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Colcord Family Biography
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CHARLES FRANCIS COLCORD
(1859-1934)
Charles F. Colcord
Among the vital, strong and resourceful citizens who may consistently be designated the founders and builders of the vigorous young State of Oklahoma, a place of distinctive priority must be accorded to Charles F. Colcord, who was a pioneer cattleman in Indian Territory and whose splendid initiative and constructive ability have made him one of the foremost men in the development and upbuilding of the State of Oklahoma, where his activities and capitalistic interests are varied and of most important order, so that his status is essentially that of one of the most prominent and influential citizens of this commonwealth, even as he is one of the best known and most popular. In the present day, when his time and attention are engrossed by large business and industrial interests, it is well to pause and pay tribute to him for the splendid service which he gave in public office in the formative period of territorial and state government and especially in the establishing and maintenance of law and order at a time when Oklahoma was overrun with all manner of lawless, irresponsible and predatory personalities. His character is the positive expression of a resolute and sincere nature, and he has put forth a really dynamic force in the furtherance of enterprises and measures that have inured wonderfully to the advancement of the civic and material progress and prosperity of Oklahoma. There have been no esoteric or equivocal phases in his career, and thus the story of his life may be told simply, directly and briefly, undue adulation being avoided as essentially repugnant to the man himself and all he represents.
Charles F. Colcord was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in the year 1859, and is a son of Col. William R. and Maria E. (Clay) Colcord, his father having been a gallant officer of the Confederate forces in the Civil war and his mother having been a daughter of Hon. Green Clay, of Paris, Kentucky, who was a lineal descendant of Sir John Clay of England and of the same family line as the great American patriot and statesman, Henry Clay. In his native state Charles F. Colcord acquired his rudimentary education and he was about ten years of age when, in 1870, his parents removed to Texas. His father established a home in Nueces County, that state, and became one of the prominent and influential representatives of the cattle and horse industry in Southwestern Texas, besides having been influential in public affairs in that section of the state.
In the Nueces region of the Lone Star State Charles F. Colcord acquired thorough training and broad experience in connection with the cattle business, at a time when the great open ranges were still available. In 1876 he drove a large bunch of cattle from Texas to the North, over the old Chisholm Trail, and he established his herd in the old Cherokee Strip of Indian Territory, his range headquarters having been near old Fort Supply, on the salt plains of the Cimarron Valley, in what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, and his business headquarters having been just across the line in Evansville, Comanche County, Kansas. Here he organized what was known as the Comanche County Pool, a power organization of stock interests that at one time owned 60,000 head of cattle. Until the Cherokee Strip was opened to settlement, in 1893, this company was one of the principal occupants of that region and its operations were of broad scope and importance under the old regime of the cattle business in what is now the State of Oklahoma.
When, in accord with the provisions of the presidential proclamation issued on the 23d of March, 1889, 39,030 square miles in Indian Territory were thrown open to settlement and, on the 22d of the following month, came the great rush of 50,000 immigrants into this new country, Mr. Colcord forthwith identified himself 'with the founding and development of Oklahoma City, the present capital and metropolis of the State of Oklahoma. From the position of one of the leading stockmen of the territory he became prominent and made a notable record as an officer of the law. In the summer of 1889, somewhat more than a year prior to the formal creation of Oklahoma Territory, Mayor Beal of Oklahoma City appointed Mr. Colcord chief of police of the embryonic city, and when W. D. Gault became mayor by regular election Mr. Colcord continued in service as chief of police until the autumn of 1889, when he was duly elected the first sheriff of the newly organized Oklahoma county, an office of which he continued the fearless and efficient incumbent for the ensuing two years. Concerning local conditions and his administration the following interesting statements have been made, and the same are worthy of perpetuation in this connection: "The two years during which Mr. Colcord served as sheriff of Oklahoma county are notable in the records of the county and the territory, for at that time the forces of law and order found them self confronted with the most formidable of obstacles in their endeavors to restrain and drive off the cohorts of vice that beset the new Territory and constituted a constant menace to the law-abiding citizens who had come to the new country in such large numbers. It is certain that never since has there been in Oklahoma a condition of affairs demanding such vigorous and courageous work on the part of official entrusted with the maintenance of law and order, and it is altogether probable that at no previous period had so great a task been imposed. In bringing to an end the reign of outlawry in Oklahoma, one of the criminal officers who deserves unqualified credit and honor for thorough efficiency and straightforward service, untainted by corruption or deviation from the strictest ideals of duty, is Charles F. Colcord, whose record as a public official may perhaps be forgotten in the light of his latter-day activities, which have been of great magnitude and importance. After his retirement from the position of sheriff Mr. Colcord held for five years the United States prison contract at Guthrie, the territorial capital.''
At the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, Mr. Colcord secured large land holding in the district and established business interests at Perry, the judicial center of Noble County as at present constituted. In 1898 he returned to Oklahoma City, which has since continued to be his place of residence, and here he has achieved large and worthy success in connection with industrial and general material progress, with the result that he is now looked upon as the leading capitalist and most prominent citizen of the metropolis of the state, where he is serving as a member of the municipal advisory board. Mr. Colcord is president of the Colcord Investment Company and the Colcord Park Corporation, both of which have had powerful influence in fostering general development and progress in Oklahoma, and his other capitalistic interests are of broad scope and importance. In 1908 he erected in Oklahoma City the Colcord Building, which is one of the most modern and attractive office buildings in the city, the same being a fine twelve-story structure of thoroughly metropolitan order. He organized and was president of the Commercial National Bank of Oklahoma City, which consolidated with the State National. He served as vice president of the State National Bank of Oklahoma City, and he is still a member of its directorate, besides which he is president of the Oklahoma City Building & Loan Association and a director of the Oklahoma State Fair Association. Thoroughly in accord with the high civic ideals and progressive policies of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, which has the distinction of being the second largest in the United States, Mr. Colcord has been one of its most active and influential members and he served as its president in 1914. He has extensive financial interests in the oil and gas fields of Eastern Oklahoma.
