Tarleton Bull, Jessee Chisholm, Charles Goodnight, and Judge Isaac Parker

Tarlton Bull, Jesse Chisholm, The "Hanging Judge", Isaac Parker

and Charles Goodnight

I want to keep some of mom and dad's old stories alive. and writing about some of them is the only way I know to do that.

Tarleton Bull

While researching my family for “Finding Our Indian Blood”, I ran across John Chisum. Was he related to Jesse, the Cherokee mixed blood for whom the Chisholm trail was named? Now a lot of my research started with things dad or a relative told me, and I then sought cooberating evidence.

I remembered Dad talking about his great uncle, Tarlton Bull. He married great grandma's sister, Sarah Ann Brown. Now Dad said he was 'a great big man, nearly 7 feet tall.' I got a copy of his Civil War Pension plan, and and he was 5' 8”. Oh well. Now I am not here to say 'Dad was wrong' But rather to say often family stories can be wrong, but there is usually some truth and it gets flavored with a few spices over time, spices that can turn bland food into something a little more memorable. A little cayenne makes the blandest food much better. Dad painted Tarlton as bigger than life. To me as a child, he seemed wonderful, a story teller of the first rank. But were his stories true or like Dad's, a little spiced up? I don't know.

According to what was written about Tarlton, his family migrated to Denton County, Texas before the Civil War. A historian of the county said the Bull family was one of the first to settle in the Denton County area. In getting to Texas, they passed through Indian Territory. I found a record where his sister wrote a letter saying that his father died while passing through the Cherokee Nation. I found through his pension papers, he had joined a Texas Confederate Cavalry unit and it was written of Tarlton that in one battle near Horse Creek, Cherokee Nation, his horse stood on his father's grave. I looked it up and yes, there was a battle on/near Horse Creek. In fact I think there were several battles in that area. One author wrote a genealogical record of the family, and said of over 100 men in his unit at the beginning of the war, I think it was 17 that survived to its conclusion. It also said he ended the war with the same horse that he started it with 4 years earlier. He participated it said, in 38 engagements on what is now Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Now I saw why Dad said Tarlton was such a great story teller. Had he gone through all those things. He must have gone through a lot. A lingering doubt kept drifting through my mind. Did he like cayenne as much as I do? Did he add a little spice to his stories, intentionally or not?

There is one last story about him that made me think that even if he did add a few ingredients to his stew, there is were enough real spices to make it worthwhile.

In 1868 some Indians (tribal affiliation is not mentioned. I intend to continue to look into it) raided the vicinity of Denton County, Texas. It had to have been either the Comanche or Kiowa. The following account is from Sketches of Texas pioneers published in the magazine “Frontier Times” which was published monthly at Bandera, Texas by J. Marvin Hunter. December 1923, Vol. 1;

No. 3. About ten miles from town the scouts discovered two Indians on Hickory Creek driving about fifteen head of horses to the main herd. They raised a yell and charged them and recaptured the horses. Tarleton Bull was in the lead and fired first at close range, wounding an Indian in the spine. The Indian turned and fired at Bull but missed him. He then raised his bow to discharge an arrow but was fired on by the others of the party and hit with three more balls and fell from his horse dead, without shooting the arrow. Mr. Bull secured his horse and E. ALLEN got the gun and bow and the quiver of arrows. The other Indian escaped.

From historical records, written at the time (I'm paraphrasing),say the Indians were after horses. They rounded up many, going from farm to farm, ranch to ranch, gathering horses. They didn't go out of their way to harm anyone, and only shot at the Texans when the Texans shot at them. The article read on. One White man, Sevier Fortenberry, was killed. So each side lost one man. It went on for a while. A few Texans would stumble onto the Indians or a band of the Indians would stumble onto a few Texans. If one group outnumbered the other, they might charge at them. I am sure Tarlton's Civil War experiences helped him. Notice it says Tarlton Bull was in the lead, and shot and killed one of the Indians. Maybe he was as brave as the stories dad had heard about him. Maybe he just seemed to be 7 feet tall, to Dad. Dad was born in 1915 and Tarlton died in 1929. So dad only knew his as a child, and he only met him a few times.

