Footnotes
The first fort built on the Washita River was one at the mouth of the Washita by General Leavenworth in 1834. But this had been such a disastrous place for the soldiers, (malaria), that it was not occupied very long. The Chickasaws were begging for protection, from the wild plains tribes, and in answer to their cry, General Taylor departed from Fort Gibson in September 1841, to locate a camp among them. This camp was finally located April 3, 1843, about twenty-two miles above the mouth of the Washita. It was occupied immediately by two companies of Dragoons. Major Fontleroy was placed in command. This post was called Ft. Washita.
Another fort on the Washita that was to see considerable service was that known as Fort Arbuckle, founded April 19, 1851, and named for General Arbuckle who had succeeded to the command of all the forces of the Southwest on the death of General Leavenworth in 1834. General Arbuckle had died June 11, 1851, and the fort was officially named for him June 25, 1851.
Fort Arbuckle was established on a branch of the Washita, Wild-Horse Creek, about six miles west and one north of the present town of Davis. This fort was built of logs, hewn and notched; the cracks were stripped with drawn boards, fireplaces were made at the ends of the buildings. The foundation for each building was of solid stone masonry. The roofs were of the old style clapboards made from the oak trees with the froe.
Office and officers’ headquarters, servants’ headquarters, sleeping quarters for the men, commissary, guard-house, and stables were a part of the general buildings of the fort which was designed to be permanent, and of sufficient proportions to accommodate four companies; for, by this time the commanders of our army had come to realize that they who were to deal with the wild tribes must be both convenient and adequate. (At this time, a company of cavalry or infantry consisted of 60 men.)
This fort also became the gateway for peace commissions, for councils, for military expeditions to relieve the distressed in the Southwest. From February 13, 1858, to June 20, 1858, the Fort had no occupants, (troops sent to Utah for the Mormon War), it was occupied till May 5, 1861, when Colonel W. C. Young of the Confederate forces took possession and Colonel Emory led this garrison to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.Almost immediately after the war, the Fort was occupied by Federal troops, but was officially abandoned June 24, 1870, when the establishment of Fort Sill practically absorbed all the business that was being transacted at Fort Arbuckle.
General Custer in charge of the Seventh United States Cavalry and having been promised the nineteenth. Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, was pursuing the Cheyenne Indians who had committed depredations in the Solomon and Saline River Valleys, in the summer of 1868.
The nineteenth Kansas did not arrive because of a severe snowstorm, but Custer pressed on in the winter time, and found the Indians in camp on the headwaters of the Washita near the present site of the town of Cheyenne. He struck them at daybreak and while it was something of a surprise, they rallied and fought bravely through it.
Black Kettle was killed and a greater part of his braves, though some escaped down the Washita. Custer had to get out in a hurry, for, down below on the Washita were hostile Indians. He went up to Fort Supply; but just a little later returned, got his dead and romoved them to Fort Arbuckle for burial. This is the “Battle of the Washita,” famous because it practically broke the resistance of the wild tribes. The action was fought November 27, 1868.
There are two famous trails that touch the Washita; one is the California trail coming in from the east through Fort Gibson, along the route by which Col. Dodge returned to Fort Gibson in 1834 till it reaches Purcell, then across the Canadian, then up between the Canadian until the Caddo country is reached when it swerves toward the Washita Valley. Along this route went the “Gold Diggers” in 1848-49-50 ; the other was the famous Chisholm Trail which, coming in from Texas strikes northward through Fort Sill, Anadarko, on the Washita, Fort Reno, and on to Caldwell, Kansas.
Over this route went the great droves of cattle in 1866 to 1885. Chisholm established this trail in 1865 and it became famous in Oklahoma history. The reason the cattle drives ended in 1885 was that it was the year that the Santa Fe Railroad was completed through Indian Territory.
One of the most important events in the history of Oklahoma was the surveying of the land into tracts such that it could be allotted. This may have been not the immediate purpose; but it was very convenient when the time really came for allotting to be done.
Before the year 1870, there had been surveys made, and boundaries of the tribes had been known largely by the principal rivers, and by parallels. But when the time of re-adjusting came after the Civil War, and the Indians had to give up much of their lands to the Government, it became necessary for the land to be surveyed. Because of the fact that the government in the Indian country was in the hands of the Indians, the government never had a surveyor-general office in Oklahoma. All the work that was done in Oklahoma was done in surveys contracted with the Government through the Department of the Interior.
The General Land Office, a subdivision of the Department of the Interior, was directly responsible for the surveying of the lands in Oklahoma. Contracts were made directly with this office, and the contractors made their reports to this department. In the General Land Office Report for 1870, page three, occur these significant words: “Chickasaw Lands in Indian Territory. A contract has been made by order of the Department of the Interior for the survey of these lands into 160-acre tracts, and the surveyors have departed for the theater of their operations.”
On January 6, 1927, the writer sent a letter to the General Land Office for information as to the details of this contract, and received in reply dated January 17, 1927, a letter containing information which he now embodies in this account: “In connection with his survey of the eastern portion of the Chickasaw lands, Ehud N. Darling, U. S. Surveyor, under his contract dated July 25, 1870, was required to establish an initial point for the survey of the lands into townships and sections, and his instructions directed that such initial point be located near the center of the Chickasaw lands or in the vicinity of Fort Arbuckle.
His notes with relation to the fort show as follows: `Initial point between two small streams having a northerly course making a junction about twenty chains north. Set sand stone 54x18x18, marked on west side I. P., on east side Ind. Mer., and on north side 1870, in a mound of stones, six feet in diameter and three feet high, from which Flag Staff; at Fort Arbuckle bears N. 7 ° 37’ W.’—This monument is located in Lat. 34 ° 30’ N. and Long. 97 ° 14’ 30” W.”
Continuing the report we find this interesting account that touches directly or indirectly every Oklahoman, “From this initial monument all the surveys in Oklahoma were in due time extended except those of the Public Land Strip, lying between Lat. 36 ° 30’ N., and the south boundary of Kansas and Colorado, Lat. 37° N., and between the 100th and the 103 degrees of west longitude, whereof the initial monument was established at the intersection of the 103d degree of longitude and the parallel of 36 ° 30’, and these lands were all related to the Cimarron Base and Meridian thus defined.”
This splendid bit of information is self-explanatory, the monument in Oklahoma history is styled the “beginning,” and it is interesting for us to reflect that this is in the Washita Valley, some six miles west of Davis, and about one mile south of old Fort Arbuckle.
After winding your way south from the old Fort, you will come to some steep hills and some very sharp valleys, scrubby cedars are holding tight to the barren soil, scaly stones lie thick on the ground; one hill stands above the others, and on its top stands the historic sandstone set near one hundred forty years ago—the “beginning,”— Reference: Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 5, No. 2, June, 1927, pp 221-232.