In politics Mr. Colcord, though never imbued with ambition for political preferment of official order, is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the democratic party. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of the Oklahoma Consistory of the Valley of Guthrie, and he is affiliated also with Indian Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He holds membership also in the Men's Dinner Club and the Golf and Country Club, representative social organizations of the capital city.
In September, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Colcord to Miss Harriet Scoresby, daughter of Rev. Thomas S. Scoresby, at the time a resident of Hutchinson, Kansas, in which state he was a pioneer clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having there established his residence in 1870; he was descended from Captain Thomas Scoresby, of Whitby, England, who was a gallant sea captain, who made several voyages in search of the North Pole and who discovered within the Arctic Circle Scoresby Land, which is named in his honor. Mr. and Mrs. Colcord have six children-Ray, Marguerite, Caroline, Sidney, Cadijah, and Harriet. The beautiful family home, a center of much of the representative social activity of Oklahoma City, is at 421 West Thirteenth Street. ["A standard history of Oklahoma", Volume 3, 1916; By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]
Charles Francis Colcord was born August 18, 1859, on a large plantation near Cane Ridge, Paris, Kentucky, to Maria Elizabeth Clay and William Rogers Colcord, a colonel in the Civil War. After the war the Colcords moved to a sugar plantation north of New Orleans, where young Colcord received a limited education. A mosquito-infested swamp near the plantation caused him to contract malaria. Consequently, the youngster was sent to live on a family friend's ranch near Corpus Christi, Texas. By age twelve he had learned to herd cattle. In 1876 Charles Colcord and his father drove a herd from Texas along the Chisholm Trail through Texas and Indian Territory to Caldwell, Kansas. They decided to stay in Kansas and lived near Medicine Lodge in Comanche County. Colcord's father organized the Jug Cattle Company and later combined resources with other men to form the Comanche Pool, approximately sixty thousand cattle. While in Kansas, Charles Colcord married Harriet Scoresby (daughter of the Rev. Thomas Scoresby, resident of Hutchinson, Kansas) on February 9, 1885. After a brief residence near Flagstaff, Arizona, the Colcords moved to Oklahoma Territory. Buying a team of horses and a wagon, Colcord participated in the Land Run of 1889, first staking a claim in Hennessey. Immediately selling his claim, he arrived in Oklahoma City on April 23, 1889. Under the city's provisional government he became the first police chief. Continuing in law enforcement, he served as Oklahoma County's first sheriff when the county was organized in 1890. He also participated in the 1893 Cherokee Outlet Opening and made a claim in Perry, where he farmed and served as deputy U.S. marshal. By 1898 Colcord had returned to Oklahoma City and became one of its pioneer developers and civic leaders. He founded the Commercial National Bank of Oklahoma City and served as its first president. In 1902 Colcord built a neoclassical mansion, modeled after his Kentucky childhood home, at 421 West Thirteenth Street in Colcord Heights Addition. In 1909 he and Anton H. Classen, in association with the Industrial District Company, promoted the establishment of the first meat-packing firm at the Oklahoma City Stockyards. From wealth gained through oil speculation in the Glenn Pool field and other Oklahoma locations, he built the $750,000, twelve-story Colcord Building in Oklahoma City in 1910. That same year Colcord and other city leaders promoted moving the territorial capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. Instrumental in the construction of the Commerce Exchange Building and the Biltmore Hotel, he developed residential areas such as Orchard Park and the Parker-Colcord Addition. Between 1917 and 1920 he participated in the development of the South Bend oil field in West Texas. In 1918 he organized the North American Oil and Refining Company, serving as president. Due to Colcord's background in the oil industry, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the National Petroleum Conservation Board that same year. A Democrat in politics, Colcord was president of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce in 1914 and president of the Oklahoma Historical Society during the 1920s and 1930s. The town of Colcord in Delaware County, Oklahoma, was named in his honor in February 1930. Before his death on December 10, 1934, at his Delaware County ranch, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (1929) and had achieved the thirty-second degree of the Masonic Order. With a police honor guard, his body lay in state at the Oklahoma Historical Society building. Buried in Fairlawn Cemetery at Oklahoma City, he was survived by his wife and six children.
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Colcord Hotel
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
From wealth gained through oil speculation in the Glenn Pool field and other Oklahoma locations, he built the $750,000, twelve-story Colcord Building in Oklahoma City in 1910. Now proudly restored, the Colcord stands as Oklahoma City’s first “boutique” hotel. An ambitious multi-million dollar effort has transformed the city’s first skyscraper into a downtown landmark. The hotel’s elegant interiors offer clean lines and a soothing palate of colors. Added touches include fresh flowers, flat screen plasma televisions, iPod docking stations and even an information screen in the lobby that keeps guests updated on weather and airline flights. Design motifs repeat the initials CFC for the builder, Charles Francis Colcord. The red sign that sits atop the hotel’s roof is a replication of Mrs. Colcord’s signature. The Colcord Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.Charles Colcord's initials CFC are a recurrent motif throughout the hotel.