Tarlton and Sarah (Brown) Bull didn't marry until 1879. Sarah was great grandma Josephine (Brown) Richey's sister. She was dad's great Aunt and Tarlton his great uncle by marriage. Tarlton had been married earlier and Sarah was his second wife. Per his Texas Confederate pension papers they were poor, and were barely getting by. Texas rejected his pension application, saying his illness and injuries were not war related and he wasn't old enough. But 20 years later they were living in Oklahoma, and he applied again, and the new state of Oklahoma approved his application.

Above is a photo of Tarlton Bull, with a cane in one hand and a Stetson in the other, as an old man. I believe this was taken in 1929 just before he died. He made one last trip down to Denton. He was living in Murray County, Oklahoma at the time. Maybe Tarlton wasn't a great big man nearly 7 feet tall, but perhaps his stories were.

Oh, one more thing about the Denton County Indian Raid of 1868. It mentioned they chased the Indians across the John Chisum Ranch! Now the Chisholm Cattle Trail from Texas to Kansas started very near Denton County. Was John Chisum related to Jesse Chisolm?

Jesse Chisholm

Well, I am always buying books about historical characters, and one of them is “Jesse Chisholm, Ambassador of the Plains” by Stan Hoig, (c) 1991 University of Oklahoma Press. Jesse was mixed-Cherokee. He knew many Indian languages of the Southern Plains – he spoke Comanche fluently. Texas President Sam Houston knew him well having lived with the Cherokee many years himself, and he used him when he wanted to contact the Comanches or other Southern Plains tribes. When the American government wanted to contact the Southern Plains Indians, they also used him. He was one of a handful of visitors whom the Comanche allowed to pass through their lands. The Indians knew that Jesse would treat them honestly, better than other traders. He knew the great chiefs, and as well as the commanders of the various forts in Indian Territory and Texas. Politicians relied on his opinion.

In about 1833 the First Dragoons left Fort Gibson for Devils Canyon, on the border of Kiowa, Jackson and Greer Counties in southwestern Oklahoma, where they made the first contact with the tribes of the Southern Plains. There was a Wichita Indian Village at that place, between the mountain and the North Fork of Red River. There were 8 Cherokee scouts along – I know of three of them. Captain Dutch, said to have been Sequoyah's brother; David Melton, whose family had lived at Melton's Bluff on the Tennessee River in Northern Alabama; and the third, Jesse Chisholm, who was Grandson of John Chisholm, who had been on that same Tennessee River (although he lived to the north of it), downstream from the Melton's home. He was a business partner of Doublehead's, who was Sequoyah's great uncle.

The caption says this is the only photo known to exist of Jesse Chisholm, for whom the Chisholm Cattle Trail was named, courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society. As always, click on the photos and they will expand

But also on that same trip there exists a list of the commanders and officers, and one of those officers was “Jesse Bean”. Jesse Bean was commander of Bean's Rangers, and two members of that unit were James and Jarrett Wayland. They were first cousins to each other, and they were also first cousins to one of my great-great-grandmas, Sarah Ann Wayland. It was written that many of these 'rangers' were mixed-Indian. A Melton Welborn was also a member of Bean's Rangers. I do not know if he was related to David Melton or not.

So who was John Chisum, Denton County, Texas rancher? Jesse's grandpa was named John Chisholm. Was Jesse a kindsman of the Texas Rancher and cattleman named John Chisum?

Charles Goodnight

In what was originally an unrelated story, I also remembered my mother talking about another Texas Rancher, Charles Goodnight. Every once in a while my job takes me to Oklahoma City, and when I am near Oklahoma Historic Society, I go by their bookstore and get a book or two. I don't remember what my mother said about him but some how she knew of him. There is a mural in Chattanooga, of Charles Goodnight. Chattanooga is a small town in Eastern Tillman County, Oklahoma. My mother's Kinder relations were big ranchers (and they still are) in Eastern Tillman County. I was wondering if it was through the Kinder's that they knew Charles Goodnight. Well, the last time I was in Oklahoma City and I was searching the book store at Oklahoma Historic Society, I saw “Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman” by J. Evetts Haley, (c) 1935 University of Oklahoma Press. It occurred to me that I remembered mother mentioning his name. Her family came from jack County, Texas, and I wondered if the book mentioned Jack County, or if it mentioned the Kinder's.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, it lets me tie one of mother's stories with dad's. How does it do that? Here goes.

