John Lafayette Vaughan and Belle Starr

When I first got into genealogy in middle school, the first materials I was given were about my mother's family, the Vaughans. My great aunt Dale had materials she'd gotten from her cousin Colleen, her aunt Lou, and other relatives, and she brought copies for me to a family reunion at Robber's Cave State Park near Wilburton, Oklahoma. I still have all the original copies of those papers she gave me because they started my life-long obsession with genealogy on a great footing.

One of the items she gave me was an undated photocopy of a newspaper article about my great great grandfather John Lafayette Vaughan. It was called "Death of Belle Starr" recalled. A writer for the McAlester News-Capital named Baird Martin would comb through the paper's archives every so often looking for interesting articles to reprint. One of the articles Martin found was an interview given by Vaughan to a reported named Charles H. Cowles.

Martin pulled only a handful of quotes and gave a summary of the interview, but I always wanted to find the full, original interview. I eventually found out the reprinted article was from about 1968, but he never gave the date of the original article's publication, only stating that it was published some 35 years prior to his re-hashing of the article. McAlester's newspaper was never digitized for general public consumption, so I never had a way of finding the article short of requesting all the microfilm for roughly 1932-1934 and combing it day by day.

Recently I learned that the McAlester newspapers, including the News-Capital, had in fact been digitized, but most were only available on-site at the McAlester Library. You had to be logged into their Wi-Fi to access these archives. Fortunately, one of the librarians, Christopher Elliott, was kind enough to dig around enough in the papers from the early 1930s until he found what I needed.

The article was better than I could have ever dreamed it would be. The only negative was that the writer stopped his interview halfway through and said it was "to be continued" in a later edition...but he never continued it. His next article referenced a couple more stories from Vaughan, but did not pick up where the first interview left off with Vaughan discussing Judge Parker and the trial for Belle Starr's killer. Mr. Elliott could not find that second half of the interview, and when I finally connected to the McAlester Wi-Fi myself to search day-by-day in June of 1933 for it, I also could not find it.

I even had the inkling to contact descendants of Mr. Cowles to see if by chance his notes had survived in any capacity. I found that he died in prison in Detroit in 1941, but I don't know why he was sent to prison. Besides the McAlester News-Capital, he had worked for the Detroit Free Press before coming to Oklahoma and working for various newspapers. By 1940, he is enumerated in the Census for that year in prison; I am certain it is the same person because he gives his 1935 residence as "McAlister, OK". Genealogy websites indicate he did have 4 children, but I have not yet reached a descendant to find out if notes that might contain the second half of his interview with John Lafayette Vaughan might be around. It's a ridiculously long shot, but I want to leave no stone unturned.

But given the unlikelihood that the second half will be found, I am forced to be happy with the parts I do have. And believe me, I am thrilled about finally having his full interview after around 20 years of wishing for it. It gives explicit details about his connections to Belle Starr, her husband Sam, her daughter Pearl, her father-in-law Tom, and others and confirms a lot of the family legends about his connection to the Starr family. For a full biography of his very interesting life with over a dozen pictures of him, please see my recently updated blog post here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-lafayette-vaughan-belle-starr.html

Without further ado, here is my transcription of Vaughan's interviews. You'll note that the original article does not actually include his name as the source of the information, but a correction was published the next day proving he was indeed the interview's orator. I have made a handful of corrections/amendments for spelling and clarity which are indicated by brackets.

John Lafayette Vaughan as a young man in his late teens or early 20s, around the age he would have been during the events his discusses in this interview. 

McAlester News-Capital – 4 Jun 1933 – Page 8

County Pioneer Tells Interesting Story of Contacts with Territorial Days’ Outlaws

[Author not stated; should be Charles H. Cowles]

The worst desperado, the greatest man-killer that ever roamed the wilds of Oklahoma, was a giant, seven feet three inches in height, weighing 270 pounds and wearing No. 16 shoes. He could not buy shoes in the stores—had to have them made to order. This blood-thirsty fiend was Tom Starr. He never stole a horse or robbed a bank or [train]. He was a gambler and a very successful one. His home was the [Briartown] settlement where the town of Porum now stands.

“I lived on the place of Martin Crowder, an aged Indian, 40 miles northwest of McAlester on the Canadian river five miles from Tom Starr’s home, and this aged man became very friendly with me and told me what Tom Starr had imparted to him.

Tom Starr. Courtesy of The James Scrolls blog. 

Old Tom told him he had never killed many Choctaws, only 50, but he had killed an enormous number of Creeks, Seminoles, and other wild tribesmen. He said he never kept count of the number but that he had of the Choctaws.

I think Tom must have been born in the early ‘40’s [Note: Actually born about 1813] as he had a house full of grown boys when I first saw him.

He told my old friend, Martin Crowder, that he had been able to avoid suspicion through his ability to walk fast. He said he would go out early at night and kill someone that he did not like. Authorities would search the country for 40 miles around but by morning he was 75 or 80 miles away. He was half white and half Cherokee. I don’t know what white race he sprang from but I would venture to say he was Irish because of his great endurance. He could walk faster than a horse and was long-winded.

Tom Starr had quite a lot of land, and fine land, too. His son, Sam Starr, was the husband of the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr. His other sons were Frost, Tom, Tuxie, and Charley. Tom Stair, when I knew him, said he had never known but one honest white man. He said that man would gather corn and put it in three piles in the field and then call him and say, take your pile. He declared that was an honest man.

One time, Tom was in the heavy bottoms, playing cards, when his horse snorted. He told the 10 or 15 men with whom he was playing that the enemy was getting close and he was getting out. They made fun of him and he said: ‘All right, boys, I am going, and you can stay if you want to.’ He straddled his horse and let the steed choose the direction to go. He hadn’t gone 200 yards before officers, who were advancing, opened fire and they killed every last man except Tom Starr, who escaped.

Tom and another man became hungry one day and went to a house and asked for something to eat. Refused, Tom told his partner to watch the woman, who was alone with a baby, while he went to the kitchen. When he returned, he killed his partner, the woman, and the baby and left all the bodies on the porch. He told Martin Crowder he didn’t know what the people would think when they came home and found them all dead on the porch.

The name of Tom’s wife was Lucy. One time he was coming home and he crossed the farm of Bill Gibbens who was at work. He said: ‘Bill, I am going to see Lucy and the children and don’t you tell I am here or I will kill you, as sure as you are a white man.’ ‘I would not tell on you for anything, Uncle Tom,’ was the reply. But Tom did not tryst him. He slipped around between [Bill] and his house and waited. Not long afterward, he heard Bill coming on a little gray pony, tippity tip, tippity tap, and he stepped out, saying: ‘You know what I told you.’ Bill declared he was not going to tell, saying he had broken a singletree and was going for repairs. ‘You know what I told you,’ said Tom, and he made him get off the pony. He shot him and rolled his body off a bluff. Then he shot the pony and rolled it off the bluff, too.

For some time, Tom Starr was on the warpath, the objects of his hatred being the Cherokees. At the start, he would take a few men with him. He took a notion to kill the chief of the Cherokees. The chief was afraid of him and he took a guard of 50 men whenever he went to court. Tom Starr took his brother, Jim Starr, and a little fullblood, whose name I have forgotten, and slipped up on the court house. The little fullblood went to the door and the other two went around to a window and shot and killed the chief. The guards rushed out and began firing on the two brothers. There was a patch of two or three acres between the court house and the brush where they had hid their horses. They walked backwards, fighting all the time, towards the brush. Tom had a big shotgun and he had put a handful of blue whistlers in each barrel. One shot killed six guards. The guards poured the lead around them so that Jim Starr proposed they run and then declared he was going to run by himself. Tom told him he was saving a shot for him if he did run. They fought all the way and got to their horses and fled to safety.

The Cherokees waylaid Tom later on and fired into him, killing his horse. The animal fell on his leg, spraining Tom’s ankle. He managed to get from under. He could no run, so he crawled. Picking up a stone that weighed two or three pounds, he hurled it into the bushes with terrific power. The Indians thought it was Tom running, and went in that direction while Tom crawled farther away. Then he threw another rock or two to carry them on in another direction while he made his escape. The Indians offered to make a treaty with him but he would not quit, saying he would not trust them, but he said he would observe a treaty if it was signed by authorities of the United States government. The treaty was made and he settled down and lived peaceably.

One time after all this happened, I remember Jeff Serrett, an Indian officer in federal uniform, went to arrest Tom Starr. He told him it would be an impossibility to effect an arrest, saying he never had been arrested, and he never would be. He finally told him he would ride with him to the place where he was wanted but he would never consider himself under arrest.

When Uncle Tom was about to die, his boys gathered around his bed and he covered his face with his hands and said he did not want his boys to see him die; that he did not want them to think that a man as brave as he was had to die. I am satisfied that he was the greatest man killer Oklahoma ever had.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Belle Starr was born at Carthage, Mo., the daughter of a man named Shirley, a hotel man. She started out on her bandit career because federal army officers killed her twin brother, Ed Shirley. I always thought she named her son, Ed, in honor of her twin brother. She married a man named Reed, not Jim Reed, who is often referred to as her husband. Her husband was killed in Texas. Belle lay out in the woods with the body all night, and afterwards drifted to the Starr settlement and to the home of Tom Starr. After she and Sam Starr were married, they removed across the South Canadian river to Younger Bend. The only children Belle ever had were Ed Reed and Pearl Reed. At her death she did not look to be over 35. She was older than she looked. I lived there on the Crowder place and I heard the shot that killed Sam Starr. I was within a mile of the spot where he met death.

Frank West, who killed him, was a Cherokee officer. The Wests and the Starrs did not get along well together. The Wests were officers. They had a dance at Aunt Lucy Sterrett’s house, on Macharr creek, a mile west of Whitefield. [Note: John’s younger brother Stephen, who died in 1885, is buried at Whitefield.] West was living in the Briar settlement. Frank fixed up to go to the dance and his wife, a fine-looking, bright, yellow-haired Cherokee woman, said: ‘Don’t go, Frank. You know there is liable to be some shooting.’ Frank replied: ‘You don’t need to worry about me. I can shoot as fast as any man.’ He went on to the dance. There was a big fire out in the yard. Frank was standing near the fire and Sam Starr walked up, saying, ‘Frank, what did you shoot my horse for?’ At the same instant, he cut West’s [jugular] vein with a bullet. Before a person could blink an eye, West shot Sam Starr in the breast with a .45. As Frank West was falling, he saw Daniel Fulsom, a 14-year old Indian boy, running and, mistaking him for Sam Starr, put a bullet through his head. The bullet penetrated his jaw, coming out on the left cheek. Dan had been my playmate at times and I went to see him. He suffered terribly but he recovered and for four years was the best sheriff Haskell County ever had.

Sam Starr on left, John Lafayette Vaughan on right. Courtesy of Jerry White.

Frank West and Sam Starr were carried into the house and laid down together. There was a little jackleg doctor there; I forget his name. Frank West said to the doctor: ‘I am killed and Sam Starr done it.’ The doctor replied: ‘Well, Frank, you killed Sam.’ ‘How do you know?’ Frank asked. ‘He is dying now,’ said the doctor. ‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ said Frank, and he died peacefully.

