HAM, JAMBS R, . INTERVIEW. # 9 0 7 9

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IY FORMWOi<KS PJ<C®ESS ADMINISTRATION

Indian-Pionourmis to i fy Pro jec t for OklahomaHAM, JAME8 R. \ ^lOTKRVIEW. 9 0 7 9 .

Field Worker's nameZaidee B. Bland.

This rjport mado on (date)October 28, 1937,

193

1. NameMr* James R. Ham.

2. Port Of'.1 ice AddressAltua, O&lahoraa.

3. Residence address (or location)

February4. DATS OF BIRTH: Month

421 North Srurgeon Street,

Day15

Year1854.

5. Place of birthAlabama.

6. Name of FatherBright R. Ham.

Place of birthNorth Carolina*

Other information at out father

Polly Ann Jones.7. Namu of Mother Place of bir th

Alabiuaa.

Otner information about mother

Notea or cor.pl, t o n a r r a t i v e by t he f i e l d workor dea l ing w i th t he l i f e and jstory of the v t r s o n in te rv iewed . Rof^r t o Manual f o r su^rxstod s u b j e c t s ]and T.uef>tions» Continue on blank sh-~i;tn if necessary and a t t a c h f i rmly toth i s form. N'imber of sn-:otc a t t ached 10 ,

345HAM, JAMES R. / INTERVIEW. / 9079.

/ /Zaidae B. Bland, /i Interviewer. " ^ / ,Oct. 28, 19S7. / - / .

*An Interview With X. R. Ham,

A Pionoor of Oklahoma. 1888*

r had a nephew who was up hero near Martha, then

Greer County, Texas. The lure of free land ?;&s great in

Freestone County, Texas, where I lived. I cane by t ra in

to Vernon and rode out to Martha on the Mail Hack. Tho

hack was driven hy & red faced Irishman .and ao he handled

the two l i t t l e ponieB he told a fresh t a l e of the wonder

and advtntages of th ie country with every breath until

you almost fe l t l ike you would be l iving in heaven, a t

leaet ir. paradise, if only you could set a c l am to th i s

wonderful p ra i r i e land between the Red Rivera.

The next morning after my arr ivui at Martha ruy

nephew and family -ftent to an a l l day picnic at Uavajo.

I went along, of course. I t was the f i r s t time I had

even seen any Indians and I was a l i t t l e shy of then.

There was a big platform bui l t and the Indians v

danced around and around i t . The platform wan built up

.high so the white people could get a .good view of the

Indians.

There was dinr.er on the ground and you would ce r t -

ainly have thought thet t h i s waB a "Danl flowing with

HAM, jAMiiB R. BJTEHVIEW. 9 0 7 9 . ' * ^

milk and honey", judging by the gfeod t h i n g s t h a t were

spread out for us to help ourselves t o . Everything was

free , red lemonade thrown in* There was no ice but plenty

of lemonade, a t l e a s t tha t was what i t was c a l l e d . I t

was pink in color with round s l i c e s of lemon f l o a t i n g

around on t op , vand was plenty sweet. I t was made

up in b a r r e l s and there were t i n cups to drink from. The

cups were nice and shiny and were t i e d to , the b a r r e l s so

they Gould not be taken away.

While mixing with the crowd and g e t t i n g acquainted

I found a man who had plowed around one sect ion of land

six miles south from Navajo; had a good two room house

bui l t on t h e land and s ix teen ac r e s already broke out

tha t he would r e l inqu i sh to me for $600.00 cash . 1 was

not long in making a dea l with him. I t took about ten

days for the deal to go through sa t i s fac tor i ly then I

hurried back to Fairf ie ld , Texas, to make arrangements

to move my family and stock.

I made arrangements w.ith the nearest neighbor to l"J

house to ooue to Vernon for ny household goods and farm

implements and have them on the place when we arrived..

I planned to ship »uon things and only drive through with

a camping ou t f i t , and bring the l ivestock. '

, JAMES R. INTERVIEW* -9079.347

I\

• \ \JB started from Grose beck with three wagons and

about fifteen head of loose stock, a jack, a jenny, two

col te , a yearling and a small co l t .

