PJJTTON, WHHU5L SECOND INTERVISW 9 2 8 8 4 Q

- 8 - ** " ' A f Form A-(S-149)~

' "BIOGRAPHY FORM . ' AiWORKS-.FR0GRE33 ADMINISTRATION "• „ • • * - • .

.Indiar.-Pioneor,. History Project for Oklahoma

PAXTGK, WHEELER. ;>EC0k> BWEHVOT. , ^

Field Worker*s name fffrftfffl Bk Taokltt .

This rejiort made on (date) govanftar 10.. 1937« 193

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1 . Name Ehaeler Paxtm*

2. Post Office Aidress areer County. Oklahoma*

3. Residence address (or location) Jester« greer Cormty, •

4. DATE OF^JIRTH: Month February Day 6 'Year 1877, -

5. Place of bir th Hampshire Couaty» West Virginia on the

Potamae River in a-henn log house built by his father*i. *

6. Name oil Father William M. Paxtoiu . -Place of birth Maryland,

Other information about father Tfaioa aoiaier' of Civil War»

7. • Name of Mother Anna She!Ida Paxton« Place of b i r th Maryl&uSU

' Other information about mother Pioneer woman going far and near

»to help the stick or neighbors in trouble» '. -

Notes or complete narrative1 by the i;i'eld worker dealing -with the l i fe andstory of the" i^rson interviewed. Refer to Manual for "su/.vustod subjectsand questions. Continue, on blank she«.-tn if necessary and attach firmly tothis form* Number of sheets attached n »

PAXTCB, 1HEELER* ' - SECOND INTERVIEW. 9285.

Ethel B. Taokitt,Investigator, • . , " 'Hoy, 10, 1937. ' ] '

. An Interview With Wheeler Paxton,Jester, "Greer Cdunty, Oklahoma.

Relates memories of bis parentsEstablishing a homo in GreerCounty, December 1388 and hisContinuous residence there until1937.

parents, William Marion Paxton, born October ?,

1845; at Cumberland,Maryland, and Anna Melissa Sheilds

Paxton^ bo«i May 2, 1846, in Maryland, were of good German\

Americanv stock and came to Tex ts after the Civil War, in

which Father had serred as a soldier on the Union side,and

settled in Dallas County, where they lived until 1888,

In December of 1888 they loaded bedding, clothing end

cooking utensils into covered wagons, drami by pretty good

horse teams and with us ooys driving some milic cows along

they started for Greer County where they hoped to secure

land and make a permanent home as it was thought that Greer

Cotsnty would belong to Texas when the law-suit between the

Federal Government and Texas was settled and the people

would not again be ordered out, as they had been in 1885*

PAXTOH, WHEELER* SECOND INTKKVIKW. 9 2 3 5 * "

The weather was very cold and camping out on the

prairie in the winter time was a hard task* There was

l i t t l e wood except along creeks or in the slnk-holos along

the way ol the wagon track road between Doan's Crossing on

- the Bed River xand Hangum which was the only town on the way.

We settled on a claim nine miles north and thirteen

miles west of Mangum; S~9, T-6.' 3 . R-24 ff. and in the side

of the second bank of Deer Creek, Father and Mother picked

'out the spot where Ve would dig our dugout* . - *

The place was where a small gully cut througir^he

second bank of the creek and l e f t a sl ightly sloping ground

of seYaral hundred yards down to the creek, which had Quite

a lot of timber in those days and plenty of water but i t

was very hard "gypn and, f i t for nothing but stock water.

We w«at to work and dug back into the bank a home

about twelve feet wide and fourteen feet long and about f ire

jfeet deep* The ground *a? red d a y and we smoothed i t as

wa dug throwing the dirt out in front to make a level yard.