Belle Starr, after this, fell in with another long-haired Cherokee Indian whose real name was Bill July but he called himself John Starr. I lived close by where they were living. Belle was a fine looking woman. There were no charges against her in the courts at that time. I went to her place lots of times and carried her and her daughter, Pearl, to dance. I carried Pearl to a good many. At one time, Belle made a contract with a man on my side of the river to come over there and clear some land and live on her place. They had some differences. Belle had such a bad name and Young Bend was a place to be shunned, so hardly anyone dared go in there. They asked for someone to go in and see her and try to effect a compromise. They wanted me to go and I said I would not care to go in by myself in a case like that but if Lige Fain would go with me, I would undertake it. Fain and I went and fixed u the trouble without any difficulty. Belle invited us to come back and go with her New Year’s night to Briartown and take in the Cherokee dance. That suited me all right, I did not want any trouble but was out just for fun. My partner, Fain, had a wife and could not go. I ran my saddle across the river in a skiff and walked about two miles up to Belle’s. Pearl and I caught a couple of horses and put them in a corral. When we went to get them, it was pretty dark—only starlight, and the horses were shy. John Starr (Bill July) roped five head and never missed a throw. Although it was night, he never failed to catch each one by the left front foot. Some roping, I say. Five of us—Lula Cobb, John Starr, Belle Starr, Charles Acton, and I—went to the dance. Pearl did not go.

Pearl Starr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

When we were riding seven miles through the mountains, Belle said to me, knowing I was young and unsophisticated: ‘No man ever rides this trail but once.’ I think she just wanted to scare me. I replied, ‘Well, this trail doesn’t look very bad to me.’ It was fashionable then for everybody to wear a gun that wanted to. There was no law against it. A gun was nice and handy. There was lots of game. I liked to carry one. Belle said: ‘Let’s slip up on the porch, knock the door open and all go in at one time.’ We did. They looked pretty wild and shy when they saw who was in the party. I took the girl I had carried there and John Starr took Belle out on the floor and want to dancing. Later, when Belle was dancing with Ike Reynolds, a brown curly-headed fellow with a six-shooter, my partner and I walked out and the floor was full. Belle said to me: ‘Fate, you take this fellow’s place.’ My name is Lafayette and she called me Fate. I was afraid that would stir up trouble. I did not approve of it but they gave back and gave us the floor. The man that Belle pushed back, however, sat in the corner and kept growling, saying something about it might be all right one time, etc. I was told he had killed seven men. Belle dashed up to him and gave him a round of good cussing and said she did not mean to take his place—that he could dance with us. I looked for a shooting every minute but I had some with her and I had to stand hitched. John Starr presented himself with a fun mighty quick and it sure looked dangerous.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Biography.com.

Someone stole give red double blankets, that cost $5 apiece, from our saddles. Charles Acton started a search and found them 200 yards from the house in a crack in the fence, brought them back and put them under our saddles. When we started home the second time, they were gone again and we had to ride without them. John Starr took a six-shooter and went in the house and told them he knew who stole the blankets and cussed around. They said if they ever did catch one of us to ourselves they’d sure wait on us. Belle told me like this: ‘I have quit all my meanness and I don’t intend to do any more dirt if I am left alone, but the old lion is still there, asleep.’ Things went on very peacefully, until Edgar Watson came into the picture. He was an out-law and his wife told the wife of Jack Roe, who lived two miles from Belle’s house, that he had killed seven men with the gun he had then. She said he would go and plot and leave the team in the field and kill someone he was mad at and return to his plowing, with never a suspicion.

Some horses were stolen somewhere by Edgar Watson, John Starr and Belle’s son, Edgar Reed. Officers crowded them and [John] Starr held them back with a large rifle while Edgar Watson and Ed Reed pushed the horses on. They got separated and Ed Reed wrote a letter to Watson. Jack Roe got the letter and Watson, being on his place, he carried it to the house and put it in a crack on the porch. Belle Starr came along, recognized the handwriting as that of her son and took the letter to the fire and opened it with a pencil, read it and sealed it and put it back. She said she did not want her boy stealing horses and that she was going to prosecute Watson for getting her boy into it. Jack Roe told Edgar Watson what Belle said and he exclaimed with an oath: ‘I’ll kill her!’

The afternoon she was killed, February 3, 1890, the folks where I lived heard the shot. I was in Brooken, eight miles away. She was killed about 2 o’clock. When I reached home, I heard about it, grabbed a bit to eat and got to the scene just after the crowd there had lifted her body into a wagon. It was getting dark. Pearl, her daughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Newt Pearson, neighbors, had stayed with the body all afternoon. They were just ready to drive away when I arrived. I saw her body washed and laid out. She had fallen into a mudhole when she was shot. She had as beautiful a smile as I ever saw her wear when she was alive. She looked natural as life. I was staying with Turner G. England at the time and he and Jack Roe followed the tracks from where she was killed to the fence, as I did afterward.

Belle sitting side-saddle on her horse. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Belle’s horse was hitched to Roe’s fence a short time before the murder and Roe’s folks saw Edgar Watson ride up close enough to see the horse and recognize it. Then he wheeled about and went back toward his farm. Everyone in that country heard the report of the fun. They said it was the most alarming gun ever heard in that bottom. He had a double-barreled muzzle loading shotgun. The road there comes up through the timber from the bottom. There was brush along the fence for quite a ways and there was an open place in the rail fence. Where the brush stopped there was a small walnut tree on the inside of the fence. That is where Watson hid. He let her pass him and then fired on her. I could see the place where she was shot as the horse stove his feet into the ground there. Three buckshot ranged from her shoulder to her heart. She stuck to the horse about 30 or 40 feet. Then there were the tracks. I could see where he had jumped the fence. She rode sideways all the time. I never saw her without a nice dress. She fell on her right shoulder and arm. There were the tracks where he ran up and shot her in the side of the face with a load of fine shot. She was not dead then, for she had raised her hand to protect her face. He shot the ring from her left ear and we never could find it.

We sat up with the body that night. In the morning, when it was good and light, I looked over the ground. There was shotgun paper all over the tracks of the horse where they stove in.

Bill July, Belle’s husband, was in Fort Smith that night and we sent to Eufaula and telegraphed. The Fort Smith elevator people said he left Fort Smith at daybreak, crossing Poteau river on a little brown horse, and had a quart of whiskey, headed for Younger Bend and swearing vengeance. I was there at his place and at 2 o’clock he rode up on a lope. He had covered the distance, at least 78 miles, between dawn and 2 p.m., and the horse didn’t weigh over 850 pounds. This was a wonderful horse. It belonged to Morris Craft and he got it from Mark [Kuykendall].

Judge Isaac Parker. Courtesy of https://sites.rootsweb.com/~oktttp/IT/history/parker/index.html

Belle’s mother came from Texas. She was a fine, intelligent appearing woman. Another man and I dug the grave, three feet, and then others came and helped finish it. She was buried in a nice wooden coffin and a walnut box to set it in. The lumber was taken from the house in which I lived. Edgar Watson had the nerve to attend the funeral and help throw dirt on the coffin. He went in the house and came out with a coat and I thought he had an ashen color to his face. I saw the arrest of Edgar Watson after the funeral. I thought they were going to shoot him. Judge Parker asked T. G. England why he didn’t track Edgar Watson to his house and his reply was a question: ‘If you tracked a lion to his den, would you go in on him?’ His opinion was that Watson was a dangerous man and he did not care to risk his life.

Cole Younger. Courtesy of True West Magazine.

Judge Parker telegraphed Cole Younger, who was serving time in the Minnesota penitentiary, and he declared she wasn’t his wife and that he had never been married. He said he might have seen Belle Starr but had no recollection of it. He was sure that he would have known of it if she had married his brother, Bruce Younger.”

(To Be Continued)

McAlester News-Capital – 5 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Name Omitted By Error

The pioneer, who was quoted in the News-Capital Sunday in regard to Tom Starr, the giant outlaw of half a century ago, and his daughter-in-law, the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr, is J. L. Vaughan of Ulan, who has lived in these parts 52 years. His name was inadvertently omitted.

John Lafayette Vaughan in his middle age.

John Lafayette Vaughan in the late 30s or early 40s. 

McAlester News-Capital – 15 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Today and Yesterday

By C. H. C. [Charles H. Cowles]

“Here you are, now make the best of it.” This is the way J. L. Vaughan of Ulan says he was turned loose in Indian Territory in 1881 at the age of 15. “I could be a good boy. I could steal. I could kill. I had no school; no education. Instead of trying to study mathematics and penmanship, I studied horsemanship and gunmanship. But I always managed to keep the good will of the good people. I was born in National park in the Ozark Mountains July 19, 1866. My father was a soldier four years in the Union army and my uncle, Capt. [Napier], also. After the Civil War, my uncle was killed from the brush by a mob while he was sheriff. My father was dead. I was brought here by my widowed mother and older brothers. I rode horseback quite a bit and I practiced shooting and got to be pretty good at it. I have killed many a deer, turkey, and squirrel with a six-shooter.

-----*-----

One time, when I was riding around in this thinly settled country, I came onto a dead Indian on the edge of a prairie. My horse was afraid and I was proud that I had a steed that could make fast time in going away from there. When I hit the Big San Bois bottoms at the north end of Cougar Mountain, near where Blaine is now, I heard the most terrible moaning and groaning any man ever listened to. It came from under some heavy underbrush and some large trees. That made me saddle a little faster. After I crossed the creek, I ran onto about 10 armed me, huddled together in the road. I did not know if they were going to do to me what they had done to the others or not. But I gamed up and rode right up to them and spoke as I passed. Some of them just grunted as I went by. A day or so later I heard they had killed a lot of horse thieves in there that day. I was told they killed 10 about two miles from Hoyt.

-----*-----

The Indians didn’t think they could have a good ball game without killing someone. I didn’t go to these games on that account. Just previous to one game, Sheriff Lucas had given his deputy a bat in the head during some trouble. It was a day or two before the game. He was still sore. He walked up to the sheriff and severed his jugular vein with a piece of hot lead. Sheriff Lucas leaped on his horse and the deputy jumped on his to follow the sheriff. But a half Choctaw and half negro shot the deputy off his horse with a Winchester. The half-breed jumped on a horse to leave when the son of the deputy, Nicholas Willards, picked up a gun and shot him down.

-----*-----

Near where Stigler now stands, there was a nine mile stretch in the ‘80’s on which a man named Sweden lived in the only house. Sweden claimed to be a deputy United States marshal. A man by the name of Willard married his niece and they were living here with Sweden and his wife. One day Willard and Sweden’s niece got into a quarrel. Mrs. Sweden went to the field saying she would send her husband, Louis, to settle the trouble. Willard procured Sweden’s rifle. Sweden was a powerful man and Willard knew he would be nothing in his hands. Sweden rushed into the yard. Willard stepped to the door and shot him through, just below the arms. I saw his body. Willard started to the friend where John Sweden, a son, was working, and gave him a chase. He shot at him but the young man got away. Then Willard hunted the woman. She knew what would happen and ran. He fired on her, shooting her through the back, the bullet coming out at the left breast. I saw the bodies of these people.