Address Delivered
"Pioneer Reunion"
Medicine Lodge, Kansas
February 9, 1934
[Source: "Chronicles of Oklahoma", Volume 12, No. 1, March, 1934]
Mr. Colcord delivered an address on this occasion that was not only reminiscent of his life on the frontier, but contains so much frontier that the Chronicles is glad to have the opportunity to present it to its readers and to preserve for future generations. Omitting the introduction, Mr. Colcord's speech was substantially as follows:
"This Comanche Pool was the biggest outfit anywhere. It had from sixty to eighty thousand head of cattle belonging to the various pool members, which ran all over the country; in our annual roundup we used to come as far south as Sacred Heart Mission on the Little River, sometimes even to the Red River, for after a very severe winter the cattle would drift that far south, while they went west as far as the west end of the Panhandle.
"In the fall of 1877, father moved the rest of the family up from Texas and we built three or four fine big dugouts for them. This was near the mouth of Red Fork, about five miles from the head of Jug Mott Creek, three miles from Evansville, and about twenty-five miles southeast of Coldwater, Kansas, or where Coldwater was afterward built. Some of the prettiest cedars ever seen grew in those big creek canyons, sometimes sixty to eighty feet high. We built the dugouts out of this fine cedar.
"We selected the first bench on the side of the hill, and excavated a good-sized room with dirt walls, about five feet deep, open at the down hill end. On the top of these dirt walls, we built up two, or sometimes three tiers of cedar logs, and on these logs we placed the roof. The open end we closed with these logs, and there we placed the door with the window beside it. At the other end we dug a fire place back into the earth, then dug upward toward the top of the hill to form a chimney. When we had gone as far up as we could, we dug part of the way down from the top, then took a pole and chugged a hole connecting the two excavations, which let the smoke come up from below, and made a fine flue. Then we burned some of the gypsum rock, which was plentiful there, and with it plastered the interior, dirt walls, log walls, and all. They were the prettiest, whitest walls one ever saw, and as we had real glass in the windows, ours were considered very fine houses.
"Each dugout was separate, each built in the bank the same way, each with one large room. Our home was a string of dugouts in which my mother, sister and younger brothers lived. Our barns were built in the same way, and the corrals were built of cedar poles.
"Father lived on this ranch for the next several years, during which time I was with him, in charge of the Jug Cattle Company. The Jug Company was composed of R. C. Campbell, Bob Campbell, Billy Carter, Frank Thornton, and my father. Father was one of the heaviest owners and I was range boss during the whole time. A little later he bought a ranch in southern Kingman County, Kansas, and stocked it with high grade and thoroughbred cattle from which he raised the bulls for the range herd below.
"The cowpunchers that worked this range were wonderful men, rugged, stout-hearted fellows. When you talked to one the greatest compliment you could pay his friend was, 'You bet your life you can tie to him. He has the nerve and he is a stayer.' And they were stayers. Any one of them would fight to death for a friend, and they had the most loathsome contempt for a coward. Many of them were experienced in business before they came to the range, and several of them were collegebred men. As a class they were as fine men as I have ever known, while for ability to meet emergencies and take care of themselves and their duty under the most unexpected circumstances, I have never known their equal. We lived very lonely lives and very hard ones, riding all day and sometimes doing night duty besides. Sometimes while cutting out cattle we rode three or four of our best horses down in a day. After being away from civilization for several months on this kind of life, you could not blame the cowboys for being a little wild when they hit town or a fort.
"On the general spring roundup, all the cattlemen from the Northwest for several hundred miles would participate. Each ranch would send a grub wagon with twelve or fifteen men, a remuda man to take care of the saddle horses, and a cook. These general roundups usually consisted of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred men, so it made a pretty formidable outfit, and we had very little trouble from the Indians. On these roundups the eastern wagon would come down from our range to Bickford Springs at the west end of the waterworks dam, six miles west of Oklahoma City, and there begin the roundup, working back west and taking our strays with them, while the western wagon would go out to the west end of the Panhandle country and work east.
"In 1878, on our spring roundup, Buffalo, one of the chiefs of the Northern Cheyennes, came to our camp, above Darlington and near Fort Reno on the Canadian River and wanted to match a race. We first wanted to see his horse and finally made Buffalo understand, so he sent an Indian boy after him. He was a rangy, mouse colored animal, the longest I have ever seen for his size, his mane and tail were full of burrs, and all in all, he was about the hardest looking horse that one could imagine.
"In order to accommodate Buffalo we matched him with Old Tim, our best three-hundred yard horse, but we were foolish enough to string it out to four hundred yards, a hundred yards over Tim's real distance. By the time we were ready to run, every Indian in the whole country was there, and one scarcely ever saw such a pile of stuff as those Indians brought in to bet. Our boys had great confidence in Old Tim; so we put up our last dollar and all the property we had in camp, even to our private horses.
"I rode Tim, and an Indian boy about seventeen years old rode the other horse; he had on nothing but a gee string and a buckskin string in the horse's mouth. The track was a two-track wagon road. In jockeying for a start I would ride farther up the road every time and get a running bulge on the Indian. Finally, the boy got excited, and I got a daylight start. Looking back I saw that he was going fast and was going to pass me on the right, so I gradually threw my horse over in his wagon track ahead of his horse. When he pulled back into the other track I pulled my horse in ahead of his again and did this two or three times. Finally the Indian pulled his horse entirely out of the road and went around me like the wind and beat Old Tim at least ten feet.
"I never saw anything like the excitement that followed. Those Indians simply went wild. They were the craziest bunch of Indians one ever saw, and we were the worst broke bunch that ever happened. There wasn't enough money left in the whole outfit to flag a bread wagon. We learned afterward that old Buffalo had gone to Arkansas and bought this horse, in order to clean up on us. And he sure did it. Some of the boys had even bet part of their blankets. The judges of this race were "Jack" Stillwell and Amos Chapman—two noted scouts.
