In September 2007 I hitched a ride to Bartlesville with my husband who was scheduled to be in that northeast Oklahoma town on business. There is a wonderful genealogy room within Bartlesville's library where I had hoped to find records of my dad's family. His Uncle Sam's parents had lived in Bartlesville 115+ years ago, and it was there Sam's sister (my grandmother) was born in 1909.
Newspapers from that era tell of people immigrating into the "Twin Territories" by the thousands. Oklahoma had just become a state and OIL had been discovered. Jobs were plentiful in that county named "Washington." And Bartlesville's library has a fine collection of Indian Territory records. On a prior visit I had struck gold and found mention of Sam's grandfather Dick Childers on an 1890 list of white "intruders" living by permit in Cherokee Nation. That was the oldest reference I had found of Richard's existence. I've since found him on an 1880 Cherokee Nation census that recorded white families living on Cherokee land by permission. I'm told even earlier proof exists. Sam's wife Lois, our family's consummate researcher, once told me she had a copy of Dick's 1879 marriage record to Lucy Ackley in Creek Nation, Indian Territory.
But my luck wasn't good at the library that day in 2007. No new family records were found. Upon leaving Bartlesville, we stopped at a convenience store. While waiting in line to pay for gas and coffee, I looked at the headlines of the local paper and was surprised to see a familiar face. My Uncle Sam on the front page! His photo was next to a headline urging readers to read his story on Page 7. Here's the article--cropped and re-sized into 23 pages within this gallery:
I hope you clicked on all 23 pages to read Uncle Sam's story. See why I was so excited that September day? What a treasure for generations to read years from now. Thank you, Sam! And thank you, Joe Todd, historian, for this marvelous interview of Sam.