-----*-----

Jim Reed. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

I remember well the outlaw, Jim Reed. He was not Belle Starr’s husband although many say he was. They just get confused. He was a fine marksman. He could hit a man’s hand with a six-shooter at 100 yards. He was always keeping a lookout for U. S. Marshal [Bass] Reeves. One day Jim Reed came to the Canadian Rive at Whitefield with a man named Spooney. He told Spooney he would not go to the store as there might be some laws there. Spooney heard a shot and looked back and saw Reed throw up his hands. Then he heard another shotgun crack and Reed crumpled to the ground. I saw him after he was killed. It was supposed Sam Starr shot him with a shotgun. At one time, [Bass] Reeves killed a cook and Judge Parker let him go on account of his great usefulness as a marshal. Reeves promised the judge he would go anywhere he wanted papers served. A story is told about Reeves and a posse being after a terrible man who was roaming among the Indians. These marshals gathered up posses and arrested bad characters and hauled them to Fort Smith. In this instance, [Bass] Reeves sneaked around after this awful bad fellow, suspecting he was asleep. And he was. He handcuffed him without firing a gun.

-----*-----

Bass Reeves. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A couple Seminole Indians took [Bass] Reeves as a prisoner. They did not relieve him of his guns. They started to take him to a heavy bottom trail. [Bass] thought, ‘Now is the time.’ There was a big Indian ahead and a small one behind. [Bass] thought that was the last chance. He whipped out his six-shooter and shot the Indian behind and, in a split second, threw it on the Indian ahead and he went down. On one occasion, [Bass] Reeves, Tine Hughes, and Charles Barnhill and others, all United States officers, went out for a very bad Creek Indian. He killed everyone who attempted to arrest him. They established a camp close to his place. [Bass] told them he was going to [indecipherable] man and they all told him he would be shot. He unbuckled his six-shooter and laid it down and they were all saying: ‘Yes, we know what you’ll get.’ [Bass] went to the Indian’s house and called him out and looked into a double-barreled shotgun. ‘You would not shoot a man without arms, said [Bass], in his nicest way. ‘I am not after you. I want you to help me. I am after a man on your place.’ [Bass] kept getting closer despite warnings to keep back. All the time looking through his writs, he kept edging up. ‘Don’t come any closer’ was a warning which the Indian kept repeating. But [Bass] got up close just the same and he made a leap under the fun and caught the Indian. They scuffled for some time and [Bass] said afterward that he began to think he would be out-muscled and outwinded, but he finally overpowered him and handcuffed him and led him to his astonished officer.”

-----*-----

Mrs. [Vaughan] says she was happier in those old days than she is now. Although most everyone carried guns, they would hang them up like they do their hats nowadays. She is afraid of the automobiles today and says there is more drunkenness than there was then. She cannot forget the kindly spirit with which neighbors treated each other in the old days. They would pitch in and help those who suffered from storm or sickness and she spoke of what they called “log rollings” when the women would prepare a meal for the workers.

-----*-----

John and Florence Vaughan in the 1930s. 

Cowles’s interviews with the Vaughans end here. He does make an additional note on Jim Reed, stating that “he was not killed in Texas, as has been stated, but was drowned in the Poteau river at Page’s ferry, six miles east of Spiro in 1883, according to Dr. G. L. Hartshorne.

According to modern sources online, Reed was supposedly killed in Texas by a member of his own gang, but in 1874. John would have only been 8 years old and living in Arkansas in 1874. So either John was telling a tall tale or confusing individuals. Since Belle and Sam Starr apparently never legally married, it is plausible but unlikely that if Reed was killed a few years later than believed (but still earlier than Hartshorne’s report stating 1883), John could have been around for some of these events.

It’s more likely that John was stretching the truth or perhaps confusing Reed with another of Belle Starr’s lovers before she paired with Sam Starr; that list is said to include Cole Younger, who steadfastly denied this claim.

I really wish the second half of John's interview about Belle Starr, Judge Parker, and Edgar Watson had been published, but for whatever reason it never was. Still, having this biographical information on John in his own words is nothing short of incredible. I also think is insight into some of these events should be helpful to historians of early Oklahoma and its outlaws, especially Belle Starr. 

Using DNA To Solve A Family Mystery: Sarah Ann Eva Vaughan, wife of John Lafayette Vaughan

For the last several months I have been working to solve a mystery in our family that it was believed only DNA could unravel. It was a question none of the Vaughan family historians have been able to answer: Who was Sarah Ann "Eva" McCarty, the first wife of our ancestor John Lafayette Vaughan? Where did she come from? Who were her parents? [For a biography of John Lafayette Vaughan, please visit here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-lafayette-vaughan-belle-starr.html]

These questions were never able to be answered during the lifetime of my beloved cousin, Colleen Vaughan Allen. I believe she would be very proud that I believe I have solved the mystery beyond a reasonable doubt.

We have only ever had two records of this woman: her marriage record and her headstone. We knew she was the mother of Mattie Mae Vaughan, William "Bill" Riley Vaughan, and an unnamed infant whom she died giving birth to. But that was the extent of our knowledge. Even in Census records, the space for Mattie's and Bill's mother's birthplace would be filled with "United States", not even a particular state. So it appears that even the woman's husband and children knew virtually nothing about her.

Here is the marriage record for John Lafayette Vaughan and S. A. McCarty, the original of which is in my possession:

And this is her headstone, courtesy of FindAGrave.com contributor MillieBelle:

Eva's headstone at Choate Prairie Cemetery, west of Inianola, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.

One will notice that the names on the marriage record and the stone don't match. Where does "Eva", fit into "S. A.", you might ask? Well, that has been a part of the mystery. Family records have said that "S. A." stood for "Sarah Ann", but there was no primary source for that listed; it is possible that Mattie, Bill, or John gave that name to relatives who inquired about John's first wife, but no genealogical record located actually states "Sarah Ann". The marriage and the headstone are the only two items with her name. But this procured another question for my aforementioned cousin Colleen Vaughan Allen, who was long the family authority on the Vaughan family history, a title she inherited from her daughter Lou Ona Vaughan White, daughter of John Lafayette Vaughan by his second wife: Could S. A. and Eva have been two different people?

Colleen certainly thought it was possible. John could have married S. A. and then married Eva, and they could be two entirely different persons and we just may not have a marriage record. This is hardly unheard of; even today, the marriage record for my great grandparents, Sampson Lafayette Vaughan and Lillian Auston, continues to elude us despite their marriage occurring in the last hundred years, roughly around 1922. So this was a perfectly possible scenario, but we knew so little about this woman that we could not say for certain.

Fast forward to this year and I have procured a DNA sample for Norma Marie Vaughan, daughter of Bill Vaughan and last living grandchild of our mystery woman (or one of them, if there were indeed two woman). Once Ancestry.com had completed their testing and shared the results, I began to comb through DNA matches. Most of her closest matches were what I expected: a lot of Vaughans, a lot of Hamiltons, and a fair few Browders. Norma's mother was Lola Mae Hamilton, daughter of William and Margaret Browder Hamilton. So I was seeing a lot of cousins connected to her 3 known grandparents as expected.

There was a conspicuous absence among her matches: Persons with the surname McCarty in their families. If Norma's grandmother's maiden name was McCarty, one would expect to see some of that family among her matches. But in searching her matches' trees, there was one Very High match with that surname in the tree, a handful of "High" matches, and then mostly "Good" and lower matches. Her closest match with that name in their tree was a man who matched at 48/2; his McCarty family came to Texas by way of Tennessee. This McCarty family was not connected to any of the McCarty families of the next 3 highest matches, and none of them were connected to each other either.

I was side-tracked for a while exploring her closest match, a woman named Staci, who did not know who her biological father was. Eventually we figured it out. That saga can be read here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-father-found-but-lost-again-dna-story.html

So since I wasn't finding anything by searching the surname McCarty, eventually I began sorting through matches find people who were not related to the Vaughans, Hamiltons, or Browders. After a while, I finally found a few. Most of them were also related to each other, so that told me I was looking at cousins from the family of Norma's unknown grandmother.

These matches led me to a man named Bird Lewis Stafford of Dallas County, Missouri.

Headstone of Bird Lewis Stafford, courtesy of contributor Genealogy Researcher on FindAGrave.com.

Nearly all of the matches I was finding that actually had trees could be traced back to this man. I zeroed in on the 8 closest Extremely High confidence matches (though there were several Bird Lewis Stafford descendants who matched with varying degrees of confidence) and began to gleam what I could from the information I now had.

As you can tell just by this chart, Bird Lewis Stafford had quite a few children. As I researched him, I found that he had at least 11 children that grew to adulthood--so not even including the children that died in infancy. These matches represented descendants of 5 of these 11 children, and all from his first wife, Lucy Parker. (Two of Bird's children that grew to adulthood were from his second marriage.)

From here, I needed to pull out the handy DNA Detectives relationship chart:

Based on the shared centimorgans between Norman and that matches, I knew her relationships to the matches would most likely be in groups F, G, and H. 

Going back to what little we knew about Eva, I knew she was likely born about 1874-1875 based on her headstone stating she was aged 23 years when she died in September, 1897. Bird died in 1867, meaning he was not Eva's father. Eva's age ruled her out as being the child of Bird's two youngest daughters who were born in 1864 and 1868. Her age along with Norma's genetic distance from the seven 3rd great grandchildren and one 2nd great grandchild of Bird Lewis Stafford appeared to rule her out as a grandchild of Bird as well. Based on her age and DNA matches, it appeared most likely that Eva was a great grandchild of Bird Lewis Stafford by one of his 9 adult children that grew to adulthood from his first marriage.

This would presumably make Norma a 4th cousin (or closer) to 7 of the 8 matches, and a 3rd cousin once removed (or closer) to S. C. Since Eva could be descended from one of the five children of Bird from whom these 8 matches descended, it was possible that some of the matches were even closer. The lowest 5 of the 8 certainly appeared to fit in Group H--3rd cousin once removed or other distant (4th) cousin. At 75/4, K. L. could be on the highest end of Group H, or right in the middle of Group G. 

At this point my progress stalled. It was May, and I had a lot on my plate, so I set this project aside for a while. I hoped that maybe in a few months Norma would have more matches that would indicate a likely connection to one of the nine children.

Now it's August and I check again. She had no new matches in this family as best I could tell, so I decided to look harder at a few other intriguing matches.

In looking at her top 4 matches in the group of 8, the two highest descended from Cynthia and the next two highest from her brother Lewis. What was interesting is that Cynthia and Lewis married a pair of relatives: Asberry/Asbury Benjamin Chapman and Matilda Cheek, respectively. Asberry was the son of William Chapman and Mary Bond. Matilda was the daughter of James Cheek and Elizabeth Chapman, another child of William Chapman and Mary Bond. So Asberry was an uncle of Matilda. Since Norma shared the most DNA with these linked families, I decided to look focus on their respective descendants.

