The Independent. (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 1, 1909 Page: 1 of 8
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VOL 5 NO 29
OK KM AH OKFUSKEE COUNTY OKLAHOMA THURSDAY APRIL 1 1909
' SlOu PER YEAR
CRAZY SNAKE
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Followers of Fullblood Leader
Battle With Ofticers and
Kill Two Deputies
MILITIA IN CONTROL
Slate Troops Hurried to Scene of the
Trouble and Trying (o Round Up
Indian and Negro Outlaws
A series of battles between of-
ficers of McIntosh and Okmulgee
counties and Indian and negro
outlaws have been in progress
in the vicinity of Hickory Ground cinrody Three of the negroes I ficers
since Tuesday of last week Sev-
eral men have been killed but
reports are so' conflicting that
with the exception of the officers
who are known to be killed it is
impossible to say at this time
how many fatalities have oc-
curred Exoitemfent is at fever heat
and the whole country in the vi-
cinity of the old Indian stamping
grounds is under arms Farmers
and business men led by deputy
sheriffs are scouring the woods
and hills and five companies of
militia have been ordered out and
are now atthe scene of the
trouble
The orig'n of the trouble is ex-
plained by the Henryetta Free-
Lance substantially as the outy
- growth of fthe meeting Of the
-Snake- Indians at " Hickory
Grands last fall when rumors of
a Snake uprising were rife The
federal government was asked to
disperse the Indians at that time
and representatives of the inter-
ior department went down from
Muskogee but the Five-Lance
maintains that they sided openly
with the Snakes and did not dis-
perse them'
Crazy Snake it is said enlist-
ed every negro whom he' could
' induce to join his band and a
number of these have Ixee i ep-
camped at Hickory Grjunl for
several months and have greatly
annoyed the farmers of the sur-
rounding country by their petty
thievery
Tuesday afternoon of last week
Deputy Sheriff Fatty and Con-
stable Morey went to the negro1
camp with a search warrant in
quet of some stolen goods The
officers encountered at the camp
about twenty armed negroes who
' with curses and threats ordered
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MONEY IN
Other people are living comfortably
Why should not you? It is so simple
when you think it over People live
happily and comfortably because they
don’t worry If you have money in the
bank 'always ready for use when you
want it yet always safe from robbery
or fire you escape a world of worry
The thing to do is to start a bank
account — a dollhr will do If a dollar
will start a bank account you can do it
today
' BEGIN: THEN STICK
TO IT
First National Bank
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them to leave It was the part of
discretion to leave and they left
Wednesday afternoon the offi-
cers returned accompanied by a
posse of about fifteen men As
soon as the negroes caught sight
of the posse they opened fire and tured The young Indian was de-
a hot skirmish followed Long fiant and refused to give any in-
range fighting continued during formation whatever His captors
Wednesday afternoon and night were in no mood however for
and Thursday at dawn of day humoring any whim of the pris-
reinforcements arrived and the oner and producing a rope they
battle opened in earnest The slipped a noose around the In negroes
were well armed most of I dian’s neck and he was soon
them using steel ball winchesters dangling in the air He was told
The whites fought from behind that unless he consented to tell
trees logs or anything which ah he knew he would be hung
afforded the slightest shelter until he was dead' When he had
The battle raged for two hours endured the punishment awhile
and then the negroes run up the he signified his willingness to
white flag The officers and posse tell all he kneifr' He divulged
then went into camp and took the names of all the outlaws en
forty-one black warriors into gaged in the fight with the of-
were wounded and it is believed
that a number of others made
their escape
Rev Timothy Fowler who
was with the posse was wound-
ed early in the fight being struck
in the hip with a load of BB shot
The prisoners were taken to
Henryetta and then to Eufaula
by way of Muskogee -
The trouble however did not
end with the surrender of the
negro camp at Hickory Ground
Worse was yet to come
On Saturday a warrant for the ization has no legal status nor
arrest of Crazy Snake charging did it have during the days of
him with inciting a riot was put the Creek tribal government The
into the hands of Deputy Sheriff Snakes represent the non-pro-Ilerman
