" of Chickasaw education. At this time the Chickasaw educational system surpassed that of all the other tribes, and that of the whites in neighboring states. By 1880 60% of Chickasaws could read and write. Bloomfield Academy was known as the Bryn Mawr of the West.

There were also missionary schools at this time. The Pierce Institute in White Bead, and Hargrove College in Ardmore were operated by the Methodists, and St. Elizabeth's Academy for girls was opened by the Catholic Church near Purcell.

Footnote: The Chickasaws, Arrell Gibson. P 280. 

In addition to the Chickasaw government schools and the mission schools, some Chickasaw communities hired their own teachers. Aunt Sippia told about her father hiring a teacher for her and her brothers after the war:

For quite a while after the war, we were the only settlers in this section of the country. My father hired us a private teacher. It was not easy to get teachers to come and live on this frontier, so our education was quite limited.

It was during this time that the federal government was forcing the plains tribes onto reservations. Ulysses S. Grant, the first President after the Civil War, was approached by representatives of the Quaker church asking him to let them establish missions on these reservations so they could convert the Indians. President Grant's response was:

If you can make Quakers out of these Indians it will take the fight out of them. Let us have peace.

Grant appointed many Quakers as Indian agents, and also missionaries from other denominations. The Quaker Laurie Tatum was appointed agent to the Comanches and Kiowas near Fort Sill, and my great aunt Sippia attended his school. Here is her description:

At the early age of sixteen I was married to Jim Arnold, a Texan, and one little girl was born to us, named Tamsie. After five years I was left a widow. Knowing they had a school for Indians at Fort Sill, I decided to go up there to school. I boarded with a Mexican woman who had been ransomed and married and raised a family. She was ransomed by a soldier by the name of Chandler who afterwards married her. I took my little girl along with me and Mrs. Chandler took care of her while I attended school. While I was there I met William Hull, an Englishman, who was employed to work for the government to work under the Indian agent Tatum. After he met me he decided to come down and live near my father. He was a professional blacksmith. This was on the main travel road of the freighters to Fort Sill and Fort Cobb. He accumulated quite a fortune at that business. Then we were married.

The practice by some of the plains tribes of taking hostages deserves some explanation. The Comanche, Wichita, Cheyenne and others would raid farms in what is now Texas - then Mexico - and take horses and hostages. They traded both among themselves, and often asked for ransoms for the hostages, usually children. Chickasaw hunters played a role in ransoming some of the hostages in those early days after the Removal. Some of the hostages were treated like slaves and some were accepted as members of the tribe. The mother of the famous Comanche Chief Quanah Parker had originally been a hostage. When given a chance to rejoin her white family, she chose to remain with the Comanche. See my post of 2/12/2011, Nadua, Cynthia Ann Parker

Back to Aunt Sippia's story:

The school I attended in Fort Sill was under the supervision of the Quakers. Of course I attended their church, it all seemed strange to me, for when they went in the church they usually sang a song first, then they sat and waited for the spirit to move them. Sometimes someone would pray or talk and then again there were times when no one would either talk or pray, they would sit quietly for a while and then leave.

While my father was not such a religious man he realized that we must have the uplifting influence of having the gospel preached. So he hired a preacher by the year by the name of E. Couch from Texas, to preach to us regularly every Sunday, he made his home with us. By that time there were more people living in this part of the country but miles and miles apart, but they would come to this service and my father and mother always arranged to have a splendid meal for the entire congregation, as that was one of the pleasant occasions that we looked forward to. Then later my father built a frame church himself, having the lumber freighted from Atoka. J.M. Hamill, Superintendent of Colbert School and pastor at Ft. Arbuckle also preached to us.

The Colbert School was one of the original Chickasaw Academies. It was a boys' school.

It is remarkable to me how these people, with their own culture and traditions, so recently uprooted from their homeland and having to rebuild their society on the frontier, had the desire and the foresight to see the value of education in preparing their children to compete in white society. Aunt Sippia sent her oldest daughter Tamsie to Liverpoole, England. to school. I don't know much about the education that Tecumseh McClure provided for his children, but his sister Catherine went to great lengths to educate hers. Fred Waite, her oldest son was sent to finishing school in Bentonville Ark.. He later attended Illinois Industrial University in Champaign, Illinois, and Mound City Commercial College in St Louis, Mo. Fred Waite later became Attorney General of the Chickasaw Nation. Fred's younger brother Amos was also educated in the East, and he returned home to start the first subscription school in Pauls Valley in about 1890. Subscription schools were private schools for which parents paid a fee for their children to attend. Catherine Waite also educated her daughters. After her husband's death in 1874 she moved with her younger daughters to Oberlin, Ohio, so that they could attend college there.