Headstone for Louis/Lewis Stafford, son of Bird, and his wife Matilda. Courtesy of contributor Pat Faulkner on FindAGrave.com.

First, I looked through their respective families. Lewis (also spelled Louis) was younger than Cinthia. He was still having children in the mid-1870s when Eva was born, and genetically we had ruled Eva out as a grandchild of Bird. This seemed to rule Lewis out as Eva's father. Cinthia and her husband married about 1849, and had five children between that time and Asberry's death in the Civil War in Memphis in 1863. Eva could not be the child of the youngest member of this family, Elias (b. 1862), but could be the child of any of the remaining four, though Martha (b. 1858) was less likely because she would have been only roughly 16-17 at the time of Eva's birth. That would be uncommon but not impossible.

Second, I checked her DNA matches for additional Chapman descendants. In more than one case, I had to dig into matches' family trees to find the connection. These people had trees with people in them, but had not connected to the Bird Stafford or William Chapman families, so I had to do some digging myself. I did that once already with B. H., a match mentioned above who was the highest match to Norma in this family. I found four additional interesting matches:

The first of these matches, Robert, is intriguing because despite being a full seven generations removed from Bird, he still shared enough DNA with Norma that he could be in Group G or even Group F, and he is a descendant of Cynthia. The next match is a lower-end four generation match to a descendant of Bird's son Lewis again. The 3rd match, V. J. F., is intriguing because she is not a Stafford at all--but she is a Chapman from the same Chapman family as the aforementioned Asberry (husband of Cynthia) and Elizabeth (whose daughter Matilda married Lewis). She descends from another sibling of this pair, William Chapman, another child of William Chapman and Mary Bond. V. J. F. is four generations removed from this couple. The fourth match is yet another descendant of Cynthia Stafford and Asberry Chapman. 

These four matches combined with the previous eight convinced that I needed to be looking hard at the family of Cynthia Stafford and Asberry Chapman. The match with a Chapman who is NOT also a Stafford, and the match with Robert Y. with 70 cm despite 7 generations removal from Bird told me this is the right direction to be looking. I decided the most logical step would be to start with the eldest child of Cynthia and Asberry. And it is fortunate that I did, because I believe it saved me a lot of time.

Mahala Jane Chapman was the eldest child of this family. She appears as an 8 year old in the household of A. B. and Cynthia Chapman in 1860. 

1860 Census - A. B. Chapman household - Dallas County, Missouri - Courtesy of FamilySearch.org

Some Stafford/Chapman family records have her year of birth as 1850. Her headstone also has this year. But her Census records reflect a year of birth between 1864-1857, and this one indicates closer to 1851-52. I believe this one is likely the most accurate given that she is clearly older than her brother William, who is traced easily, but not born by the 1850 Census. 

On 16 Jul 1868, Mahala married a man named Silas R. Busby, or at least that is how his name appears in the marriage record and 1870 Census. By 1880, his name appears to be listed as "Billy S.", but his wife's name and age and the eldest child of the family confirm that "Silas" and "Billy" are the same. His name could have been William Silas, or William Silas R., or some other combination of those names. I cannot locate any records on him prior to his 1868 marriage or after the 1880 Census, so I cannot determine what his proper name should be. But since two records indicate "Silas R.", that is how I will refer to him.

And when I found the family on the 1880 Census, there it was: the answer I had been seeking.

1880 Census - Silas/"Billy" Busby household - Sebastian County, Arkansas - Courtesy of FamilySearch.org

The 3rd child down you'll see her. "Sarah A. E.", age 5. Now am I crazy, or is that "Sarah Ann Eva", born 1875? The "A." kind of looked like an "H." though, so I looked for other examples on the page to compare the census-taker's writing to.

1880 Census - Sebastian County, Arkansas - Courtesy of FamilySearch.org

So here you'll see the "A" in Alexander and the "H" in Henry each underlined in red. Based on comparing these, it is clear to me that the letter after "Sarah" in the above image is indeed an A and not an H.

It would appear I have a match. Sarah A. E. Busby would be a great grandchild of Bird Lewis Stafford as the daughter of Mahala Jane Chapman, daughter of Cynthia Jane Stafford. The age matches, and the name matches right down to her being able to sign as "S. A." and go by the name "Eva". 

Now I needed to see if this relationship gelled with the DNA matches. In looking closer at the tree of Robert Y., I suddenly had an explanation as to why he matched Norma so closely despite the 7 generation removal from Bird Stafford--Robert also descends from Mahala Chapman Busby. He descends from her daughter Mary Cynthia who married James Joseph Phipps. If Norma's grandmother is actually Eva "Busby", then she is three generations removed from Silas and Robert is five generations removed from Silas. That would make them 2nd Cousins Twice Removed. And what does the DNA Detectives chart say? Well, it says that 70 centimorgans shared is certainly enough to fall into Group G, indicating a possible relationship of 2nd cousins twice removed. 

So now I needed to go through all of the other 11 DNA matches I have been looking at see if the possible paper relationship between Eva/Norma matches with each of them.

Please note that other than V. J. F., who is not a Stafford, all of these relationships were calculated based on the matches' mutual relationship to Bird Lewis Stafford. However, in the cases of those who are descended from Lewis Stafford are also descendants of the same Chapman family as Cynthia's husband, so Norma would theoretically share more DNA with those persons because they share Stafford and Chapman DNA, not just Stafford DNA.

But as you can see across the board ALL 12 DNA matches fit when comparing centimorgans shared to relationships on paper. Three 3rd cousins, one 2nd cousin twice removed, three 3rd cousins once removed, and five 4th cousins all match Norma appropriately. It would be preferable to have some more DNA matches from the Busby family to fully 100% confirm this relationship, but in this case all of the circumstantial evidence genetically is very strong.

The last thing for me to do was to see if there was any more circumstantial evidence outside the realm of DNA to help support the assertion that S. A. "Eva" 'McCarty' is really a BUSBY. I found only one thing.

In the 1900 Census, both Eva's widow John L. Vaughan and her presumed mother Mahala Chapman can be found in the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory. But the Vaughans are in modern-day Pittsburg County, and Mahala, with her new husband William McDonald, is in modern-day Bryan County, near the current town of Calera. This Census says Mahala has had only one child, and that only child is still surviving. I believe this was an error and was referring only to her current marriage; she had only one child with William McDonald.

In 1910, Mahala is still in Bryan County, widowed again, and living with her now-adult daughter from the second marriage. This Census record states she was the mother of 9 children, 2 of whom are still living. One of those two would be the child from her second marriage she is living with. The other would be the aforementioned Mary Cyntha Busby Phipps, the ancestress of DNA match Robert Y. I could find virtually no information at all on any of the other children listed in the 1880 household for Mahala and Silas/"Billy" Busby. This indicates that Mahala's daughter "Sarah A. E." is indeed deceased, which aligns with "our" Eva having died in 1897. While that is not the strongest piece of evidence, as piece of this entire puzzle it does support the final conclusion.

That final conclusion is this: Based on the DNA evidence indicating that Norma Marie Vaughan is certainly a descendant of Bird Lewis Stafford, and is most likely a descendant of William Chapman, and those men have a mutual descendant named Sarah A. E. Busby who is the same age as our Sarah Ann Eva, grandmother of Norma Marie Vaughan, and there does not appear to be a 2nd woman with the same name that "could be" that woman, then it follows that Sarah A. E. Busby is most likely Sarah Ann Eva McCarty Vaughan. McCarty was most likely a previous married name before she married John Lafayette Vaughan, as DNA evidence does not indicate that she is a biological McCarty.

I believe all of the above-listed evidence supports this conclusion. I would be glad to hear from anyone that can provide further evidence to support my assertions, or I would be equally interested if someone could submit evidence that contradicts my conclusion if such evidence exists. Until that time, I believe it would be safe to list the first wife of John Lafayette Vaughan as Sarah Ann Eva Busby, born about 1875 in Missouri, died 29 Sep 1897 and was the daughter of Silas R. Busby and Mahala Jane Chapman.

Ulan, a former Community in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, and Some of Its Early Residents

Ulan is considered the hometown of my great grandparents and their families. My grandfather and 4+ generations of my family are buried in the Ulan Cemetery, but there is very little information about Ulan to be found, both online and in written resources. A Google search of the town will currently yield a Google Maps location of the cemetery and other listings of the cemetery, some weather reports of the area, some property listings, and some information on the Pittsburg County Historical Society website I submitted to them. The Wikipedia page for Ulan is blank. The Pittsburg County Historical Society has limited information on the town, due to the overall lack of written resources in existence. Most of what they have on Ulan in their otherwise extensive records on Pittsburg County and Oklahoma in general is confined to the published History of Pittsburg County book.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find too much extra information about Ulan. Even the authoritative Ghost Towns of Oklahoma by John W. Morris (1978, The University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK) neglects to mention it (in fact, the only Pittsburg County ghost town it goes into detail on is Adamson, and makes only passing references to Dow and Alderson). But I would like to compile all that I have into this article so at least what I have found will be accessible in one spot, and hopefully it will be one of the top search results in the future when others Google "Ulan, Oklahoma". I'm sure there will be other families, like mine, who are connected to Ulan and will want to learn more about it. So I'm going to share as much as I can, and add to this if I uncover more in the future.

It should be pointed out from the outset that this post is not purely historical and informational. It is also genealogical in nature. As this is my genealogy blog that might be obvious, but in case as you're reading you're wondering why there are so many references to my family throughout this post, it's because my family is my point of reference for this community. I've learned what I know about Ulan from being a part of this family and speaking to members of it, so it is easy for me to tie in my family's experiences into the general narrative about the area. I believe it's safe to assume that their experience around Ulan was fairly typical of what most families experienced, so tying them into the narrative is beneficial both genealogically and historically, in my opinion. My target audience for this post are people with ties to Ulan, and if someone has ties to Ulan, they probably have ties to my family by blood, marriage, or as former neighbors. That said, both the historical and the genealogical information should complement each other.

First, I'll show on a map of northern Pittsburg County where Ulan lies. The people who would have considered themselves members of Ulan's population lived in both Scipio and Indianola townships, and later in Bucklucksy Township as well, which is immediately south of Indianola Township. Ulan was in Indianola township, but on the very border, less than a mile from Scipio township. All that really exists of the town now are the cemetery and the Ulan Baptist Church. The store is long gone, and the schoolhouse was torn down several years ago. It is just off the Indian Nation Turnpike off the Indianola exit. This first image shows its location in relation to the communities of Hanna and Indianola. (Source: Google Maps)

This next one shows where Ulan is located in relation to the Indianola exit of the Indian Nation Turnpike. The green patch is the cemetery, and the church is directly in front of it. (Source: Google Maps)

Here is a more detailed map of northern Pittsburg County, with Ulan circled in red. (Source: http://www.travelok.com/files/genealogy/Pittsburg.pdf)

These are photos I took of the area around the cemetery and church in March, 2016 to give an idea of how it looks today.