Odum son of Sheriff gressive element or the Creek
Odum of McIntosh coup ty and tribe They were opposed to the
in company with Edward Baum allotment of lands statehood and
Fa an k Swift 'William Cair" L’e are unfriendly tS restraint of any
Bateman and Frank Jones start-1 kind Their present leader as is
ed for the home of the old Indian
agitator to put him under arrest
When the party drew near the
house of the Snake leader they
were suddenly fired upon by
Indians and negroes in ambush
and Herman Odum and Edward
Baum fell dead at the first vol-
ley I’iie lenminmg members cf
the party returned the fire and
a terrific battle raged for a short
time Frank bwift was soon
9hoi down and ic is believed
family wounded but he was able
to drag himelf into the woods
The remaining officers were soon
forced to retreat scattering in
different directions and none of
them knew the fate of the others
I Jones in making his escape
Isiezedthe dead body of young
Odum and held it in front of him
' as a shield The body was struck
by several balls but Jones es-
caped unharmed
The next day a large posse re-
turned to the scene of the battle
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THE BANK
in search of the outlaws The
home of Crazy Snake was desert-
ed and the wily old Indian was
no where to be found but his
son a yotng man twenty-one or
twenty-two years old was cap-
The militia was ordered out by
Goyernor Haskell and five com
panies under command of 'Col
Roy Hoffman are encamped a
Hickory Ground and detachments
of stafe troops are scouring the
country in search of the Snake
band Several prisoners have
been brought in but Crazy Snak?
is still at large
The Snake Indians are
I a clan of the Creek tribe
simply
They
I have no chief in the legal sense
of the word as the Snake organ-
general with the Indiana of the
Five Tribes has an English and
an Indian name His English
name is Wilson Jones and his
Indian name is Chitto Harjo the
literal translation of which is
‘‘Crazy Snake”
Well Known Here
One of the first negroes killed
by the officers in the Crazy Snake
trouble at Hickory Ground was
Peter Henderson a freedman
who formerly had an allotment a
few miles north of town Peter
sold his land as soon as possible
and like a good many other
freedmen was ready for any
kind of trouble that promised to
get him his land back The
proper punishment for those who
would delude these ignorant ne-
groes and by false representa-
tions stir up trouble would be
hanging
Eastern Star Chapter
A chapter of the Eastern Star
was instituted at Paden Tuesday
The work was performed by
ladies of the Okemah chapter
who report having a 'very pleas-
ant time The following ladies
from Okemah participated in the
exercises : Mesdames P M Fink
G D Harvison J W Board A
W Jenkins J H Nelson C T
Huddleston W N McCulley
Bunyan Black E D Mitts W
H Dill C W Brewer
County Court Report
Judge T T Doyle of the
county court has been busy this
week making out his quarterly
report for the quarter ending
March 31st The report shows
that the county court is an ex-
ceedingly busy institution and a
money maker for the county
Judge Doyle has turned over
close to $800 in fees collected
This dues not include fines in
criminal oases now appealed of
which there is some $800 outstanding
CITY TICKETS FILED
Different Towns in County Place Dif-
ferent Construction on Provisions
of the Election Law
Tickets for the municipal elec-
tions in the various towns in the
county have been filed with J
B Patterson secretary of the
county election board The town
of Boley has filed its ticket for a
primary election to be held next
Tuesday which is the date fixed
by the new election law for hold-
ing the municipal primaries this
year Boley is the only town in
the county which holds a primary
election this spring all the other
towns in the county having
agreed to put out independent
tickets and have filed their pe-
titions accordingly
All of the towns in the county
except Okemah are electing two
trustees or members of the coun-
cil from each ward Okemah is
electing one member from each
ward The reason for this dis-
parity is found in the ambiguous
phraseology of tho new election
law There is apparently con-
flicting provisions in the act and
Okemah has construed the lan-
guage to mean one thing while
the other town in the county
have given it the opposite con-
struction The law provides in
one place that in towns and cities
in which the terms of the mem-
bers of council and the school
board expire in 1909 there shall
be elected two members of jhe-
school board and two members
of the counoil lrom each ward
one of which members of the
school board and one of which