        

                   Thomas and Catherine Waite and Three of Their Daughters

Chickasaw Education After the Removal

After the Removal, the Chickasaws were despondent. Many had died and were continuing to die from exposure, malnutrition, and disease. In the new land the people lived clustered around government supply depots, instead in clan based villages as before. In the Removal treaty Chickasaw district had been included in the Choctaw Nation, a situation which the individual Chickasaw could never accept. In addition, the Choctaw had located the Chickasaw district far to the west of the Choctaw settlements, to create a buffer between them and the hostile plains tribes, who considered the eastern tribes as intruders, and repeatedly raided their settlements. The Chickasaw's only protection was Fort Towson, which was a full 70 miles east of their border. 

As a result, the Chickasaw were unable to even move into their district until 1844, when Fort Washita was built on its eastern border. Still most of the tribe waited until 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built further to the west. It was only then that the Chickasaw began to establish their own farms and schools. In the meantime many of the Chickasaw lived in Choctaw settlements where there were some schools. Others remained in the vicinity of the old government supply depots, living off periodic annuity payments.  

     

       Map of Indian Territory: Note Ft. Towson in southeast corner, 

                 Ft. Washita just inside Chickasaw border,

            and Ft. Arbuckle in middle of Chickasaw Nation.

In spite of these handicaps, the Chickasaw did have some opportunities to educate their young people during the postremoval period. One of them was the Choctaw Academy in Blue Springs, Kentucky. The Choctaw Academy had been established in 1824 by the Baptist Church. Its superintendant was Richard Mentor Johnson, who had been vice president under James Van Buren. Johnson had first achieved notoriety as a Colonel in the war of 1812 when he allegedly shot and killed the great Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh. He used the following jingle during his campaign for vice president: "Rumsey Dumsey, Rumsey Dumsey, Col Johnson killed Tecumseh." 

In spite of Col. Johnson's notoriety as an Indian fighter, he did apparently have sympathetic feelings for the Indians and also for other victims of prejudice and oppression. Like Thomas Jefferson, he had a Negro mistress, and for many years he devoted himself to the education on Indian youths. The US government originally sent 25 students per year to the Choctaw Academy, and the number was later raised to 45. The Chickasaw removal treaty provided $3000 annually for ten years to send 10 young men to the Choctaw Academy, and several of the graduates later became leaders of the tribe. After the ten year period the Chickasaw made a contract with Plainview Academy in Connecticut to provide higher education to Chickasaw youths.

Footnote: Wikipedia under Richard Mentor Johnson, and Oklahoma, by Arrell Gibson, P 161.

The Choctaw also developed neighborhood primary schools and academies, equivalent to high schools, and some Chickasaws took advantage of these schools.

In about 1843 or 4 my great great grandmother Ela-Teecha's first husband, Jason McClure, was fatally stricken with hydrophobia, better known as rabies. My great great grandfather, Smith Paul, who had been working for McClure, then married Ela-Teecha. By the way, I don't believe this implies a scandalous affair by my great great grandmother while she was  married to McClure, as has been suggested by some. Smith Paul and Jason McClure were both Scotsmen, and they were friends. It was a difficult time. Ela Teecha was left alone by McClure's death to care for two small children. She was thirteen years older than Smith Paul, but she needed a husband, and so they were married. It was a practical and a compassionate arrangement.  

                                                            

                                Smith and Ela-Teecha (Ellen) Paul                            

Ellen's older son, Tecumseh, was fourteen at that time, and Smith sent him to Boggy Depot where the Choctaw had a school. He stayed with William Guy, one of the conductors for the Chickasaw Removal who had married a Chickasaw woman and had remained in Indian Territory. Tecumseh was later a student at Post Oak Grove, in the Chickasaw Nation. After his education Tecumseh moved back in with the family, and later married a full blood Chickasaw named Mary McKenzie. Tecumseh McClure became a respected leader among the Chickasaw. He served in the Chickasaw senate and later became governor.  