Next, I'd like to share a video. Recorded in 2000, it is of my grandfather, Don Vaughan, showing off the Scipio school he attended, his family's homestead near Ulan, the Scipio Creek that runs through Ulan, and finally, the Ulan Cemetery, where his parents, all 4 grandparents, and one set of great grandparents are interred. He now rests there himself.

The Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society released a Pittsburg County History book in 1997 which has a small excerpt about Ulan. 80% of the article is duplicated verbatim from Ulan Memories, a small booklet about Ulan released in the 1980s. Only the last two paragraphs are not from that publication. I am going to transcribe those two paragraphs, and the remainder of the article's contents is shared below in my transcription of Ulan Memories.

Please note I DID NOT WRITE THIS EXCERPT. It comes from "Pittsburg County, Oklahoma: People and Places", copyright 1997 from the Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. Published by Henington Industries, Inc. out of Wolfe City, Texas. This particular article within the book is credited to Judy C. Thompson, with the sources for the information listed as Kenny L. Brown (the compiler of the information in Ulan Memories), and Faye Hayes. If copied in any way, full credit and citation needs to be given to the Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.

Page 554: "Faye Hayes writes that her mother, Effie Blevins Smith Bankston, born April 4, 1912, told her that she could remember when she was a little girl and went to school in the new building. Often in the course of the day she would fill her sock-cap with wood blocks and small scraps of boards and carry them home to play with. Some of the teachers she remembers were M. P. Jones, Will Rye, Mrs. M. P. Jones, Ella Cummings, Mrs. Walker, Ralph Byington, Merl Byington Wadley, Gertrude Shackleford, and Frankie Bowen.

The store at Ulan was built about the same time the new school was erected. It was owned and operated by the M. P. Jones family. They carried essentials there, basic line of groceries, patent medicines, and kerosene (everyone had kerosene lamps then). There was a gasoline pump and for several years a small post office. At least its where a lot of people picked up mail and she remembered occasionally a letter would be mistakenly sent to Vian instead of our Ulan. Sources: Kenny L. Brown; Faye Hayes, Rt. 2, Box 220, McAlester, OK. Written by Judy C. Thompson."

Before the town of Ulan was established, many of the people who would eventually be a part of Ulan lived in an area called Thurman. How early Thurman was settled is unclear, but its post office was established by 1888, according to a letter in the Muskogee Phoenix newspaper, transcribed later in Ulan Memories. By 1892, my great great grandfather, John Lafayette Vaughan, married his first wife there, and they both listed their residences as Thurman. You can view the original 123 year old document, which is in my possession, below.

John was widowed in 1897, and in 1898 he remarried to my great great grandmother, Leona Waller. At that time, they also both listed their residence as Thurman, Oklahoma. It is worth noting that when John's first wife (her initials are S. A. on the marriage record, supposedly for Sarah Ann, but her headstone says Eva) died, she was interred at Choate Prairie Cemetery, which is just a couple miles up the road from Ulan Cemetery.

According to Colleen Vaughan Allen, who grew up in and around Ulan, Choate Prairie is where most people in that vicinity were buried prior to the establishment of Ulan Cemetery. She would always say that her grandmother (the aforementioned Leona Waller Vaughan) was the second person buried at Ulan Cemetery, which appears to be accurate based on marked graves in the cemetery. The first established burial with a marker is Cecil Gordon, who died at six years old on 5 Jun 1919. Leona was next, dying 31 Jul 1919. There are six other marked burials in the cemetery dated in 1919, which seemingly establishes the date that the cemetery began as June, 1919.

There are significantly more graves in Choate Prairie marked with blank field stones than Ulan has, so it is more difficult to firmly establish when it came into use. It appears the two earliest burials are from the Choate family, both occurring in December, 1881. Tennissee Choate died 18 Dec 1881 according to her headstone, followed shortly by Jincy Choate on 31 Dec 1881. These were the only two burials I found with these years, with several in 1882 and 1883, and increasing in number by year until around the 1910s, when the number of burials slowly starts to decline. This aligns with approximately when Ulan Cemetery came into use, so the timeline makes sense.

Also in the immediate vicinity and in use during the same time-frame as Choate Prairie is a burial ground today referred to as the Turner McElhaney Cemetery, which is less than a mile from the Choate Prairie Cemetery and is also off Choate Prairie road going toward Indianola proper. The earliest marker burials are (or were) dated in 1891. The oldest recorded burial was for William Foster Turner, who died 1 Jan 1891. The next recorded burial was for Amanda Smith Napier Vaughan Jones, the mother of the aforementioned John Lafayette Vaughan. She died 17 Nov 1891.

The cemetery is in on private property, but as it turns out, the owner's wife was a 2nd cousin to both myself and the cousin who brought me, Charlie Vaughan, and we were permitted entry. It is divided into three sections. The first is a fenced section which houses several Turner family graves; it appears mostly intact. The second section is un-fenced and has sustained heavy damage, apparently from either turbulent weather or from machinery passing through the area, or both. The third section has mostly McElhaney graves, and is also fenced, but half the fence is damaged and torn down, and some of the headstone here were damaged or missing as in the second un-fenced section.

Here is a map showing the route from Ulan Cemetery to Choate Prairie Cemetery to the Turner McElhaney Cemetery, in relation to Indianola.

These are photographs of the three sections of the Turner-McElhaney Cemetery. The second section's photo is blurry because it was screen-shot from a video filmed while surveying the area. I failed to take a proper photo of it, though it only has broken bases of headstones and field-stones and no longer has any standing headstones. It was taken from the vantage of the 3rd section of the cemetery, where the McElhaney graves are.

Many of the headstones that have been previously recorded as being at the Turner-McElhaney Cemetery are now gone, including my aforementioned 3rd great grandmother Amanda Napier Vaughan Jones's stone, which would have been in the mostly-lost second portion of the cemetery. Fortunately, we have a photo of my cousin Colleen Vaughan Allen lifting the stone back into place (even then when it was taken in the 1970s or 80s, it had already fallen) that gives us its text and information.

The persons buried in this cemetery would have been near what was considered Thurman and later near Ulan, but more a part of the Choate Prairie community. Choate Prairie had its own post office from 1894 to 1904, with a church having been established in 1879 just south of where the cemetery would come to be located in 1881, called the Choate Prairie Baptist Church. Choate Prairie had its own school as well until 1930, when like Ulan later was, it was annexed into Indianola schools. (Source: Pittsburg County, Oklahoma: People and Places, 1997, Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc., Published by Henington Industries, Inc.)

Another early area cemetery was the Dunagan Cemetery. When heading north on Choate Prairie road before the road veers east, there is a private drive going west. The cemetery is located off that drive very near the turnpike. Members of the Perkins, Steward, Bowen, Dunagan, Brown, Beame, and Lewis families, among others, are buried there. Headstones date from 1879 to 1925, so burial there can be established two years prior to graves at Choate Prairie. There are less than 30 legibly marked graves that have been located there.

As I have not found school records or any other "official" records for Ulan prior to the 1920 School Census other than the establishment of the Ulan Post Office in 1917 (the record of which does not give a precise location), I have based Ulan's general area on the residences of my family in each federal census up to that point. In 1900, the John L. Vaughan family is found in enumeration district 78, township 8 N, range 14 E. (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MST7-63Y) This 1900 Indian Territory Enumeration District website confirms that this is within Pittsburg County, but without determination of where in relation to the Canadian River it lay: http://www.okgenweb.org/~itgenweb/itprojects/census/1900-it-eds.htm.

Circa 1902: Leona Vaughan, wife of J. L. Vaughan, holding son Sampson, with son Cotnar next to them. This is the only known photo of Cotnar, who died in 1907 at age 8.

Surnames in the immediate vicinity of the Vaughans in the 1900, which would be other families living in what would have been around Thurman and what would later be considered the Ulan vicinity include: Moody, Green, Beesley, Taylor, Barlow, Willingham, Richey, Kindrick, Flannigan, Whitehead, Epps, Tomlin, Utterback, Daniels, Miller, Nichols, Price, Cates, and many more.

In the 1910 Census, the Vaughans are listed in Indianola Township, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLWS-524). I am certain that they fell in the vicinity of Ulan thanks to a school photograph taken at the Union Prairie School between 1910 and 1920. A copy was held by Colleen Vaughan Allen, and labelled the girl in the white hat beneath the bell by the school to be my aunt, Lou Ona Vaughan. It says 1909 on the back, but Lou One was only 6 years old at that time and would not have been so tall and at the back of the crowd of children. If guessing by Lou Ona's apparent approximate age, I would say it was more likely taken about 1914-15, likely not long before the old school house was torn down and the new one built in 1915, according to the above report from Pittsburg County, Oklahoma: People and Places.

When comparing the above structure with the photograph below of the schoolhouse in 1926, it is clear they are different buildings. This one is significantly smaller, with far fewer windows. So this must be the original Union Prairie/Ulan school house, and this is the only photograph of it that I have located.

Unfortunately, none of the other persons in the photo are identified, but if one had school-age children in their families around Ulan around 1914-1915, there's a chance they could be in this photo. It is likely my great grandfather, Sampson Vaughan (born 1901), is in the group, and likely his brother John D. (born 1906) as well. Depending on how early they started him in school, my uncle Charles Vaughan (born 1909) could also possibly be there. As Colleen was John's daughter and she did not identify him in the photo, I doubt I would have better luck at picking out faces than she, so I'm not going to attempt any guesses.

This is the best photograph of the Union Prairie/Ulan school house I have come across. The label says it was taken in 1926 and was the best example of how the school looked in the early 20th century. I do not know who owns the original; my copy came from Colleen Vaughan Allen.

Next is a photograph of the John L. Vaughan family and their home, taken approximately 1915-1916, based on the children's approximate ages, and the fact that Dewey (b. 1917) had not been born yet. I believe their residence would have been fairly standard for that time period and geographic locale. Left to right are: Lou O. Vaughan, Sampson L. Vaughan, Leona A. Vaughan, Nicie J. Vaughan, John D. Vaughan, John L. Vaughan, and Charles T. Vaughan.

The approximate location of this home can be found on the map below; I visited the location in March, 2016 with the help of Charlie Vaughan, or "Charlie Boy" as the family knows him. He is the son of Junior P. Vaughan, son of Charles T. Vaughan, son of John L. Vaughan. His grandfather showed him the location of the house in the 1960s.

The above is a screenshot taken using the Google Maps App while standing in the approximate area where the house stood. It shows its relation to the Canadian River and Indian Nation Turnpike today.

Moving to the 1920 Census, by this time two of my great great grandfathers were living in the Union vicinity. John Grady Auston came from Tennessee by train to Ada, Oklahoma, where they stayed for two years before moving to the Ulan area; this John's mother was Sarah Frances Elizabeth Epps, of the aforementioned Epps family who could be found in this vicinity as early as 1891, when her brother John was buried at Choate Prairie. John G. Auston and John L. Vaughan both had households in Scipio Township, Pittsburg County. Other heads of household directly connected to these families and also lying in Scipio Township were the households of W. J. Swift, S. L. Newman, Rufus Smith, W. C. Davis, William Epps, W. C. Epps, and W. R. Vaughan.

