EA.RLE3, WILLIAM P^RBY. INTERVIEW 10664- /

F o r m )3I0GRA.-V.Y >CR1>. . "

E(OG$tESS ADMINISTRATIONIndian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma

EAHLSS, WlUlAM PHRRY. INTERVIEW. 10654.

F^.lri Work'-Tf~; name Ethel V* Elder « -,

T'.io import made on (date) Etoy 16, 1958. 193_

X . Earles#

2. Post 0:'fice Address Ringl lsg, Oklahoma Route #1*

3 . Residence address (or loca t ion) OM Cornlah C<aaBttiilty,

4. DATE OF BIRTH: Month April Day 3 Year

5. Place of birth Stegeetevid, White Comity, Tennessee

6. Name of Father „ Place of birth

Other i m'ormation atout father

7. Name of Mother Carolina Jones, Place of birth Tennessee.

Ot:.er information abo^

[wotes or ccxpljto narrative by the field worker dealing with the lifo andstory of the icruon interviev/ed. Hu"C-r to Manual for ou^'osted subjects:Tid ';ao:-tions. Continue on blank sl.e<-tn if necessary and attach firmly to

of sheets attochod ."

^ 58

EAHLES, WI1LIAM EERHY. IHTERVIESf, 10654,

Ethftl V. E lder , ,

ISay 16 , 1928*

Interview Sith William Perry Kerles, 'Ht« f?i, Singling, Oklahoma.

% mother, Carolina Jones, was born,in the state of

TermsBsee and is buried there t &y grandmother on my

mother's side, .\aiicy CTones, was born in the state of

Mississippi and is burled in White County, Tennessee* I

was born April S, 184C, at Stagestand, White County,

Tennessee* I never knew anything about a v of my sncestore

foi^I was neycr told a*ytiling about tnenu (-

There were three more childrou iu our family older

than I; my father died v»hen I wab a Tery au«ll baby m.&

mothacr covi& not take care of a l l the children as she was

not able to card for us and make the living for us that

8he waatcd us to have so she l e t Spencer Holder and wife

have me to raise and I stayed with th«a until I >i?as grown

or at least old enough to start out to tasks my own way i a

life*

EAftLES, WILLIAM PERRY. INTERVIEW. 10654.

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LUce other boys I wanted to see the great pla ins of

Texas, and the laiaoua Texas cow boy a and the Indians of

the Indian Te r r i t o ry , so I s ta r ted t M s way. I f i r s t

stopped in Texas, in- Cool© County, for a rew months and

then went to Denton County for a few more months. I naa

looking around, t rying to get onto the w ya of tae^eaifQ^

mex\ BO I worted there for about s ix months a f t e r which I

went to Southern Texas and s ta r ted buying c a t t l e for my-

self and continued th i s u n t i l i n the spring at which time

I s ta r ted to drive w$ c a t t l e to the shipping; ; lace in

Kansas, I went on to Colorado for a while and Omaha,

end spent the winter around those places ; ;.d in the spring

I came to Texas and s tar ted baying more ca t t l e to drive to

the shipping t lace af^ain; I went up th© t r a i l f ive tiiaes»

I worked in Colorado one year and nine boys came back

^ i t h BIS anfi we s tar ted to gathering up c a t t l e aid horses to

drive on south to Texas. We had f ights with the Indians

a l l the way back, and so many different t r i b e s , too; the

KiokapoQftj Kloft&s, Arapahoes and o t h e r s . In the Preo Canyon

in Texas ve caught them s tea l ing our. c a t t l e , horses and some

I c>o

EARLES, WIIXIAM PERRY. , *-' IMTEHVISW. 10654, '

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aheep that we had in our herds and I know that I have

kil led a large buich of Iiidit^.s in n$r rounds. I never

was capture^ by them, but have had some hot} hard ba t t l e s

with them*

One time when we wore curaped down on tx r iver in

Texas my pardner and I heerd our horses snorting w1^ we

saw something creeping through the bush as . At f i r s t we

could not figure out i f i t was Indie.is or ao;ie kina of an

animal earning to us» We were camped a l i t t l e ways from

our horses so we started to uuke for our horses and they

started shooting from 'the bushes and ran us into the old

corral of horses. They shot soiae of our horses a l l to

pieces, stole eight of oux good horses, caused the ca t t l e

to starcpede and we hsd a hard time ^etttug our c a t t l e and

remaining horses back together. After the ba t t le was over

flame of the Indians care over where we were a:.d waited oorne

beef ao we cut out a beef and l e t them have i t a f ter which

they went on the i r way owl did not bother us any more.