"Wild Hog, another Cheyenne chief, was around the camp at this same time. He was wearing the prettiest pair of leggings I ever saw, made of elk hide and ornamented with elk teeth. These were the northern Cheyennes and they had come from the elk country. Wild Hog had saved the front teeth of the elk they had killed, the small ones that they used in decorations, and had a row of these teeth on each legging from the ground up to the waist, fastened so that they would rattle together.
"I noticed this pair of leggings and asked if he would sell them. I had a very fine and very beautiful hair quirt, plaited of horsehair and covered with leather, which somebody had given me. Wild Hog took hold of this quirt, looked at it carefully, and finally grunted out, "Trade, five dollars," holding up his hand with his fingers spread out. I talked with him awhile
and finally gave him three dollars and the quirt for those leggings. I was wearing them later in that year when Wild Hog went on the raid with Dull Knife.
"This raid took place in the fall of 1878, when the Northern Cheyennes broke out under the leadership of those chiefs, Wild Hog and Dull Knife, left their reservation near Darlington; and killed a number of people, among others four of the cowboys on our range, Fred Clark, Frank Dow, Jim Lawson, and a cousin of mine, Reuben Bristow, who had come out to us from Kentucky.
"I had been up to Sun City on some kind of business and was on my way home to those dugouts on Red Fork where the family was living. On the way in I met one of our cowboys, who told me that the Indians had broken out and had killed everybody in their patch except three or four men. I hurried home as fast as I could, Kincheloe, a cowboy, with me.
"The mouth of Red Fork comes into the Salt Fork from the southeast, running northwest, and at that time there was a mass of tall blue stem grass and big elm trees extended down the creek. Near these elm trees we saw a fire and some figures moving around it. We stopped and watched it awhile and made up our minds that they were Indians, dancing a war dance, only a mile and a half or two miles from where my family lived. We knew that if they were Indians they had killed my whole family, so after talking it over we decided to ride back down the creek southeast of the Salt Fork and come up under the bank. This we did, left our horses there and came into the Red Fork, a low-bottomed, sandy creek, and walked up under this bank as close as we dared to these elm trees. The ground was covered with this big blue stem grass so we crawled up within a few feet of them before we could see clearly, and still we thought they were Indians. When we got pretty close we saw four or five wagons, then we knew that they were white men, so we got up and recognized the outfit as a bunch of English boys, several lords and dukes and titled fellows, out on a hunting expedition, with two or three old buffalo hunters along.
"I walked into the circle of light and said, 'What the devil do you fellows mean. Get these fires out quick.'
"One of them spoke up and said, 'Why, what's the matter?'
"I said to them, 'Why, the country is full of Indians, killing everybody they can get to.'
"Some of the boys were reckless devils, but most of them we greatly frightened when they heard this. The hunters put the fires out quickly enough; however, in a day or so, after they found that the Indians had gone on, they went on and finished their hunt.
"We went back, got our horses and rode on up to my home camp. About a hundred yards from the dugouts the road bends around the hill. We had an old dog that always met us at the bluff on this bend. When we came close to this bluff, I said to the fellow with me, "If that old dog comes out I'll know they are not killed." But he didn't come, not until we were past that bluff and half way up to the house; I don't know why, for he had never failed to meet us there before. We rode up, I called—and Mother answered! I never had so great a feeling of relief in my life!
"The only thing they had seen of the Indians was an Indian riata and a blanket at the big spring just over the hill. Some Indian had evidently stopped there to get a drink, but he had become frightened and gone on, leaving his rope and blanket.
"That night someone came to the house and told us that they were raising a lot of men to follow these Indians. We got on our horses at once and rode over to join the gang at Nelson's ranch. We rode on west, several bunches from neighboring ranches joining us from time to time, and followed the Indians.
We had been told that a number of people had been killed, but nobody knew just who. We suspected that Reuben Bristow and Fred Clark had been killed because they had not come back. We learned later that the first person killed was Tom Murray and his outfit, then the Indians came to our ranch, then they came to the Payne family, all of whom they shot but all of whom later got well. They then went off northwest and killed a cook and horse wrangler.
"Anderson Hilton and a boy we called Cotton had a camp near the mouth of Cavalry Creek. The boys both had started out after their horses that morning, before daylight, Cotton going north and Anderson east. After awhile, Anderson heard some shots, so he rode up on a high place and, as he thought, saw Cotton driving the horses toward camp. As a matter of fact, in the dim light of early dawn, the Indians had seen Anderson and had planned to trap and kill or capture him. Accordingly, with a single exception, each of them slipped over on the opposite side of his steed and, in that posture (in which most warriors of that day were adepts) rode at a rapid pace, while a single brave, sitting erect upon his pony, rode as if driving a bunch of loose horses. The little cavalcade disappeared into a deep ravine as if headed for camp. Anderson headed his horse to intercept it as it would emerge from the ravine. Just as he was approaching the ravine, his mare snorted and wheeled, as a bunch of Indians rushed out of a canyon, yelling and shooting. The mare he was riding was his own private animal, a racer and as fast as a bullet, and he ran right away from all the Indians but one who also had a fast horse. When Anderson saw he was a long way ahead of all the Indians but that one, he slowed his horse down and let the Indian come up, then when he thought he could get his Indian, he wheeled in the saddle with his six-shooter. Mr. Indian threw himself over to the side of his horse, but Anderson broke his back with his first shot. He could easily have gotten away, but the fool boy wanted the Indian's fine horse, so he tried to cut him off from the other Indians. When they got too close and wounded his mare in the left hip, he ran by the head of a hollow, jumped off, and found that he was in a big sink in the gypsum rock, which was good cover. The Indians stayed only a little while, then left. They had just sampled his markmanship, and that was all they wanted. This was part of the same bunch of Indians who killed our boys. They had just met poor Cotton and killed him a few moments before they discovered Anderson Hilton, so that, man for man, he had evened up a score with them, though he had a very narrow escape in the end.
