Robison Park History

William R. Robison was the son of a Creek blacksmith. His mother was a Chickasaw. He was born in Stonewall, Indian Territory, just months before the end of the Civil War.

His business training began in 1879 when his father asked him to drive the mail wagon between Okmulgee and Wetumka. Many times, farmers on the mail route asked young Will to shop for necessities in the next town. The farmers then entrusted him with money for the purchases that Will delivered on the return trip.

Will came to Muskogee in 1884 with his father. They opened a livery stable in the 200 block of Broadway Street. In this business on the north side of the street, they met a lot of "drummers" passing through town.

Drummers were traveling salesmen who hawked a wide variety of merchandise. They traveled from town to town throughout the American West peddling such non-perishable items as pots and pans or bolts of fabrics.

Will often traveled with these men on their routes as a companion and co-salesman. It was common for him to be away from Muskogee for two months at a time.

His journeys took him as far west as Shawnee. He usually returned through Eufaula in completing the circuit. Then Will and the drummers followed the Texas Road back to Muskogee. This extensive traveling during his youth spoiled him as far as indoor work was concerned. Instead of becoming another one of the drummers, Will eventually went into real estate sales following the allotting of tribal lands.

When the Dawes Commission began tribal registration, Will Robison went to Tams Bixby for help with his registration. As acting chairman of the federal commission to enroll citizens of the Five Civilized Tribes, Bixby had authority to make decisions regarding enrollment.

By common practice, applicants were enrolled according to their mother's tribal affiliation. Robison would have normally been enrolled as a Chickasaw. However, Will wanted to claim Creek tribal land where he had built improvements. Bixby granted Robison's request to allow him to enroll as a Creek and thereby keep his farm.

Robison's allotted land was located southeast of Muskogee. There he developed the Robison Addition on the property. The subdivision still exists today on the north side of Robison Park. It includes the streets named Robison, Sallie, Augusta and Monta. Monta Cottingham was Robison's step-son. Augusta Street was named for Will's niece. Sallie was Robison's wife.

In late March, 1916 Will offered thirty acres for sale to the city. The city council was looking for land to use as a city park. At the time, the property was still outside of the limits, with the city boundary now abutting the land on two sides.

Initially, half of the city council balked at the transaction. The competing property considered by the council already had trolley tracks extending to within a block of the site on Okmulgee Avenue. The alternate property was located just beyond the end of paving at the 24th Street intersection.

The councilmen then "motored" out to see the Robison property. During the trip, they learned that the trolley company was willing to extend track to the Robison location.

The opposing councilors thereupon agreed to proceed with the Robison purchase. The city used bond money voters approved for parkland acquisition. The price was $80,000 ninety-three years ago.

Work on improving Robison Park is moving forward under the leadership of Mark Wilkerson and the city's Parks Department. Finally, this city jewel is receiving its long neglected polishing.

Muskogee's First Land Allotment

April First, 1899 was a Saturday. The weather was brisker than normal for that time of year. One person thought the door to Alaska had been left open. By nine o'clock, the sun was beginning to warm the land.

Muskogee was crowded that morning. There were about three thousand people milling around the intersection of Second Street and Broadway Avenue. The two-story structure built on the northwest corner was the Federal Courthouse.

Creek Indians were in town for the initial land allotments being made by the Dawes Commission. Creek families had spent the previous night camped on the edge of town. Also milling in the crowd were merchants and curious local residents who wanted to see the theatrical performance of awarding the first allotment.

As the first order of business at the courthouse, Judge William M. Springer accepted the petition for expanding Muskogee's boundaries so that the community now covered an area of exactly four square miles.

With that business finished, Judge Springer recognized the members of the Dawes Commission. Tams Bixby presided as acting commission chairman. With him were Thomas B. Needles and Archibald S. McKennon who also served on the Dawes Commission.

The commission was issuing titles to Creek enrollees first because they were members of the first tribe to be enrolled. As members were enrolled, the commission then allowed enrollees to select their allotments.

Judge Springer called for Susanna Barnett to come forward. Commission records showed her to be the Creek holding card number one. She had been the first Creek person to enroll in 1897.

