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Oklahoma Historic Home Tour: Thomas-Foreman Home

Thomas~Foreman Historic Home
Muskogee, Oklahoma
*****
The Thomas-Foreman home is located at 1419 West Okmulgee Avenue in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It is operated by the Three Rivers Museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Let’s head to Muskogee and mosey through history along the way….

In 1897 President William McKinley appointed John Robert Thomas as the Federal District Judge to Indian Territory. A Civil War Veteran, Thomas had been an Illinois Congressman for a decade. While in congress he served on the committee of naval affairs and advocated for upgrades to the fleet becoming known as the “father of the modern Navy.”
Judge Thomas and his wife had five children but only two lived beyond infancy. He was widowed, it is thought his wife died in childbirth. By 1897 he was remarried and moved his family to Indian Territory. The Thomas’ settled at the Adams House Hotel. At this time it wasn't unusual to see rules such as "No Spurs in Bed" posted at hotels in Indian Territory.  However, the Adams Hotel was, by any standards, the grandest in town.  It was designed in the Queen Anne style with four stories, a turret, wrap around porches and gables. It was located on what is now the Northwest corner of Main and Broadway streets. Very few pictures of the hotel are known. It was lost to the Great Fire of 1899.
Photograph from work entitled:  1892 Indian Territory Oklahoma

As Judge Thomas considered a more permanent living arrangement he consulted with his friend, Chief Pleasant Porter of the Creek Nation. Chief Porter offered to sell him land for a homestead. The parcel of land agreed upon ran from current day 7th Street to the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center.  It was located ‘on the road to Okmulgee’ just over the crest of a hill. (The street became the major thorofare in Muskogee known as Okmulgee Avenue.) At this time, the area was nearly all pasture land with no trees.  The city Muskogee was established on March 19th, 1898.

The land sold by Chief Porter to Judge Thomas in 1897.
Union Hill seen in the background is the site of
Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center.
The faint road visible is present day Okmulgee Avenue.
Photograph courtesy of Thomas-Foreman Home.

A modest farm house was constructed in 1898.  The home had a parlor, bedrooms, library and a living room with fireplace. A 14-foot-deep cistern (which still operates today) provided water and 350 fruit and shade trees were planted.  Over time rooms were added as they were needed, including a front porch with large flag stone floor and a fully plumbed bathroom.  Originally the kitchen was an  outbuilding but it was connected to the main house in later years.  Wood stoves provided heat in the winter and a side screen porch or "sleeping porch" was the best that could be done for cool respite in summer. 

The working cistern viewed through the kitchen window.  
Front porch with built in benches.
Large flag stones of porch floor.
Judge Thomas handed down the first death sentence ever delivered in Indian Territory. He also heard several cases of white men charged with the torture and murder of Native Seminoles.  The cases received attention on a national level when the white men were convicted. As a result, Judge Thomas lost favor among white settlers, but earned respect from Natives. In 1901 he resigned from the bench and opened a private law practice in Muskogee.

On January 19th, 1914 Judge Thomas visited the McAlester Prison to meet with a Cherokee Native, Mr. Frank Haikey, who had been convicted of murder and was serving life prior to statehood. (Oklahoma became a state in 1907.) The two were meeting in the warden’s office to discuss an appeal when a mutiny broke out. Three prisoners had secured firearms and rushed the administrative offices with a plan to capture the female stenographer and use her as a human shield for their escape. They stormed the warden’s office, encountered Judge Thomas who said “Boys, I am not connected with the prison; I am merely here to see a prisoner on business.” Judge Thomas was warned not to move, but reportedly reached for his cane and was shot in the chest. (If you take the home tour- they show one of the Judge’s canes which held a hidden sword.) 

The prisoners proceeded to kidnap the stenographer, Miss Mary Foster, and a prison administrator, Frank Rice. The captives were bound with a telephone cord, sandwiched tightly in between the prisoners and marched out the door. Tower guards armed with Winchesters were too afraid to fire less they hit one of the innocents. The five made their way to a prison buggy and headed due west. Less than one mile away, a guard, R.J. Richie, who had been alerted by telephone, ambushed the buggy with a rifle. He killed all three convicts and although injured in the gunfire, Miss Foster and Mr. Rice survived.