Footnote: Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: Choctaws and Chickasaws, by Harry F. O'Beirne, 1891. P 308 

Ela-Teecha's daughter Catherine stayed with the family, and in about 1848 or 1850 she married Tom Waite, a farmer from Illinois. I'm not sure how much education she had, but as you will learn later, her dedication to providing education for her children was remarkable.  

With the building of Fort Washita in 1844, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian missionaries began to establish churches, and when Fort Arbuckle was built in 1851, the Chickasaw provided the churches with funds to create schools in the new Chickasaw communities. Four academies were established: the Colbert and Burney Institutes for boys, and the Bloomfield and Wapanucka Academies for girls, as well as six neighborhood schools with an enrollment of 180 students. The Chickasaw achieved their independence from the Choctaw in 1854, and by 1856 they had written a constitution and had established their own government. Unfortunately the Civil War erupted in 1861, and again disrupted Chickasaw society in its attempts at nation building.

Map of Chickasaw Nation: Note Colbert Institute, Wapanucka Academy,

                Burney Institute and Bloomfield Acadamy

In 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built, Smith Paul started farming in the area adjacent to the fort and soon he had won a contract to supply corn to the government for the soldiers there and also for the many Indian tribes which came to the fort for rations. This situation provided a unique education for Smith and Ellen's children: Sam, Jesse, and Mississippia, or 'Sippia,' who were 16, 14, and 6 when the Civil War began. According to my great uncle Buck, his father Sam was able to communicate in the languages of all the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as those of the Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita. He once hosted and served as interpreter at a meeting of the Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes.  

 Map of Ft. Arbuckle Area (from Advancing the Frontier, by Grant Foreman)

Note six lines extending from left side of map pointing to: 1. Road to Wichita Mts, 2. Smith Paul's farm, 3. Area Reserved for Indian Purposes (campground for visiting tribes), 4. Road to Ft. Belknap, 5. Spring, 6. Ft. Arbuckle.

Uncle Buck also said that his father Sam completed the third reader in primary school and that he attended military school for two years. I have no further information about the 'military school.' It might have been provided by the officers of Ft. Arbuckle, but it was also common for Indian children to be sent east to school. Sam Paul obviously continued his education informally, because in addition to serving in the Chickasaw legislature, he also edited two newspapers and worked as an attorney in the Chickasaw court system. Sam's younger brother Jesse's education was probably similar to Sam's, but he suffered an untimely death, probably in the late 1860's, and little is known of him. Aunt Sippia left a description of her education after the Civil War which I'll include in my next post.

                                                          Sam Paul

  

Chickasaw Education in the Old Country

In the old days the Chickasaws, had a culture, long of history and rich in tradition and practical knowledge about their world, and there was much for a young boy or girl to learn. A girl had to learn which season was best to plant and harvest the three sisters - corn, squash and beans. They had to learn how to store the corn in corn cribs and the fruit in hay stacks, how to cure the meat in smoke houses for the winter, and how to season their cooking with spices and bear oil to cook the food for which they were renowned. The boys had to develop the toughness, the tracking skills and stealth which made Chickasaw warriors feared by the other tribes in battle. They had to learn to hunt, to recognize the signs of the deer and the bear in the forest. Some developed the wisdom and judgment to become leaders, and others were chosen to become healers. 

The Chickasaw lived in clans. There was the Minko clan from which the king or Minko was chosen, the Imosaktca or fish clan, to which my great great grandmother belonged, whose men were known as great fighters. The Tcukilissa or timber people who lived in the forest, hunting and fishing, and stayed to themselves. There were also the wildcat, bird, deer, raccoon, wolf, alligator, and skunk clans, each with its own place in the hierarchy, and each with its own special characteristics, but all were united as Chickasaws.  

The Chickasaw had legends about their origins west of the Mississippi River, and how the Great Spirit, Ababinili, had brought them to their home in the east, guiding them with a staff which he caused to lean in the direction they should go. There were legends about the origin of corn and tobacco, and about how the rattlesnake got its rattles. There were funny legends about how the rabbit fooled the alligator or the coyote. There were legends that taught lessons, like the story of a great hunter Ubiahuntatok, who challenged the great forest creature, Ihoff, who hung him up in a tree to teach him a lesson about humility. 

