Who is my granddaddy?

Chapter 19

THE LAW, THE TRAINS, THE FUN TIMES 

Life on the Red Moon ranch was a challenge for Black Bill Anderson.  He raised cattle, horses, 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 cowboy days led to his desire to get back on the horse and go find a good game of Faro.  He would leave the ranch for several days to find a poker or faro game in Hamburg or Elk City, Oklahoma, Territory.  They said he was often a winner (which we assume paid the bills). In 1907 Black Bill was asked to be a Deputy Sheriff of Roger Mills County.  He was excellent with a Colt 38 pistol and a great horseman, probably those were the main qualifications for being a Deputy Sheriff ( a title he carried for 50 years).

                               Deputy William Henry Anderson, aka Black Bill and Bill Lee

In 1908 he kept a daily diary that gave us an idea of his life in western Oklahoma.  A few of the entries:

Jan. 6,  Went to Cheyenne. Me and Uncle Ben bought 40 hogs and 4 steers.

Jan. 7,  Gathered corn

Jan. 9,   Killed 14 quail, went to Hamburg and killed 1 quail.

Jan. 11,  Wind blew hard, no supper, cold wind, hauled wood.

Jan. 13,  Served 11 subpoenas and went home.

Jan. 17,  Killed hogs for Hughes and Douglass, 4 head $16.00

Jan. 18,  Worked around home (rare time he mentioned staying home).

Jan. 21,  Went up west, served 6 subpoenas.

Jan. 22, Went to Ilalda Wig sale, bought some dishes.

Jan. 29, Came to Cheyenne.  Hendrax turned Matti Strong case to McMurty.

Jan. 31, Beat Spaulding in law suit against Matti.  Came home.

 In 1912, a railroad station was built in Strong City, OK.  It was six miles from Bill’s ranch in the Red Moon community.  With the new railroad service, Strong City grew and soon became known as the “broomcorn capital”.  The railroad consisted of an old freight engine,  cars and caboose. 

The railroad brought some challenging  times (and arrest) for Sheriff Bob Tramel, Sheriff Hancock and Deputy Bill Anderson.

  Roger Mills County, left, Sheriff Bob Tramell, Under Sheriff Erwin Hunt and Deputy Cunningham

 Earl Archer, a trackman for the railroad told this story;   “Two former residents who had moved to the Rio Grand  Valley conspired to ship alcohol to Strong City.  There it was to be cut and sold in this dry area.  Somehow the revenuers found out and watched the alcohol being loaded in the Valley. The shipment consisting of 45 five-gallon square cans and 34 cases of half-gallon jars that were loaded in the middle of the boxcar.  Then a pig pen, three feet tall and three feet wide with a steeple roof and running the length of the boxcar was built around the alcohol.  Cabbages were piled around and over the pig pen.

 The revenue agent followed the boxcar to Strong City.  There he planned to arrest  whoever picked up the shipment.  A leak must have occurred  because no one claimed the load.  After waiting three days the revenuer ordered the car opened by the law and emptied.  The railroad workers were ordered by Sheriff Hancock not to touch the alcohol or he would shoot their fingers off!

 Several townspeople gathered for the spectacle and watched as the alcohol was being dumped on the ground.  A young boy named Bill Dykes made the remark…I wonder if it would burn?  And then dropped a match into a puddle of alcohol.  The following conflagration caught the depot on fire and during the ensuing confusion, several containers disappeared, including the five-gallon put in the depot for evidence. Also disappearing was the bill of lading, designating the receiver as a nonexistent business.

After the fire was extinguished and remaining goods dumped in the Washita River, the cabbages were seen floating as far away as Clinton, Oklahoma.  Sheriff Hancock and his Deputy took two men by train to Rio Grand Valley to stand trial.  On the way Sheriff Hancock died and the two men were released for.. lack of evidence”.

 An interesting side story, many years later a Mr. Archer approached me at an Strong City Memorial Day reunion and said he knew Black Bill very well. “ your Granddad ran me out of Strong City, all I was doing was just making moonshine liquor and trying to sell it”

 Strong City had their formal opening on June 12, 1912.  On this day a huge celebration was held with people coming from near and far.  Dedication ceremonies were held naming the town, dedicating the streets and alley to the public, and the right-of-way and station ground to the C & O.W. Railroad.  As the celebration went on the liquor supply ran out.  Some of the young men borrowed the train  to go to Hammon, Oklahoma to restock their liquor supply, causing quite a commotion.

 Who said they didn’t have fun in the old days?

Chapter 18

MOVING TO RED MOON, OKLAHOMA TERITORY

 On November 27, 1868, Chief Black Kettle’s camp, along the Washita River, was attacked by United States Troops from the Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Custer. The camp was located near the present town of Cheyenne, Oklahoma, an area where Wm. “Black Bill” Anderson would later homestead.

Chief Black Kettle and many of his band of  300 men, women and children were killed or captured, along with hundreds of their horses. Their camp was destroyed, even though Chief Kettle had posted a white cloth flag about the size of a blanket, sewed on a long pole, so that soldiers would know they were a peaceful tribe. The brave Colonel Custer (?) ignored the peace sign and attacked the sleeping tribe on a snowy morning. Chief Red Moon and his Cheyenne tribe were camped close to Black Kettle at the time of the fight. He later reported that Custer had exaggerated the number of Indians he had killed (Custer was bucking for a promotion to General).

“The ponies, after being shot, broke away, and ran about bleeding until they dropped. In this way the snow on the whole bend of the river was made red with blood. This is the reason we call it the red moon”. Story by Mrs. Lone Wolf, a survivor of the attack. After the attack many of these same Cheyenne’s left their reservation and went north, where they took part with Sitting Bull in the massacre of General Custer in 1876. History of Oklahoma and Indian Territory and Homeseekers’s Guide, By J.L. and Ellen Puckett

After William Henry Anderson and Tommie Lee Boles were married, they lived with Tommie’s sister, Ellen, in her home in Bowie, Texas. Their first child, Noma was born in Aunt Ella’s home in 1895.

Aunt Ellen Gililland’s home in Bowie, Texas

In 1897, Bill and Tommie decided to move back to La Junta, Colorado. However, along the way they discovered an opportunity to homestead 160 acres along Rush Creek in the Red Moon community. Thirty years earlier Colonel Custer would have crossed this same land along Rush Creek on his way to the Black Kettle massacre.

 My father Orren Albert Anderson was born on the Rush Creek Ranch in 1898, along with his siblings, Virgil, 1900, Lillie, 1902, William Jack, 1904, Leona, 1910 and Georgia Faye, 1912. The Red Moon community “had only a house, which served as a saloon, grocery store, post office and George Shufeldt’s home”. The community no longer exists, however Judy Tracy, our Cheyenne historian, now lives on this land she calls the Red Moon Farms.

 In 1902, William Henry Anderson applied “To secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain”. The law read “after living on the land for 5 years and making improvements, you went to the town site house or the assigned court in Kingfisher, Guthrie or Mangum and paid a little fee to acquire your land patent”. Story by Judy Tracy. Bill’s Homestead Certificate Number 3768, Application 13114, was hand written and titled “By the president T. Roosevelt”. The Instrument was filed for record, April 14, 1902, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma Territory.

Picture above of Arch Anderson, center and Dick Cann, surveying Anderson’s land in the northwest Oklahoma Community of Red Moon in 1901.