Biography of : Chas. e. Guernsey
1951 N. W. 12th
Street
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma
Born: 1849, in Niles,
Michigan
I was born
in Niles, Michigan in 1849 and while I was still a boy we moved to
Illinois and later to Iowa. I was living in Iowa when I heard that
the government needed men to help move the Indians out of Kansas, so I
sent in my application, and was accepted. I went to Lincoln County
and went to work in 1869 when I was twenty-one years old.
I went to
the new Sac and Fox Agency in the Indian Territory in March of 1870.
The Sac and Foxes had been moved to their new reservation in the fall
of 1869. Through a mistake, they had located too far east and were
really in the Creek country. The Creeks protested and asked for a new
survey, in the spring of 1870.
The Sac and
Foxes moved further west and the agency was located in a big
horse-shoe bend of the Deep Fork River about six miles south of the
present town of Stroud.
Miller, who
was the Indian agent and Dr. Cook, the government doctor for the
Indians, and I lived in a long log house and kept “batch” that first
year.
One time
while we were eating, an Indian by the name of Chuck-a-ho (Shack-a-ho)
came along. I had learned enough Sauk to talk a little with the
Indian, and Miller told me to invite him to eat with us. While we
were eating Miller asked Chuck-a-ho why he didn’t wear pants? I did
the interpreting. Chuck-a-ho asked Miller if he would give him some
pants, and Miller said that he would. So Miller told me to go down to
John Whistler’s store and buy a pair of pants for Chuck-a-ho. The
next time we saw him, he was wearing the pants, but he had cut the
seat and the crotch out and was wearing then like leggins. When asked
why he had done that, he said that they choked his seat.
That first
year the Government provided the Sac and Foxes with rations which were
issued every other day. They were given Salt Pork, Flour, Lard, green
coffee, and tobacco. I remember being a dinner guest at an Indian
camp one time, and as a special delicacy they melted a cup of Lard and
gave it to me to drink.
There was a
company of soldiers stationed at the Sac and Fox Agency, about one
hundred, I believe. They were given rations every other day, but on
the alternate days for the Indians.
When I
first went to the Agency we hauled supplies from Kansas City. We had
a great big wagon with six mules to the wagon. I remember one time we
went after potatoes. The weather was cold. We took some hay with us
but that didn’t last so after that we cut down cottonwood trees and
let the mules eat the tiny branches. However, we did have grain for
them. We loaded up six wagons with potatoes and started toward home.
When we were near Ottawa, Kansas, the weather turned extremely cold
and all of the potatoes froze. We hauled them along and they began to
rot. When we got to Honey Falls we dumped them the whole load.
Sometimes
we would be six weeks making a trip. Later the Government made an
arrangement to buy supplies by contract in Arkansas and they were
delivered by the seller.
There was a
great deal of sickness among the Sac and Foxes that first year. I
believe there was about seven hundred died between the first payment
and the second payment. Dr. Cook was the first doctor for the Sac and
Foxes and was succeeded by Dr. Williams.
One of my
duties at the agency was to drive the Ambulance. It was not the same
as an ambulance these days. But was somewhat like an old stage coach
or a hack. the drivers’ seat was raised above the others. The seats
for passengers were a long ways of the coach and faced each other. We
usually hitched four mules to it.