"We started off as rapidly as possible to overtake these Indians and stopped for nothing. We first went over to Evans' camp, where the boys were gathered, but they had left before we got there. We soon overtook them and found that there were over fifty of our boys in the party. We overtook about forty men from Medicine Lodge, under Doctor Riggs, near the head of Cavalry Creek.
"At first we had no trail to follow. We knew, however, exactly what they had done, and where they were going, so we just struck off in a general northwest direction, and the next day about noon, on a buffalo ridge in a prairie dog town, we found where a lot of Indians had dragged their tepee poles and left a trail. After this we could go on the trail in a dead run. We figured that there must have been three hundred Indians or more.
"It must have been the second day after the killing when we found the trail, and that evening we surrounded the Indians up in the sand hills somewhere southeast of Dodge City. The Indians had seen us coming about the time we were near enough to see them, so they selected the best place they could and dug in among these sand hills. We made rifle pits north of the stream and had just made contact with them when a troop of cavalry, under the command of a German captain named Mauck, which had been trailing the Indians ever since they had started out on the raid, arrived on the scene.
"We had a long-range fight with the Indians that evening. Doctor Riggs and three other of our men were shot, but only slightly hurt. We were quite a long distance from them, and everybody had short range guns, much shorter range than the Indians had. However, somebody got a big Creedmore buffalo gun, and when one of the Indians showed himself out of the rifle pit and raised his sheet, somebody shot him, and he rolled over and over down the hill. This Indian and one other are the only ones that I know positively to have been killed. The Indians always took their dead away with them, so we never knew how many were actually shot.
"Nelson and our crowd wanted to close in on the Indians and clean up that night, but that Captain Mauck the German army officer insisted on talking charge and waiting unil morning, so he stationed guards along the sand hills to watch the Indians. Nelson and all our crowd told the soldiers that the Indians would be gone before daylight, but this German said that he would keep them surrounded and attack them in the morning. We told him that those Indians could ride farther in one day than his soldiers could in two. Nelson protested vigorously; in fact, so vehemently that we cowmen all rode off and went into camp. Next morning, just as Nelson told him, those Indians were forty or fifty miles away. If that stubbornly conceited army officer had permitted us to have our way about it, the lives of the commanding officer and several soldiers of the Fort Wallace garrison, of the teacher and pupils of a school in Nebraska and of a number of other people (who were killed by this marauding band between where we were compelled to leave them and the place where they were finally rounded up in Northwestern Nebraska) might have been saved.
"The main body of our boys followed on with the soldiers after the Indians, but Charlie Martin, Mark Burke, and myself went back to bury our dead. Of course we did not know that this was a raid of but a single band of the Northern Cheyenne division, of which there were three that were virtually held as prisoners at the agency of their Southern Cheyenne kinsmen, at Darlington. Indeed, we were all inclined to believe that there had been a general outbreak similar to the one that had been staged in the western part of the Indian Territory, only four years before. Hence, we were apprehensive of raids from other war parties at any time, so we were constantly on the watch.
"The morning of the Indian raid, Reuben Bristow and Fred Clark left our ranch headquarters on Red Fork Creek, driving a team of mules, with a wagon, en route to the Cimarron Salt Plain, for a load of rock salt, for use elsewhere on the range. They had evidently just reached the high divide between the Cimarron and Salt Fork watersheds near Jug Mott, when they met the band of Northern Cheyenne warriors, by which they were quickly surrounded. From the tracks and marks around where we found them, we could tell that the Indians had come up all around the wagon and had shot Reuben Bristow in the head from behind. The mules the boys were driving were very much afraid of a gun and the marks in the ground where they had been standing showed that they had been very restless. The tracks of the Indian ponies indicated that the Indians were all around the wagon and one could see plainly where, at the crack of the gun, the mules had plunged forward and jerked the wheels off the ground. Then the Indians had chased the wagon, filling the bodies of both the boys full of arrows. The panic-stricken mules ran down the slope from the high divide into the valley of a small branch or ravine, where they were brought to a sudden stop by a thicket of willows which were of sufficient size and elasticity to lift its wheels from the ground when the mules could drag it no farther. The Indians had cut the traces and taken the mules, leaving the bodies of the two youths in the wagon bed, where they had fallen.
"I pulled four arrows out of Bristow's heart, shot in from the right side under the arm, and drew three or four out of Fred's body. My father later sent these arrows to Hon. James Beck, who was a United States senator from Kentucky.
"A site for a grave for the burial of the remains of our slain friends and companions was selected, back up the slope, near the divide where they had met their tragic fate. The September weather was intensely hot and dry, there having been no rains for several weeks. It surely was a hard job to dig that gravel with shovel and spade in that dry joint clay. Always, two of us would dig while the third member of our party would remain on watch at the highest point on the near-by divide. When one of the two diggers would get tired, he would mount guard on the high point, while the one thus relieved would go down and take his turn at helping to excavate the grave. Finally, when the grave was large enough to hold the two bodies, our next effort was to extricate the wagon which was resting on those bent willow saplings. Some of the largest of these had to be cut and the vehicle was released from the thicket. Then, with riatas tied from saddle-horns to wagon tongue, it was pulled up the slope, out of the ravine and into position at the grave. The transfer of these remains from the wagon into the grave—swollen as they were by decomposition to twice their natural size—was a gruesome task as well as a sad duty.