I haven't read the book about Charles Goodnight yet, but it's next on my list. Once I’m through with a book on the Creek Red Stick War (which I'm reading now) I'll start on the biography of Goodnight. But I did thumb through the index at the back of the book. I was hoping to see the Kinder surname, but it wasn't there. However, I did see John Chisum. I was wondering if this was the John Chisum of Denton County, Texas. Tarlton Bull, dad's great uncle by marriage, had been involved with an Indian fight that passed through John Chisum's Ranch in Denton County, Texas. Was the John Chisum mentioned in the Charles Goodnight biography the same John Chisum from Denton County? Was he related to Jesse Chisholm, for whom the Chisholm trail was named? Well I had to sneak a peak.

From page 267: In 1867 John Chisum came out from Texas and located on the Pecos at Bosque Grande, occupying the range that Goodnight abandoned. For years he remained the first friend on the trail west of the Texas settlements. . . He was an intimate friend of the young trail-blazer [speaking of Charles Goodnight] for years. It goes on to say Chisum was born in Madison County, Tennessee in 1824. At the age of 13 they moved to Paris, Texas. Later in the same paragraph, still talking of Texas rancher and cattleman John Chisum, but now as an adult – here it is – “He left the office of county clerk to engage in the cow business near Denton”. So – the John Chisum over whose land some Indians and Tarlton Bull had chased one another, was the same John Chisum known by Charles Goodnight! In about 1837 John Chisum's family moved from Madison County, Tennessee to Northeast Texas. He later moved to Denton County. He was NOT related to Jessee Chisholm, mixed-Cherokee, for whom the Chisholm Trail was named.

Charles Goodnight

Above is a drawing of Charles Goodnigh6 by Harold Bugbee. After skimming the biography of Charles Goodnight, I suspect if my mother's family knew him it may have been in Texas. They lived in Jack County, Texas ad he had lands further south, but not much further. I do need to go to Chattanooga (the small town in Eastern Tillman County, Oklahoma), and find out why they have a mural of him painted on a local building. Maybe that will shed more light on the topic.

Whether this John Chisum known to Charles Goodnight is related to Jesse Chisholm, mixed blood Cherokee, I don't know. Both came from Tennessee, but that doesn't mean they were or were NOT related. Oh well, it is an interesting bit of nineteenth century Oklahoma/Texas history.

The Hanging Judge, Isaac Parker

I also got a book about Isaac Parker, known affectionately as “the Hanging Judge”. I can’t find it, though. When I do, I’ll edit this section. My great Uncle wrote about our family in “Indian/Pioneer Papers”, a Dust Bowl Era Project to get “old-timers’ in the 1930s to tell what life was like in the days of the Old Indian Territory. Great Uncle Oscar Taylor Richey wrote the following about our family (he was grandma’s brother);

Date: August 23, 1937

Name: Oscar T. Richey

Post Office: Lone Wolf, Kiowa County, Oklahoma

My parents were natives of Arkansas and grew up near Fort Smith which is just across the line from Indian Territory. Both come from pioneer families.

After they were married in the year 1872, they moved into Indian Territory and settled in either the present Sequoyah or Leflore Counties. I do not know on which side of the Arkansas River they lived, but I remember very clearly hearing my mother say that the territory was like a wilderness and that they had to go back to Fort Smith for everything they had to buy and that when they needed protection all the officers of the law had to come from Fort Smith.

Mother never ceased to tell us children of an experience which she had while living at that place. Two White men and Two Negroes committed some kind of a crime in the Indian Territory, were taken to Fort Smith tried and convicted and were sentenced to be hanged.

When the day of the hanging came, she and Father like everybody else in the country started early for the hanging was to be a public affair, and they traveled all day through the woods and across the streams and when they reached Fort Smith there were literally a thousand people which was a great number at that time, gathered as if at a picnic to witness the hanging. Mother watched the hanging and it was so horrible to her that she regretted attending such a thing all the remainder of her life.