                           Ihoff and Ubiahuntatok, an illustration by Freda deOdis Flatt

                        from The Hunter Who Was Not So Great, A Chickasaw Legend

                                                    as told by Dorothy Milligan

To the Chickasaw there was no division between the spirit world and the physical world. There were good spirits and evil ones, spirits of the forest, and the spirits of the departed. Dogs were always kept nearby because they could see and warn the family when spirits were near. Special charms and ceremonies protected the Chickasaw from evil spirits and enlisted the aid of friendly ones. 

Since Chickasaw villages were distinguished according to clan, they were essentially extended family groups. Families were close, and lineage was traced through the mother. The mother's family, especially the aunts and uncles, were responsible for the care and education of children.  

In addition to traditional education, the Chickasaw benefitted by their intermarriage with several British and Scottish traders during the mid-eighteenth century. These white men taught their families to speak and understand English, and several of their sons became tribal leaders, advising and translating for the Chickasaw Council in treaty negotiations. This enabled the Chickasaw to negotiate more effectively with the US government than the tribes who had to communicate through interpreters. 

There was one treaty in which the Chickasaw were especially shrewd, the Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs signed in 1801 for the construction of the Natchez Trace, a 400 mile road from Nashville Tennessee to the Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi. The road crossed both the Chickasaw and Choctaw Domains. At the insistence of the Chickasaw, the treaty stipulated that all businesses in the Chickasaw Domain be operated by Chickasaws. The Natchez Trace later became the most heavily traveled road in the southwest, and all the ferries, roadhouses, and trading posts were operated by Chickasaws.  

                                                  Map showing Natchez Trace

The Natchez Trace brought prosperity to the Chickasaw, who had seen the game in their hunting grounds dwindle over the years. The Council also requested that the rations paid by the US government to tribal members be paid in specie instead of in goods. Thereby the Chickasaw learned to use money in purchasing supplies and trading their produce. In 1829 the Chickasaw created a code of written laws.  

In 1819 the US Congress passed the "Indian Civilization Act" which subsidized Christian missionaries in establishing schools among the Indian tribes. When missionaries came to enlighten the Chickasaw they were treated with courtesy, but the Chickasaw showed little interest in their religion. The Chickasaw Council contributed money for schools, but later complained that the missionaries spent more time preaching than teaching.  

My great great grandmother Ela-teecha was born in about 1796, and she married a Scotsman named Jason McClure in about 1828 or 9. She had two children by him, Tecumseh in 1830, and Catherine in 1831. Ela-teecha was of the Imosaktca or fish clan, and she almost certainly lived with McClure in an Imosaktca village. She is said to have spoken English fluently, but since she was taught by her husband she spoke it with a Scottish brogue. Ela-teecha had a brother, Ja-pawnee, and four sisters. I only know the name of one sister, Kaliteyo, because my aunt was named for her. Little Tecumseh and Catherine were seven and six at the time of the Removal, so I'm sure some of their education was conducted according to tradition.  

Footnote 1: There are some who think Jason McClure came to live with the Chickasaws as a missionary, but in an interview with him reported in A Traveler in Indian Territory, the Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, he's not described as a missionary, and there's no mention of him doing missionary work.   

                                    Jason, Ela-Teecha, and Tecumseh McClure

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed, and the mission schools were closed in order to put pressure on the Indians to cooperate with the Removal to Indian Territory, the future state of Oklahoma. The Chickasaw held out until 1837, when they finally agreed to join their close relatives the Choctaw in Indian Territory. The Removal was a great tragedy for the Chickasaw people. Many lives were lost, and they found themselves in a strange land, surrounded by hostile tribes. But what was possibly as bad was the separation from their homeland and the spirits that protected them there, and the breaking up of the clans, which changed forever their way of life.

Three Killings in the Family

                                                       Joe Paul

Sam Paul and his oldest son Joe had never been close. Joe spent much of his childhood with his Uncle Tecumseh, and his Aunt Mary. Joe was close to his two younger brothers, Bill and Buck though, and my grandfather Bill said that if it weren't for Joe they would have starved while their father was in prison.  

I had only heard part of this story myself until recent years, because it was considered a scandal in the family. It wasn't spoken about. But now, the people involved and those that knew them are long gone, so it probably doesn't matter so much anymore. 

