Officers' Fight With Doolin Gang
By R. P. Ironside.
One of the most
exciting and perhaps deadliest gun fights staged in
Eastern Oklahoma Territory occurred in the early `90s
with United States deputies and posse-men working out
of Guthrie under Marshal E. D. Nix on the side of law
and order and noteworthy Bill Doolin and his vicious
gang of assassins, train robbers and horse thieves on
the side of unlawful disorder. This gun argument is
commonly designated by old time peace officers and early
inhabitants as the Battle of Ingalls, and for some unaccountable
reason writers and historians of pioneer tragedies and
early Territorial events have either entirely ignored
the occurrence or at best made very scant reference
of it. Here is the account.
Mentions: * Ross
Hibbard * Perry, Oklahoma Territory * Sapulpa in the
Creek Nation * the Cherokee Strip * the Osage Nation,
Cherokee Strip * the city of Stillwater * present town
of Yale * Ingalls, an inland prairie town * Granger
Twist * Bill Dalton, a. brother of Bob Dalton, Grat
Dalton and Emmett Dalton * Bill Raidler, alias Little
Bill, who hailed from Pennsylvania * George Newcomb,
alias Bitter Creek * Jack Blake, alias Tulsa Jack; Dan
Clifton, better known as Dynamite Dick; Charley Pierce
* Tom Dougherty, or Jones, alias Arkansas Tom * Red
Buck, a cattle rustler * George Waightman * Dick West,
alias Little Dick * Bill Dalton, Bitter Creek, Red Buck,
Dynamite Dick* United States Marshal Nix * Deputies
John Hixon, Tom Houston, Jim Masterson (a brother of
the remarkable Bat Masterson) * Lafe Shadley and Dick
Speed * the Old Trilby saloon * a Mrs. Pierce * Rose
of the Cimarron * the Osage hills * Jim Masterson *
Asbury, Missouri * United States Deputy Heck Thomas
* Lawton, Oklahoma * Farmington, Massachusetts * Deputy
Bill Tilghman * Deputy Marshal Loss Hart * Heck Thomas
* Deputy Chris Madsen * Ardmore, Oklahoma *
Frank Matthews, Veteran Officer
By J. Marvin
Hunter
Account of Capt.
Frank W. Matthews, Texas Ranger, who spent the greater
part of his life running down criminals, maintaining
law and order including many thrilling incidents of
hair-breadth escapes from death at the hands of noted
gunmen and skirmishes with desperate criminals wanted
for murder, robbery and arson. Here is his story.
Mentions: * Frank
William Matthews was born June 10, 1872, on the South
San Gabriel river, 12 miles west of Georgetown, Texas
* His parents were Mr. and Mrs. John G. Matthews. His
grandfather, Abner Matthews came to Texas in 1839 from
Knox county, Tennessee, and settled near Austin, being
one of the earliest settlers there. * joined Jack Hays'
company of Texas Rangers in Austin * General Taylor's
army * the Frank Murray ranch on the Washita river *
John G. Matthews * old Spindletop * the Melcer Mining
Co., 30 miles east of Carbo, Mexico * Captain Lee Hall
* the Red River oil field near Burkburnett * Fred A
.Delano * Lajitas, in the Big Bend country, 108 miles
south of Marfa * Captain Bill Hansen * D. D. Harrigan's
ranch * Sheriff Albert Hauser * Pete McKenzie * Sam
Street, a San Antonio officer * Mrs. Hortense Ward of
Corpus Christi * Ben Moore, Sr., of O'Donnell, Texas
* Rev. E. A. Butterfield * Ben Moore, Sr., O'Donnell,
Texas *
John H. Reagan, a Great Man
By Will N. Calhoun,
Jonesville, , Louisiana
Account of old
Texas senator, John H. Reagan. Mentions: * the Senate
Gallery * Jefferson Davis * Geo. E. Giles of Wisconsin
* Lieut. Col. Pritchard * General Breckenridge, Clement
C. Clay, and Mrs. Davis * General Sheridan * He was
the first to advocate the Rail Road Commission * Alvin
Ousley * Lanham *
Expedition of Capt. R. B. Marcy
By John A. Focht,
Professor Highway Engineering, University of Texas
This account
is taken from a report by Captain Marcy in Senate Ex.