Then we cut a big tree do?ra on the creek and peeled off the

bark, cutting other good sized logs which were alsc peeled*

This was done to keep the wood worms from boring and weak*

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PAITON, 1HE&ER. . ciECOND BJTEaVTSW, . 9835*

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the" timbers. The smaller logs were placed ar-ouad''

the top of the excavation, to the h'eight to which the

wails were to be bui l t , and the front end w**s not dug

into..the ground, .so was walled up with pickets,.leaving'

a door and a window in the.front, , The big log,. or.jidge

pole was plaeed across the top with the back esd resting

on the logs in the rear and the front en,d resting in the

fork-of pos-fe; ia this way the ridse pole was rai-sed aboye

the sides giving slope to the r.oof. Then frort the sides'

to the ridge pole small poles were 1-vid quite close to- •• r

t '

and over these was spread the green bar& vfhXch had

bee'n^ s t r ipped ' f rom the logs»« CJottonwood f^are heavy bark*t *

, From «ome nearby jjancfcmea we secured prair ie hay which

we spiwad evenly orer me bark, them over, a l l this we ahovel-

ed a good thick layer* of the clay, that had been £ug out of

the hole* Much care and judgment had to be -^sed in build- -i

ing a dugout, else the ibop might be too heavy for' the ridge-

pole and when i t a l l got wet during a long rain spell- i t

would cave in* Another reason for building the dugout on. •

sloping ground was to get good drainage* We bui l t .a fire

place in the back and walled up the chimney with native

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rocks* The floor was of hard packed earth* We moved into

this dugout, aa soon, as possible for i t sas "wanner than the

teat in which we were living. . the door and window shutters

were hoo^-nade»

We went right cm building;.:'.: nether dugout room justv

liKe the f i rs t and .near i t , "and when the second-dugout room

was completed, we covered over the* open space in 'front of

the two dugoute with a roof Kade in -the manner ,described^

and thia p.ade a covered' ;,orch which a-dded nuch comfort to

the dugouts. The,roof was watched rjad ^hen a leak appeared

someone would take a spade and-cover the. hole with d i r t .

This siade a "good-roof to keep out :aia and «duot but spidera,

centipedes. tarantulas and.snakes also found that i t Bade a

fine home Tor thesu • There were seven of us children at

home.and withTather and Mother there were nine perscns~T5

a l l and we- lived in this dugout for a number of /

We be^n to try to fara as soon as possible, but farm-

ing was not very profitable as there was no machinery ea!-

-eept a few horse drawn sulky plows and for many yen*a grain. *

binders eai^iorse^drawn threshing inachines were- almost, un-

heard bf^lUxuries. When we £ould ^ow and thresh wheat i t

PAXTOB, WHE3LER. oaCOND. INTERVIEW,

had tovbe hauled seventy-fi^e-miles to Veraon, Texas,'

% to be sold» The hauling was done by wagon orer unworked\

roads and the wheat sold for 35 cents a bushel. \' V

We always had plenty of rood, coarse food as v?e had

brought our own milk covs r i th us. In the fal l , Toother

would churn rjreat quantities of butter which was sweet

and go"od because of the cows running out on the prairie

grass* . This butter was well worked into, fins round balls*

then these were trapped in squares of soft white cloth cut

from pieces of well laundered flour sac?: and dropped iato

a keg of brine. TJbds continued as lon.3 as the ccws gave N \

milk, which was not so late in the fall as all cattle de-

padded upon the gr^ass for feed snci gave l i t t l e milk in the

winter.^!his butter had to be soaked in clear wrter to

extract tne salt aerore using, but lffcgrrtr-ging ana great

churns and kegs of,^butter -is*t:lk were stored* a%>y in cool* « •

places for winter ase.

We usually killed two young beeves through the winter.

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^These t?ere dressed and hung in luarJtfiT.ajDjt of doors, either _

• ^n^a tree or between two hif;h p_osts so that dogs, wolves

and other animals could not ^et at -them, • Some of the beef

PA2T0N, «aSBL2R» oJiCOND 2BTEHVIK&. B285«

was out in str ipe sad hzrng up to dry« We also bought

mutton fro© some of the sheepmen but pork v?as not used

as there were no hogs in tha country* Baef and mutton

tallow were used exclusively as shortening. Black-eyed

- peas were unknowns, by u» then, but we grew great amounts

*~ of what we called yellow crov,der peas , saved thesa for

winter and .^Te what we did not need to the neighbors.

