Marshall County, Oklahoma - Walter Alley Holford Biography --------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2000 by Olive Ruth Lynn Alexander okey11@home.com This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. -------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by 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. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ Walter Alley Holford Walter A. was born in Carrollton County, Arkansas, March 20, 1843. H parents were the Reverend Matthew Holford and Harriet Alley formerly of Overton County, Tennessee. Walter A. moved to Grayson County, Tex, with his parents in 1851. They established a ranch on the site of the present town of Gordonville. His father, Matthew, taught his sons how to trade with the Indians and to be honest and fair. The Indians soon learned that they could trust the Holford family. After buying cattle from the Indians, the boys learned to be cowboys, when taking the large herd to St. Louis. They continued to drive herds to St. Louis until the beginning of the Civil War. In 1860 before war was declared, Bill Young led a force of 300 or 400 young from the cattle plains of North Texas to Ft. Cobb in Indian Territory to demand its release to the Confederacy. This undisciplined and un-uniformed army not yet officially a part of the Confederate Army, marched upon the post early one morning. Captain Young demanded the surrender of the fort in the name of the South. At his elbow, muskets in hand stood, Walter A. Holford and Sam Murrell, the latter a well known resident of Cooke County, Tex. The commanding officer offered no resistance. He called his troops in parade form and announced that war would soon be declared, therefore he was abandoning the post. He said that as some of the men probably were Southern sympathizers, he would give them honorable discharges. Only fifteen of them left the ranks. Captain Young took possession of all the property of the post save enough ammunition, provisions, wagons, and teams to enable the troops to make their way safely to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. Walter A. and his older brother, John enlisted in the Confederate Army as members of the eleventh Texas Calvary their company's first captain was Bill Cloud. Walter A. served through the war taking part in the battles of Shiloh, Pea Ridge (in which he was wounded in the knee and crippled for life), and Corinth, Miss. His regiment was with General Morgan in his celebrated raid into Ohio. After serving four years at the front and at the close of the war, Walter A. returned to his wife, whom he married during the war on June 12, 1863, and whom he had left with his parents. Later that year in 1865 he established his ranch in Indian Territory called it the Cross J. Ranch, Walter A. was the first white man allowed to establish a ranch in their territory. Permission was obtained through officials of the Indian Agency at Muskogee for establishment of the ranch, and the horizon was the only line that marked it territorial boundary. That was before the days of leases on Indian lands, but Walter A. was welcomed by both the Indiana and the officials of the government; they were looking for a man with the business acumen and the courage to occupy the land and create what for half a century was the most important industry of the Indian Territory. He built a ranch house west of the present of Madill, Okla. and the first herd of cattle driven to market from the Chickasaw Nation was rounded up by cowboys in Walter A's employ on the site where Madill is now. These cattle were purchased from the Indians and driven to Shreveport, La., from there transported by boat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. His wagons, drawn by ox teams, returned loaded with clothing, provisions and other necessities which were traded to the Indians for more cattle. The next important cattle drive was made to Sedalia, Mo. where feeding pens were established and the cattle fattened before being sold. This trip required six months to accomplish. Meanwhile, the Katy railroad began pushing southwest out of St. Louis; and Hunnywell, Kans., later Baxter Springs, Kans. were important points. The Katy was finally extended to Denison, Tex. There were no more long drives. Walter A. raised racehorses as well as cowponies and the tribes of Comanches and Kiowas who inhabited the Great Plains of Western Texas and Oklahoma soon learned of the Cross J. Ranch. Many raids were made by the Indians. During a period of twelve years Walter A. and his cowboys formed themselves into army of defense and they fought many battles with the Indians from the West. One of the principal fights with the Indians took place on the site of the present town of McMillan, Okla., a few miles west of the ranch house, Walter A. and eleven of these men engaged twelve Indians who were armed with guns and bows and arrows. Five Indians and one cowboy were killed; while the Indians lost fifteen horses and the whites one man and one horse. They chased the rest of the Indians to the present site of Ardmore, Okla., where another fight took place. In this fight Walter A. was wounded in the shoulder, so the men decided to retire and the Indians retreated without anymore resistance. Because of the uncivilized Indian tribes of he Comanche and Kiowas, Holford never moved his family to the ranch house. He built a large colonial style home a few miles from Red River near Burney Institute of Lebanon, which was one the first Indian schools founded in Chickasaw Nation. Whenever, the marauding Indians from the west came near this home, the family would be moved over the river to he Gordonville ranch. Eventually, at odd times, the men fortified the home near Red River by setting firmly in the ground long slabs of oak. These were set close and were of such height that it was impossible to scale them. At intervals portholes were cut and at these men stood guard at night when the Indians were near. The Indians were never able to penetrate their defenses. The family owned a horse that would run to the house when he sensed that Indians were near. The total number of horses lost to the Indians from the Holford ranch thru the years was 800. Walter A. was personally acquainted with every governor of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations and some of them were frequent guests for days at a time on his ranch, or at his fine home. He was a friend of Quanah Parker, and early chief of the Comanches, and of Lone Wolf of the Kiowas. He knew Santa Ana and Big Tree but not intimately; they were leaders of the Comanches during the marauding period. Since, Whitesboro, Sherman, and Denison and Gainesville were the closest towns to the ranch, the ranch banking and buying of supplies took place in Texas. Also, the cowboys and the Holford family would come to Texas for relaxation and entertainment. His wife, Harriet Amanda Babb was born Nov. 30, 1845, in Paris, Tex., the daughter of Isaac V. Babb. Her father and his brother, Tipe F. Babb, were waggoners. Amanda was the first white child born in the town of Paris. After Amanda's father died, her mother married George D. James, who was part Indian and lived near the Burney Institute in Indian Territory. Walter A. and Amanda were the parents of five sons and six daus.: George Mifflin Dallas, B. May 12, 1863, d. Aug. 9, 1942, m. Annie Crenshaw; Molcie E.M., b. Mar. 21, 1865, d. Oct. 2. 1883, m. Feb. 1882, John M. Covey; son: Wesley a., d. when a small boy; Matthew D. married and lived in Okla.; Hattie b. Feb. 5, 1857, m. Dec. 21, 1885, L.D. Kelly; ch.: Simon, Harriet T.; Simon, B. May 16, 1872, m. Zadie; ch.: William Washington, Oscar E., Zelma Etta, . Richard Smith; ch.: Roy, Frank; Daniel Boone, b. May 26, 1874, d. June 4, 1876; Jessie, b. Aug.6, 1876, d. Mar. 6, 1951, m. Walter Scott Wharton Feb. 5, 1893; seven daus.: George, Jessie Quintee, Constance, Bonita, Opalahona, Obera -- two sons: Walter Lafayette, Webster Scott: Washington Day, b. Jan. 17, 1878, d. July 21, 1948, m. Myrtle Camden Nov. 20, 1900; Ch.: Lucille, Marguerite; Amanda, B. Jan. 17, 1881, m. Walter Pidcock; ch.: Alvie, Lis, Hazel, Walter Jr., lived in Ore.; Agnes, b. Jan 27, 1882, d. 1895; Tommie (female), b. Jan. 27, 1887, d. ?, m. Arthur Creel, lived in Calif. Walter A. was a Presbyterian and a Mason. His friends and family called him "Watt". He died in July 1920, in Madill and was buried in Lexington, OK. Harriet died Dec. 25, 1900, in Lexington. (The above information about early events was told by Walter A. Holford about 1916 and is recorded in A History of Oklahoma by Joseph B. Thoburn)