I’ve been on a personal quest to try to find out if and where Addie Perryman lived on her land. Several sources say that she raised her family on her allotment land, but US Census Records place her in rented homes near, but not on her land.
One very old tiny cottage, located at 1302 S. Columbia Avenue, has been rumored to be “the original farm house” for the entire area so I wanted to investigate if this could have been Addie's home. I was able to contact the owner who shared some information and permitted me to check out the property abstract. I’ll jump to the punch line. Addie Perryman never lived there. But! Some interesting people with important history owned the property in years gone by.
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First some relevant facts and short timeline about the property.
The property of 1302 and 1308 S. Columbia Avenue has a legal description of Lots One and Two, Hurst’s Re-subdivision of Block 5, Fair Acres Addition to the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County.
In March of 1920, L.A. Hurst and Lutie Hurst
re-subdivided part of a larger addition called Fair Acres. The 1920 Census lists Mr. Hurst’s profession
as a “realtor” and he and Lutie lived with their two daughters at 313 West
Chicago, Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Probably an
old street name- West Chicago Street no longer exists.)
In September 1920, Lot 1, Block 1 of the Hurst
Addition was sold to Daisy and Edgar Tucker.
It is likely the land remained prairie until 1923. It is believed that
the first building on the property was a one room office, which served as a
sales point for the Hurst Addition’s platted lots. The lot may also have served for storage of
building materials. It is the front part of the cottage that still stands today. A few more rooms were later added, bringing the square footage up to about 800. One of the bedrooms was built over a large cistern that originally provided water to the building.
The property exchanged hands several
times from 1924 until 1930. We will jump
to the most interesting owners.
Frank was born on November 12, 1859 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. As a young man he ventured west and spent time in St. Louis, Kansas City, Dodge City and Coffeeville, Kansas before making his way to Indian Territory.
Frank took part in an 1899 buffalo hunt along the Canadian and Red Rivers. To prepare for the journey, he purchased an “Indian Pony” and a pair of moccasins from Cheyenne Indians who he says “had broken loose into Kansas” and whom “government officers were taking back to territory.” Sixty years later he still had the moccasins and bragged they were “as good as the day I bought them.”
Frank described hundreds of buffalo hunters in camps near Fort Elliot in the Texas pan handle on the Red River. One group of hunters bragged they had killed 1800 buffalo and sold their hides for 50 cents each. During his own hunt, Frank and his pony were nearly trampled trying to rope a buffalo. Frank and his party only killed what they could fit in their wagon, selling the hides and brining the meat for preservation. Then, as they forded the swollen South Canadian River on the way back to Dodge City, Kansas, the hunting party nearly lost everything they had worked for. He stated that when they made it home there was “nothing much to show for it, except the adventure.”
Frank continued to make a life in the West, raising
cattle and horses. He even traveled to
South America in 1893, hunting longhorn cattle for hides, horns and
tallow. Back in Kansas and Indian
Territory, land was an open free range. In
1900, about 6 miles northwest of Checotah, Oklahoma Frank began ranching and
free ranging Aberdeen Angus cattle. He
befriended Chief Pleasant Porter, Chief of the Creek Nation, who also began
raising purebred cattle and horses.
When the free-range days came to an end, Frank sold his herd in “old
Mexico.”
After statehood in 1907, Frank invested in real estate in the Tulsa area and joined the Oklahoma National Guard. He was involved in both the Spanish American War, World War I and the Tulsa Race Massacre. He was interviewed about the event in 1937 by Effie S. Jackson for the Indian-Pioneer History Project at his home at 823 E. 6th Street
Frank recounts that following the initial call, consultation with his commanding officer and the Oklahoma Governor:
I took an army truck and 20 men and
proceeded to the police station on West Second Street. From there we went to where the Frisco Station
used to be at First and Boston. There
was some firing back and forth between Blacks and whites. We were not to fire until fired upon….at that
time there were no buildings on fire.
Realizing that the maddened armed whites were our worst problem, it
seemed best to get between the two forces.
So we marched up North Boulder around the back of Stand Pipe Hill and
slipped back down to First Street and Archer in that way getting a position
between opposing forces.
Frank goes on to recount that “maddened whites”
attempted to besiege the armory to obtain munitions. He stated, “In some respects the maddened
whites were our worst problem.” After
the armory was secured, Frank returned to Greenwood to find Blacks in groups of
20-30. He stated they were rounded up,
disarmed and escorted to the Convention Hall (Brady Theatre today renamed Tulsa
Theater). Frank also stated:
“It was
surprising the number of negroes in army attire (World War uniforms) found
secreted in houses. Even wore their war
helmets, well supplied with long range Winchesters, often provided with 20-30
round of ammunitions.”
Early in the morning of June 1st, Frank
sent word for a cease fire and asked for surrender.
“Though the negros were through, gladly
surrendering, the whites were in a state of frenzy, killing negros at random;
bragging about how many they killed and keeping up the horror by burning and
plundering negro homes. It took the troops
to quiet them and drive them out of the burned and pillaged negro
district. How many negroes were killed
will never be known. After all these
years I feel that real damage was the fire and not serious loss of life. As for guards (under his command) one had ear
clipped and another a hat shot off his head.
There were only about 35 in action.
State troops were sent in on June 1st but the riot was
already quelled and quiet had restored. “
*****
 |
Major Frank VanVoorhis and wife, May 30th, 1943.
Photographs from personal collection of Ken Rose. Used with permission.
*****
At the time this blog post was written, the city of
Tulsa was excavating the site of a possible mass grave from the Race Massacre
in Oak Lawn Cemetery.
*****
References:
Jackson, E. (1936) Indian-Pioneer History Project. Transcribed interview with Maj. Frank VanVoorhis.
Property Abstract from lots one and two, Hurst’s Re-subdivision of Block 5, Fair Acres Addition, Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.
Rose, Ken. (2020 July) Personal Communication with permission to use photographs of VanVoorhis.
Wood, Mike. (2020 July 8, 10 & 13) Personal Communication.
Other photographs by A. Mueller
Post edited by P. Casey Morgan
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