I've added to what my mother told me about these events by reading accounts written by Mike Tower, in his book, Outlaw Statesman, about Sam's nephew Fred Waite; by Moman Pruiett in his memoirs, Moman Pruiett, Criminal Lawyer; and by Bill and Cindy Paul in Shadow of an Indian Star, which is written as fiction but from what I can gather is taken mostly from historical research.   

When Sam Paul got out of prison in 1884 he sent his son Joe to college and then went about the business of rebuilding his life. By the time Joe returned, Sam had remarried and had regained his prominence in the community. When Joe began drinking and getting into trouble, he had several run ins with his father, even to the point of gun fire. Finally Joe left Pauls Valley and joined his grandfather Smith Paul in California. The reason is unclear, but there was a rumor that Joe had an affair with his father's wife, Jennie, and that Sam had threatened to kill him.  

Anyway, Joe stayed in California long enough to get married and have a child. I actually met one of his great grandchildren last year at a Chickasaw gathering. I'm not sure of the details, but from what my distant cousin told me, Joe was only married a short time before he deserted his California wife. Smith Paul also decided to leave his California family about that time, about 1890, and so they returned to Indian Territory together.  

When Joe returned the feud between father and son didn't start up again for a while, but when Joe continued to drink and to get into fights, his father warned him to control himself. Joe responded by going around town boasting that the next time he saw his father he was going to kill him, so they both got ready for a show down. There were at least two encounters between the two, and in one Joe was shot in the chest. It took several months for him to recover from this injury, but soon afterwards, he walked into a café where his father was eating and shot him twice in the back with a Winchester rifle.  

According to the story I was told by my mother, Tecumseh McClure, Sam's older brother,  instigated the killing. She said that she was told by her father that Tecumseh had Joe worked up into a frenzy over the threat his father posed to traditional Chickasaw customs, so the murder was actually politically motivated. Of course Joe may not have needed much encouragement.  

My mother also said that her father didn't blame his brother Joe for what he had done because of the mistreatment and neglect he had suffered because of their father. Our family and Joe's were always friends. It was actually a conflict between Joe and Tecumseh that led to the next family killing.  

After Sam Paul's murder Joe was arrested and sent to Paris, Texas, for trial, but because he and Sam were both Indians, the court decided it did not have jurisdiction, therefore Joe returned home a free man. The Chickasaw courts didn't take up the matter either, further evidence that the murder was politically motivated. Joe Paul was even appointed as a judge in the Chickasaw court.

During the next three years Joe led for him a respectable life, he got married to a full blood Chickasaw lady named Maulsey Stewart, and performed his duties as judge, but the quick temper that he had inherited from his father caught up with him. One night he got into an argument with one of his drinking buddies that ended in a gun fight. Joe was arrested and he spent the night in jail. The next day his uncle Tecumseh bailed him out and lectured him about his disgraceful behavior. Joe then slapped Tecumseh in the face and walked off. Two months later Tecumseh's son Jennison killed Joe in the same café where Joe had killed his father Sam. 

                                 Jennison, Tecumseh, and Imon McClure

The Pull-backs were still in control of the Chickasaw government - in 1884 Tecumseh McClure had even served as governor - so Jennison was acquitted of Joe Paul's murder, but he wouldn't remain free for long. Three months after the trial he was found dead on the railroad tracks, run over by a train.  

Moman Pruiett described the incident in his book, Moman Pruiett, Criminal Lawyer. He wrote that he was playing poker with Jennison McClure until late the night of Jennison's death. At one point in the evening:  

a squatty half breed sidled in. He stood beside the table for several minutes, watching the play indifferently, before he spoke.

"Bill Paul in town; I just seen him," the half breed said.

The players exchanged significant glances and continued their play. When the hand was finished Jennison McClure pushed his stack of chips toward Weaver, who was banking, and arched his eyebrows.

"You quittin'?"

"I go home now," he said.

"It's almost daylight, Mac," Pruiett suggested. "Hadn't you better play a couple more before you leave?" (Pruiett refers to himself in the third person in his book)

"I go home now," he repeated.

"Look here, now, Jennison," Weaver said. "It ain't hardly safe to be runnin' around here in the dark, without knowin' where he is. Why don't you stick around a little longer. You know damn well he ain't comin' up here."

"I go home now," McClure said, without changing tone or expression.