Miss Barnett was the orphaned daughter of Petoche and Nancy Barnett. She was also the adopted daughter of Alice Robertson with whom she lived a year later. A three-quarters Creek Indian, she was just barely nineteen years old that morning.

Susanna Barnett made a short speech in English thanking the commissioners for the opportunity of receiving land. Her speech reflected the education she received from having lived with Alice Robertson and Alice's mother.

Judge Springer then presented Miss Barnett with a rolled up enrollment certificate tied with a ribbon. This certificate entitled Susanna to locate, and receive title to, 160 acres of land.

With the presentation to Miss Barnett over, she entered the courthouse and chose Arkansas River bottom land in the vicinity of Ridge. Ridge was a short-lived post office located fifteen miles northwest of Muskogee.

The Dawes Commissioners and the twelve clerks than started the real business of allotting the rest of the Creek tribal land to enrollees. That day, the commission issued another twenty allotments.

The clerk at the courthouse door called for the person holding enrollment card number two to come forward. Isabel Meagher was the oldest of four orphaned children of Thomas F. and Mary Meagher. She received a certificate on their behalf and selected land southwest of Muskogee, just beyond the city limits.

The Dawes Commission certified twenty-one allottees that day. These certificates represented claims by seventy-seven people. April First was just the beginning because some fifteen thousand ultimately received Creek tribal allotments.

Muskogee and Fort Gibson Outhouses

Outhouses, such as pictured here, were common in Muskogee during most of the town's first century. Russell Lee, a worker for the Farm Security Administration, took top photograph in June, 1939. It shows an agricultural worker meeting a personal need in Muskogee.

Most privies were built better than the one shown here. Lee's instructions were to focus on the poorest circumstances in America.

Despite the obvious poverty evident in this image, there are several common features of an outhouse visible here. The very crudeness of this one hides its basic functionality.

This "one-holer" was used by a single person. Schools, businesses and some homes had outhouses built for use by multiple occupants simultaneously. Early Muskogee schools especially faced difficulties when spreading childhood illnesses caused runs to the "facilities."

In household outhouses, the loose fitting planks of the walls kept out the worst of the inclement weather. At the same time, the free flowing wind ventilated the facility, carrying off unwanted odors.

A tighter roof, almost universally flat, was simple to build. Experienced carpenters knew most everyone avoided building a privy with a gabled roof. Bi-planed roofs had two more corners, six versus four, where wasps could build nests.

Muskogee city codes in 1952 required a building permit when someone wanted to construct an outhouse. Fortunately, the city waived the permit fee.

Ordinances required the construction of privies in the city when buildings were more than two hundred feet from a sewer line. They were banned if the buildings were within that distance.

Common outhouses, such as pictured above, were outlawed. The city required the construction of "Fly Proof" privies for any building that was a residence or a business. Buildings used for for storage were the only exemptions.

The second photograph is of a long unused two-holer found in Fort Gibson today. In the age of outhouses, wood was the primary construction material. Though in dilapidated condition, the investment in the use of cinder blocks and a ventilation system attests to it late construction.

This one shows the care that went into meeting the needs of a church congregation. The lack of sagging or cracking masonry hints at it commercial construction. Only its wooden roof and doors show the lack of upkeep and the ravages of time.

Many today may not realize that outhouses were victims of the tornado striking Muskogee in April, 1945. Anecdotal accounts reported the lost of many outbuildings, including some privies, in the northeast part of town. The tornado certainly brought winds of change because a number of families abandoned their outhouses when then rebuilt.

Sewer construction in town gradually eliminated outhouses within Muskogee's city limits. Knowledgeagle city employees do not recall seeing any outhouses in the city in recent memory. If you happen to see one somewhere, remember that it represents part of the evolving nature of Oklahoma life.

Alice Marriott

Alice Lee Marriott came to Muskogee in need of a job. She was a twenty year old magna cum laude college graduate with degrees in English and French. It was 1930 and the beginning of the Great Depression.

She took the job as a cataloger at the Muskogee Library. In this position, she received newly purchased books, often costing as little as a quarter or a dollar.

Alice first wrote the date, seller's name and cost in the book's inner margin. Then, she began the job of cataloging the book.