members of the council shall
serve for two years and one for
one year to be determined by
lot Then again it provides
that in towns and cities other
than cities of the first class one
trustee shall be elected from
each ward who shall serve two
years
Just what the law intends it is
difficult to determine
Senator Potter Honored
Yesterday evening Senator
Potter was the guest of honor at
p smoker given by the t commer-
cial club Several speeches were
made in respones to toasts pro-
posed by Judge Witten who acted
as toastmaster with his usual fe-
licity The speeches were coin-
coramendatory of Senator Pot-
ter’s independent and energetic
action in the senate on import-
ant measures particularly oil
legislation The following reso-
lutions were adopted : 1
Whereas our townsman Hon
R T Potter as a member of the
senate from the 32nd district of
the state of Oklahoma during
the legislative session just closed
acted and worked for legislation
with consistent fidelity to his
convictions as to what were to
the best interests of his constit-
uents even when temporary ad-
vantages to his own interests
plainly pointed to other action
Therefore we his fellow towns-
men take occasion to commend
his course and to give him this
encouragement which we feel
should be freely given to one
who has met so well a first and
most important test of true man-
hood and' statesmanship — Ok-
mulgee Democrat
Farm Loans
am now prepared to make
I
farm loans quickly I make my
own inspection of the land Call
at Farmers & Merchants’ Bank
— A V Skelton
I O O P at Castle
A lodge of Odd Fellows was
instituted at Castle Tuesday
night The lodge was instituted
by Judge Lawrence of this city
as deputy grand master of the
state the work being done by
members of the Prague lodge
About twenty members of the
Okemah lodge were present and
all report a very pleasant time
The lodge at Castle promises to
be a very successful affair
Marriage Licenses
The following marriage licen-
ces 'were issued this week:
Jess Sutton 21 Girtie Dutton
16 Okemah
S W Williams 28 Carrie
Wallace 18 colored Boley
Ray S McNeal 36 Fannie G
Aikens 24 colored Clearview
Victor Darks 36 Mary Shanon
30 Wetumka
Perry Frogge 19 Viola Williams
17 Paden
Rheumatism
More than nine out of every
ten cases of rheumatiem are
simply rheumatism of the mus-
oles due to cold or damp weather
or chronic rheumatism In such
ases no internal treatment is
required The free application
of Chamberlain’s Liniment is all
that is needed and it is certain
to give quick relief Give it a
trial and see Tor yourself how
quickly it relieves the pain and
soreness Price 25 cents large
size 50 cents Sold by Palace
Drug Store
Spring is here Look out for
the flies We make screens of
all kinds and sizes — Okemah
Cabinet Co Phone 93
rare—
OXFORDS
Snappy styles in all leathers Pat
Russia Calf Tan Vioi Golden Biownl
Calf
Made on graceful lines combin
comfort and service at moderate price
women and children
WE CARRY W L DOUGLAS’ SHOES FOR
See Douglas advertisement on page 5
Horton’s Shoe Store
“The Place to Buy Good Shoes”
J®--’’-'
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The Okemah
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Bank Directors Meet
There was a meeting of the
directors of the First National
Bank in this city on Monday
March 29 and business of im-
portance was transacted The
resignation of W H Dill as
president was accepted and
Geo D Harvison was elected
president The resignation of J
M Sterrett was accepted and
Benton Callahan of Morse was
elected director Wm- N Patter-
son of Muskogee was elected
vice president The present of-
ficers and directors or this bank
are as follows :
George D Harvison president
Geo H Ralston first vice
president
Wm N Patterson seciond vice
president
L P Caldwell cashier
J M Sterrett assistant cashier
D L Z Chitwood director
Benton Callahan direotor
Dr W A Smith director
County High School
The trustees of Okfuskee
county high sohool had a called
meeting at Okemah Monday and
organized J D Nelson presi-
dent A G Rogers vice presi-
dent W A Board secretary
Dr D C Bombarger treasurer
and P J Becker asistant secan-
tary They engaged in a general dis-
cussion at the meeting and took
an adjourned meeting till 4 p m
Thursday to convene at Paden to
further transact business — Pa-
den News
-tel
SJSS —
National Bank
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Mitts, E. D. The Independent. (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 1, 1909, newspaper, April 1, 1909; Okemah, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2043357/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.