"Pay him off," said Pruiett. "He says he go home."

The squatty informer was already dozing in a chair. New hands were dealt and McClure walked carelessly out the side door.

"It's getting light, now, as sure as hell," Pruiett observed. "let's go an' get some breakfast after this hand. How long's Jennison been gone?"

"Listen!"

"That was a shot!" Pruiett whispered.

There was a short silence, than two more shots. The players glanced toward the little half-breed Indian, who slouched low in his chair with his dirty hands folded peacefully across his pot belly. His eyes opened wide and understandingly. With a significant shrug of his shoulders he closed them again and began to nod.

"Damn it," Pruiett gritted. "I'm out. If you two fellows want to play any more it's all right, but I'm quittin'. What the hell's that?" He jumped and started.

"You're all upset," Weaver laughed. "It's just a train whistle. It's the mornin' Santa Fe. I'm out too."

"Come on, Shorty; coffee." Pruiett called to the little Indian. He was close at the heels of the quartet as it reached the bottom of the staircase which ran up the side of the stone building. A woman hurried up Paul Avenue from the east, from the direction of the Santa Fe Depot. "Is Doc Young up here?" she inquired, breathlessly.

"No, he ain't," one of the men said. "What's wrong?"

"The mornin' train just ran over a man," she said. "You want Doc for professional service, or official service?" Pruiett asked. Young was the mayor and chief magistrate, as well as the principal M.D.

"It ain't for treatment," she answered. "He's mince meat. We just want him there for the identification, an' to watch the pickin' up." 

Pruiett describes walking over to the tracks, seeing the body, and recognizing the shirt

Jennison had been wearing. Then Jennison's father Tecumseh arrived: 

Ex-Governor Tecumseh McClure of the Chickasaw Nation, who was the father of Jennison McClure who had just been killed, appeared upon the scene, looked all around and said, "Jennison he's cut up bad. Well, he's all right. He, Fred Waite, Sam and Joe Paul, all now in Injun's Happy Hunting Ground."  

Moman Pruiett tended to dramatize things. Indian's didn't really talk like that, and they didn't refer to the after life as the "Happy Hunting Ground" either, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true that my grandfather and his brother killed Jennison McClure. My grandmother always denied it, saying that Bill and Buck were in school at the time in Sherman, Texas, but it would have been possible for them to ride down one day, kill their cousin, and ride back the next. They were loyal to their brother Joe, and revenge was a strong tradition among the Chickasaw.

                     Body of Jennison McClure on Railroad Tracks, 1897

Sam Paul, Part Seven

                                                    Sam Paul

It's been over a month since I left the story of my great grandfather, Sam Paul (See post of Sept 20, 2011). In that post I described some of the misery he put my great grandmother through before he was sent to prison in 1883.  

The Chickasaw legislature petitioned the President of the United States for a pardon for Sam Paul, and on March 17, 1884, it was granted, on the grounds that he had committed the offense "while endeavoring as an officer of the United States and of the Territory, to enforce the law", and " that a conviction in this case tends to impair the efficiency of the Indian Police, and that a pardon would be in the interest of law and order." 

(National Archives: Presidential Pardon, March 17, 1884) 

Sam had been in prison for two years, one year of which was spent in the Ft. Smith jail, under the most deplorable conditions imaginable. Although he must have been in a weakened condition both physically and emotionally, he wasted no time in getting back into action. The first thing that he did was to divorce my great grandmother Sarah, believing she had an affair with his co-defendant Jim Ross. He then reclaimed his two sons, my grandfather Bill and his older brother Buck, and wrote a will making them his sole heirs. They were 14 and 16 at the time, and up to that point had been attending a subscription school in Smith Pauls Valley where Bill met my grandmother. Sam's older son Joe was out on his own and Sam's daughter Hattie Jane was still a baby and was being raised by her aunt Juliana according to my great grandmother Sarah's plan to hide her from her father. (see post of Sept. 24, 2011, Hattie Jane's Story, Part One). 

Federal Marshall James Mershon reported that he was unable to locate assets to pay the $500 fine assessed as a part of Sam Paul's murder sentence, but Sam didn't seem to have any financial problems after his release. He moved right back into his old house, complete with tenant farmers to provide an income; he sent his boys to boarding school, and he found himself another wife, Jennie Tolbert. Then he decided to go into politics.  