Cushaws gres easily aad'v.ere gathered and stored ia small

dugouts used Tor £.heds aaS out-house3 and « s needed they

were brought in,chopped in i-iece^ raid baked in the oven

like sweet ^otatoea. Peanuts Tieve the only kind of nuts

to be had but we grew lots of the;.. _nd vatus p&i,aora; and

for f ru i t , wild pluns and ^rai^ea gathered'in their

season.isere dried and nade into jelly mt. preserves. Some

jolly and preserves were put up in jars but £l£ss, fruit

jars were not so easy. to secure then as at present. Ereaft •

meat was easy to secure by ki l l ing ^.uail and prair ie ch'iek-

ens and a wild turkeys could be had by taking a l i t t l e

tine to hunt their location out on the r iver .

Wa continued to farm this land and my parents lived

to aee well worked roads in every direction, bui l t a good

... 48PAXTOB, WHRKLER» SLCOND 'iHTERTESW. * 9285.

house era the land, had a telephone, automobile and othpr

modem, conveniences, with a good church building erected

within one mile of the. tree OR our land >mder which the

neighbors would gather on Sunday for services because

there was no -church nor school house near.

Wy parents are both at rest in the Jester Cemetery,

one mile east of the old homestead rhieh is vet in* the

faxaily, Four of us children s t i l l l ive in Cld-iVorta in

this same CGrrcunity and I have served Sreer County as s.

representative and in every ether v*>.y porsibie. liy

brother, Blain Paxton, hac served the Jeater coctiunity as

rural sai l carrier for twenty ye^r^rrhil.c the other tvio

boys, Quite and Tem],le are far:iiac» I served (*Peer C6>mty• - ' ' /

In ths Souse of Rei?re&entativos . f Oklahoma from :?over:ber

2>), 1930 to Hovesiber jgO, 1934.

^oere was no way for a boy t o make any wane? a s J>

grew u p , exce. t a s a job could be secured %ith son© cow

o u t f i t and I was of a " n a s t e r " fatafTy, so was no t so

acquainted vrith the ways of the r an je as was a boy who

belonged t o a cowman's family .

49

PA2T0H, aSEZLSfi. "' . oEC0:<D IMTBiflTUSK. 9285.

I was a s t rapping youngster for my age and- longed

for the time t o a r r i y^ when 1 would Le old enough to be

permitted by iuy pa ren t s to get a job and bacorce a cowboy*

At l^ust when X" was about fourteen yeors old the round-up

wagon s t a r t e d out on I'raiu. Jimpuon's ran.36 j u s t to the

south of w home and to iLy del ight X ot a job as a ho r se -

r u s t l e r wuieh. uesnt t h a t 1" had t o look a f t e r a l l the saddle

horses for the ^hoie o u t f i t , see ' tha t none, of ti*e/;: ran away

ana went back to the i r hj..e r u i ^ e , SJ& t h a t a l l v?ere un—

hobbled when the ranrnda s t a r t u d , see that a l l were Vr-itered

and herded on /,o d *rass ^nd lo-ddea a l l t h i ^ i v,\ao supposed

to get %':od for the cooU -and otLoi'..iscj ac^t -.3 =^iferal yhore• " i

boy for the outfit. Getting v.jod'Vas aoTiutle tas^, as i t

all had to be drained iith-.g?;r©&<_ tia_ tj'the'hom of the

saddle in sufficient^^t^silty to not only dv> the crowing

for the ou fit>S54.rfche branding ol^o and .he^ i t is. taken

intot-j^l^^^^rtion:- that there were ,isu:,lly twenty-five or

rfcyjj&enHLn the outfit and hundred- of cslvei, t^ be braad-

>.; ©d with vfood fire branding irons and that «ood aras only to

be fotmd on creeKe and sink-holeL in this part af the coun-

try, i t is easy to understand that thehorse-T.-ran^ler had

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PAXTGH, WHEELER. SECOND INTERVIEW. 5295 ,

plenty to keep him busy, but I was proud of my job and

thoroughly enjoyed i t for the old t isa cow outfit ^sasa

jolly bunch;always looking for someone oa.whom to play

a practical joke; I was an easy inark and they -^od

naturedly set about teaching me a lot of. things by

experience.

