Bio of T. J. (Thomas Jefferson) Morgan (m625) - Grady County, Oklahoma Transcribed by: Jo Strickland Herman 27 Jul 2003 Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== Originally posted at: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kYB.2ACE/1648 The following is a transcript from the WPA Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma. The person interviewed (T. J. Morgan) was my great great grandfather. Interview #8932 Field Worker's Name: Jasper H. Mead Report Made: October 18, 1937 Name: T. J. (Thomas Jefferson) Morgan PO Address: Chickasha, Oklahoma, Grady County Residence Address or location: 215 North 12th St. Date of Birth: June 3, 1865 Place of Birth: Kentucky Name of Father: A. C. Morgan Place of birth: Alabama Died age 84 Name of Mother: Gemina Scribner (Jemima) Place of Birth: Missouri Died: age 35 My name is T. J. Morgan. I was born June 3, 1865, in the State of Kentucky, seventy-two years ago. I came to the Indian Territory November 17, 1889. The first place I landed was at Hennessey. The place Hennessey was named after a man who hauled freight from Caldwell, Kansas, to Fort Sill, with six head of oxen. The old man was killed by the Indians and was buried three or four feet from the old Chisholm trail, a trail that he had traveled many times. When I first landed at Hennessey there wasn't any farming at all, because the country was just being open up; all the land was in Ranch land covered with high grass, and later was covered with cattle. Most of the work around there consisted of Ranch work. A good cowman got about $20.00 per month board and room. The main water supply came from springs and creeks. There were very few wells and they dug wells extra deep. The Rock Island Railroad ran as far south as Okarche, but later it went on south to Forth Worth, Texas. There were plenty of deer, wild Turkey and prairie chickens. I never did see any buffalo, but they said that there were plenty of them in the extreme western part of the state. When I came to Hennessey there wasn't any schoolhouse or church house. The few buildings there were frame buildings, and they were very small. The kind of "laws" we had were United States Marshals; the only one I knew was a man by the name of Ed Short. One time he had an outlaw under arrest by the name of Brint. Mr. Ed Short had to take this outlaw, Brint, north where there was a jail strong enough to hold him, so while they were on the passenger train Brint got Short's pistol, and when they stepped off the train on the Weukomis depot platform, Brint shot Ed Short, the United States Marshal; but Short managed to shoot Brint with a shotgun and they both died on the depot platform I have lived in Chickasha for the last twenty years. When I was able to do hard work I followed farming for a livelihood, but I am seventy-two years old now and receive a small portion of the old age pension. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html