Atoka County, OK - Biography: Crocket Ladd ************************************************************************ Submitted By: Charles Ladd; ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentationby any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter,and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ************************************************************************ "Things I Remember About Grandpa Ladd" By David Crocket Winters Written 12-21-92 My 75th Birthday He was not a large man, about 140 pounds. Not very tall either, I don't know how tall he was. There was no foolishness about him. He was highly respected by all, whether they liked him or not. He, nearly always, had a hired man to do his work, he did a small amount of farming. He had a few cattle and hogs. When we were pretty small, he gave Cliff and I pocket books, we would call them coin purses. He advised us that we should have money in them. Later when Cliff and I got older he gave us pocket knives and tried to show us how to keep from cutting our fingers. When we would cut ourselves he would laugh a little bit. When we were always wanting something he would tell us the fable of the "Old Woman Who Wanted Too Much." I think it was in the "First Reader". Nobody doubted Crocket Ladd's honesty. Always during "Election Time", he would have a campaign poster of his favorite candidate on the front of his house. Nobody would dare argue with him about "his man". I remember in one campaign he had a poster of Calvin Coolidge or Harding one, I can't remember which. One story, was about a young woman in the neighborhood, whom Grandpa and Grandma thought a lot of, got married to a young man who Grandpa didn't like. At the reception, a little drinking was going on, outside of the house, of course. Grandpa remarked several times to the Groom about what a fine girl he married. The young man got a little irritated and said, "Well, Mr. Ladd what do you think of me?" Grandpa said "You are a sorry, no good, low down son of a so & so". The groom hit Grandpa a few times. the old man said, "Well you whipped me but I told you the truth". He always had a "Smoke House", where he cured his hog meat. He would feed his hogs on a floored pen, so he could throw a bucket of water on it and wash it off. When they got fat enough and the weather got cold enough he would kill them and process the meat for the smoking process. He used hickory wood and put red & black pepper on it. He usually had enough, hams, shoulders, side meat, jowls, spare ribs & back bone to do until the next fall. Of course the ribs & backbone were eaten first as fresh meat. He wore an Odd Fellows pin on the lapel of his dress jacket but he never mentioned his lodge. He would wear a Black straight brim hat, black dress jacket with an Odd Fellows three link chain lapel pin made of gold. His pants were dark with stripes worn with suspenders. His shoes were black,soft, old folks type. Grandpa had a good horse and a pair of mules, Kit & Tobe. They never had a lot to do. He had enough cattle running on the open range of southeast Oklahoma, that he rode to see about them. When he had a long road trip he would ride ole Kit, the mule. She had a nice smooth gait. He looked like a circuit riding Parson, sitting on that little mule. Grandpa held his back straight as an arrow when riding that mule. I get a thrill writing about him. Crocket Ladd David Crockett, Jr., better known as Crocket has, been described as 5'-8" tall, left-handed, and never weighed over l40-l45 pounds. He is said to have been mean and ornery in his younger days and very likely left Arkansas for two years, in l893, because of problems with the law. He was a man of his word and fully expected others to do the same. Crocket Ladd and Mary C. Hankins were married July 22, l88l. Their first son James Marion was born in DeQueen, Arkansas in l882. Mary was the daughter of Marion Hankins, who died in l859 shortly before she was born. Elizabeth, mother of Mary, married a Nations' and they had two sons, Edwin and Bony. Edwin and Bony Nations lived for many years in Lamar County Texas, near Paris. Mary, wife of Crocket, is said to have been very close to her half brothers and this is very likely who Crocket went to live near when he left Arkansas for two years in l883. Mary was very likely related to the prominent Hankins family of Sevier County. This family was most notably represented by Doctor Harrison Hankins, the father of Capt. John S. Hankins. Capt. Hankins served one campaign with Walker in Nicaragua and then in the Civil War, and may have been David Ladd's company commander during most of that war. John Hankins was sheriff of Sevier County, l880-l882. He may have been the one to persuade Crockett to return to Arkansas and instrumental in having him appointed Deputy Sheriff upon his return. Crocket is said to have been a deputy United States Marshall. In order for him to have the