Scipio Township takes up 36 pages of the Census record as a whole in 1920, and the first 22 are listed as households on "the NW side of Scipio Creek", according to page 11B (or the 22nd page) of the Census record. What is interesting is that despite all of these homes being in immediate proximity to one another based on the order of the households in the Census, the families were split between two different schools. A number of families in this area were sending their children to Union Prairie/Ulan, while quite a few more were sending their children to Byington School. So the history of Byington directly corresponds with the history of Ulan, as many of the people who would say they're from Ulan (including my great grandmother, Lillian Auston Vaughan) actually attended Byington school, even while living by and near those who went to Union Prairie/Ulan school.

For information on Byington, we will turn once again to Pittsburg County, Oklahoma: People and Places, page 478: "Byington School was located in Section 33, T-7-N, R-13-E. The first building was a one-room log building. Dave Byington donated the land. His son, Simon, was the teacher. The school was there by 1911. There was a $2 fee for students to attend to help cover expenses.

Tux Bowen recalls walking 1¾ miles to school. The lunch was sausage, biscuits and jelly and of course, carried in a lard bucket to keep it fresh. Tux also remembers teachers: Ella Wilkerson and John Turner. The school board was L. H. Bowen, Dede Anderson and John Clifton. Other teachers were Miss Maxine Messel, Myrtle Bangs, and Merle Byington.

As the school population grew a second building was built just north of the first one. Some of the people in the community decided to change the name to Pleasant Valley, but after disagreeing, a vote was taken and it was changed back to Byington. The school was used for pie suppers, and the annual Christmas tree.

The mountain just north of Byington was used to survey the county. . . . On June 10, 1941, Byington School closed its doors and was annexed to Indianola. Source: Tux Bowen. Written by Sue Countz."

I left out the list of students from 1920 where the ellipsis is placed, because in a later post I am going to share all of the Byington and Union Prairie/Ulan School Census records from 1920-1930 all together. At least one of the teachers of Byington and Union Prairie/Ulan overlapped, and as the census indicates, so it is clear that these schools both served the Ulan population. A school census was conducted regularly in Pittsburg County, and several of them have survived. The 1920 and 1930 School Censuses have been compiled and published into two volumes, and are available at the Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society in McAlester. It contains valuable information for those researching families that were inhabitants of Ulan and the surrounding area. 

The school census provides the names, ages, dates of birth, and parent/guardian of each child enrolled in school. The birthdates are extremely valuable to persons researching their family, and the guardians can also reveal information in the cases where a child isn't being raised by a biological parent. The "Pittsburg County School Enumeration - 1920" books did not have publishing information or the year it was published on the books that I could locate. Volume I covered schools beginning with A through H., and Volume II covered letters I-W. I would assume it was likely compiled and published by the Pittsburg County Historical and Genealogical Society. Byington was listed as district number 26 in 1920. Ulan was number 24, and Indianola was 25. 

Below are the school district maps copied from the first pages of Volumes I and II. My copy of the first map turned out very blurry, and I'm sorry for that. I've kept it because it precisely shows where Byington was, though it does not show Union Prairie/Ulan, and the 2nd map is the reverse, labeling Ulan but not Byington. On both versions of the map, Byington is circled in red, Ulan in blue, Indianola proper in green, and the Indianola school district number in orange.

Other schools nearby both Byington and Ulan were Rocky Point (89), Scipio (37), Oak Hill (32), Shady Grove (33) Nale (111), Hulowe (35), and Choate Prairie (36). It is possible that some inhabitants of Ulan attended schools other than Union Prairie/Ulan and Byington, but most appear to have been in these two schools. Some students of Choate Prairie and Scipio schools may have considered themselves residents of Ulan. My grandfather, as he said in the video above, attended Scipio School in the 1930s and 40s when the family lived in Bucklucksy Township, directly south of Scipio and Indianola townships, but Ulan was their post office until the family moved to McAlester in the late 1940s after a brief stint in California.

The very best place for information on Ulan I have found, in which the most complete history of the town can be found, is from a small booklet called Ulan Memories, a self-published work compiled and edited by Dr. Kenny L. Brown and Andrea Slaton. I have not found it listed in any library catalogs on World Cat, and have not found any other copies of it on the internet. Other than a section within the "Tobucksy News" newsletter series in May 2002, I found no reference to "Ulan Memories" anywhere. 

I have made contact with Dr. Brown, whose great grandfather was a pioneer in the Ulan area and whose parents and family are buried at Ulan. He reports that he never published a 2nd issue of Ulan Memories, but may someday once he collects and organizes all of the information he has subsequently collected. He gave me full permission to transcribe and share all of the information within his publication; he considers all of the information to be public domain. He gave two copies of the booklet to me, one of which I kept and the other I have donated to the Pittsburg County Historical Society.

As I think others should have access to this information, and it is not currently in publication or available anywhere that I can locate, I will transcribe the pamphlet and share it here for those interested in Ulan and its families, with the exceptions of the Dunagan Cemetery survey and the School Censuses. Any additional notes from me will be bracketed with my initials, like so: [NM]. 

Preface

This small collection of information is offered to help record some of the history of the Ulan community. All items are reproduced exactly as the original sources; spelling and punctuation have not been altered. Similar volumes will be produced for future Ulan reunions. . . . 

Part I – In The Early Years

Introduction

Settlers first came to the present-day Ulan community probably in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s. The area was then a remote part of the Choctaw Nation. These first settlers were Choctaws; a few were full bloods but most were mixed bloods. They began staking off claims to land and immediately leased much of their holdings to white sharecroppers. Some of the Indian families were the Byingtons, the Andersons, the Archibalds, the Beamses, and others.

With the arrival of whites, the first post office in the vicinity opened in 1888 at Thurman, a small cluster of houses about two miles northeast of the present-day Ulan cemetery. That post office operated until 1902 when its name changed to Garner. In 1906 the Garner post office closed.

During the 1890’s and early 1900’s, the Ulan community was known as Union Prairie. The name was changed in 1917 when the Ulan post office was opened. Ulan was named after Ulan Jones, nephew of postmistress Alma Jones.

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[NM: In the next section, the old Dunagan Cemetery was transcribed. A complete transcription of this cemetery can be found on FindAGrave.com here: http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2210802&CScn=Dunagan&CScntry=4&CSst=38&]

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Interview with J. H. Steward

Interview by Grace Kelley, May 19, 1937, Henryetta, Oklahoma

J. H. Steward was born on the Twelve Mile Prairie which was southeast of Tishomingo. When he was just a kid they moved to Choate Prairie where the Scipio Creek emptied into the South Canadian River on the east side. His father was a farmer and a stockman. The farms were about the size of a good garden now.

The closest railroad was at McAlester.

MAIL

Their mail was brought to Thurman, the nearest Post Office, from McAlester by horseback. As Thurman was twenty miles from McAlester it would take all day for the carrier to make the trip.

THURMAN

There was a grocery store and Post Office at Thurman and every Saturday the Indians would come to the store for their groceries.

INDIAN SHOPPERS

On Saturday there would be an extra clerk interpreter hired for the day, which would make two clerks in the store. When the Indians came, one of them, usually a woman, would peek in the door. The others would line up behind her in a long line of men and women. When the clerks’ backs would be turned she would run un the store and all the others would follow her as close as they could, just like sheep following their leader. When they got in the store they didn’t start buying immediately but would stand around for a while. Then one of them would buy a nickle’s worth of coffee or sugar, just a little of this and a little of that. I don’t know why they bought in that way unless it was that they didn’t have enough money to buy more.

HOW THEY MADE A LIVING

The women raised the corn and served it in several different ways besides making flour for bread out of it. The men hunted for the meat that they are and there was all kinds of wild meat including hogs. These hogs belonged to the nation and whenever an Indian wanted to kill a hog he could; and if he sold it the money was his to buy whatever he wanted. A white man couldn’t kill the hogs without paying for them. These hogs had been tame ones which had gone wild, or in other words, they had been turned loose and raised their young, and foraged for their food as no one fed them. Just as an old hen will steal a nest and hatch her chickens, raise them without help from anyone and they will be so wild that nobody can catch them. The Indians also sold hides to buy groceries.

EARLY SCHOOLS

When I started to school there was only three months of school and it was in the winter. It was a log house with one window in each side by they had no glass in them, just shutters. The seats were logs split open and the flat sides hewed to make them smooth; holes were bored in the round side for the legs to go in; there was no backs on them. A fireplace was on the north side of the wall that would hold an eight foot rail. It was made that way on purpose so it wouldn’t take so much cutting and make a better fire; one that would last longer, too. Sara Duncanon was the teacher and a mean one too. There were twenty or twenty-five pupils and each had to pay two dollars a month tuition. It was on Judge Fulson’s place between Thurman and Choate Prairie. He was County or District Judge of the Choctaws.

Later they built us a two-story box house. It was built by a lodge and I think it was the Masons. I never will forget how proud we were of our new seats, the finest benches we had ever seen. They were slat benches with backs on them, like they have at revivals now.

Then I boarded and went to school at Indianola. All of the early schools for white children were subscription schools.

INDIAN NEIGHBORS

Our nearest neighbors lived two miles away “just two miles to our neighbors house,” and we really thought it was near because other neighbors were so much farther away. His name was Allen Arch Archiebull, fullblood Choctaw, who had two wives, an older one and a young one who had two children, a girl and a boy. The eldest was Wy-kee, and the youngest Charlott and both were Creeks. I just want to say that there were never better neighbors than the Indians were. They would do anything for you that they could.

ALLOTMENT STORY (SNAKES)

Archiebull was a Snake the same as Chito Harjo, which meant that he refused to allot. He wouldn’t speak English at all. I don’t know whether he could, but I could speak both Choctaw and Creek at that time. I can’t speak either now.

He was arrested and put into jail. Now remember he hadn’t committed any crime except not filing. They cut his pretty long black hair and he either grieved or took cold and died. He left plenty of hogs and cattle to keep his family, but people stole the property and the two wives died, leaving the children who were fourteen and sixteen years old.

Tom Beams was a Choctaw officer of Pittsburg County for thirty-two years before and after Statehood, both in Pittsburg and Toboxi (Coal)—Permit Collector, Choctaw Officer Deputy Sheriff and one term as Sheriff.

Someone went to Tom Beams and told him that something should be done with Archiebull’s children, that both women were dead, the stock was all gone and they had gone “wild”. I guess they were just living on what they could hunt. They lived in an out-of-the-way place, you had to cross the Scipio two miles from the mouth of it, where it went into the Canadian, or go around the mountain.

Tom Beams felt very bad about not knowing about them, as if he had neglected them and was at fault. He and three or four men on horses went there and sure enough, they were as wild as turkeys. They first roped the boy and tied him up, then they roped the girl and took them and sent them to school. The boy lives in Eufaula now; I’m not sure where the girl is; they made a fine man and woman, half Choctaw and half Creek.

