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HOW
DID HESS, OKLAHOMA BEGIN HESS
boys,
(most of the time consisting of William Carter, James Buckhanon (Buck), and
Robert C. Brackenridge (Brack) HESS, pioneered the trails from Arkansas to
Johnson Co., TX. area and up to Old Greer Co., TX./OK.
They went back and forth to their native state of Arkansas telling
stories of the great lands of the west. They
encourage the families of Arkansas to follow them to this area.
They led many a wagon train of pioneers into this area of Texas and
Oklahoma. They established their
homes, brought their families, left their families, and went back for more
pioneers. You will find the HESS
boys owned land from Texas to Oklahoma, leaving one part of the family on the
land and taking the older children to squat and claim different parts of land in
Oklahoma as it opened for Homestead. Many
stories are told in Arkansas of the adventurous HESS Boys.
They always knew the trails to better places. The wife of William Carter
HESS, Elvira Pickney HARGROVE HESS, had the first post office in the area making
her also the first postmistress Of HESS, Oklahoma.
The Post office was established May 18 ,1889 and was named for her.
The mail run was from Vernon, TX. to Mangum, TX. with the one in-between
stop at the HESS home with Elvira HESS in charge of the Post Office.
Elvira P. HESS held her position of postmistress until March 15, 1920. William
Carter HESS and brothers came back and forth from Arkansas to Texas and then up
the Greer Co., TX known as Texas at that time..
..."IN
ABOUT THE YEAR 1888 THERE HAD GOTTEN TO BE QUITE AN EMIGRATION MOVING WEST IN
THE INDIAN TERRITORY, AND GREER COUNTY. GREER
COUNTY THEN WAS CALLED THE UNASSIGNED LAND--INDIAN TERRITORY--AND CONSISTED OF
WHAT NOW IS JACKSON, HARMON AND GREER COUNTIES, OKLAHOMA.
SOMETIME DURING THE, 1887, AB, (WILSON) LEVI, (WILSON)
CARTER HESS, BOB CARLYLE, AND ANDY ADKINSON, AND TOM WILLIAMS,
ALL MOVED FROM JOHNSON COUNTY, TEXAS TO WHAT IS NOW HESS COMMUNITY IN JACKSON
COUNTY, OKLAHOMA. MADE THEMSELVES
DUGOUTS TO LIVE IN, SOME MADE SOD OR ADOBE HOUSES, AND TURNING THAT FINE RICH
SOIL FOR FARMING. THEIR FIRST
FENCING CONSISTED OF ONE BARBED WIRE TACKED TO MESQUITE POSTS SET 50 FEET
APART."... Carter HESS moved his family to Texas from Arkansas in 1878 and on up to Greer Co. TX (HESS, OK) in 1886. He together with his brothers made many trips into the undeveloped lands of Texas after the Civil War. Placing the HESS brothers in the HESS area in the late 1870's and early 1880's coming in contact with the fierce Comanche Indians who roamed this area from middle Texas to the Plains of what is now known as Oklahoma. They managed through some type of friendship to stay alive and to return home to their loved ones and to tell the stories of the fertile land in the West.. One
more recent story mentions that prior to the establishment of the HESS Post
Office, HESS could have been called
"Cross Roads". I have
come across an old picture of an early
school with the name of Crossroads school.
I have not found any
documentation of a school in HESS, Oklahoma by the same name.
In all my research I have
had no knowledge of this title. I
have heard the comment that people
would meet at "a cross road".
From the stories of my father, Ambrose EASLEY WILSON and his sisters and
brothers, this did not seem to be at the place where the town of
HESS is located. In the MEMOIRS
OF ADDIE WILSON BROWN (my father's sister),
she states: ..."ALL EIGHT OF WE CHILDREN GOT THE MOST OF OUR EDUCATION IN A LITTLE ONE ROOM SCHOOL CALLED SOUTH GREER SCHOOL. IT WAS CALLED THAT NAME BECAUSE AS IT WAS IN THE SOUTH PART OF GREER COUNTY, ON THE NORTH FORK OF THE RED RIVER. THE SAME SCHOOL WAS LATER MOVED A FEW MILES NORTH AND BECAME HESS SCHOOL. THIS NAME CAME FROM MY MOTHER'S FAMILY WHO STARTED THE FIRST Post Office. IN HESS, OLD GREER COUNTY OKLAHOMA."... The big cattle ranchers drove their cattle through trails near the HESS area going to market in Kansas and Missouri. In 1874 the Chisholm Trail began to be used less due to more population and the Indians began to ask for higher payment for crossing their land. The drovers then turned to another trail to Dodge City, Kansas which crossed the Red River at Doan's crossing south of Altus, OK (near HESS, OK). They moved past the Friendship store and on to Trail Crossing, where they crossed the North Fork of Red River near the Wichita Mountains and moved into Indian Territory, ending at Dodge City, KS. This trail was called The Great Western Cattle Trail. Over this trail traveled more than six million cattle to market. Could this be the town of Cross Roads that someone could have confused with the community Of HESS, Oklahoma? Research
compiled by: Linda Gayle
WILSON HEUCKENDORF; Excerpts
from the book: In Camp With Theodore Roosevelt Or PASSAGES
FROM HIS BOOK AS JOHN R. (JACK) ABERNATHY HIMSELF WRITES. ..."Jack was employed as a piano and organ salesman, while Mrs. ABERNATHY taught music. With their combined earnings, they bought a small herd of cattle and moved to old Greer County, Oklahoma. This was in 1896. Greer
is the oldest county in Oklahoma, having been organized as a Texas county in
1888."... ..."Until 1895, Greer County had been regarded as a part of Texas, The boundaries of Old Greer County included all territory south and west of the North Fork of Red River, to the hundredth meridian. Jack
sold pianos and organs, did some farming, broke wild horses and chased wolves,
after moving to the town of Cross Roads. It
was while attending the county fair at Mangum, the county seat of Greer, that
Jack bought the famous iron gray horse, known as Sam Bass, from J.W. TUCKER, a
race horse man."... ..."Not
all of the land was filed upon by homesteaders immediately.