My wife had a nursing baby \but she took charge of

one of the wagons* She carried the baby in her lap or\

lay her on the seat beside her* Father drove one wagon

and I had a hired roan drive the other rcagon while I

looked after the loose stock. The days were not l o n g ^ /

and the «eathor very unsettled. One night a f te r twelve

o'clock the worst rain and wind storm I Haas ever out in

came up. The clouds looked black and there was consider-

able lightning when we went to bed. Just a f te r twelve

o'clock" sometime the tent blew down and there ;<as such

a delude of rain that we a l l saved ourselves only by

getting into the wagons, tfe did not h&ve t ine to gather

our bedding so everything was ei ther blown a«ky or was

soaking wet. The lightning and thunder frightened the

stock and caused then to scat ter and run. The jacK was

staked out for we never l e t hia loose a t a i l . He pulled

up h is stake and catne screaming and pawing toward the

wagons wanting humtm company. The hired hand jumped out

of the wagon f i r s t and called to me to come and help sub-

due him* He was crazed with fright but we got him t ied

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up to one of the wagons where he could s t i l l hear ua

talk to him in a soothing voice.

The Jenny had a bell on her neck and we never

thought of tying her up and had it not been for that

bell we probably would not have found some of the stock

again.

The next morning was sunshiny and while ray wife end

the other? gathered the scattered things and r*ried out the

bedding the hired hand and I went to gather the scattered

Btook. Abo'ut three miles fro^ camp we drew re^n and\listened. I could hear the faint tinkle of a bel l . We <

rode over into a dense thicket t\i\& there found the atoct:

with the jenny and her two col ts . The evening v?aa spent

in straightening canp and getting ready to move on the \ "

next day. It was a rough night and the worst one we had.

on the t r i p , although we were ten days coming through and\

camped out every night. \

<7hen we got to Vemoii we found that our\ household

goods had already arrived end the raen had oorae and gottenthem several days before. I t took two wagons to ha.l thoio ha . 1

household goods and bedding although i t had a l l been '

securely in boxes. The only furniture we brought^ was our

\organ and a sewing machine. We thought we could either

HAM, JAMBS H. ' INTERVIEW. 9079. ' 3 4 9

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buy bods, tables and chairs or do without. There were

five feather beds in the boxes with the dishes,, cooking

utenails, v&ek jot , tubs, quilts and Tearing clothes.

Wo were only thirty-f .ve miles frora home so we

decided to canp a/)d take tin early start and echo the

last thirty-five miles iu one day's-drive. We heard

some rtuoors of tho river having been uy but the general

opinion was that ifc had run down enough for 3ofe crossing.

?then we got to the bai:ks of the river there wes quite

a bunch of people ready to cross an-, roue wore r.lresdy

orossing. 1 do not remember just bow it happened but :.-.y

wife*8 wagon got to be the lest in the line. Sone one tied

the jack behind her wagon and we never kne.v how that hap-

pened either for he had not been behind her wagon before.

I was already across *ith nil tLe loose stock. I was

sitting on my horse waiting for my wife's turn to cone

across. She had gotten entirely through the river except

a l i t t l e atrean of water right near tl.e north bank of the

river coming ri^ht elon&fine «hen e l l et% oncu her.horses

stopped and I nonaered what was wrong so - rode out to'raeet

her at once, i could ssee the ttagaa^e^xtling into the quick-

sand. When 1 got to her there that jack WHS behind .her

wagon settling down with his fe9t set. He had balked right

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in the middle of t h a t quicksand and the horses oould not

badge the wagon with him set back on bib.A e3drope l i k e

t h a t . 1 rode up t o my wife and stepped down onto the

wheel of the wagon and l e t her take the baby in her urma

and get on cry horse and r i d e to sa fe ty . 1 got the jaok,

and by beat ing and coaxing lirode hiu out,barebacic then we

had to rescue the horses and wagon. Before v,e got t h a t

wagon out we had s ix horses hitched to the wagon and t h i r t e e n

men l i f t i n g the wagon out of the quicksand. After the delay

we pushed on as f a s t a s pos s ib l e , without stopping to e a t .

I t was a f t e r nine o ' c lock when we got home. The

neighbor, who had been looking for us a l l day heard our

wagons and got on h i s horde barebaci. end caj;e do«n the road

to meet u s , whooping and hol lo ing ' and beat ing h i s

horse with h i e hat u n t i l the horse was qu i t e fr ightened

and you would c e r t a i n l y have thought there was a p r a i r i e

of i r e o r something. He t r i e d to get us to go to h i s dugout

for the nigEt but we were too t i r e d , so simply ?«ent into

the house, spread out our bedding and a l l lay down, too

tired to even eat.

