Library Subscribes to Footnote.com

The Muskogee Public Library recently subscribed to a new online collection of historical records. It did so as it continues providing area residents with online content. Footnote.com is a growing company offering digitized historical records.

Footnote's "Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation" came up in searching for a Muskogee connection. The Bureau of Investigation pre-dates the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It had responsibilities that mirrored the present day operations of the FBI. Congress established the Bureau of Investigation one hundred years ago this year.

The "Investigative Case Files" cover the years 1908 to 1922. Footnote.com digitized over two million images as a cooperative effort with the National Archives. The archives retain custody of the original records. Viewers may print out records at the library for ten cents a page.

The bureau files are full of references to suspicious characters, prostitutes, stool pigeons, vagrants, burglars and safe crackers, lawyers and peace officers, strikers and rioters. In a file with a connection to Muskogee, the Vinita police took custody of a woman named Lena Jackson for mail theft.

The Vinita jail was almost not good enough to hold their prisoner. After being locked up, she immediately set about removing bricks from the jail wall to affect an escape. The police transferred her to the Muskogee's steel jail after finding the loose bricks.

She was initially indicted on May 7, 1919 under her alias. Then Muskogee police identified her as a drug addict named Peggy Willard. Peggy subsequently escaped from her attorney using a ruse. Another library database of the 1920 census reports her being incarcerated in the Missouri State Penitentiary about seven months later. Peggy's escape from the custody of her lawyer was short lived.

There are over a hundred references to Muskogee in the bureau's case files. Additionally, Footnote's collection of records includes the Dawes enrollment applications and enrollment cards.

Beyond Muskogee is the full panorama of records reaching from the Revolutionary War to the Second World War. Muskogee's airport namesake, Major Jack Davis, appears on a Footnote database because of his failure to return from a dawn patrol over the Sea of Japan.

Footnote.com allows a special feature to its website. A viewer has the ability to tag digital records with additional information. If a reader identifies a relative, they may wish to note how that relative became listed on that record.

In addition to expanding the library's access to online databases, the library purchased two digital microfilm readers. These two readers allow printing of images at higher resolution than previously possible. Golden wedding anniversary photographs, for example, are now sharper when printed or stored electronically.

The library is constantly improving its services to the public. If you have not visited lately, now is a good time to find out how much they offer.

Working Women of WWI

Most Americans know that "Rosie the Riveter" worked during the Second World War. Less well known is the story of the mothers of these workers. This story is about the women who took on work during the First World War to free men for another war effort.

Women have always worked outside of the home in such occupations as store clerks, schoolteachers and nurses or mid-wives. Women did not normally work in many other occupations until a need arose. Just as the Civil War forced many women into heavy farm work because husbands, sons and fathers were in military service, Rosie's mother moved into similar jobs during World War I.



This war brought America to its feet. Shown here is a statute of an American "Doughboy" outside of the VA hospital. Doughboys were the GIs of the First World War. Over one million doughboys shipped from American ports for service in France by the war's end. More than twice as many went overseas in military service while America fielded a military force of nearly five million men. Months earlier, these soldiers were working on farms and in factories.

To fill the shoes and boots of servicemen, women began working in non-traditional jobs. One example is Miss Jennie Weatherford who became the first woman automobile mechanic in Muskogee. She worked at the Muskogee Garage. She wore "bloomers" while she worked and reportedly left her facial powder at home in March 1918.

Just as Miss Weatherford worked as a grease monkey, the federal government promoted hiring women. Government altered its policy so that women became eligible for jobs as rural mail carriers in 1918. It was the first time since 1911 that women could apply for these jobs. The Post Office held the first examination for them on April 27.

Miss Stella Pierce of Braggs was the first woman in Oklahoma to pass the examination. She received her appointment as a mail carrier for a rural route in late July. Born about 1900, she was the daughter of Mrs. Charles Pierce. Soon after the end of the war, she became a stenographer with a hardware firm in Muskogee.

Even the railroads employed women in traditional male occupations. Railroads played a major role in shipping of men and material during the war. The US Army focused its recruitment on railroad men for active service. In filling their boots, the local newspaper reported that women worked in railroad roundhouses and in the railroad blacksmith shops. Before the First World War, women rarely worked in these railroad departments. Supervisors reported the work performed by women to be satisfactory after the war ended.