Today, most books come with the cataloging information already printed inside. This "Cataloging in Publication: is the work of skilled catalogers at the Library of Congress.

That service did not become available until after the Second World War. Each library in the 1930's had to independently catalog anew each title they acquired.

To catalog a book, Alice first identified the book's general topic. If need be, she identified the sub-topic and sub-sub-topics.

After this analysis, Alice turned to her typewriter and produced one index card after another for each subject, author and title that described the new book. These cards were then filed in the library's card catalog for the public's use.

Alice was not a native of Oklahoma. She was born in the northern Chicago suburb of Wilmette. her interest in anthropology was partly derived from her English grandfather's interest in Egyptology. He liked taking her to the Field museum where she became fascinated with totem poles.

In Muskogee, Alice found herself cataloging book after book on history and genealogy because of the strong interest held by Cora Case Porter, the head librarian. In the new State of Oklahoma, local history and genealogy meant the study of Native American families, especially those of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Alice Marriott's work in the Carnegie building on East Broadway, pictured here, sparked her determination to return to college. Alice's immersion in tribal history and genealogy sparked her interest in making it the focus of her life.

She wanted to attend graduate school to study anthropology to follow up on her new found purpose in life. When she enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, she found that there was no such degree program. She settled, instead, upon earning a second undergraduate degree. In the process, she became the first woman to earn a degree in anthropology at OU.

For the rest of her life, Alice Marriott rarely worked at a regular job. Instead, she continued her passionate study of Native American cultures while surviving on the sales of the many anthropological books she wrote for the public.

Before her death at age 82 in Oklahoma City, Oklahomans recognized her as one of the pioneering female anthropologists produced by the state.

A Bit More About Miss Alice

Not all written about Alice Robertson tells the reader much about her personality. Historians most often quote sources about a time and place of a person's events.

However, Miss Alice left many clues to her personality in her life because she was so memorable.

Miss Alice spent her youth surrounded by the Creek youths studying at Tullahassee Mission. Because of her exposure to the Creek language, Miss Alice developed an "ear" for the spoken word. Her ability to relate to other people thus came from her ability to "hear" in her mind what she heard earlier.

From an early age, she began assisting her parents tutor children younger than herself. This experience naturally trained her for a career in education. It also provided training for the role of a leader she assumed later in life.

Miss Alice continued her education by going back east to study at Elmyra College in Elmyra, New York, before venturing out on her own. This formal training enhanced the solid learning she received from her parents in the wilderness of Indian Territory.

During her early years of independence, this redheaded woman worked in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington. She was an asset at the bureau because of her knowledge of the Native American culture.

She continued her education by reading widely while in the nation's capitol. Some say she was self-taught. This is true in that she learned to love books, especially the Bible, from her parents. The libraries in Washington offered many outlets for her to continue reading.

Undoubtedly, she found Presbyterian hymns among her most favorite songs. Her ear for music was apparently as strong as her oral memory for the Creek language. Later in life, Miss Alice purchased a piano, though no account reports her actually playing the instrument.

Miss Alice's education in cooking began as a young child helping in her mother's kitchen. She apparently did not help in the feeding of the mission's large student population.

Later in life, she opened a restaurant in downtown Muskogee called the Sawokla. She was on the path to economic ruin with her operation because she tended to cook only with the food stock she had on hand. A friend's help ordering supplies of food ahead of time stabilized Miss Alice's restaurant operation.

The truth of the matter is that Miss Alice did not have a head for business. Decades earlier, she bought a photographer's studio. With the aid of an assistant, she lasted long enough to make a place for herself in early Oklahoma photography. She sold the business at a loss.

The Sawokla Restaurant likely broke even financially. Miss Alice's 1920 election to the US Congress enabled her to sell the business before she lost much money.

At the end of her life, especially after a fire destroyed her home on Agency Hill, Miss Alice found herself destitute. Many friends offered to assist her, but she refused their aid.

Even when the Oklahoma Legislature offered to create a pension for her because of her major contributions to the state, her pride prevented her from accepting.

Maybe, Oklahoma cherishes Mary Alice Robertson most for how much she gave of herself. Most of her life was devoted to helping others through public service.