"When we had finished covering the bodies in the grave some one said that a prayer should be offered. All three of us were uneducated cowboys who had had no chance to attend church services or Sunday school, so none of us knew what to say or do under the circumstances. Both of the other two declined to do what all of us thought should be done, so both said to me, 'Charley, you will have to say something.' Now we all believed, as all men who are reared out in the open must and always will believe, that there is a God, who rules and overrules in the affairs of men. We had watched the sun, moon and stars in their courses; we had night-herded by the north star, for years, using it as a time-piece; every spear of grass in the prairie verdure, every flower that spangled its face, every wind that swept the plain and every note sung by the birds bore witness to the existence of a great, unseen, Divine Power. So, knowing in my own soul the existence of such a Supreme Being, I took off my hat and raised my face to the skies as I said, 'God, take care of these poor boys.' Such was the prayer that I offered.
"The Cheyenne tribe had separated into two divisions, near the Platte River, more than forty years before. The Southern Division had drifted southward, first to the Arkansas and, later, to the Canadian, while the Northern Division had drifted northward to the Yellowstone River country. After the close of the Sioux war, in Dakota, in 1877, the Government decided to reunite these two branches of the Cheyenne tribe in the Indian Territory, the Northern Cheyenne people having made a common cause with the Sioux in that last great war. The experiment was not a success, as the Northern Cheyenne people were never reconciled to it. This band of Northern Cheyenne which went north under the leadership of Little Wolf, Dull Knife and Wild Hog, in the early autumn of 1878 consisted of about 300 people, not over eighty of whom were warriors, the rest being old men, women and children. Many of them were killed but eventually, the rest of the members of the band were permitted to remain in the north. Two other Northern Cheyenne bands were held at the Darlington Agency until 1881 and 1883, respectively, when they, too, were permitted to return to the north, where a reservation was set aside for them in Montana.
"As stated before, Reuben Bristow was my cousin and we had been boyhood playmates. He had come to our range on the Comanche Pool on a visit from Kentucky, which was as enjoyable to us as it was to him. Fred Clark was a young Virginian of a prominent family and of the highest type of manhood. "Reuben Bristow had a brother, Bill Bristow, a cow-puncher in Montana. When he heard of Reuben's death he came down to our ranch. The Indians were still unsettled and a good many of them hunted on the range south of us.
"While Bill Bristow and I were out hunting one day, we saw a little smoke and knew that it must be from an Indian camp. This was somewhere on the head of Whitehorse Creek, just north of the Cimarron River. The camp was under the bluff in the thick timber on the low bottom. We left our horses in the canyon east of the camp, walked as far as we could, then crawled up behind some sumac bushes to the edge of the brush almost over this camp. Three Indians were lying on a pallet and two were cooking around a small fire. Bill thought this was a good time to get even for his brother and the men that the Cheyennes had killed on our range.
"We had made our plans, and just about the time we were ready to shoot the two who were standing and then kill the other three as they jumped up, we heard a noise to the left. When we looked in that direction, here came a great string of Indians a half-mile long. There must have been a hundred of them. We let the hammers of our Winchesters down, backed out, and got on our horses and left just as quietly as we could."
[Front page editorial published in the Wichita Eagle February 24, 1934]
Obituary of Charles F. Colcord
SMITH TO LEAD COLCORD RITE
Funeral for Pioneer to be Conducted This Afternoon From City Church
Rev. J. H. O. Smith, retired Christian minister will conduct services at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday from the First Christian Church for Charles F. Colcord, pioneer Oklahoma City civic worker, who died unexpectedly Monday.
Burial will be in Fairlaw cemetery under direction of the Street & Draper funeral home.
The body will lie in state at the Oklahoma Historical Society building from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Wednesday, with a police guard of honor. All offices at the city hall will be closed during the funeral, Mayor McGee announced.
The 75-year-old business leader died Monday at his ranch in northeastern Oklahoma.
Active bearers named for the funeral are: D. I. Johnson, C. H. Gunter, M. H. Reinhart, Jack Upsher, James McCornack, Charles Urschel, John Shirk and Frank Buttram
Source: The Oklahoman December 12, 1934 Front Page
COLCORD WAS CITY BUILDER FOR 45 years
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Pioneer Led Many Drives To Enlarge Town And Make It Better.
Charles F. Colcord, plainsman, pioneer, builder of a great metropolis, has answered the call for his last roundup. But the works of the man, whose vast vision, limitless faith and untiring determination made his city one of the seven wonder cities of a golden decade, will live after him in gleaming monuments of stone and steel as shining examples for present and future generations, whose hands must catch the torch he dropped and bear it high. The life story of Charlie Colcord closely parallels the story of Oklahoma City,a tawdry twon of tents and mud and mules 46 years ago, a metropolis of towers today.
Was Born in Kentucky
Colcord was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, August 18, 1859. Penniless and uneducated, totally unversed in the principles of business, he left his Kentucky home 63 years ago to carve his niche in the new west. His first stop was Nueces county, Texas. His first job was that of a "cowpuncher" and it paid $12 a month and "found." A few months later he took a job with a company operating a hide and tallow plant. Five years after arriving in Texas, he still was punching steers, but his salary had advanced to the princely sum of $25 a month, and in 1876, he moved up to Medicine Lodge, Kansas over the Chisholm trail with a roundup. He remained there to take his first plunge into the water of capitalism with an investment of $100 for the purchase of mavericks, unbranded cattle sold at roundups.
