Ft. Gibson Post

Vol III No 39

Thursday August 11, 1898 (Part 1)

Abstracted / Transcribed by Linda Haas Davenport

When the print is so faded that it cannot be read <.....> will be used . All transcription will be as found in the paper, misspellings and all

Page 1, column 1

CHEROKEE COUNCIL'S WORK.
     The Chief Recommends a Treaty Commission
           Other Doings.
Tahlequah Aug 10
     Monday Chief Mayes sent in to council his second message, accompanied by a copy of the Curtis bill, both of which were read and interpreted. In his message the chief recommended that council provide for the creation of another commission to meet and attempt to negotiate some sort of a deal with the Dawes commission. He thought it not yet too late to save a part of the wreck and repent of their stubborness of last year.
     Then a committee was appointed to draft and report a commission bill. Dave Muskrat was made chairman of this committee and Dave is bitterly opposed to treating. So are the other fellows on the committee with the exception of John E Gunter of Sequoyah.
     Yes, of course, a commission bill will be reported by the committee and passed by council, and you can bet too, that the bill will provide liberally for compensation for members. Five dollars a day is what we old do-nothing commission received last year. What's the matter with five again?

Page 1, column 3

NATIONAL CONVENTION.
     Full Bloods in Control and Will Nominate Their Own Ticket
Tahlequah Aug 10 -
     The National party of the Cherokee nation, composed now mostly of full-bloods, is holding its regular convention this week out seven miles north of this place at the Bug Tucker springs, where these conventions have been held for the last half century. This is their regular four-year convention, at which candidates for all the elective offices, from the chief down are nominated.
     The convention met Monday and is still in session, not yet having gone into nominations. Parties just in from the scene, however, state that the fullbloods are complete control and will not even allow a half breed to speak before the assembly. It is certain that fullbloods will compose the entire ticket, which the possible exception of Watt Duncan, the Cherokee Moses, may be nominated for chief. It is more probable, however, that Wold Coon, Lacy Hawkins or some other fullblood will head this ticket and that the half breed element will be utterly ignored.
     The fullbloods are very bitter toward the U.S. government, and especially toward the Curtis bill, the provisions of which, it is stated, they propose to ignore by nominating judicial as well as all other officers. It is further stated that fullblood leaders are deluding their more ignorant followers by telling them that the Curtis bill has not yet passed congress, and that their country and tribal government might be continued by placing fullbloods only in power. Lacy Hawkins, one of the fullblood delegates to Washington, is said to have denied to the convention yesterday that the Curtis bill had passed.
     That the mass of the fullbloods are being deluded by some means is evident by their action in proposing to ignore both the half breeds and the Curtis law, and it feared that very serous trouble will result.

LATER - NOMINATIONS MADE - Aug 11 -
     The National party fullblood convention at Bug Tucker springs adjourned last night, after nominating Wolf Coon, a fullblood, for principal chief, and Watt Duncan, a fullblood white "Injun" for assistant chief. No other nominations were made.
     It is generally understood that Duncan's ambition was to get the first place on the ticket, but the fullbloods became suspicious of even their half breed "Moses" and concluded to risk him only as second choice as their leader out of the wilderness.
     The conservative half breeds of both the National and Downing parties are disgusted with the action of the fullbloods and will have little to say and nothing to do with the future campaign of the fullblood party.
     Hon. Augustus E Ivey, the Aladin's lamp of the half breed element, succeeded yesterday in being heard in a hot-tamalee speech to the convention. He spoke in favor of treating with the Dawes Commission, and told the fullbloods that they were being misled and deluded by their more intelligent leaders.

BOOZY CLAREMORE.
     A street brawl is now an almost daily occurence. The lack of police protection has lead all those inclined to be tough to turn themselves loose. Even the marshal from Chelsea came down this week, became gloriously drunk and commended to shoot the town up at night. Incorporation and strict police regulations cannot come too quick for the benefit of our town. - Claremore Progress

OIL MILL FOR MUSKOGEE.
     Muskogee is to have a cotton and oil seed mill that is to cost $40,000. The building will be 200x80 on the ground, and is to be in operation for the coming crop next fall. This is the kind of enterprise that help a town. A good deal better location for such business here in Fort Gibson, but such things are not coming our way very fast.

Page 1, column 4

LEASED THE SAND-BAR.
           F J Boudinot and R McBride Embark in a New Enterprise.
     Fort Gibson is to be the scene of a new and somewhat novel industry, which will no doubt be the means of bringing into the town thousands of dollars and furnishing employment to many laborers.
     The vast beds of gravel in Grand river adjacent to Fort Gibson is to be utilized for paving, balasting and academizing purposes. F J Boudinot and Dr G A McBride are the wide-awake promoters of this new Fort Gibson enterprise. These two gentlemen went to Washington some days ago to see the secretary of the interior about leasing the bed of Grand river for the purpose of working the gravel, and yesterday a message was received stating that the lease had been secured.
     It is understood that the K & A V railroad will build a switch down into the river bed and that the work of utilizing the gravel will begin as soon as possible.

