Black Bill’s bride, Tommie Lee Boles,  was born in Van Zandt, Henderson County, Texas, on October 28, 1871.  Her father, Levi Boles and his father William Boles, had migrated to Texas from the old Cherokee Nation East (Georgia and South Carolina).  Van Zandt, Texas Republic, was the home of the Cherokees in early 1800.  The Cherokee Chief was John Bowles, their relative.  Her mother’s maiden name was Nancy Gore, a cousin to early day Senator Gore of  Oklahoma.

The family eventually moved from east Texas to Bowie, Texas.  There they lived in a dugout with three boys and two girls.  Their mother Nancy died when Tommie was four years old.  The oldest daughter, Ella, was 12 years old and took over the cooking for the family.  Tommie was only able to go to school  until the fourth grade, which was typical for those times.  When she could no longer attend school, she got a dictionary to teach herself how to write (she had a beautiful handwriting). 

After marrying Bill, they moved to Bowie, Texas and lived with her sister Ella.  Norma, their first child, was born in her Aunt Ella’s home in 1895.  In 1897 they decided to move to La Junta, Colorado (maybe Black Bill was off the wanted list?).  Before they got to Colorado they had a change of mind and decided to become “Sooners”, in the newly opened Cheyenne- Arapaho, Oklahoma Territory.  They homesteaded 160 acres along Rush Creek, near the town of Red Moon, Oklahoma Territory.  Just a few years earlier, General Custer’s troops had crossed this same land before attacking Chief Black Kettle and his tribe.  In Red Moon ,Bill and Tommie raised seven children, Norma Nancy, , Orren Albert, Virgil, Lillie Lee, William (Jack) Donald, Leona Bell and Georgia Faye.

On their farm they raised cattle, hogs and a garden.  His daughter said he hired most of the work done as he had difficulty “staying down on the farm”.  Probably his earlier roaming cowboy days led to his need to get back on the horse.  He would leave the farm for several days at a time to find a poker or faro game in Hamburg or Elk City, Oklahoma Territory.  His daughter said he was often a winner.  During this period of their marriage, Tommie would stay home and “pray that he would lose so that he would come home and stay”.  Her prayers answered, when at her insistence,  Bill agreed to attend a church revival.  He accepted Christ and from that day on he stopped gambling and drinking.

In 1912,  a railroad station was built  where the town of Strong City was established,  six miles from their farm near Red Moon.  The town soon became known as the”broomcorn capital”.  In 1914 Bill and Tommie decided to move their family to Strong City.  Since Black Bill had changed his drinking and gambling ways and was operating on the right side of the law, he became the DEPUTY SHERIFF of Roger Mills County.  A title he carried 50+ years until his death.

Until next week when we will visit “chasing the moonshiners”.

Jim Lee