Indian Pioner Papers - Ed Miller

Submitted by Brenda Choate  bcchoate@yahoo.com


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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                                                                    
                               Ed Miller



Interview #

Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson

Date: March 4, 1937

Name: Mr. Ed Miller

Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Date of Birth: 1873

Place of Birth: Texas

Father: Bill People

Mother: 





I came to the Indian Territory in 1886 with my mother 

and step-father.  Bill People, my own father, died when 

I was about two years old.  We settled at Davis, Indian 

Territory.   My step-father farmed there.  The first wheat 

we raised there sure did make good.  We had ten acres in 

wheat and when cutting time came, my step-father cradled it.  

We used wagon sheets to trash it out on.  After we trashed it 

out he took it to Denison, Texas, and traded it for flour.  

He got enough flour to last us three years.  I was about 13 

years old at that time.



A bunch of men went over near Ada, Indian Territory to kill 

some deer.   They let me go along to look after the teams.  

They killed 33 deers and about 40 or 50 turkeys. 



I was at Tecumseh, Indian Territory when they made the run in 1889.   

The largest crowd of people that I have ever seen in any one place.  

I was at Carnegie when they made the Cheyenne run and at the Comanche 

run, at Wynnewood, Indian Territory.  I did not take part in any of 

these runs.  I was a Perry when they made the strip run.

 

I used to work on the Trout Ranch.  It was located on Big Blue about 

four miles south of Roff, Oklahoma.  I was working when the United 

States Marshal shot George Trout.   I never did learn what he had 

done.  One night the Marshal rode up to the bunk house.  He asked 

some of the boys if George was there.  They told him they had not 

seen him but his did not satisfy the Marshal.  He began to look for 

him.  He found George Trout down by the corral asleep.   When he 

walked up on George, George started to run, and the Marshal shot 

him in the leg.  George Trout was taken to the hospital in Wichita, 

Kansas and he died there in the hospital.  I saw a gunfight between 

Scarface Jim, who was an outlaw and Buck Garrett who was a Deputy U.S. 

Marshal.  One of the deputies who was with Buck Garrett, got his hat 

shot off of his head, but no one got hurt.  This was at Sulphur Springs. 

 

Scarface Jim was a bad man.  About a year after this fight, he got 

killed in the Choctaw Nation in a gun battle with someone.  



I used to haul corn from Beef Creek to Pauls Valley, with three yoke 

of steers on two trail wagons.  I would pile it on the ground at the 

elevator.  I believe there was more corn in that pile than there was 

raised in Garvin County last year.



A Mr. Brock gave me $85.00 dollars to haul his tent store and stock 

of groceries from Pauls Valley to Cloud Chief, townsite.   I used 

three yoke of steers and two wagons.  It took me 16 days to make 

the trip.  Now with their fast autos one can drive it in two hours.

  

I knew Bob Moore, who was an outlaw.  He was killed by two U.S. Marshals.  

I was acquainted with James Dulin.   He told me that he was present at 
the noted Pease River fight, where the famous Cynthia Ann Parker was 

recovered by her friends after twenty years of captivity.  She was the 

mother of Quanah Parker, chief of the Indians.  That was why he got the 

name of Parker. I was acquainted with Chief Big Tree's death.   Quanah 

Parker was made Chief of the Comanches.



I have never been married.



Mr. Ed Miller now operates a blacksmith shop at Pauls Valley (1937)