Despite their successful work record, returning soldiers replaced many women workers. The balance of women working outside of home returned to a more normal level until daughters named "Rosie" were called to serve during the 1940's.

Here is a ditty that chronicled these changing times.

Women for the railroads,
Women for the farms,
Women for the duties
of bouncer and gendarme.
Baggage smashing women,
Trucks to load and shove,
There'll be women soon for everything,
Except a girl to love.

Social Security Death Index

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has long kept records of reported American deaths. This effort is part of their fiduciary responsibilities for cardholders. Their database is called the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

The general public is unaware that this index first became publically available in 1991. A free online version of the database is available at http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi.

President Franklin Roosevelt worked for the passage of legislation to help needy Americans during the Great Depression. The enactment creating the Social Security Administration passed Congress in 1935. The law assisted to the disabled and family members when the wage earner was no longer able to work. This law still serves American today.

The legislation also established an insurance program in which workers identified by a nine-digit number contributed to a retirement fund. Upon death of the cardholder, SSA staff created an entry in a separate database recording the closure of the account under that number. Financial data for an individual remains confidential.

The SSA began keeping track of cardholders' deaths electronically in 1962. Today there are more than 82 million names in the database. Statistically, however, most of the deaths before this date are not part of this collection. This is because the earlier years were not recorded electronically. As older files are reopened for some purpose, deaths before 1962 are belatedly added to the death index.

The information in the death index includes the cardholder's name, social security number, state where the number was issued, date of birth and date of death. Many genealogists use this public information to help locate distant family members.

It helps if the name being searched is an uncommon one. If you wish to locate a record of a deceased family member who has a more common name, it may be best to use the advanced search feature. This will help to limit the search results to those with a similar name and have some other detail in agreement with known facts. It is amazing how many people have similar names, but resided in different parts of the country.

Even though my name is not very common, if someone made a search for Wallace Waits, three names come up. Two of the names are of my grandfather and father. They died in 1964 and 1974, respectively. I have never heard of the Wallace R. Waits who died young in life.

There is a low error rate in this data because the SSA staff works hard to maintain file accuracy. Joseph Seller is one case in point where an error crept in. The Social Security Death Index reports him being born in 1899. According to the database, Joseph died at a very young age in 1900. This is an obvious error since the death index was not created until sometime after 1935.

I learned this from the SSDI: Joseph Caudillo died in May 1967. He was my Company Commander during basic training when I first joined the US Army. Further research showed that he was killed in combat in Vietnam. I would have never know this if I had not checked the death index.

Here are some ways a person may make use of the Social Security Death Index. With the first payment occurring in 1937, it is possible your Civil War ancestor lived long enough to benefit from this Depression Era program. Or, your high school reunion is coming up and you can not find all of your classmates. Maybe several have already passed away. The Social Security Death Index may have the answers to these possibilities.

Joseph Sondheimer, Fur Trader

Joseph Sondheimer was the first person of Jewish faith to settle in Indian Territory. He came to the territory after the Civil War to trade animal hides.

Mr. Sondheimer was a native of Valkerschlier, Bavaria. He was born on September 22, 1840. He came to America as a youth. Young Sondheimer began his business training as a clerk in stores in Baltimore and Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, he worked as a commissary agent providing supplies for men and horses in the US Army.

Sondheimer began trading in hides for the commercial markets after the war ended. He opened his business in St. Louis, Missouri.

The depopulated area of Indian Territory provided the best source of animal hides because of destruction caused by the war. When riding through the territory in 1867, he heard about the newly established Cobb brothers store on the west bank of the Arkansas River. He authorized the Cobbs to purchase hides on his behalf. He established similar agreements with other merchants along the Texas Road between Missouri and Texas.

Sondheimer also purchased hides from settlers throughout the Cherokee, Creek and northern Choctaw Nations. He established his home and warehouse near the Creek Agency. This put him close to the Arkansas River where he shipped his purchases down stream. He was also near the center of Indian Territory.

Joseph moved his home and storage buildings into the new town of Muskogee after it became a thriving business center. Hides were among the first commodities shipped by railroad from Muskogee. Sondheimer found train shipments reliable.