So I have an interest in Judge Isaac Parker. He worked out of Ft. Smith. But there is more. My great Grand parents were Josephine (who’s maiden name was Brown) was wife of Jeffrey Richey. Jeff’s mother was a “Wayland” who moved to Arkansas from Scott County, Virginia where they attended that well known Melungeon Church. They were married in the home of “Alph Brown”. Alph was Josephine’s uncle. Dad was named after him. Josephine was his grandma. Here is a record of that marriage.

It says; Jeffrey H. Richey, Josephine Brown, marriage. This is to certify that I, Hugh Rainwater did on the 10th day of March, 1872 the rights of matrimony between Jeffrey Richey age 21 and Josephine Brown age 18 in the residence of Alph Brown in the state of Arks. In the county of Lawrence my credentials being recorded in the clerk’s office in Powhatan this 14th day of March 1872. Hugh Rainwater.

Remember my great uncle said they moved to Indian Territory after they got married? That’s where they say the hanging of four men? Well there is ALSO the following record.

This document reads; THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the Western District of Arkansas. The United States of America to the Marshall of the Western District of the state of Arkansas – greeting: Whereas complaint under oath has been brought before me charging that Alph Brown, Elias Jeffries, and Eli Beavers did on or about the 15th day of July A. D. 1884 in the Indian Country Western District of Arkansas, commit the crime of assault with intent to kill contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States to apprehend the said Alph Brown, Elias Jeffries, and Eli Beavers and bring their bodies forthwith before James Brizzolara, Commissioner appointed by the United States District Court, for said district, whenever they may be found, that they may then and there dealt with, according to law for said offense.

Given under my hand, this 2nd day of August, A. D. 1884, in the 109th year of our Independence.

James Brizzolara, Commissioner, U. S. Courts, Western District of Arkansas

The Western District of Arkansas is the area over which Judge Isaac Parker presided. Now Brown is a VERY common surname. There might have been two Alph Brown’s. Another man they were after was surnamed “Jeffries” which I have heard is a common surname amongst the Saponi or other Catawban bands. Part of me what became of this warrant and part of me would just as soon not find out.

All the photos I see of Isaac are as a young man of as an old man with a white beard. I’m choosing the old man. And I’m hoping there were two different “Alph Brown’s”.

Addendum to the Section on Charles Goodnight

I wrote this blog entry probably about 20 years ago. However last night, I added this section. Yesterday as usual, I woke up WAY before dawn. I had just been asked to join this facebook group and I thought maybe they wanted to share some of my historical research. I remembered a little story, and I thought I saw a teaching moment in it. So, I wrote it down. Later, I went off for my early morning radiation treatment. When I got home from that treatment some guy had read my little post, and NEGLECTED the little learning lesson I was trying to portray, and got fixated on a side bar unrelated to what I was trying to get across. Then a second person came up and insulted part of the story where I was telling a little something about my mama's side of the family . . . And there I was, just off the x-ray machine, not realizing I had said anything controversial at all. I couldn't jump out of that facebook group as fast enough. Here’s the little story I shared.

Mama used to tell family stories, too. She was 100% Caucasian, and had a lot of German-American blood. Some members of her family married into the Kinder family. When she’d talk of those Kinder’s, sometimes her stories drifted over to talking about stories her cousin’s ancestors had told them about an “Old man Goodnight”. He seemed to be somebody important, but as a child, I didn’t know why and I didn’t ask. Mama’s family came to Oklahoma in 1906 with the land lottery giveaway program, when a tract of land called “The Big Pasture” – formerly Kiowa/Comanche/Apache lands was given to settlers. Their lands were in Eastern Tillman County, Oklahoma. Now those Kinder’s came up from Jack County, Texas, just like mama’s family. She lived from 1915-2002 and Dad from 1915-1992.The Kinder’s had been big cattlemen in both Texas and later when they came to Oklahoma. Their name is still big in Eastern Tillman County.