Disaster Befalls Cattle Firm
In 1877 he decided to help his father and some associates organize the famous Comanche cattle pool, one of the largest ranch companies in North America with more than 30,000 cattle always on the range. Disaster befell the Comanche pool, however, in the form of a devastating plague which killed thousands of cattle. Colcord was broke but he was far from through. A new country called, and Colcord answered. He bought a team of ponies and a wagon for $66 and made the Oklahoma run in 1899. He has told about his arrival: "After I made the race, I traded my team and wagon for a lot in Oklahoma City. It was an even trade for lot one, block one, and was my first investment in the city I later was to be so proud of." Colcord was chief of polic in Oklahoma City in the days when such an officer had to carry a Winchester in one hand and a six-shooter in the other and know how to use both of them. Later, he was sheriff of Oklahoma county and needed another run to hold his office.
Kicked Gun out of Hand
"Some of the boys were pretty tough, all right," Colcord has said, "but I didn't have much trouble with them. They usually came along peaceably when I wanted them. I guess the closest I ever came to having daylight punched through me was once when I ran into one of them, who was pretty drunk on the corner of Main and Robinson. He got out his gun and announced he was going to plug me. I didn't have time to draw, but I was pretty close to him. I just kicked the gun out of his hand, and that was that." Colcord made his first big strike in Oklahoma in the discovery and development of the Glen oil pool, which, at the time, was one of the greatest fields in the southwest. His fortune, like those of many other Oklahoma capitalists, was founded in oil. In 1910, he put on the harness of a city builder, harness he wore until his death. His first venture in this field was the construction of the 12-story Colcord building on the northwest corner of Grand and Robinson avenue. He became known as the man who built a 12-story building in a three story town. The structure cost $750,000 and today remains one of the city's most popular building locations, with a waiting list of prospective tenants.
Knew How to Treat Folks
Asked how he managed to keep his bulding fully tenanted in the face of the erection of much newer and larger structures, Colcord said, "Well, I try to keep the building modern, but I guess the big secret is in knowing how to treat folks." In 1914, Colcord served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, and he has been an active civic booster ever since. His struggle to stabilize the business district, keeping it from slipping far to the north and making $100,000,000 worth of business property obsolete, is a saga of vison, careful planning and stubborn preseverence in the face of obstacles. Telling of this struggle, Colcord once said: "I feel that men who have placed fortunes in the southern part of Oklahoma City's retail district are entitled to some security. That's why I've tried so hard to keep the city from slipping away from the, I've driven three stakes to hold the business distrrict in place.
Fought Track Elevation
"The first consisted of fighting a move to elevate the Rock Island tracks, a procedure which would have raised a Chinese wall through the heart of the city. The second was aiding in the construction of the Commerce Exchange building, and the third is the Biltmore hotel project. "Selfish interests never built a city, nor was a great city ever built upon a single street. Years ago, when we were going through a period, in which it seemed the city had curled up and died, I met Oscar Lee going down the street." "Where you going, Oscar," I asked. "Home to Shawnee," he said "I'm sick of trying to sell these deadheads on the idea of a hotel. I offered to buidld the best hotel in Oklahoma--four stories and all brick--if they-d put up $5,000, but they couldn't see it." "The upshot of it was that we got Henry Overholser interested, but Henry wanted it built on Grand avenue, and Oscar had the Main and Broadway site in mind. I argues with Henry that a city couldn't be built on one street, and he finally saw it my way. The hotel was biult and it maked a new era for Oklahoma City. Things boomed here after that."
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C.F. Colcord |
Harriett S. Colcord |
C.F. Colcord Jr. |
Harriet Scoresby Colcord
Mrs. Colcord, 86, Widow of Pioneer Developer, Is Dead
Mrs. Harriet Scoresby Colcord, widow of the late Charles Colcor, pioneer city builder, died at 7:15p.m., Monday in her home, 421 NW 31. She was 86. Her husband, who died in 1934, was prominent in the development of Oklahoma City for 45 years. He built the Colcord building in 1910 and was influential in building the Biltmore Hotel and Commerce Exchange building. She is survived by four daughters and two sons. Private services are set for 10 a.m. Wednesday in the home. Burial will be in Fairlawn cemetery.
[Source: The Oklahoman June 26, 1951 on the Front Page]
Harriett Colcord Grew With City
Mrs. Harriet Scoresby Colcord, 86, widow of the late Charles Colcord, pioneer city builder and capitalist, died at 7:15 Monday in her home at 421 N.W. 30. At her bedside were her six children. She had been in ill health several years. Mrs. Colcord was aboard one of the first trains to roll into Oklahoma City, and, with her husband, her life paralleled that of the city. When her husband first built the 12-story Colcord building at Grand and Robinson he was dubbed "the guy who built a 12-story building in a three story town." But her husband went ahead to point up the development of the city until his death in 1934 when he left an estate unofficially valued at $1,500,000.
Daughter of Minister
Mrs. Colcord was the daughter of an English Methodist minister who settled in Kansas. She met Colcord, destined to become one of the most colorful pioneer builders in the southwest, when he was a roving cowboy. She married him over the protests of her family and the couple moved to Arizona. In 1889 her husband made the run to Oklahoma City with a team of horses and a wagon and $66. Two months later Mrs. Colcord and her three children arrived by train. Her husband traded the team and wagon for a small shack on lot 1, block 1 in Oklahoma City . It was near the present site of the Santa Fe railroad depot. Later, with her husband, then a peace officer whose sole income was $1 for every arrest he made, she moved to a small yellow house at NW 4 and Broadway, site of the Oklahoma Publishing Company.
