Indian Pioner Papers -     John R. Gott
                               

Submitted by  Brenda Choate  bcchoate@yahoo.com
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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                               John R. Gott



Interview #1118

Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson

Date: March 20, 1937

Name: Mr. John R. Gott

Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Date of Birth: 1875

Place of Birth: Texas

Father: R.G. Gott, born in Tennessee

Mother: Rhode Farmer, born in Arkansas





I came to Indian Territory in 1895.  I owned my horse and 

saddle and I was just roaming around over the country.  



I went to work on the Bill Stone Ranch located in the Sugar 

Loaf Mountains in the Comanche Nation, Indian Territory. Mr. 

Bill Stone was a big cattle raiser.  I worked for Mr. Stone 

three years at thirty dollars a month and board.  I was general 

roustabout.  I have helped round yearlings up and brand them.

 

My main job was chasing wolves.  I had a high powered rifle and I 

have killed as high as ten wolves in a day.  On several days I have 

seen them in packs from ten to fifteen.  The wolves were bad about 

killing calves.  I have found several yearlings about half eaten by 

the wolves.  One time I rode up on a pack of wolves eating a yearling.  

They would eat a while and fight a while.  The wind was blowing hard 

from the north and I was riding to the north, that was why the wolves 

didn't scent me.  I got off of my horse, took my Winchester, crawled 

up in about a hundred yards of them, got behind a big rock, and killed 

8 out of this pack.

   

One time Mr. Stone wanted me to go with him near Fort Cobb, 

to see about buying some saddle horses he said.  We came upon a 

group of Caddo Indians, on the Washita River near Fort Cobb.   

They had some kind of fever and the measles.  The Indians were 

going in the river to cool the fever and in five minutes after 

one would come out of the water, he would die.  We stayed there 

about one hour and I counted about 25 dead Indians.   I could not 

understand them but Mr. Stone could.  They talked with their hands 

mostly, would point and wave their hands around.  Mr. Stone told 

them that going into the water was what was killing them.  Mr. Stone 

finally got them stopped and we went on.  Mr. Stone told me if he 

hadn't got them stopped everyone of them would have died.   Mr. 

Stone didn't buy any horses at that time.



I have seen corn piled up high as three or four thousand bushels 

in one pile.

  

In 1899 I went over in the eastern part of the Indian Territory, 

around McAlester.   I worked on farms and in the coal mines, until 

after statehood.  Then I came back and settled at Pauls Valley, where I now live.