Aaother tiise mm of us had a herd of buffalo that

we, were to drive up on the plains and k i l l and when we came

to a rat ine we decided to pi tch caiqp there &>r the night*

BAKLE3, illXlAM PERRY• I1TCEHVIKW. 1 0 6 5 4 ,

We cooked sons? buffnlo neat that we had with us , had csur

aupper arid then went to bed. The uext rooming when we

got up we fixed our breakfast i*r& when i t was l ight enough

to atar t on our vvy9 we saw about one thous<\ -d head of

horses over or, the hi l ls ide not very far from v/hcre we

had camped* V>e s t a t e d c>. our way and when the I'.jdi&na

saw us they mounted their horses HIJ. away they car®, but

we did not have u fiehfc with thec» *hey followed us tp

tho send hi.lls of Fod River aid. we uever s.-nv their, oiy mere,

but we were expecting them to fltnrt troublo Bi.y nirmte.

We ̂ ?ould k i l l the buf:"s-lo, se l l their hides, use a l l the

meat we wanted and lenve the rest cr. the p ra i r i e .

After I oime to Tex?)S this Inst t i n : 1 stopped in

Denton Cou.-ity ?:id worked there with cat t le OJ: the Texas

range mid the? v.-a' t t r ' b t . t a^e County nni worked awhile

after fthioi* I «rei.t to Clay Co\uity ou Red River nnd '.\>orked

in Texas fird Indian Territory, too.

Later, I wejit to the .%you in the Tarritory t lived

there two or three years i<i bought catt lo froir the Ghicka-

saw cattlemen. The Indi-...s had pat n cat t la tax o. a l l the

EARLES, WILLIAM P1KRI. tftevIEY/. 10654,

cat t le ind wher: we ca t t le buyers refused to pay th© tax -

we were arrested and taken to Fort 3mi*ku.. They did uot

gjit iX5 lii the j t . i l but yut the s t r ipes ou us «...d 'mude us

wear then UB 1GJ<2 P.S wo were there, v/iiich v.as u ldig tltOB.

Judga Parker told us oiis aa^ to get off tbosu striped

splits a,^i get on om1 own oloth.es .̂x45 at^irt ou our way bo

I came lack to the }&yo<fTiidN' lived there Tor awhile, then

moved soatlihuat about twj>> r.dles to the SLK b k i l l e t t 3prlng

Ronci"-, where I worked for five or s ix yetx-a after which I

moved over to -Id Cornish 3ettlerasut where I l ive now, but

net the seme place.

the f i r s t Gc>verimeut t'.<wrisLipc were o^ned up

' 1for sale I boijght a j^ljce fron the Gcvernisat and bu i l t a

frame house• I &lso bu i l t a log house over on the rt;uch

end o-.e/tfas:* I l ived on the "feyou. I s t i l l was in the ca t t l e

business &ud lu-.d to puy o peimit of ^5,00 euch year to handle

cat t le* The Govertine.it v/aittod to ra ise the price but Judge -

Parker said he tho £ht that $5.00 rma enough to paj', so I

sold out and weiit out of the c t i t i e busiaesa on v.

scale, only kept e fo.v for ay own uso.

EiJlLES, WIIXIAM PERRY. mEHVIEaU 10654.

*

When I was l iv ing in Montague County, Texas, I met a

very fine young lady who was the apple of my eye and I

finally persuaded her to marry me and we lived there and

moved a l l the rounds into Oklahoma and Terr i tory. Her

name was Fannie Boberta; she died in 1913 a t the age of

forty-seven and i s buried in the Coraieh Cemetery.

When the f i r s t men died here in Corniah in the early

daya I picked out the place for the graveyard to be s t a r t -

ed; that i s where rqy wife is buried*

I married again about twenty*five years ago to Ada

Williams and we now l ive a t the old home place. There have

n any children by ei ther marriage, but I have

raised about fourteen orphan children with both my f i r s t

and l a s t wife helping to mother them*

I never attended school very much, about throe months

in Tonneaaeo and then af ter I come to Texas I went a abort

time and quit*

Fort Supply, Tart McKavey and Fort

El l io t t in the Territory and Tssss were the places where *

I used to do a great deal of ay trading for jarovisiona and

other supplies that were needed* '

y .. G4

JES, WITHAL PERKY. INTERVIEW* 10654*

•7*.

BATTLEFIELDS.

, Thsre i s an old bot t le field ground out t h i s side of

Ardmore on L i t t l e Hickory, between Big and L i t t l e Hickory,

which had a l l the breastworks, for t i f ica t ions , and also

everything •>

-. BUFFALO.

For one year I hunted and herded buffalo in Texas and

the Indian Territory on the Pease and Arkansas Rivers* X

have been where there were hundreds of head killed and

skinned for their hides to sell to the shippers of hides

and furs; the horns were also sold at a g>od price* After

the buffaloes/skinned and everyone got a l l the meat thatbuffalo

they wanted, the /were piled up in large stacks l ike hay

stacks for half luile in length and sometimes longer, then

burned and after the bones were bleaohed they were collected

and ground into f e r t i l i z e r and sold to f e r t i l i z e the land*

RANCHES.