Doc. 60, 34th Congress. On this expedition Captain Marcy
traversed a section of Texas, which is composed now
of Young, Archer, Wichita, Baylor, Knox, Dickens, King,
Kent, Stonewall, Fisher, Jones, Haskell and Throckmorton
counties. In April, 1854, Captain R. B. Marcy, 5th Inf.,
was assigned the duty of making an inspection of lands
in North Texas for possible Indian Reservations. During
July and August of that year he made an expedition over
the watershed of the Brazos and Big Wichita rivers.
There were several small tribes of Indians living along
the Brazos, which were being pushed further west by
the expanding settlements of the white people; the Indians
did not want to go further west because of the additional
exposure to the marauding nomadic Indians, and the country
was more arid and did not produce for them to live.
Includes map of the expedition.
Mentions: * Fort
Belknap * the Preston road * Pecan Fork * the Main or
Salt Fork of the Brazos to the beautiful Clear Fork
* Rupert N. Richardson * Fort Phantom Hill *
The Battle Creek Fight
From the Memoirs
of General Walter P. Lane
Account of events
that occurred in 1838 when the surveying party of the
author, William Love, surveyor William Henderson and
others from San Augustine was confronted by about 150
Comanche Indians and the bloody battle that followed.
Mentions: * Franklin,
in Robertson county * Neil * Parker's Fort * Richmond
creek * Tehuacana Hill * Kickapoo Indians * Ionies (a
wild tribe) * Euclid Cook * Captain Neil * Burton *
Cosette's camp *
Captain Ben McCulloch
J. W. Wilbarger
Account details
certain lesser-known incidents in the life of Captain
(afterwards General) Ben McCulloch which occurred prior
to the war between Mexico and the United States.
Mentions: * Victor
M. Close * General Ben McCulloch was born in Rutherford
county, Tennessee, November 11, 1811 * Colonel Sweitzer
* Colonel Reuben Ross * Colonel John H. Moore of Fayette
county * Henry T. McCulloch, Wilson Randle, David Henson
and John D. Wolfin * camp on Peach Creek * the Tonkawas
* "Captain Jim," chief of the Tonkawa tribe * John C.
(Jack) Hays * the Johnson Fork of the Llano river *
the battle with the Comanches on Plum creek in 1840
* The fight with Yellow Wolf on the Pedernales * the
battle of Elk Horn, Missouri *
The Historic Chisum Trail
Georgia B. Redfield
Account of John
Simpson Chisum who was the most widely known cattleman
in the world. He blazed the historic Chisum Trail, from
the little town of Paris, Texas, where his small scale
cattle investments were first begun, southwest through
the center and across the desert country of the Lone
Star State, then north through the Indian infested country
of the Pecos Valley, in southeastern New Mexico. Features
a map of the famous drive. Note.—The Chisum Trail to
New Mexico is not to be confused with the Chisholm Trail
to Kansas. Both of the famous cattle trails were started
near the same time.
Mentions: * the
Pecos Valley, in New Mexico * the "Cattle King of the
Pecos." * White Mountains * Roswell * the historic Lincoln
County Cattle War * Billy the Kid * Sally Chisum Roberts
* James Chisum * famous Jingle-Bob-Ranch at South Spring,
six miles southeast of Roswell * H. E. Babcock, Jr.,
and Bert Aston, * Madison county, Tennessee * Claiborne
Chisum * Lucinda Chisum, of German desent * The Fowler-Chisum
cattle business * Bolivar, Texas * Charles Goodnight
* Rio Pecos * "Tom Green Territory." * Bosque Grande
a ranch he established on the Pecos, 6.5 miles north
of the present
city of .Roswell * Walter Chisum * the Carlsbad Cavern
country * Pope's Crossing * the Butterfield Stage Line
* Horsehead Crossing * Jesse Chisholm, a half-breed
Cherokee Indian *
An Unappreciated Oration
By Don H. Biggers.
Account of wild
and uproarious days toward the end of the boom time
of the Ranger-Eastland oil boom. Mr Biggers goes on
to relate his oration presented at the banquet sponsored
by the Eastland chamber of commerce. By reading it you
will understand why he was never again so much as invited
to a banquet in Eastland.
Mentions: * the
Ku Klux * R. K. Phillips * Mr. Bagley owner of the Fort
Worth Record* Wichita Falls Record and the Ranger Record
* Breckenridge * Erath county * General J. B. Weaver
* John H. Reagan * C. M. Blaisdell *