One day I got a job hauling people with illnesses around. Sometimes they went to Oklahoma University Medical Center which is located just east and north of downtown OkC. And that medical center is just a mile from the Oklahoma Historical Society Building. These people sometimes had doctor’s appointment that would take hours, and I’d go up and visit the Oklahoma Historical Society and thumb through their archives. They also had a bookstore and I happened to notice a book entitled; “Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman” by J. Evitts Haley; Ok. Univ. Press. Hmmm . . . I am thumbing through the book right now and don’t see a copyright year. Oh well. I was always going up there and buying books, and I bought this book. I remembered mama mentioning “Old man Goodnight” that apparently some of her cousin’s ancestors knew. I also remember wondering if it was the same person the book referenced. Well – the book even mention’s Jack County, Tx in a couple of places. I think maybe it's the same guy. Mr. Goodnight became a big rancher in the Texas Panhandle. Believe me, in his day, NOONE the Comanche Nation didn’t approve of travelled through that part of West Texas, and lived to tell the story without their permission. They weren’t called “The Lords of the Southern Plains” without reason.

One story in the book (p.322-323) is about a Pueblo Indian from New Mexico who was returning home after a visit with the Kiowa, allies of the Comanche, in those times. The Pueblo lived in Central New Mexico along the Rio Grande, far from the Texas panhandle. He knew Mr. Goodnight, and stopped by his place. This Pueblo Indian asked Mr. Goodnight how was the best way for him to get back home. He said he kept running into one fence after another blocking his way, and after a while just got lost. The old paths and roads he’d grown up with just didn’t exist anymore.

This is EXACTLY what happened to the Native Americans of the Carolina’s 150 years previously, after the Tuscarora and Yamassee Wars ending about 1718 or so. Small pox epidemics about every 20 years depopulated the land and settlers flooded into the region. Communities that had once been separated by woods and streams were now were separated by farms, and cities. Old roads and paths disappeared. Families became separated, and the survivors were left to try and assimilate into the new reality, if they were to continue.

So this guy posted, calling me a liar, telling me Charles Goodnight wasn’t a big Texas Cattleman, No! He was a Texas Marshal, an officer of the law. I got irritated. He had totally missed the lesson I was trying to share. But wait – there’s more! This girl came along and started trashing my mother’s family for being so mean to the Indians. I’m mixed race myself, and mama had married one. She too, paid no attention to the moral lesson I was attempting to share. . . . And I was wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Now I have to add to the story of Charles Goodnight. Since this blog is where I had at first come up with it, this is the perfect place to share it.

As Paul Harvey used to say, “And now, for the rest of the rest of the story.”

Quoting from Haley’s book, p. 322-323. For years, the Pueblo Indians had made periodic buffalo hunts to the Plains.to supply themselves, with robes, meat, and especially with tallow for their religious rites, and hence knew the land thoroughly. Soon after cowmen began stringing the range with wire. The old Taos chieftain, Standing Deer, dropped into the village of Clarendon upon his return from a trading trip with the Kiowas. He was having difficulty finding his way. And the Clarendon settlers, knowing nothing of Indians, thought his men were Comanches and were about to kill them . . . there was great excitement just as Goodnight happened in, rode up behind the party, and sat unnoticed for a few minutes as the wrangling continued. The chief was trying to tell the settlers who understood no Spanish, that he was not a Comanche, and was asking for Goodnight and telling his excited listeners, without avail, that; “Yo conozco un hombre se llama Buenos Noches. El tiennes muchas vacas, muchos caballos, y muchas todas. [I know a man called Goodnight. He has many cows, many horses, and much of everything. But the mob understood no more of this, and apparently would have killed the Pueblos if the Goodnight had not appeared, and called Standing Deer by name. The old man’s face brightened with joy as he turned and recognized the cowman, who explained to the settlers that these were not Warriors but peaceful Taos Indians.

Standing Deer asked a question that dumbfounded him. “How do you get back to Taos?”

“You surely know the way back to Taos. Haven’t you lived in this country all your life?”

“Si senor,” answered the Indian.”Pero alambre! Alambre! Alambre, todas partes!” [But wire, wire! Everywhere!”]

About page 305 or 10 or 15 the author talks about Mr. Goodnight meeting Quanah Parker. They had a pretty good friendly relationship, at that time. And on pages 49 and 123 the book talks about Jacksboro, Texas. And if anyone comes along and challenges me and calls me a liar again, well . . . I’ll knuckle down, and transcribe that part, too. But please don’t. Jacksboro is where Mama’s family came from before they moved up to Oklahoma, and Jacksboro’s the county seat of Jack County, Texas. So it I possible some of her relatives had heard of or known “Ol’ man Goodnight”. Now, I’m done.