Indian Pioner Papers -    J.H. Selby



Submitted by Brenda Choate   bcchoate@yahoo.com

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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                                J.H. Selby



Interview #9817

Field Worker: Robert H. Boatman

Date: January 24, 1938

Name: Mr. J.H. Selby

Residence: Lindsay, Oklahoma

Date of Birth: July 14, 1870

Place of Birth: Indiana

Father: 

Mother: 





I was born July 14, 1870 in Indiana.  I came to the Indian 

Territory in the year of 1888 when I was eighteen years old.  

When I first came to the Territory there was nothing in the 

way of improved conditions as of today.   The country was a 

very rugged place.  Many thousands of head of cattle roamed 

the plains.  All kinds of wild game such as turkey, deer, 

panthers, bears and wildcats were in existence and prairie 

chickens were in abundance.  The creeks and rivers were 

filled with all kinds of fish.



The move from Indiana to the Indian Territory was made the 

he usual way that most all pioneers traveled, by covered wagons, 

generally pulled by ox teams and progress was slow, ranging 

from ten to twenty miles per day.  This was considered good traveling. 



I finally located  in the Chickasaw Nation near the Washita River, 

at exactly where the town of Chickasha is now.  this place was then 

very low and several lakes of water were scattered throughout the 

entire country.



There were many Indians in this vicinity and their customs were very 

peculiar to the people coming here from the states who had never seen 

the Red Men.   As I had traveled several hundred miles to the new 

country and was determined to find my fortune and home here, I settled 

at Chickasha and in earnest staked down and began work looking to the 

development of something which yet was to come.   Came others soon and 

a town was being talked.



My first employment was quarrying of rocks used in some of the first 

buildings of Chickasha and I continued at this employment for several 

months.  I have the honor of doing more toward the establishment 

and building of the town of Chickasha than any other man in the state.



Later, came talk of the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche country and 

I registered for the opening at old Fort Sill and was given number 1900.  

At the time of the opening, which was in 1901, my number was called and 

I was given 210 acres of land which lay a few miles southwest of where 

the town of Lawton now is.

I moved there and entered largely into the business of wheat farming 

and stock-raising; however many unusual experiences happened such as 

raids of Indians, stealing of cattle and many other things that 

constitute the life of a pioneer settler.   I stayed for several years 

there, striving in the full development of the country then I traded my 

place for a tract of land in what is now McClain County, some six and one 

half miles north of the town of Lindsay, and in remembrance of the early 

pioneer days I expect to spend the rest of my life at my home here.