Just Two Moves
In 1900 the couple built their present home at 421 NW 31, a showplace in the raw frontier town. In 1910 her husband built the present Colcord building at a cost of $750,000. He later spearheaded the building of the Commerce Exchange building, the Biltmore hotel and the elevated Santa Fe railroad tracks. The elevated tracks, Colcord, said, would promote the development of downtown Oklahoma City. Throughout her life, Mrs. Colcord had little time to devote to women's clubs. "I'm too busy raising six children." she was quoted as saying in 1939 when her pioneer experiences were commorated in Oklahoma City a golden anniversary celebrations.
Rites are Scheduled
She was, however, one of the founders of the First families of Oklahoma and later served as its president. She was also a member of the '89er's. In 1930 the state '89er's association held a New Year day open house in Mrs. Colcord's home. Private funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the family home. Burial will be in Fairlawn cemetery under direction of Street and Draper funeral home. Surviving are four daughters: Mrs. L. D. Callahan and Mrs. James White both of the home; Mrs. W. H. Helmerich and Mrs. J.W. Bates, both of Tulsa; two sons, Ray Colcord of Rogers, Arkansas and Sidney Colcord, Tulsa; nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren and one brother, Fred Scoresby, Sterling, Kansas.
[Source: The Oklahoman June 26, 1951 Page 7]
Children and Grandchildren
Cadijah Colcord Helmerich, daughter and wife of Oklahoma pioneer oilmen, died Thursday in a Tulsa hospital after an extended illness. She was 90. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church under the direction of Stanleys Funeral Home. Mrs. Helmerich, a native of Oklahoma City, was the daughter of oilman Charles F. Colcord. She was the widow of Walter H. Helmerich, early-day Tulsa oil executive and chairman of the board of Tulsa-based Helmerich and Payne, Inc. which owns Utica Square Shopping Center and other real estate investments throughout Tulsa. She was a member of Boston Avenue Church, Junior League of Tulsa, Tulsa Boys Home, National Society of Colonial Dames of America, Oklahoma Heritage Association, Oklahoma Historical Society and Southern Hills Country Club. Survivors include a son, Walter Helmerich II, a daughter, Cadijah H. Patterson, and a sister, Mrs. J.W. Bates Sr., all of Tulsa; nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
[Source: Tulsa World]
Marquerite Colcord Callahan, daughter of Harriet Scoresby and Charles Francis Colcord, who was an early date builder & City Pioneer. He was the first Chief of Police in Oklahoma City and first Sherrif of Oklahoma County and Deputy US Marshall. Mrs. Callahan's a native of Oklahoma City, was the widow of Lee Dudley Callahan who was Vice Pres. of The National Building Owner's Association, he managed 7 downdown buildings, including the Colcord building and 6 more buildings. She is survived by by 2 sons Charles Colcord Callahan and Thomas Clay Callahan both of Oklahoma City; grandson Charles Dudley Callahan and granddaughter Mrs. Leslie Smith; 2 sisters: Mrs. J.W. Bates and Mrs. W.H. Helmerich both of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Graveside services Saturday 11 a.m. at Memorial Park Cemetery. Directed by Guardian West.
[Daily Oklahoman May 16, 1980 Page 117]
Ray Colcord was born September 12, 1886 and died February 1971 at Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Rena Piner Colcord
Mrs. Rena Piner Colcord--Services for Mrs. Rena Piner Colcord, 51 years old, who died Sunday in her home at Tulsa after several week's illness, will be at 2:30p.m. Wednesday in the Street and Draper funeral home chapel. Burial will be in Fairlawn cemetery. Mrs. Colcord's husband, Ray Colcord, Tulsa oil man, is the son of the late Charles Colcord, early day civic leader in Oklahoma City, and Mrs. Colcord, 421 Northwest Thirteenth street. Mrs. Colcord was the daughter of Dr. W. K. Piner, Lakeland, Fla., who was minister of St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal church, South, here many years ago. She came to Oklahoma City with her parents 32 years ago.
[The Oklahoma July 12, 1938 Page 2]
Sidney Colcord was born February 17, 1898 in Oklahoma Territory and he died December 22, 1969 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Cadijah Helmerich Patterson, a well-known Tulsa philanthropist, died Thursday. She was 67. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the University of Tulsa's Sharp Chapel, under the direction of Stanleys Funeral Service. Patterson was born in 1934 to Cadijah and Walter Helmerich, who founded Tulsa's Helmerich & Payne. Her grandfather, Charles Colcord, was one of the most influential men in Oklahoma history. He was Oklahoma's first U.S. marshal and helped found the Glenn pool oil field. He is in both the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. After graduating from high school, Patterson attended Connecticut College for Women for two years before transferring to the University of Tulsa. It was at TU that she met her husband, Robert. And it was where she studied under Alexandre Hogue, who was so fascinated by her first name that he painted and named a picture after her. Patterson kept her love of art through the years, not only continuing her own work but by contributing to the Philbrook Museum of Art. She was a benefactor for many Tulsa organizations, including TU and St. John Medical Center. But it was Cascia Hall Preparatory School that was her "true heartbeat," her family said. Patterson was active in the Junior League of Tulsa and the National Society of Colonial Dames of America's Oklahoma chapter. She was also a member of the Southern Hills Country Club. The family asks that memorials be sent to Cascia Hall Preparatory School. She is survived by her husband, Robert E. Patterson of Tulsa; a brother, Walter H. Helmerich III of Tulsa; three daughters, Cip Frizzell of Tulsa, Shannon Patterson of Tucson, Ariz., and Sabrina Mullendore of Miami, Okla.; a son, Rep Patterson of San Francisco; and five grandchildren.
[Tulsa World Published: 10/12/2001]
View Marriage Announcements for: BATES-ESTILL; LIGON-COLCORD; COLCORD-PINER
