VINITA I. T., O. B. Campbell, 1969
By 1878 the town had shown some expansion. The A. C. Raymond Hardware, French
and Koehier Butchers, Joe L. Thompson Harness Shop, the Trott Bros.’ Vinita
Marble Works, Thomas Howie Blacksmith Shop, and the Hall and Patton store were
among the firms in business in the town.
H. T. Landrum and J. W. Elliott had a law firm, Dr. A. W. Foreman had arrived in
1877 to practice medicine and was located over John A. Foreman’s Grocery
store. He later joined Dr. Frazee. Dr. Foreman was the son of Rev. Stephen
Foreman, prominent missionary to the Cherokees.
Thomas McSpadden was operator of the Vinita Livery in 1878. J. M. Duncan had a
grocery store.
Meanwhile, buildings had been torn down and the new Commercial Hotel had been
erected near the Katy tracks off East Illinois. Operated by Henry Eiffert, it
was a three-story building described as ideal “headquarters for stockmen and
commercial travelers.” Osee Trott had a billiard hail and Ten Pin Alley on
Front Street (Vann).
By the end of the decade Dr. Oliver Bagby was a partner of Dr. Frazee. Dr. M. P.
Haynes also practiced medicine here then and Dr. S. J. Thompson was a dentist.
Felix Cowan, who moved to Vinita in 1876, was in the grocery business and bought
produce.
The end of the first decade also found G. W. Green operating a large general
store, William Miller with a cigar and confectionary store, Mrs. S. E. Eiffert
in the millinery business, Robert Ironsides operating a grocery store, W. T.
Beatty with the Cherokee Meat Market as well as running his blacksmith shop,
Hamilton Balentine a grocery store which he called the Star Grocery, William
Little a grocery and grain firm, C. C. Ironside a grocery, and Henry Drew a
grocery, along with others.
The Blythe boarding house was located on Illinois Avenue on Frisco right-of-way
where the Grand Theatre was later built. Ira Woodin had a restaurant near by.
John Swain had the Horseshoe
Grocery on East Illinois.
Benjamin Chouteau had come to Vinita in 1877 and later was associated with J. S.
Thomason in a general mercantile store. William C. Patton, who had come here in
1878, built a stone building on the alley east side in the 100 block of East
Illinois and in 1890 built another, of brick, west of the Cobb Hotel.
Jeter Cunningham, whose sister, Sabra, was the wife of L. B. (Hooey) Bell, came
to Vinita about 1875 and went into business with
Note by GCH: Ran this thru OCR and have edited it very little as you can see.
Yous should be able to copy it into Microsoft Word from your e-mail message.
The Blythe Boarding House?
It would have been on the north side of Illinois Ave and probably east of the
Cobb Hotel.
CHAPTER VIII
After the First Decade
THE Atlantic and Pacific was permitted to build on ~ westward in 1881 a new
impetus was given the town, for it ~ opened up a new avenue for travel and
shipping.
It marked the beginning of more than ten years of increased activity in the
Cherokee Nation’s northern progressive community. This was heightened by the
opening of the unassigned lands to settlement in the Oklahoma run of 1889 and in
subsequent openings climaxed by the run into the Cherokee Strip in 1893.
The Indian Chieftain, a weekly newspaper, was started in 1882 and the Worchester
Academy opened the same year, contributing to the progress of the town and to
its growing commercial and cultural life.
The decade found new business people in Vinita E. N. Rat- cliff, who bought the
former Thompson-Skinner Grocery, William C. Knight, M. E. Milford, Thomas
Knight, David M. Marrs, John T. Gunter and others.
Davis Hill came to town in 1886 and joined with William Little in a general
merchandise store.
W. E. Halsell, already engaged in ranching and business fields, established a
residence in Vinita in 1882.
Other merchants of the early 1890s included Mrs. F. H. Cass, millinery; W. W.
Miller, farm implements; Mrs. William Chouteau, millinery; Skinner and Ratcliff,
general store; Lee Barrett, harness shop; Loo Chung, laundry; Louis Cass, store;
William Chouteau and Sons, and W. R. Badgett.
Impressions of the Vinita of the 1880s are given in a letter written by a young
newspaperman, Harry Arlington, who left his home in St. Louis to take a job on
The Indian Chieftain.
The letter, written June 6, 1884, and sent to the young man’s parents, reads:
“I left Joplin yesterday at 3:25 and arrived in Pierce City at 6:25 p.m. I
remained in Pierce City Thursday night and started for Vinita at 9:20 a.m. this
morning and arrived here at 12:35.