During Sam Paul's two years in prison, the Chickasaw Nation had changed. A bitter rivalry had grown up between the two political parties, the Progressives and the Nationals or "Pull-backs." The Progressive Party consisted mainly of mixed blood Chickasaws and intermarried white citizens, and the National Party represented the full bloods. Their goals had always been the same, to preserve the Chickasaw way of life and to protect tribal property. Their only difference had been in how to achieve these goals, but the coming of the railroad changed all that.  

One of the concessions required of the Indian nations after the Civil War was to allow railways to be constructed across Indian Territory. The first was the Katy which was built across the southeastern part of the Chickasaw Nation in 1872. The railroads improved trade, especially in cotton, and white businessmen, professionals, craftsmen, shopkeepers and laborers migrated into the territory, expanding the small Chickasaw settlements on the line into bustling towns, dominated by whites. These changes were generally welcomed by the whites and by mixed bloods but feared by the full bloods. They had lost their homeland once before, and they were determined not to let it happen again.  

(The Chickasaws, by Arrell Gibson. P 252.) 

Sam Paul and his older half brother Tecumseh McClure came down on opposite sides of the railroad issue. Sam had been born in Indian Territory. He had grown up in a community integrated with whites, and he viewed their influence as beneficial. Tecumseh on the other hand had spent his childhood in the Chickasaws' Mississippi homeland, and he had been on the Trail of Tears. When the Civil War broke out, he had taken his family to Kansas where they joined the Sauk and Fox tribe in refusing to take sides in the white man's war. In the book, Leaders and Leading men of Indian Territory published in 1891, he is described as a "great hunter" in the process of reserving some of the land under his control as a deer park, to preserve some of Indian Territory's pristine forest. 

(Leaders and Leading Men of Indian Territory, by Harry F. O'Beirne. P 308.) 

In 1886 the railroad issue came to a head. The Chickasaw Governor William Guy, a Progressive, negotiated an agreement with the Santa Fe Railroad to build a line right through the heart of the Chickasaw Nation. Guy felt that he had no alternative, but the Pull-backs blamed him for giving in. By this time both Sam Paul and Tecumseh McClure were in the Chickasaw Senate. Tecumseh was its president.  

                                           William Malcolm Guy

The route of the proposed rail line went right by the little town of Smith Pauls Valley, so for the two brothers the issue was personal. Also the company wanted to locate a terminal there. Tecumseh, who controlled the land, knew that the railroad would transform the small mostly Indian community into a bustling trade center controlled by whites, so he refused to cede the land.   

On hearing this, Sam Paul went to the railroad and offered to allow a terminal to be placed  just a mile and a half to the south on his land, and he offered the shop owners in the old town free lots in the new location. Santa Fe accepted Sam Paul's offer, and the town was moved to his land, it's name shortened to "Pauls Valley" because the longer name could not fit on the railroad's sign.   

In the governor's race of 1888 Governor Guy faced strong opposition in William Byrd, the Pull-back candidate. Byrd had only one thirty second degree of Indian blood, but he was a sincere supporter of Chickasaw tradition and an opponent of the railroad. Under Tecumseh's leadership the Pullback dominated legislature had passed a law the previous year disenfranchising intermarried white citizens. This seriously weakened the Progressive party, but when the votes were counted Guy was still the winner. Surprised and frustrated, the legislature challenged and then threw out the votes in predominantly white counties, throwing the election to Byrd. 

Infuriated by this action, Sam Paul led 200 armed supporters into the capitol where the legislature was meeting. Standing before the terrified legislators he declared: "Though we have to wade waist deep in blood to accomplish it, Guy shall this day take his seat as governor." 

(Leaders and Leading Men of Indian Territory, by Harry F. OBeirne. P 282) 

After Sam Paul's show of force, Guy temporarily moved back into the Governor's office, but he barely escaped an assassination attempt on his way home that evening and decided not to push his luck by returning the next day. The decision on whether or not to accept the disputed votes was then referred for arbitration to the federal agent to the Five Civilized Tribes, Robert L. Owens. Owens decided in favor of the Pull-backs, and Byrd was installed as Governor. 

                                            William Leander Byrd

The Progressives then met and selected Sam Paul as their leader and next candidate for Governor, and sent him off to Washington to present the Progressive case to Congress.

