Elgin Connection

[W. Gray]

For you folks with an interest in Elgin.

Clarence Tinker, an Osage born in the Osage Nation, received part of his education at the Elgin public school.

He became the first American Indian to hold the rank of major general in the United States armed forces.

General Tinker was also the first American general to die in World War II.

His LB-30 Liberator crashed into the sea and his body was never found.

Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, received its name in his honor.

[Marcia Moore]

 Removed.

[Flintauqua]

Has anyone ever done any research on the history of pre-Howard county, specifically during the time the Osages had treaty title to the area.  I've always wanted to go to Pawhuska and make inquiries and maybe do some research at their tribal headquarters.  I'm sure that the Osages, and other tribes that passed through on hunting migrations or relocations, had place names for geographic features in Elk and Chautauqua Counties.

Anyone have any info to share here?

[W. Gray]

Good question.

I have a few books with general information about the Osage, but I do not know that I have ever come across any Osage names for local features.

Be interesting if Marcia, or anyone else, has anything.

Here is some general information I have come across concerning the Osage:

I am of the opinion there was Osage presence in Elk County but in the overall scheme of things, it was minimal.

There is one person I have read of being killed by the Osage in what became Elk County. He was killed by a poison arrow.

Another was killed in what became Chautauqua County when he tried retrieving some horses the Osage stole from him. The white guy apparently had not paid his tribal taxes.

An Osage burial consisted of laying their dead in a natural ground depression and then stacking several layers of rocks over the body. A Swedish immigrant was building a stone house in what was to become Elk County. He used rocks from a pile near his house and eventually came across a young Osage girl's body. The Osage received word he had desecrated her grave and they came calling. He showed them where he had reburied her body and placed rocks over the grave. They went away satisfied.

Sometimes, Osage would bury by placing the body in a hollow tree trunk or hollow fallen tree.

Supposedly, Elk River valley Osage scouts led General George Armstrong Custer to the Washita River in Oklahoma where he destroyed the Cheyenne village. Some of those same scouts were supposed to have been with him at or just prior to the Little Big Horn. The main enemies of the Osage were the Cheyenne and Arapahoe.

The last all Indian battle in Howard County [maybe the only one] took place along Cedar Creek near Cedar Vale. Arapahoe warriors followed an Osage hunting party from western Kansas after a buffalo hunt and attacked them at the creek. Some of the white women living in the area tried to help with the wounded but were told to "get lost" by the Osage. I am thinking the year was early 1870 but it might have been a year or two earlier. These white people were paying a tax to the Osage to live peacefully in that area.

The Osage did not live in Teepees but used Teepees as camping gear when they went to hunt in Western Kansas.

I have read of a village at the confluence of Elk River and Clear Creek near Elk Falls. The Osage believed that tornadoes would not hit them if they lived where two bodies of water came together. This village may well have been their only known presence in Elk County.

That village would be a clan village. There could have been two or more widely separated villages making up a clan and several clans making up a band and several bands making up the tribe, not to mention there were Little Osage and Big Osage, but their overall numbers were not large.

The Osage were not native to Kansas. In the overall scheme of things, they were not here long.

The US government moved them into Kanzas in 1808 from present day Missouri and Arkansas.

They were forced into Missouri and Arkansas from the Ohio River valley many years earlier by other warring tribes.

Under the 1808 treaty, they legally occupied almost one-half of present day Kansas.

When Kanzas became Indian Territory, they were reduced to a much smaller 250 mile by 50-mile area along the southern Kansas border to make way for a good many eastern U.S. tribes to the north. New York Indian tribes were slated to go in just north of present day Elk County. Even with their reduced reservation along the southern Kansas border, the Osage had a huge area. I recall something like 2.5 Osage per square mile or thereabouts.

When Indian Territory was reduced to Oklahoma, a twenty-mile tall strip off the top of the Osage reservation was called the Osage Trust Land. That land was the first to open in Howard (Elk County). The division line was Townships 29 and 30 south. The balance was called the Osage Diminished Reserve. There was also another portion to the east in Labette and Montgomery County called Osage Ceded Land.

The Diminished Reserve was legally taken away on July 15, 1870, when the Osage were moved to Indian

Territory. Even then, groups came back into Elk County. Some liked camping near Moline.

Osage Indians as a group took part in the American Civil War. Some fought for the south and some fought for the north.

[twirldoggy]

Colonel Sam Donnelson of the Cofederate Army is burried in the Elgin Cemetery.

[W. Gray]

I am glad you brought that up.

I did not know Sam Donnelson was a Confederate, but that makes sense now.

His uncle was the 7th President of the United States: Old Hickory.

Donnelson was also Howard County's expensive county attorney, they paid him $1,000 per year.

[twirldoggy]

He is my ancestor and I have done much research on the history of the Donnelsons.  I did not know he was paid so much !! Wow.

[gcrebel]

The South Kansas Camp #2064 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has a project of trying to locate, verify, and document all of the Confederate Veterans that are buried in Kansas.  I hope you do not mind me asking, but do you have any documentation showing that this Samuel Donelson served the Confederate army, because if he did, he served for both sides.  The 1895 Kansas census  shows that he was a Captain in the 18th Indiana Infantry Co K, which goes along with the obit stating that he went to Indiana.  Thank you.

[W. Gray]

While waiting for a twirldoggy reply:


Could there be two different men with similar names?

You have him as a Captain.

The February 7, 1874, Longton Weekly Ledger, among others, identifies him as Colonel Donelson.

The May 7, 1904, Topeka Capital, identifies him a few days after his death in Elgin as "Colonel Samuel Donelson, a find old Southern gentleman of distinguished ancestry and life."

I have also seen the Colonel's name in the 1870s newspapers as both Donelson and Donnelson.

[gcrebel]

I would think that the odds of two people with that similar of a name, both in Chautauqua County, would be unlikely however, I am only seeing the one Samuel Donelson in the 1895 Kansas census in Chautauqua County, and it states the Indiana unit in the military service.   As I mentioned previously, the obit stated this person went to Indiana in 1850.

The obit calls him Colonel, then states in the body of the obit:  In 1861 he raised a company and for eighteen months served in Missouri and Arkansas, being the captain. Ill health caused his resignation and he was offered a colonelcy but declined.

That parallels the service record for Captain Samuel Donelson...Samuel Donelson enlisted as a Captain in July 15 1861, commissioned in the Indiana 18th infantry Aug 16, 1861, and resigned Dec 1862

I have seen different spellings as well, both of yours, as well as Donalson.

The obit I am referencing is dated April 29, 1904 at http://www.ksgennet.org/ks/cq/obits/obitsd1.html#01711