147 YEARS AGO
AN INTERESTING LETTER ON SITTING BULL
Editor Freemans Journal: Dear Sir – In the Boston Pilots issue of the 5th of August last, I read an article under the following heading: “The Indian that was struck by a soldier.” It says: Sitting Bull lived for four years at Fort Rice, on the Missouri River, and was known as a Blanket Indian.” One day a soldier struck Sitting Bull a blow. That was the blow in which train has followed a long list of heroic deeds and which has shaped the Indian policy of the United States, and to which the death of Custer any his command may be immediately trace.”
Soldiers to Cuba
New Oct., Oct. 9 – A dispatch from Madrid states that the draft if proceeding. Twenty-four thousand soldiers from Cuba was drawn yesterday with disturbance, and these men will son follow the 16,000 already on their way.
FROM THE WICHITAS
Phillip Block, interpreter for the Wichitas, camped on Sugar Creek, writes the Journal that a large fire occurred in the Wichita camp by which they lost all they had, only saving their lives.
The dry grass burning so rapidly as to destroy everything. Wah-loose, a famous chief and member of the General Council, is very sick and not expected to live.
The Wichitas are out of flour, sugar and coffee and have been for a month. They have nothing but beef and pecans to eat, the supplies promised them by the government not having been received by their agent. They have reason to complain when their neighbors, the Cheyennes and Arapahos, under another agent, have plenty of provisions and blankets. They cannot understand why they are left hungry and cold.
120 YEARS AGO Friday, May 1,1903
After the Keetoowahs
The federal authorities in the northern district of Indian Territory have taken decisive steps to wipe out the Cherokee society known as the Keetoowahs.
Ketoowahs have always resented allotment and resisted in every way possible. They are to the Cherokee what Crazy Snake and his followers were to the Creeks. They oppose the allotment to them and have murdered two who had gone to the land office at Vinita to take their allotments.
A United States commissioner and a posse of men in command of the U.S. marshal has gone to the field and the Keetowahs are to be whipped into line.
There will probably be trouble but the federal authorities have decided that so long as the Keetoowahs are in existence there will be trouble and the posse has been instructed to put in jail every member of the society who is known to have taken any part in resisting the federal power.
News Items
– William Davis of Spokogee was fined $10 a minute for breaking the Fourth Commandment over the long-distance telephone.
– Henryetta Free-Lance believes in patronizing home industries and suggests that the town quarantine against Oklahoma whiskey peddlers.
– A South McAlester man threw a match to the ground the other day after lighting his pipe and discovered gas, a bright blaze spring up where the match fell.
100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, February 8, 1923
CITY HALL BILL PASSES SENATE Now Goes To Lower House For Final Passage Oklahoma City, Feb. 8 – Special to Indian Journal Senate Bill No. 86 by Clark Nichols creating a city hall fund for the city of Eufaula passed the senate today. The bill now goes to the lower house for final passage. Senate bill No. 86 was introduced in the upper house by Senator Nichols and the lower house by Representative Saltsman.
The money appropriated for City Hall purposes is accumulated interest in the sinking fund amounting to $17,500.
URGE PEANUT CROP FOR MCINTOSH COUNTY
Under the direction of County Agent Hugh Bankhead and different business firms of Eufaula, circulars are being distributed among McIntosh county farmers stressing the importance of peanuts as a safe and profitable crop to be gown this year. Interested by the reports of successful crops from different districts of the state this year, those interested in diversified farming are seeking to introduce the peanut crop in this county as one means of beating the boll weevil and providing a source of revenue to the farmer.
FIRST SNOW CAME HERE MONDAY NIGHT
A four-inch blanket covered the ground
The first snow of the season visited Eufaula Monday night and continued until noon the following day. The thermometer dropped to 10 above and Eufaula was in the midst of the first real winter of the season. The gas pressure became low and in certain sections of the city, many suffered for the want of heat.
80 YEARS AGO
Thursday, February 4, 1943
EUFAULA YOUTH LOSES EYE WHEN HIT BY SOLDIER Muskogee city officers and military police still were searching last night for the unidentified soldiers involved in a downtown street altercation Monday night that cost Milo Blake Epperson, 20-year-old Eufaulan, his left eye.
Epperson, who was struck by a whiskey bottle thrown by one of the soldiers, according to police, underwent an operation for removal of the eye Tuesday morning at the Muskogee General hospital.
FORMER EUFAULA SENTENCED TO WORK CAMP BY FED. JUDGE David Benjamin White, 30, former assistant professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, Monday, was sentenced by Federal Judge Eugene Rice to five years in a work camp after pleading guilty at Hugo to a charge of violation of the selective service act.
White was indicted January 8, along with 20 others, on charges of violating the act. He previously had registered as a conscientious objector but had refused to report to the camp in California to which he had been assigned by his draft board.
White, whose home is in Eufaula, had asked the court to place him on probation, adding that “I would rather be sent to some work camp by your honor than be drafted.
Judge Rice, in passing sentence, replied, “The country is at war, and I can’t stop to quibble with a man about how he goes into service Also appearing before Judge Rice at Hugo were two former Marshall county sheriffs, Ed Long and John Glenn, who pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy to violate internal revenue laws.
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75 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 23,1948
Neighboring Towns Air Hostile Views On Two-Dam Plan Here
Eufaula on record favoring two dams
Delegations from nine eastern Oklahoma cities and towns voiced their opposition to the two-dam Canadian river flood control project at the U.S. Army Engineers public hearing here Tuesday.
But Eufaula went on the record as favoring the Onapa-Canadian dams, while not opposing the one larger reservoir favored by most of the delegation.
Professionals crack safe
Sheriff Clarence Douglas described as “no amateur job” the cracking of the Onapa School safe and leaving with its $25 contents Tuesday night.
The McIntosh County sheriff has taken fingerprints form the safe for investigation and the possibility of linking the Onapa job with a series of similar safe openings in nearby counties
Two Charged With Robbing Aged County Indian
Two western McIntosh County farm men are free on bond after denying charges of robbing an aged Indian of $540.
The victim Sam Thompson, who speaks very little English, is recovering from a head injury received during the robbery.
Dependents, charged separately with robbery in the first degree, are George Fry, 35, and Daily Been, 32.
50 YEARS AGO
Thursday, March 21,1974
Boxing In Full Swing
A big exhibition fight is scheduled for the finals of the annual Eufaula Boxing Tournament, Saturday, March 23, at the Eufaula Armory.
McAlester’s Harvey “Heavy Duty” McIntosh, weighing considerably over 300 pounds, is entered for a boxing bout with Eufaulas own Bob Williams, weighing 235 pounds.
Pinkston To Seek Sheriff’s Position
This week William R. “Bill” Pinkston has announced his candidacy for the position of Sheriff of McIntosh County on the Democratic ticket.
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25 YEARS AGO
Thursday, February 19,1998
Missing Okemah Man’s Car Found In Lake Eufaula
Haskell County authorities are looking for the owner of a 1988 red Chevrolet Camaro after the car was found in Lake Eufaula Saturday morning.
Jim Terrell, Haskell County Sheriff, said the car’s owner is David Weeks of Okemah. The car was found in the water near Eufaula dam.
A body has not been found.
