Childers in Indian Territory Newspapers

Little is known of one of my ancestors, and so I search for articles about "Childers" who once lived in Indian Territory. Before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the northeastern part of that state was land given to various tribes after being forced out of their homes in the South. There were many newspapers in the Territory and later, published in the new state of Oklahoma--several of which have been made available online. I find mention of Childers in articles about schools, marriages, city government, plenty who were cattle dealers, and those who ran ads looking for lost mules or horses. 

Some of the more interesting news items:

      First, Nola Childers' 1909 land dispute:


      And another article on Nola Childers that displays the strong racism of 100 years ago:



      Cissy Childers' Tulsa County land allotment had oil:



      A nasty piece of journalism about Ellis Childers speaks to the racial sentiment of the time. This same Mr. Childers was the grandson of William Childers--a white clerk to prominent Cherokee leader Major Ridge, and his Cherokee wife, Maria Boots--granddaughter of Chief Chulio Shoe Boots. I have long studied this family in Indian Territory. Tiya Miles, Ph.D, has an outstanding book on the lineage and history of this Childers family, some of which is online. Go ahead: Type in "childers" in the box labeled "search inside": https://books.google.ca/books?id=xpusu6xQq6QC  Better yet, buy her book!

      After the Civil War, Ellis and his family requested and were accepted as members into the Creek Nation. In 1887 he became a lawyer and worked at his Childers & Mingo law firm. He served two terms as Speaker of the House of Warriors (Creek Nation). With his third wife, Tennie, he raised Ernest, their son who later won the Congressional Medal of Honor for extraordinary bravery while serving in Italy during World War II.

     Today Oklahoma is proud to call Ernest Childers one of its own. 


      Dick Childers appears in a Tulsa, Oklahoma paper on September 5, 1922. NOTE TO COUSINS: Our Dick Childers died in 1891, leaving one son: our Uncle Sam's dad. 


A Town Where My Family Once Lived


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Little Dixie Felony Court - Oklahoma, 1914

While looking for my COFFEE and JAMES families in southern Oklahoma, I read this discouraging word from The Caddo Herald newspaper - October 2, 1914:

It took a Bryan county jury but a short time Saturday afternoon to give Red Scott, the white man charged with living in adultery with a negro woman near Bokchito the extreme limit and returned a verdict in the district court at Durant sending him to the penitentiary for five years.

This case attracted a great deal of notoriety by reason of the fact that the good citizens of Bokchito had become very much incensed over the matter, and had threatened summary punishment to Scott if he did not leave the adultery. According to the testimony of witnesses Scott had been living there off and on for the past 8 years.

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I wonder if the punishment would have been the same had she been Caucasian, and he African-American? Oh wait. A lynching would have occurred long before the couple reached the jailhouse. This area of Oklahoma is known as "Little Dixie" after all. 

NOTE TO SELF: Read Oklahoma statutes to determine when "race-mixing" was no longer considered a heinous crime. Considering that "women and children are as chattel" was only just voted out by the Oklahoma Legislature in the late 1980s, it may not have been that long ago.