Tom Beams’ mother and brother live close to Ulan; anybody in Ulan can give you directions to their home. The brother is sixty-one years old.

Tom took sick and they had to operate on him and when you operate on a Choctaw you might as well cut off his head. For some reason he will die and I do not know why.

RANCHERS I KNEW WELL

Old J.J. McAlester had a big ranch on Gaines Creek, north of McAlester and a feeding farm at Thurman, two ranches. His brand was: 6-6 and he rubbed one ear but I don’t remember which. That meant he had one ear cut off even with the head; it was an easy brand to see, in fact you could see it almost as far as you could see the cow and it would be hard to anyone to steal.

He had a long bear and was the cleanest man you ever saw. He drove a good buggy team and when he was passing he would call me to him or he would come in for a while, and say, “John, I’m going to the farm and I want a box of quail when I come back.” I’d get my traps fixed and I’d always have them for him when he got there.

One time father hid him in a boot box when some fellows were wanting to kill him (I don’t know why). Boots were knee high and good ones came standing up in a wooden box, a little bit like a cedar chest but not exactly. Dad put the lid on until they were gone and then McAlester left on the train for a short while.

Dick Coleman had a ranch at Scipio, the C-, and a big store at McAlester. He also lived at McAlester.

Rex Chestill was west of Canadian Switch; we did part of our trading at Canadian Switch; it was just a post, not a town. Old George Choate was the oldest settler and Choate Prairie was named for him. He was a Representative to the old Choctaw Council. His hewed log house is still standing. To go there on the main highway from Ulan to Indianola, go east past a big brick school about a mile, the old Choate ranch is on the right hand side of the road.

L. H. Perkins, my uncle, was a farmer and rancher but his wife was a white woman. He went to Washington a number of time, and to the Council at Tuskahoma. He helped build and move Indianola to the railroad. There was a post office, drug store, eleven or twelve stores, two gins, one grist mill, and one bank. Dr. Eubanks was the second doctor and is there now. Dr. Johnson was the first but is dead. There were good schools and churches there. One of my cousins owns the old place which is southeast of Indianola and lives there and a niece is teacher in a Consolidated school at Indianola.

Charlie McDuff had a nice large ranch six miles south of Indianola but lived at Canadian.

There were all Choctaws; they were more enlightened than the Creeks and could talk English; most of the Creeks had to have interpreters.

ROUND-UP TIME

When Round-up time came each ranch that could afford it sent one or two men. It would take from thirty to sixty days. We would have one chuck wagon and the hardest job was to find it at night. There were no fences and the cattle would stray a long way from the home ranch. We would start at one ranch and each man would have a certain direction to hunt. All different brands were put in a bunch, driven to the next stop and we scoured as far around that stop as we could, then went on until we were through. At the end of round-up the cattle were separated and sent to the right ranch. If we passed a ranch and had some of their cows, we would leave them.

If a farmer was too poor to send a man we would keep a watch for his cattle the same as if he were there.

DR. ROBERTSON OF HENRYETTA

The first time I saw Dr. Robertson, he was grown, and he was clearing hickory and blackjack at the school with the wooden shutters. He lived with his mother and two brothers, Lon and Iremy, and he was called I. W. He had some hogs and a violin, which paid his way when he left to learn to be a doctor. He first started to doctoring at Watsonville, which was where the K. O. & B. railroad bridge is, near Dustin, although there was no Dustin there then. When I was passing through I saw his sign hanging out and, of course, I knew who it was and got acquainted with him again.

POLECAT AND BUZZARD WAR GAINS AND TOBOXI COUNTIES, CHOCTAWS

When I was very small, I had a saddle pony, and my father, some men and I rode down a ride. They carried a white flag so they wouldn’t get shot. The Polecats were lined up on one side and the Buzzards on the other, not firing but ready.

Some man came before they had started shooting and rode down between them with a white flag and whatever he told them, kept them from killing each other. I was so small that I can’t remember any thing except how they looked. I don’t know if I was ever told what their quarrel was about or who the man was, but I’ve always thought he was from their Council.

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EXPERIENCES OF PIONEER CHILDREN,

BY MRS. J. H. STEWARD

I can’t remember anything to be interviewed about but there were two or three things I remember well, I guess they were imprinted on my mind firmer because I was so afraid.

I was reared on Blue River near where Mr. Steward was, but I was like a little wild thing. My sister and I would have to go after the cows and sometimes they would be a long way from the house. The tumbleweeds were higher than our heads, and whenever we would see anyone coming, whether they were in a covered wagon or horseback, we would hide in those tumbleweeds sometimes crawling a long ways. It’s a wonder we weren’t shot for some animal.

One time a circus came through there, several wagons and behind were some camels. Men were riding the longest ones and some smaller ones were following, which had leads tied on them. I was too scared to enjoy the sight for I was sure that some of the wild animals would get out of those wagons and eat us before we could get away.

Another time mother had been reading us a story of how the Indians scalped the white people. Father had some cows that he couldn’t keep up so he had made a rail fence so high that they couldn’t jump over it. It must have been ten or twelve feet high. I liked to climb up and sit in the forks that were formed at the top of the posts that held the rails in place. One day I was sitting on my perch when I saw some horses coming. The first were paint ponies, a lot of them. Behind these were some Indians who had stripes painted on their faces and arms. Some of the stripes went cross or around, others were lengthwise their arms, black and red. They had a thing (britch-clout) on with fringe on it. Their shoes were like sandals. They had no saddle and no bridles. They just sat up there and the horses went without guidance unless it might have been spoken or knee pressure, I couldn’t see any. Behind them came a bunch of white horses and they were all pretty and fat, not as some people think the Indian horses were; and then another bunch of Indians. The last one looked like old Jackson Barnett used to look. He had a thing on his horse like a rope, with loops in both ends to put his feet in, but that was all of the harness that bunch of Indians had. I don’t know who they were or where they came from, as my parents weren’t interested when I told them and just said that they were passing through. They may have been Western Indians with a passport to take the horses through to sell. I don’t know. They wore no clothing except the cloth with fringe and sandals.

NOTE: The above interview is from Vol. X of the Indian-Pioneer Papers, a collection of 100 volumes of typed manuscripts. They were compiled under the direction of Grant Foreman during the 1930s as a WPA project. A complete set of the manuscripts is at the Archives and Manuscripts Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City. [NM: The full collection has now been digitized; Mr. Steward's interview can be viewed here, and others can be searched on the left hand side of the page: https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/pioneer/paper.asp?pID=6079&vID=87]

_____________________________________________________________

Article from the Muskogee Phoenix, May 10, 1888, p. 2, c. 3

Thurman, May 1, 1888

As our place was born to-day, I know you have not heard from it before, therefore I will give to you the first report ever given from our proud new place or post office. We have long felt the need for a post office here, but never succeeded until today. While it is the means of accommodating hundreds of citizens; it will also be the steppingstone to many subscribers to your newsy paper. C. Goulie Rodman is our postmaster as well as our popular merchant man.

Farmers have the best prospect for a good crop that has ever been known in this section, and we have at last gotten enough rain. We now hope to reach the straw and dewberries before our supplies fall, and then we will be "all honky-dory."

We have a church, Sunday-school and prayer-meeting regularly every week, and a wheel that meets at the appointed time regardless of the weather, amidst the storm and pouring rain last week. Three rode the goat, three others arranged to get on, while three more unfortunates got thrown off.

[signed] Sipeo

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Part II - The Ulan School

Introduction

In the Ulan community,  as elsewhere in rural areas, the local public school became the center for many community activities. It was so important that it provided much of the identity for the community.

The original school was called Union Prairie School in the latter part of the nineteenth century; the name was changed in 1917 with the establishment of the Ulan Post Office. Prior to statehood the Union Prairie School was a subscription school--one funded by the parents of students with tuition payments. No government funds were available because Union Prairie was part of the Choctaw Nation, which provided no education for non-Indians.

Eva Grantham Dickens, who attended the school as a girl, recalled that in 1905 the building consisted of one room, 30 by 100 feet, and housed about 100 students. There was only one teacher. At first there were no chairs, but the students sat on benches made of one-by-fours. Students attended class about six months out of the year.

In 1908, just after statehood, a public school district was formed. The boundaries of the district were Scipio Creek on the west, the Canadian River on the north, a line running near Sandy Creek on the east, and an arbitrary line forming the south boundary (see map inside back cover). In 1915 a new school building was built; it remains standing today. Clyde, Charlie, and Riley Stark were the carpenters. Two years after the new school was completed, its name changed from Union Prairie to Ulan.

[NM: Colleen Vaughan Allen claims in her notes that the school's name was never formally/officially changed from Union Prairie to Ulan. She maintains that the name remained Union Prairie, and possessed her report cards from the late 1930s and early 1940s as proof. Pittsburg County Superintendents records name the school Ulan in its school censuses conducted between 1920 and 1930; I cannot account for the inconsistency between those records, and Colleen's report cards from the school, which I have personally viewed.]

The 1920s proved to be the heyday for Ulan school. Teachers during this time included Ella Mitchell and Esther Haggard Ragan. Between 60 and 80 children attended at that time.

Enrollment varied over the years and declined markedly during the 1950s. Ulan school closed in 1963 when it was consolidated with Indianola."

This map comes from within the Ulan Memories booklet on the last page. Dr. Brown reports that the school district was originally about nine square miles in size.

As noted above, Colleen Vaughan Allen reported that the school at Ulan never formally changed its name to Ulan from Union Prairie, at least based on records from the school itself. The school censuses conducted by the county on behalf of the state listed the school as Ulan. Colleen had one picture of students at Ulan while she attended there. I will first share a version without labels, and then two photocopies that include identifications Colleen was able to make herself. The year isn't given, but based on the ages of Colleen and her sister Naomi, this would be roughly 1940, give or take a year or two. Their mother Nellie Kelton Vaughan is also pictured.

Dr. Kenny Brown's mother, Leoma Dickens Brown (1917-1995), was a skilled writer herself. In her later years, she wrote memories of Ulan and various families who inhabited the area. Dr. Brown was kind of enough to give me copies of what was written about my Vaughans, Austons, and Eppses, as well a handful of other stories and narratives about other local families. These have not been published in any form. I will transcribe them here for the benefit of the families mentioned; all spellings remain as Mrs. Brown had them.

[Pages 20-26]

“Honey John” Henley

This story is about a man who lived around Scipio Creek, Ulan, Rock Creek, and Choate Prairie. His name was John Henley. I always thought he was an ole bachelor, but in his obituary a son was mentioned, so I guess he had a wife at one time. All the people that knew him called him Honey Bee or Honey John, for he stayed in the woods looking for bee trees. He also kept hives of bees and was always giving people honey. Some people wouldn’t eat his honey, for he wasn’t too clean or sanitary and besides the honey tasted like smoke.

He always kept a bunch of dogs, and in cold weather they say he would sleep with the dogs in order to stay warm. His houses that he lived in were old shacky houses or little cabins made out of scraps.