From wagon-boss down, each cowboy helped'with any-

thing which needed his assistance in the work and soreone

always assisted me i s getting the srood*' * *

One day ire were leaking camp and Ellison Carroll ^ho

was then wagon-fbess and who later becans the roiOd's

" / - ^champion »op€ap, with Luther Clark who i s now a notfx! cor-man and banker of Tex^s were helptag dro^ up "wood tied to

the horns of thair saddles. I was ^reen as any '^id could.

be, and thought I Was quite a r ider, so they told ras that

my horse was very undesirable aad had a sore back, -so that

I had better t i e 'the wood to my horse's t a i l instead of to•• -

the horn of my saddle* I thought so.tooi so. rm4t of f

"held the hor.sefs nose while the other tied the wood to his

t a i l an'3 I sat ready to ride. !?hey turned "tHe horse loose

and over'the rough 'ground we tfeat. back to eanp* I stuck

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PAX3K5H* WHEELER. ' JJICOMD JNTSKVISW, - ^

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on but t h a t was about a l l and i t VJSS t he roughest rite

> I ever exper ienced . They had a l o t of fim a t iTy expense

but I Tiacl learned my l e s son by "the t5me I ^sade the h a l f

mile bacjk: to e m p . ' s " . '

In November of 1092, I 7/ent with a t r a i l herd of

beef *ea t t l e from t h i s satte range to 7.'oo&??ard -which 7?aa

the shipping point for thin section of the ca t t l e country.

In th i s outf i t were soine of the rea l pioneer cpttlemen of

• old Greer Co-anty^ I give the i r r.aien so tha.1 they 33iay be

recor'decU Jaiass G« Tackit t , Bud 31ockcr, ~6Z ClavJich,

Nigle Cla\inch, Dr-1 Nix, L. A.. Jahnscn and John Ecyin^tcn.

\?hen.v?e reached, the South Cv»mdi«ji r iver at •: evcs.s-

ing. about Wo rtdlos above1 tho jTesm.t.L!"^ s?ddle brtdg.<3 * ^,

* on Highway Nur.bGr EHS, recfcund that th& river res n>\c*vt

ar-d i t was a hard matter t:\ force the'beef ea t t le i r t ' - the

, deep water,' buti at l a s t ^f ter -xich j /ork^n^ '.'irectipn by

the long experienced cov.^en, the herd was forced to cross* %

'Kien I with tw^ other cowboys wss aedt back, to brine •'.he

ccx»k and the cback-wti^cn which Cfjried the bedding and a l l

the extra clothing of th» o u t f i i . .

PATTOH, WHEELER-. '- SiCOND 2MEHVTEW. ' ' ' 9285 .

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A rope was t i e d to the wagon tongas and to t h e horn

of the saddle and a man rode in f ron t of each horse

h i tched to t h ^ wagon, t he cook drove t a e team aad t he

t h i r d cowboy t i e d a rope zo xae up s ide of t h e wagca about

the middle to soop i t frqa drifting down stream and in this

way we expected to make i t across, .bat failed. $he quick-

sand caught the a-agon and team and. try as we would they

could not be saved. I had taken off my clothing and put

i t into the tva on to keep dry for I was yet inexperienced.

We lost the isa on with the bedding, grub, ,and everything

that was ia i t . 'Jo lives *ere lost, but I had no cloth-

ing except; a p;u;r of socks and a slicker and I rode two

days vitu no clothing but socks auu slicker and the second

day 1 oet a soldier v;ho gave a& a. pair^f sunder weight-9-

white trousers. Mono of the uutfit had any clothes to

v spare but we delivered tiie cattle to tife railroad which

shipped theii-t,*'then returned noias v/ith a pack outfit* 1

am the only &etx>er of Uiis outfit now living, in Moveaber,

19.37. - *\