ABERNATHY had not drawn a good number but he filed on one of the
over-looked tracts. In settling on
such a 160-acre tract, located in the northeast quarter of Section 29-1s-19w,
which was in Comanche County (now Tillman County), he had plenty of opposition
in establishing his right to hold the claim."...
Page
8 ..."Mrs.
ABERNATHY looked after the children, all of whom were small.
She rode beside him holding two of the babies in her arms as the team
raced for the land. This piano box
was used as a house on the claim. It
was large enough to hold Mrs. ABERNATHY and the children.
This served as a "Habitable house," in the meaning of the law
and was a big feature in sustaining his right to win title to the rich land. About
one hundred yards to the east of the temporary home of the ABERNATHY's, another
land seeker started digging a well. His
family did not arrive till the following day.
This man, Doc BARR, mounted his horse in the night and rode to the Lawton
Land Office, a distance of sixty-five miles, arriving there at 9 o'clock a.m.,
filing on the land, claiming it as a homestead. Four
of the contestants who did the firing during that night, met me on the road as I
was returning from Frederick--about two miles from the claim."... Page
88 ..."Two
days after school closed in Guthrie, the boys were in their saddles, headed for
the ranch near Cross Roads."... ..."He
took up a block of ten thousand acres surrounding the Abernathy ranch in what
then was a part of Tillman county. A
test was drilled on the PICKERAL farm, the well being located a mile south of
the ABERNATHY homestead. This
operation proved to be a "duster" at a depth of three thousand feet. I
consider the Abernathy story to be my ..."FATHER WANTED ALL OF WE CHILDREN TO BE MUSICIANS. HE WAS ALWAYS SWAPPING FROM ORGAN TO PIANO OR PIANO TO ORGAN. ONE TIME WE HAD EACH IN THE HOUSE. HE GOT THE BOYS VIOLIN, GUITAR, MANDOLIN AND OTHER BAND PIECES. HE ALSO GAVE THE GIRLS VOICE AND PIANO LESSONS. EACH SUMMER WE WOULD HAVE A THREE WEEK NORMAL COURSE OR SINGING SCHOOL AT THE SCHOOL HOUSE FOR EVERYONE. A SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOL AS EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED CONTRIBUTED. SUCH GOOD TIMES WE DID HAVE, AND FATHER WENT TO. MOTHER STAYED HOME AND COOKED FOR THE CROWDS THAT WE WOULD HAVE THROUGH THAT SESSION. SOME CAME FROM FAR AWAY PLACES, INCLUDING THE TEACHERS. HE GAVE US SPECIAL MUSIC LESSONS AND I WILL SAY, MY THREE OLDER SISTERS HAD THE BEST. THE TEACHER WAS MRS. JOHN ABERNATHY, WHO LIVED ACROSS THE RED RIVER FROM US, AND SHE CAME IN HER BUGGY ABOUT THREE TIMES A WEEK.".. ..."LATER HER HUSBAND JOHN ABERNATHY, HUNTED WOLVES OR COYOTES IN THE FREDERICK, OKLAHOMA AREA WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TEDDY ROOSEVELT. MRS. JOHN ABERNATHY PLAYED ALICE'S WEDDING MARCH AT HER WEDDING. FATHER TOLD ME THE STORY OF THE HUNT AS IT HAPPENED SOME TWENTY MILES FROM WHERE I GREW UP. WE BOUGHT OUR LAST AND BEST PIANO FROM THE ABERNATHY'S."... HEUCKENDORF, Linda Gayle WILSON, My Heirloom Heritage, Research Notes, Linderh Press, Choctaw, OK, 1993, 1994. PARROTT, Lucinda Janettie Jane WILSON, History of Wilson Family, Amarillo, TX, 1931. MCCUISTION, Rev J.H., Remembrance of William Carter HESS, Hollis, OK, 1930.. BROWN, Addie WILSON, Memoirs of Addie WILSON BROWN, Sam P. BROWN, 1958. CHESSER, Dean Cecil, Across The Lonely Years, Robert K. MAYFIELD, Altus, OK, 1971. STEVENSON, Noel C., Genealogical Evidence, California 92654, 1989. |
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