“Such lovely country broad expansive prairies extending as far as the eye can
see and seeming to kiss the skies in the far distance.
NOTE: follow Harry Arlintton.
VINITA, I. T.
But little farming is carried on here and that on a very small and ancient
scale.
“I have seen more Indians in the two short hours of my stay here than in all
my life before, some full bloods and mostly three- fourth and half bloods, but
civilized. They are THE people here.
They carry on the principal part of the business in this town of some [N;S]800
or 900 inhabitants. They are monarchs of all they survey. I am stopping at a
boarding house owned by an Indian named Stephen Blue Jacket, $3.50 per week. He
is very intelligent and polite and has two of the prettiest Indian maidens I
have ever seen.
“All of the white men in business here are married to Indian women, which they
have to do before they can carry on a business in their own name. Whites cannot
own over five head of stock with- out a permit which costs $1 per month. A white
man is a perfect blank here unless he marries into an Indian family. All I have
written regarding this peculiar style of government was just told me by the
editor of the paper who is an Indian and also mayor of the town. (He was
referring to William P. Ross, nephew of John Ross, Indian chief, who was the
editor of the Chieftain. G. W. Miller was business manager at this time.)
“I think I can strike a job on the paper at least I am very sanguine of my
efforts thus far, but of course not positive it is very interesting thus far but
terribly lonesome.”
The Indian Chieftain, which started in May, 1882, was the first newspaper in
Vinita with continuous publication. Others, operating principally for political
purposes, failed to last.
Gus Ivey was the first editor of the newspaper but G. W. Green, a merchant, is
credited with backing the establishment of the weekly. Dr. J. W. Scroggs, who
started Worcester Academy, was linked with the paper as one of the first
editors.
In those days owners were often not always listed as associated with a newspaper
or other business since whites could not own property in the Cherokee Nation
legally.
Robert L. Owen, who later became the first U. S. senator, was listed as the
Chieftain editor in 1883. M. E. Milford bought the paper in 1884.
D. M. Marrs bought the Chieftain in 1900 and continued own ing the weekly
publication until 1912. He also began, during this period, publication of the
Daily Chieftain. There were other early newspapers in Vinita: the Indian
AFTER THE FIRST DECADE
Fogle, Orien L. Rider, Guy Fatten, T. D. B. Frear, and Edgar Smith. In 1903
Smith served as the first president of the Indian Territory Bar Association.
The San Francisco Hotel, built at the corner of Vann Street and Illinois Avenue
in the early 1880s, was considered one of the best in the Southwest. It was a
three-story frame building. A row of maple trees was planted along Vann Street
front and benches placed along the area to provide a popular spot for old-timers
to gather and refight the Civil ‘War or talk about the latest outlaws in the
territory.
Across the street north of the old San Francisco Hotel was the store of Henry
Drew, which also housed the post office in one early- day period. It was west of
the bright yellow-painted Katy Station.
South of the station near the railroad tracks was the G. W. Green Store.
Will Drew, writing of early days in Vinita, said that the town had its share of
the “saloons” and gambling places. “I saw 20 gun plays in one year,” he
said, “for fights were frequent.” Liquor was illegally sold at what were
called “blind tigers,” often pool halls, for open saloons violated the law.
The San Francisco Hotel was moved farther south on Vann Street to make room for
the new Cobb House or Hotel in 1891. The Cobb had its grand opening on April 27,
1891, and printed invitations were sent out for the event.
It was called the “Grand Social Reception of the Cobb House.” Prof. Chappins
and his Orchestra of Parsons, Kans., furnished music.
On the arrangements committee were W. E. Halsell, S. S. Cobb, L. L. Crutchfield,
H. H. Trott, T. F. Thompson and N. Skinner.
The hotel had a large tank on the top of the structure that could be filled with
water. It was piped down to the floors of the three-story hotel after being
pumped from the hotel well.
Almost one of the fixtures at the Cobb Hotel was Dan Henry, the Negro Porter who
operated a cart with which he met the trains and hauled baggage back to the Cobb
while calling out the name of the hotel.
The Western Hotel, a three-story structure built at the corner of Scraper Street
and Illinois Avenue in 1894, provided additional rooms for the many who stopped
in Vinita.
The Arcade Hotel and Green Hotel, operating prior to the turn of the century,
long served the area, along with many smaller rooming places or hotels.