authority to go into the Indian Territory and arrest horse thieves this would be true. According to an article in The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical; Memories of southern Arkansas, which was written in about l890, Crocket had business interest in Antimony City, Nashville and Silver City, Arkansas. I have always had the view that Crocket got taken in on these business ventures. He was probably cheated by some business men and evened the score by shedding some of their blood and the bruising of skin. Jim Ladd, will tell you that his grandpaw was very hard on those who owed him money and then didn't pay the debt. Ask Jim about the time that he borrowed a dime and couldn't pay it back as promised. In 1974, I talked to a Mr. Riley, of King, Arkansas, who said that some of the law-men of Seiver county warned Crockett's brothers to get him out of the state or they would have to arrest him.This is most likely when he moved to Texas for "health reasons". Mr. Riley said that he knew the Ladd family well. He was married to Mary Carol Hankins (daughter of Marion Hankins and Elizabeth __) on 22 Jul 1881. 1 Family tradition says that Crocket came to Oklahoma, Indian Territory, while tracking horse thieves. When this was asked of Jim Ladd, the grandson that grew up near his grandfather, he related the following story: "Granddad showed me the ruins of an old rock house and told me that he had danced all night there when he first came to the Territory. The next morning he went to where the two horse thieves were known to be. He approached them, in a public place, identified himself, and informed them that they were under arrest and that they could go back to Arkansas either sitting upright or slung across their saddles, that it did not matter to him which; "they chose to go upright in their saddles". In l952 or '53, Jim met an old man in Durant who had been a witness to the arrest. He told Jim his version of the arrest and ended his story with the comment that, "Crocket Ladd was the meanest little, left handed man that he had ever known" According to family stories, Crocket was very impressed with the country around Atoka and that he moved his family there not too long after the arrest of the horse thieves. He and his wife Mary had twelve children, four of which died as infants. Their youngest child, Lora, remembers her mother as "the best cook that ever set foot in a kitchen", and her father as a good man but one whose word was the law and gospel. In October l985, the youngest of these twelve children wrote: "Lora M. Ladd Winters, youngest child of David Crocket Ladd and Mary Carol Hankins Ladd. Dad's birth date, Feb. 26, l860. Mother's, December 30, l859, both born in Arkansas. As far as I know; Jim, Walter, Ed and Roy all borned before they came to Oklahoma. I was born at Silo, Oklahoma. We were farmers, always had stock. Raised most of our living on the farm; went to town twice a year for things we didn't have on the farm. We butchered plenty of pork to do from one winter until time for hog killing time, had plenty of milk and butter from our cows and had lots of chickens. Canned and dried our fruit and vegetables. Always had plenty of good food and Molly as Papa called her was the best cook that ever went into a kitchen. No modern conveniences; did the work the hard way". We lived in Bryan County until I was about ten years old and then moved back to Atoka County. We still farmed on the big scale. Dad dealt in cattle, we family did most of the farming. When court was in session my dad was always on jury duty. We kids was like most, didn't keep the work up and Mama would say "Crockett will be mad and if we don't have all the things done he had laid out for us". So, before he come in we would work real hard because Dad was very strict, his word was his hand, a good provider. When we quit farming he still had cattle. Larkin my brother leased a place in Bryan County and Papa and Mama moved down there, taking his cattle, and Larkin had cattle too, during the year. Their house and all their belongings burned there. They sold their cows and moved to where Ray lived, five miles east of Atoka. They used the money from the sale of the cows and built a house and there they lived for the rest of their lives. Mama lived for four months after Papa was gone. My sister Annie came and stayed with her. Annie, the older sister of Lora, lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas for many years and was very close to Arthur Ladd, the son of Henry. She often visited with her Aunt Rebecca who lived in Heavenor, Oklahoma. Lora said that her Grandpa Ladd came to visit them when she was six years old. That was the only time that she ever met any of her grandparents. Mary Carol Hankins was born on 30 Dec 1859 in Sevier County, Arkansas. She died on 26 Jan 1942 in Atoka, Oklahoma. She was a Housewife. She was buried in Atoka, cemetery. Submitted by: Charles Ladd