During fifteen days in the winter of 1881, Sondheimer shipped the following from his large warehouse in Muskogee: 4,500 raccoon, 3,000 skunk, 2,000 opossum and 3,000 pounds of deer hides. Additional pelts shipped on this order included gray fox, beaver, wildcat, wolf, pole cat and otter. The shipment went to dealers in major cities such as Chicago and St. Louis. Two years later, Sondheimer shipped seven railroad cars loaded with cured hides.

Building the warehouse in Okmulgee established him as the largest dealer in hides in Indian Territory. Sondheimer shipped other commodities, too. Pecans were his largest non-pelt staple shipped back east. He also began shipping hides directly to Leipzig, Germany. Many shipments also included wool and, occasionally, prairie chickens and quail.

After more than thirty-five years of buying and selling animal hides, Joseph Sondheimer summed up his observations in 1904 about his business this way. "business will be very poor this year-in fact it has been getting worse and worse now for several seasons. It takes a very wild country or a fairly well settled country to make a good fur business. In the very wild country the fur trader depends upon the skins of big game, while after a country has been fairly well settled the fur trader gets more mink, fox and pelts of small animals."

He continues "it is a fact that is not generally known that such animals valuable for their furs follow settlements. They leave the dense forests and follow on the boarders of small settlements where they are always found in greater numbers than in the thick forests where hunted by Indians."

Joseph Sondheimer's observations are just as valid today. My next-door neighbor saw a skunk in his back yard one evening and I have seen opossum and raccoons scurrying across roads. These are settlement small animals like Sondheimer observed a hundred years ago. He would have smiled knowingly.

The Beginning of Council Hill

Council Hill is a town in the southwest corner of Muskogee County. Its location was part of the pasture of the "Big G" ranch owned by Bill Gentry after the Civil War. The Gentrys raised as many as a thousand head of livestock yearly on the land.

Henry M. Sappington went into partnership with Gentry in the 1890's as he began slowing down in his elderly years. In 1901, Sappington purchased Mr. Gentry's remaining interest in the land.

The Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad began extending toward Henryetta's coalfields in 1905. The M. O. & G. line wanted a location in the area for a depot, section house and shipping point.

An auctioneer sold Council Hill's first town lots on June 22, 1905. The lots brought in $17,500 in three hours of bidding. The money registered as the most paid for a single town in Indian Territory.

Council Hill was chosen for the town name because the Creek Indians once called a nearby hilltop by the same name. There was an excellent water spring on the higher ground where the Creeks held councils.

Two weeks after the auction, the town gained a post office. It initially operated out of the Case General Store. The first postmaster was Emanuel B. Case. His store offered cool drinks, groceries and fine shoes.

The town also saw the establishment of the "Council Hill Eagle" newspaper within months of the post office's establishment. Almost a decade later, the newspaper became the "Council Hill Times."

Even before the sale of lots, people began settling in the area in expectation of the new town. Dr. Andrew J. Lovell, for example, arrived in the area on January 5, 1905, with his family. He soon established a number of partnerships in local enterprises.

Traveling doctors regularly came into the area to treat medical and dental problems before the town grew up beside the M. O. & G. tracks. The new town attracted physicians who put down permanent roots. The Council Hill Drug Company soon was dispensing medical cures and notions.

Council Hill quickly took on the look of permanence. Businessmen used brick in many places to build their stores and offices. Six of them had concrete sidewalks twelve feet wide out front within months.

A new schoolhouse was built. The first classes began in September. Methodists also built a church as soon as the money could be raised.

The town's population grew to 200 by 1909. There were two banks, a livery stable, several general stores and a meat market. There was a lumber store, a blacksmith shop and a contractor to oversee building construction. A cotton gin joined the Council Hill Grain Co., the Council Hill Hardware Co., and Council Hill Telephone Company in providing services to the area.

The town added the services of a barber, a dressmaker and a jeweler, too. A hotel served the railroad traveler.

Council Hill also had growing pains. The M. O. & G. Railroad acquired the "Big Mallet" railroad engines to pull heavier coal cars to and from Henryetta. The first time a Big Mallet engine passed through town, it tore up the loading dock at the depot. Construction workers extended it too close to the tracks. The damage was repairable, but remained the topic of discussion for weeks.

Council Hill has continued to serve the agricultural community for over a hundred years. It remains a trading center in the southwestern corner of Muskogee County.