At one Ulan reunion he was trying to start a conversation with me, and he got on the honey deal. I asked him why he was so eager to keep bees and hunt in the woods for bee trees. He said he always tried to keep honey on hand to give to widows with bitter lips. Then he asked me if I had bitter lips.

The poor old fellow died dirty and was crusted over. At one time he asked me (at that time I didn’t know who he was) about Alcie Dickens, said he had dated her.

Epps, Austin, and Swift Families

There were a lot of people by the name of Epps, Austin, and Swift that lived around Ulan, Scipio, and the northwest part of Pittsburg County. I hear that they all came from Tennessee.

There were Will or Bill Epps, Walter Epps, and Ole Lady “Aunt Babe” Austin (who was an Epps).

Uncle Bill Epps married “Aunt Mary” Epps. She was a Swift and had been married before to a Gregory. Uncle Bill had been married also. I don’t know who to, but he had two children by his first marriage—Ulvie, a boy, and Alvie, a girl. Aunt Mary had a daughter, Gertrude or “Gertie.”

Mrs. Austin had three boys that I know of—John, “Big” Bill, and “Big” Jim. John had five girls and one boy. The girls were Lillian, who married Sampson Vaughan; Johnie Lee, who married C. D. Epps (her second cousin); Beatrice (Tat), who married Charlie Vaughan; and Pauline (Polly), who married Willie Ross. Elizabeth “Snooks”, married Claud Ross, but she died about a year after she married. Then later, Claud Ross married my mother’s sister, Opal. John’s boy, Walter or “Little Bill”, as we called him, is still living. He married Lorene Prescott from Indianola.

I don’t know who Walter Epps married and not very much about him.

After Uncle Bill Epps married Aunt May, they had several kids. There were Jim, C. D., Laidie, Hester, Marie, and Troy. Troy, or “Dad”, as we call him, was a twin. The other twin died early in childhood. Hester married my mother’s brother, Clifton or “Bud”. All the Epps’ kids are dead but Marie and Laidie.

Aunt Mary had two sisters that I know of. One was Aunt Katie Mathews; the other was a Mrs. Ervin. Aunt Mary also had two brothers—Uncle Bill Swift and George Swift.

Uncle Bill Swift was a jumpy sort of a nervous man. He married a woman who had been married before—Frances White. She had a son, Tony White, and maybe a girl. Tony White married Lou Vaughan, and they had a bunch of kids, the oldest being J. L. White.

Uncle Bill and Francis had quite a few kids—Mae, Edd, John, Fred, Sylvia, Addie, and Pauline.

Uncle George had one son, Valdie.

Uncle Bill called my father “Mr. Sam”, and he always said that people during the depression times had to work hard to raise all the crops, fruit, and vegetables that could be grown. Then they should feed some to the hogs, and what the hogs didn’t eat, the people should eat.

Haggards

There were the Haggards that lived around Indianola and Ulan. I believe they came to Pittsburg County from East Texas. The youngest daughter and son, Esther and Walter, were school teachers. They were good teachers, and all the kids liked them. I went to school to Esther for five years (the 1^st and 2^nd grades, then 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th grades) at Rock Creek. At Ulan I went to school to Walter in part of the 4^th grade, then moved to Rock Creek and finished under a Mrs. O’Neal (who was a sorry teacher to my way of thinking). She sure was crank and mean. She had a stepson who went to school to her, and she would beat the tar out of him for the least things and anyone else if she could find a reason.

There were about eight or nine Haggard sons and daughters, and two lived in East Texas—Robert and Margaret. Daniel, Brad, William, Shelby, Mary, Walter, and Esther lived here around Ulan, Indianola, and McAlester. The only one living now is Esther and she taught school for about fifty years here in Pittsburg county and in California.

Walter got into politics. He served as county school superintendent, County Sheriff, and Tag Agent.

Ole Man S. J. Haggard and his wife, Evelyine, are buried at Ulan. He had two wives, the first one died after he had three or four children. Then, he married his 1^st wife’s sister, so his children were cousins and half brothers and sisters.

An Unpopular Teacher at Ulan

There was another teacher at Ulan when I was in the 3rd grade. His name was Frank Walker, and he was from Crowder. He was a strict teacher and would whip and punish kids on the extreme. He was a Seventh Day Adventist preacher. He would preach some at Ulan on Saturday nights.

One time he whipped a girl with a bicycle tire or the rim of a tire and left stripes on her legs, so the next day her father came to school (his name was Webb) and made Mr. Walker throw the tire in the fire or stove and burn it.

Also Mr. Walker whipped a girl (Susie Walters) during the spring on the bare legs with a switch and cut the blood on her legs. He whipped her merely for talking. Mr. Walters (the girl's father) came to school and really told him off.

Mr. Walker started to whip Charlie Vaughan one time (Charlie was in the 4th or 5th grade) for reading a western story book. Charlie ran home or away and said that was his last day of school.

At yet another time Mr. Walker started to whip Ed Swift, and Ed fought him. Ed's older sister went out to the ball diamond, picked up a ball bat, brought it in the house, and intended to use it on Walker--so that ended the ordeal.

Mr. Walker never taught the last couple of days of school that term, for the big boys had planned to beat him up on the last day of school.

Vaughans

There was another family who lived on Scipio Creek, northwest of Ulan. Their name was Vaughan. Where Mr. Lafayette Vaughan came from I never heard, but he was a good friend of Grandpa Dickens and my father. He was red headed, had a handle bar mustache, wore gold rings in his ears, a red bandanna handkerchief around his neck, and a big black stand up crown black hat.

At one time he said he rode with Belle Starr and her gang. Anyway, he knew some of them. He always said that he heard the shot that killed Belle Starr. My father always said that Mr. Vaughan (they called him Fayette) was superstitious. He always believed in stories about black cats and whipperwills singing or calling close to the house.

Mr. Vaughan had a good house or home, and we never knew how he managed to have a good place, land, and buildings. I remember he had a big pond and kept ducks. He had a big garden spot and an orchard, also a big yard with big trees. He usually celebrated his birthday by having a big crowd around, drinking and playing marbles, then a dance at night.

John Lafayette Vaughan, 1902

He had been married three times; his first and second wives died. By his first wife he had two children, a son, Bill, and a daughter, Mattie. Bill wasn't worth a hoot. He married a woman from around Bald Mountain, Sallie Lewis, and they had one daughter, Leona. The story was out that Bill killed Sallie. He later married Eva Greer (Grandpa Dickens' fourth wife), and she ran him off. Then he married Lola Hamilton, and they had three boys. Again he quit her and disappeared. No one ever knew where he went.

Mattie married Marlen Smith (my father knew the Smith family). Marlen and Mattie both are buried at Ulan.

My parents knew the second Mrs. Vaughan, and they liked her a lot. She and Mr. Vaughan had several kids--Sampson, Lou, Charlie, Nicie, and Dewey. We called Dewey "Cutter."

Then after the second Mrs. Vaughan died, he married a widow that he had known for a long time. She lived at Blocker, and she had several kids. Her name was Autrey. She had six daughters and one son. The boy's name was Ray. The girls' names were Ola (married Jess Blevins), Stella (later married Claud Harrelson--her 3rd husband), Maud (retarded), Marie (married Jack Blevins), Beatrice (married Clerance Ballard ), and another daughter (don't remember her name).

The third Mrs. Vaughan was a short and heavy woman. Mr. Vaughan had a Model T Ford. He and Cutter would ride in the front seat, and she would ride in the back. I think he had the first car in the country around Ulan. People traveling in wagons would have to get a way out to the side of the road whenever they met Mr. Vaughan, for the teams to the wagons would get frightened and run away.

John and Florence Lytle Autrey Vaughan and the Model T discussed by Mrs. Brown. 

Mr. Vaughan died in 1944 and is buried at Ulan. The last Mrs. Vaughan is buried at Blocker, I believe.

Some Indian Families Near Ulan

There were lots of Indians around Scipio, Ulan, Rock Creek, and Indianola.

The Parkinses were around Indianola.

Scipio was named after an old Indian by the name of Scipio.

The Andersons and Byingtons lived around the community named Byington. I've heard people talk about the Uncle Dave Byington and the Old Uncle Dave Anderson places.

Simon Byington (Uncle Dav's son) was a school teacher. He had three kids, Merle (a daughter), David, and Ralph. They lived at Ulan but have passed on now.

Almost all of the Beamses lived around Rock Creek community.

There were the Archibulls that lived on the land that Grandpa Dickens bought.

There were the Wades, Billeys, and a family by the name of Fulsom. My Grandma Grantham knew Mrs. Fulsom. She said that Mrs. Fulsom became pregnant and was picking berries down on the branch one day, and her time came, so she stayed down on the branch by herself and had the babies (twin boys). After they were born, she gathered them in her apron, went to the house, and told her husband that she had two this time.

Mr. Wade's name was Esigh. He and Mrs. Wade had a son and a daughter. The boy's name was Lewis, and he was in World War II with the same group that my brother Dodge was in. Lewis wrote letters to my father while he was in the war until he was killed. Lewis delivered mail on mules to the front lines. Dodge saw the explosion that blew the mountain up that Lewis was riding on. After Dodge came home from the war, Mr. Wade kept after Dodge to tell him how Lewis died. Finally Dodge told him and Mr. Wade thanked him and said, "I won't bother you again about it." He was satisfied to know how it happened.

Allfords

I don't know Mr. Allford's real name, but everyone called him Bud. Everyone liked Mr. and Mrs. Allford. They lived at the community called North Mount Homa and had a pretty home for that time. Mrs. Allford was a Miller from around Scipio.

They had one daughter, Mattie, who married a Moore. They lived for a while in Indiana. The other children were all boys, seven of them. I never knew some of them but heard of them.

There was Robert who lived at Pampa, Texas. He was or is John Allford's father (the banker at First National in McAlester). There was also Artie, J. A.'s father. J. A. is a lawyer. Then there was Ben, Miller, Joe, Bill (W. E.), and Jimmie.

My brother Dodge used to chum or run around with Joe and Bill. Bill married Ramona Weddle, the daughter of Virgil Weddle, the grocery store owner at Scipio. Bill and Ramona had two boys, Larry and Ronald, and one daughter, Lynda. Larry and my oldest son, Terry, used to run around together and play ball.
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Here are some other photos and newspaper articles related to Ulan's history, including photos of the school before it was torn down taken by Colleen Vaughan Allen.

Old photo labelled simply "Scipio Creek"; quality is poor, but one can see several folks around what is presumably Scipio Creek.

This is reportedly a photo of the class at Union Prairie School. No year is given, but the blonde boys in the second and third rows wearing the matching bow ties are reportedly George and Tony White, born 1898 and 1901 respectively, so I have estimated this photo to be from between 1908-1910. This would be the old original school before the Ulan school was built.

Finally, this is a neat old folk tale about "One Eye", as told by Ulan-native Charlie Vaughan.

This collection of stories, photographs, and information on the community of Ulan, Oklahoma only begins to scratch the surface of the history of this place. These people were hard-working, resourceful folk that took good care of their families and neighbors both. It is not a place that should be forgotten. Any other materials collected in future will be added.