Judge Thomas died at the McAlester Prison after being laid out on the warden’s desk. His body was escorted back to Muskogee for funeral services.  He laid in state in the parlor of the modest farm house he built.  He was ultimately was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. 
Photograph from Find a Grave site

Judge Thomas’ son, John R. Thomas Jr., became a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War. He married, had one daughter and died in 1933 at the age of 56. He too, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 

Judge Thomas’ daughter, Carolyn, married Grant Foreman in 1905. Mr. Foreman had come to Oklahoma to serve on the Dawes Commission. His role involved surveying, platting and distributing land to the Five Civilized Tribes. In particular, he worked on the allotments to the Creek Nation. (Could he have surveyed and platted the very land we know as the Renaissance Neighborhood? It is possible.)  He then worked as Judge Thomas' law partner in private practice. The Foreman’s lived in the modest farm house built by Judge Thomas for the rest of their lives. Together, they wrote over 20 books on Oklahoma history. They took two trips around the world and collected textiles, china, statues, small carvings, books, rare photographs and Native American works of art. They were inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1934. 
This is thought to be Carolyn Foreman's wedding dress.
Original Thomas-Foreman settee with chest with ornate carving from camphor wood.

Door pull from the Foreman's world travels
Door knocker from the Foreman's World Travels.











At some point in the 1940's Carolyn was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Although a dry climate was recommended, she did not want to leave Oklahoma. A second story room with windows all around was added to the farm house, providing her with a sunny respite for recovery. (This room is not open to the public.) Carolyn was an art lover and among the first to recognize and honor the work of Native American Artists such as Acee Blue Eagle and Willard Stone. The works of these Native artists are on display in the home.

There is one more person connected to the Thomas-Foreman property that cannot go unmentioned- an African American man named Dr. Thomas J. Pressley. Dr. Pressley attended the Black high school, Manual Training School in Muskogee in the nineteen-teens. During this time, he was hired to work on Judge Thomas’ property which included two barns, a windmill and hen house. He cared for the horses, 250 chickens and 175 pigeons. Following his high school graduation in 1920, with the Foreman's support, Pressley was hired as a Pullman porter on a railroad route that ran overnight between Chicago and Tacoma, Washington. In the fall of 1921 Pressley entered Meharry Medical College Dental School in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated and worked as a dentist in Muskogee and Bristow for several years but the depression slowed and eventually closed his practice.  He continued to pull teeth for free when folks were suffering and couldn't pay.

In 1929 Mr. Foreman encountered Dr. Pressley in Muskogee and learned he was in need of work. The Foreman’s were planning their second extended trip around the world and asked Dr. Pressley to care for their home and property. Dr. Pressley moved into a small efficiency in the rear of the home and took on the role as property manager, handyman and cook.  In 1941 he married and he and his wife moved a short distance away but he continued to maintain the Thomas-Foreman property for many years. Dr. Pressley cared for Carolyn Foreman after Grant Foreman’s death in 1953. He managed all the household accounts and property.  He served as Carolyn's personal caregiver at the end of her life, even making a pallet on the floor of her room to help overnight. He was by her side when she passed away in the early hours of February 18th, 1967.
Dr. Thomas Pressley
Photograph courtesy of Thomas-Foreman Home. 

Articles about Dr. Pressley framed at the Thomas-Foreman Home
Dr. Pressley became employed by the Oklahoma Historical Society after the home and property became a historic site.  He passed away on April 20th, 1991, having devoted more than 55 years to the Thomas-Foreman home and family.
The Thomas-Foreman Historic Home
1419 W. Okmulgee Avenue
Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401
Friday & Saturday 10am-5pm by appointment
Finally, just a few more tidbits for the superstitious.  It is said that there is a foot print on the floor in the second story bedroom that re-appears even after being mopped over.  Also from time to time, the smell of cigars, the kind that Judge Thomas smoked, is detected in the living room.Here is a short video to learn more about ghost stories of the house.


All photographs were taken by A. Mueller unless otherwise credited.
Editing by P. Casey Morgan
References:
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