"WHITE LIGHTNING" ON TRIAL.
     The first important trial to come up before Mayor Shaffer was that of Dan Bailey, better known as "White Lightning," who was charged with toting a pistol and disturbing the equinimity of some of the denizens of Carall branch. "Lightening" is a swift sort of citizen and has been arraigned three different times on the same indictments, and still the trial is not over, but will be finally disposed of next Monday at 10 a. m.
     Mayor Shaffer presides with grace and dignity as a police judge, not withstanding his slight nervousness at times.

Page 1, column 5

A BIG FLOURING MILL.
           One Will Probably Be Built in Fort Gibson this Fall.
     A big flouring mill for Fort Gibson, to be built at an early day, is one of the encouraging probabilities that The Post has the pleasure of mentioning this week. Such an enterprise is not only needed in Fort Gibson, but it will undoubtedly prove a paying enterprise as well.
     Last week J R Lennox, an experienced mill man of Missouri, was here looking around with a view to locating such a mill, and he returned home Monday well pleased with his investigations and the prospects. He said before leaving that he would return in the Fall, and in all probabilities being building at once, if the proper encouragement should be offered by our citizens.
     It is his intention, if he builds, to have the mill in running order in time to handle the next wheat crop.

WILL NAIL KILLED.
           One of the Miller Gang Secumbs to the Deputy Marshals.
     After the killing of Zack Taylor, as detailed in The Post last week, his reputed murders, Mose Miller and Will Nail, fled for the woods, pursued by several armed people. - Prompted by the large rewards offered for these outlaws, a good many people went in pursuit. Last Saturday several US deputy marshals, among whom were J A Dobson, E B Alberty, J C Bankshud and Geo Mitchell, located Nail in the Greenleaf mountains not far from the Illinois district court house.
     The house where Nail was supposed to be stopping was surrounded by the marshals early Saturday morning. Nail spent the night in the woods, and in coming to the house for his breakfast, Dobson opened fire on him at about 70 yards distant, and his left arm broken, Nail turned and fired the ball graising Alberty's face. Before the outlaw could shoot again he fell with several bullets in his body.
     The remains were taken to Muskogee and identified by the widow of Zake Taylor as the man who killed her husband about a week before. - The body was turned over to relatives who took it to the deceased's late house near Braggs for burial. He was physically a large and powerful man, being, it is said, of white, negro and Indian blood. The winchester which he carried was the one owned by the noted Cherokee Bill, and is now in Marshal Bennett's office at Muskogee. It is expected that Mose Miller will be captured in a few days.

"JUNEY" SMITH ELECTED.
           Webbers Falls, I.T. Aug 10 -
     At a special election held in this (Canadian) district Monday, McCoy Smith, better known as "Juney" Smith, was elected to the council branch of the Cherokee Council, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. J A Sevier, deceased.
     Hon R T Hanks departed yesterday for Tahlequah, where he will work for awhile in the chief's office.

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Page 4, column 1

The Federal Judges of this Territory appear to differ as to what kind of drinks are intoxicating and those that are not. This may be a matter of taste. But in the meantime, 'who shall decide when doctors disagree?'

Gulick of the South McAlester Capital continues to light the path of Territorial journalism with sallies of wit and chunks of learning, much to the edification of several unsuspecting brethren unacquainted with the secrets of Rabelas or mysteries of Oriental ocultism as revealed in the "Light of Asia."

"Our Brothers In Red," supposed to be the official organ of the M E church South, in the Indian Territory, appears to be prospering financially under the management of Rev Theodore Brewer, who is a fine gentleman, but as an editor appears to meddle but little with politics or religion.

Some of the fullblood Cherokees seem to be acting very foolish, if not worse, passing resolutions denouncing the Curtis law and censuring Chief Mayes for not officially opposing provisions of that law. Chief Mayes being a sensible man knows better than to oppose United States law which is the supreme power throughout this entire country, Indian Territory included. It is time that our fullblood friends were knowing this and governing themselves accordingly.

Mayor J M Bryan, who died at Chouteau last Saturday, was one of the oldest Cherokees, and an intellectual man, and died at the advanced age of 90 years. Born in the old Cherokee nation, he saw the inevitable, and was among the first who came to the new land west of the Mississippi, and labored for forty years or more in the interest of the Old Settler Cherokees, his efforts being finally crowned with success. Thus one by one the old-time Cherokees are passing away.

The people of Wagoner (and there are difference classes there) are generally of an enterprising, energetic character, and seldom do things by halves. Not content with 'Rochester tonic' and other brands of bellywash usually sold in other places, some enterprising Wagonerites are said to be selling the real old fashioned "disturbance," which is advertised open and above board in the Record and all this in a prohibition country, where U S deputy marshals are suppose to "pull" all violators of the law.

The South McAlester Capital sagely remarks that Muskogee and Wagoner should cease their wrangling over the site of the new Federal jail, and compromise on Fort Gibson, where there is a lot of good running water and other advantages not possessed by those dry prairie towns, all of which is true; but what does those towns care about superior advantages of other places? They want the jail, advantages or no advantages.