Joel Gunier was hero before 2111 Washington csss to

this pert of the country to take h i s place, then came Bil l

KAHLES. WILLIAM PERR*. INTERVIEW. 10654.

Sappington, Tad Wilson, Newt Jackson, Wade Suggs, Aldington

Waggoner, Burn tee and some o thers whose names I cannot

remember*

DEPUTY UNITED STATES MARSHALS.

Some o f the United S t a t e s deputy marshals that I

knew were Heck Thomas, John S t r i n g , George Steward, Loss

Hart and George Tuck, Loss Hart k i l l a d one of the w e l l

known outlaws, B i l l Daltoh* Bass Reere=j»as a negro marshal

who was down i n the Choctaw Hatijn and I knew him vary w e l l .

OUTLAWS*

Bmaitt Dal ton, a brother of B i l l Dal ton, was k i l l e d

in Kansas robbing a bank* I was personal ly acquainted with

Frank and Jesse James and they used to s tay where I did a

long time* I knew Colo, Bob and John Younger, have been

with them a g r e e t m ny t imes and knew their hiding p laces*

B i l l i e the Kid, Sam Bass, end John Wesley Hardin were some

outlaws whom I knew, i n f a c t , I have been wi th a l l these

that I hare mentioned OG seisr of t h s l r rcunis ssd i n t h e i r

hiding p laces i n the day t ime* Frank James gave h imsel f up

to the law i n Missouri .

(if?

SABLES, WILLIAM PERRY. INTERVIEW. ' 1 0 6 5 4 .

The To&kawa tr i te of Indiana wer* kept on the 101

Ranch for a long time guarded by the soldiers to keep

the other Indians from kill ing them, because they would

not help to k i l l out the white people; they thought the

white nan was their friend and for that reason they were

hated by the other tribes*

No Man1 a Land was set aside for the Crow Indians, but

they would not stay on this land; they wanted to go to

Mexico which i s where they sett led.

CATTLE TRAILS.

The Chlsholm, Western and the Plains Trails are the

most Important t ra i l s that I hare had any experience with,c

I have been over a l l them and others many times driving

cattle to the market centers* >•. 02 "TEAMS.

I have used oxen for a l l purposes of hauling, plowing,

freighting* I have had from eight to ten yoke hitched to

the large freight wagons many t ines, eomatimeo more and

\• \

EAB1£3, WILLIAM PKRHY. INTERSIE7/. ^ 10654.'

• 1 0 -#•

•ometimes l e s s * We used them mostly to plow where there

were large txees to plow around when we would be clearing

off the timber land* I brought s ixty yoke into th i s coun-

try and sold them when I f i r s t caae here*

EHIGB&JT TRAILS.

Fort Smith to KoAlAstftr, Fort Belknao and Fort S i l l to

Gainesvi l le , Texas, were some of the emigrant t r a i l s that

I tf&s familiar with ,

EPIDEMICS. * *f {

Down on the Bayou one time while they were having a

big dance celebration for three days and nights and the

Spotted fever broke out and people died by the hundreds;

about one hundred babies died at that time, not one was l e f t

under two years old. I think they later decided that the

fever waa a form of raining!tis.

CEMBTERIES.

T3fta Indian custom of a graveyard or cemetery was just

bury the dead any place i n the yard where they l i v e d ; i t

did not make eny difference U i t was the front or the back

yard.

f>8

EARLES, WIILIiM PHRRY* IHTEHVUW, 10654*

JBHRY BOAT UlffiBtt.

Bsnvaaue, Frog Creek, River Bank, Spanish Fort,

Yellow Bank and Johnson's Ferry boat landings on Red

River were some of the ones that P-iiad experience with*

EDRSE RACES.

On Saturdays and Sundays a bunch would gather a t

Lone Grove over in the f l a t s d o s e io Ardaore and bet on

the races and i f there was no track they would make one

as they run their horses* I had a track on ny place that

was used a greet many times, too* Every one who had any-

thing to bet would bet, no matter what i t was*

INTRUDERS,

There was a great bunch of the c a t t l e grazers who

would intrude on the ones who owned land and on those who

did not* They would drive their c a t t l e across any piece

that the c a t t l e happened to s tart on throtgh to the Chero-

kee Strip up the Chishozm, Weutdrii and Plains Trai ls to

Kansas three or four tim.es each year.

EAHLES, VaUlAM PERRY. INTER VIES, 10654.

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P03P SITES.

fo r t Stockton, Fort? S i l l , (frahWon the Waehita,

and Coop Supply were aomo of tiio p o s t ^ t e s that I knew

about*

MINERALS,,

Coppor mines used to be in thla country and would

haye amounttd to something if the industry had been

properly handled.

I A