Smith Paul's Valley

For a long while after 1859, when Smith Paul and Ela Teecha, my great great grandparents, moved their family west to the Washita Valley, they were alone on the frontier. When the Civil War began, both of Ellen's older children, Tecumseh McClure and Catherine Waite took their families to Kansas, so until the end of the war it was just Ellen and Smith and their three younger children, Sam, Jessie, and Sippia.  

Smith and Ellen prospered though. Smith planted corn, and a large fruit orchard, and he also raised cattle. He shared his crop with the plains Indians living nearby, and as time went on more Indian bands moved into the area. As a result, the Confederate Government, who took over Fort Arbuckle during the Civil War, made Smith Paul agent over the local tribes, and so he was not recruited to fight.  

Just as moving away from Fort Arbuckle had saved the Pauls from suffering much of the hardship brought by the Civil War, living in the midst of friendly Indians probably protected them from attacks by hostile tribes. The Comanche in their raid of 1866 passed right by the Paul farm without taking any livestock or causing any damage. (see Post of May 29, 2011, The Comanche and the Chickasaw, Again) Aunt Sippia even mentions the Comanche as one of the tribes living near the family farm. (see Post of June 12, 2011, Aunt Sippia, Part One )  

After the Civil War the McClures and the Waites returned, and gradually other Chickasaw and Choctaw families settled in the area. When Fort Sill was established in 1869 to protect the trails west and to subdue the remaining nomadic tribes, the Paul home became a regular stopping place for travelers to replenish their supplies and to repair their wagons. This is how Bill Hull, the blacksmith whom Aunt Sippia married became wealthy. Soon there was a Butterfield Stage stop and a post office nearby, and people began referring to the little community as Smith Paul's Valley. 

The governments of the Five Civilized Tribes were patterned after the government of the United States, but there were significant differences, reflecting the differences in the Indian culture. 

Firstly individual land ownership was an alien concept to the Indians. According to Indian tradition the earth was the source of life and of the spirit of the tribe. It belonged to the tribe as a whole. That was one of the reasons why the Removal broke the spirit of the Chickasaws. It separated them from their life source. Chickasaw law gave every tribal member the use of as much land as he needed, but when he died his land was returned to the tribe. 

Enterprising tribal members, especially mixed bloods or intermarried whites, used this tradition to their benefit by laying claim to land, and then leasing it to white settlers for a share of their crop. When word spread about the fertile Washita Valley, white settlers began to come, more than willing to pay the $5 permit fee to enter the Chickasaw Nation, and to share 10% of their crop with the Chickasaw and Choctaw citizens who controlled the land, so Smith Paul's Valley flourished and made the Pauls, the McClures, and the Waites rich. According to one source, 60 families came to Indian Territory at the invitation of Tom Waite alone. Soon white renters outnumbered Chickasaw citizens.  

Originally, Indian communities were small and clan based. To them a town was a few families living near each other, sharing goods and services. There was no need for municipal governments, so the Indian constitutions made no provisions for them. Smith Paul's Valley was not much different from a traditional Chickasaw town, with only a small number of families, a few stores and a few skilled workers such as blacksmiths and bridle makers, but people living in larger communities agitated for change. They wanted local services; they wanted to own their homes and businesses, and they wanted a say in the government.    

Another growing problem in Chickasaw society was crime. There was little need for law enforcement in the traditional Chickasaw community. The few offenders were dealt with by shaming or shunning, so laws were few and punishments were simple. There was whipping for minor offenses such as stealing, and execution for murder. Indian communities had no jails because an Indian never attempted to avoid his punishment. If he did, a member of his family would be chosen to take his place. Gradually Indian Territory was becoming a refuge for criminals. The white man had no respect for Indian laws, and the Indian police had no jurisdiction over them.  

The Chickasaw leaders of the time were divided over how to deal with the new problems they faced. Most favored limiting the influx of whites and preserving traditional values, but a vocal minority, supported by the now numerous white population, favored incorporating white settlers into tribal governments. Smith and Ellen's family was divided within itself over the question. Ellen's older son Tecumseh McClure became a leader of the traditional or "National" party, and her younger son Sam Paul became a leader of the Progressives.    

Feelings were strong but polite at first, but these issues were about to come to a head with the coming of the railroad and the changes it would bring to the little town of Smith Paul's Valley.