I brought wheat seed *lth me, determined to plant

wheat. I made three straight failures and completely starved

HAM, JiiMES H. ' INTERVIEW, 9079 .

out, losing my seed. 1 leased out to a man for s ix

yearsl, sold off the stock, took my wife and children and

went back to Fairf ield &nd went into the implement busi-

ness, i .

1 sold on a credit bo that a t tha end of-shut aix

years 11 found myself broxe Mg&Jn; I had thi^j. iuno and

i t was time for me to co:.ie b«cl-; to it ur^ein enyv.ay soi ^ ;

back We came and here we are .

When Greer County was declared to be part of Okla-

homa 1 oould only hold one quarter end purchase onfe other

quarter so had to fina sojjse one to prove up on the other

half of .ray section end se l l to tne, which * did, and we

very hi:ppiiy •'>

My section joined fche

rick is bui l t on. i never did l ive in a dugout but had

to steal wood from the Indians.

I always had a great faith ir. Providence and by head-

ing lay hunches, ae soae ,-eople e t i l thec, 1 W&B tavf.d from

trouble more than once.

One day seven or eight of us neighbors dec.iuud to go

over for wood. ?«e liked to gang up that way for company

and to help e*aoh other, too.

HAM. tfAMES H. INTERVIEW. *9079.

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We a l l got aorosa Otter Creek safely and were going

around Long Mountain when they a l l *5ot ahead of me some

way. I gueaa I had to stop to fix the harness or some-

thing. Anyway, as I went to crawl back onto my'wagon I

thought, "Well they are so far ahead of me I ' l l just stop

here and load on t h i s old dry short-length stuff, and go

on back hone". I did just that thing.

"Every man in that crowd was ip inched and had to pay

a fine*besides laying out some days in j a i l . I was only

saved by playing that hunch.

We had to ford a l l streams. I isade i t a practice to

t i e my hind wheels of the wagon whenever I Bterted down a

steep place. Once when I was over alone for wood I was

—driving__f_ou,r_ horses- for I wanted a big load. I did not

try to- drive the team from the wagpn but put my saddle

on one of the wheel mares and drove from her back. The

bank down into Otter Creek was steep whore I started to

cross. I got off arid tied ray wheels ao usual. I got

back into ay saddle and started down. The f i r s t thing I

knew I fe l t a s t ick of wood s t r ike rne in the back. I

did not wa it to look but jumped at ouce from the back of

my nag. 1 landed safely but the load ccine on knockinga

both ray wheel horses down and they in turn dragged the

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front horses to a -atop* The singletree struck the nag

I was riding and rubbed every bit of the hide off her

hip and aide clear to the saddle. I thou'ght now I have

one dead horse if pot oore. X spoke to them and they

quieted at once and 1 b$gan to, unloose them as faet as

1 Could. The i'ront-horses walked out of the water and

stood quietly when they wore loosened. As soon as I

could 1 got the wheel horses loose so they could get up.

There, was notfa sound until I loosened that nag with the

' saddle oh. When she found that she was free'so she could

get to her feet she bounded to*her feet and let*out such

a neigh of joy that-all the mountains echoed the sound.'

The four horses were all pretty badly skinned but all got

well..t

We haa.to go to liavajo for a doctor ao we did not

-have one except when vte thoughjt some one was going to die.

I had alow fever twenty^one days once and the doctor oarae

every day, —vhere were two young doctors there but they* \ •

l iked to go to r o o s t e r f i g h t s so most people had

Dr. Bedding and 1 d id , t o o . Once when my wife l ay t h r e e

days unconscious tne doctor stayed the whole th ree days

and n igh ts and I decided he needed some help ao. T said

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y . . . •<to him, nDon?t you think that I had better get you some ' u

help?** "Yes»n ha eaid t*if you can gat ma aoroe help but

if you get either of thoae rooater fightero at^avajo "

I em giving up the case right' now. If you will wait t i l l

morning I think you will find your wife better and a l l

will be well*. •

The first protracted meeting we attended here was'at

Gates Crossing, on the river under the trees.

People got religion in those days in large doses

and most of the time it wesvenough to las* a lifetirje.

At one of these meetings one of my' very daarest friends

got religion and was baptised^ Mr. Herring, a big

^ been.