So when Richard Hagar was given a month to provide additional information as to why he and his children should be admitted to the Mississippi Choctaw rolls, he submitted a statement by Joe Toten, a resident of Suqualak, Noxubee County, Mississippi. The name Toten is “corrected” throughout the statement with a pen, so I’m not positive that is the name–it might be Taten. And I believe Suqualak should probably be Shuqualak, which is a small town in Noxubee County, Mississippi.
Richard says that he expects to prove by this witness that his (Richard’s) grandfather was Steely Hagah and resided in Mississippi until 1857 and then moved to Arkansaw [sic]. Toten says Steely Hagah was a half-breed Mississippi Choctaw and that his wife was full blood Mississippi Choctaw, that the said Streely [sic] was registered by the US Commissioners in 1837 as a Mississippi Choctaw and was enrolled and recognized as a Mississippi Choctaw by the commissioners. As such a recognized and enrolled Mississippi Choctaw, he received lands from the government of the U.S., and resided on same for a period of more than five years. That Steely Hagah was recognized among the Mississippi Choctaw Indians of Mississippi and known and accepted as such in 1830. That Joe Toten was personally acquainted with the said Steely Hagah and personally knew all the members of his family. That he personally knew Stirling Hagah to be the son of the said Steely Hagah, and that the “said Stirling Hagah is the father of your applicant R. Hagah.” That Joe Toten personally knew the said Stirling Hagah and the members of his family.
And then, in closing, the statement says,
That the said Joe Toten is now 97 years of age, and is not unable from age and infirmatives to personally appear before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes to give his testimony in person.
This sent me straight to the 1900 census for Noxubee County, Mississippi.
I was not surprised to find no one who matched this person.
So I went back to 1880. For this year, I found, in Noxubee County, a fairly good match. If Joe was 97 in 1903, that means he was born about 1806. Here’s a J. H. who was born about 1810, AND who is living in the said county.
J. H. Tatum 70
S. A. Tatum 59
Jane Reed 42
Did Richard use a person his father had known in Mississippi and construct supportive testimony for his 1903 application? Richard sends this statement from his home in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in April 1903, a month after his personal appearance before the Commission. How did he get this statement from a man, who, if alive, lived almost 500 miles away?
Also enclosed is the testimony of a man named John D. Layne, whose residence is given as Rockey Comfort in Little River, State of Arkansaw. Mr. Layne’s age is given a 82, and I did find a good match for this witness.
1900 Jackson, Little River County, Arkansas
John D Layne 79
Elizabeth Layne 76
William Smith 17
Margaret Smith 16
Robert Smith 12
Willis Smith 9
Wayne Jackson 7
Layne professes to have know Mary Hagah, the wife of Steely Hagah, that she was the mother of Stirling Hagah who was the father of the applicant, that she was a Mississippi Choctaw Indian, that Stirling Hagah and Dan Hagah his brother always claimed to be Choctaw Indians and that they looked like they had Indian blood in them, and that they claimed kin to Robert Jones of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.
He, too, is unable from advanced age to appear before the Commission.
A third deponent, Caswell Griffith, also from Little River County, Arkansas, provides about the same information, though he does provide Mary’s maiden name as Huckbee and that Steely and son Stirling both spoke the Choctaw language. He notes that Mary’s father’s name was John Jones and that Mary had the appearance of a full blood Choctaw, and that all the Hagahs claimed to be Choctaw. He says he was about 18 at the time of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which was signed in 1830, making him born about 1812.
The closest I can get to a person with this name is in 1880 in Little River County, Arkansas
Caswill Griffith 52
Allice Griffith 30
Cisero Griffith 22
Rocksiana Griffith 20
Nancy Griffith 18
Edward Griffith 14
There are Griffiths still living in the area in 1900, but I did not find Caswell.
All three of these oaths are submitted with a notary from Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas, where Richard Hagar is living, saying that R. Hagar is known to him and that after being duly sworn, says the facts set out in the foregoing documents are true and correct to the best of his information knowledge and belief.
If I’m reading the packet correctly, these depositions are added to the application packet, but the Commissioners also sent a 3 page questionnaire to Richard’s attorney in Sulphur Springs, to be administered to each of the witnesses.
I did not find any responses among the 60+ pages.
There is another letter that states it encloses a certified copy of the marriage license and certificate between T. R. Hagar and Mary Fowler. Unfortunately, no copy of the marriage record is in the packet, nor is the date or place of the marriage provided. [Other records indicate Richard Hagar is also knows as Thomas Richard Hagar.]
So what to make of these statements? What parts of the depositions are true and what parts are not? I would very much like to believe that the maiden names for the women are correct–I find other documents online that have these names for the wives, but what are the sources? I believe that the information about the westward movement from Mississippi to Arkansas to Texas (in Richard’s case) is accurate.
I’ll post more about this case later.
I’ve been working in the census records and have found data on Richard’s family in Texas and Arkansas. I’ll continue that search.
In addition, at the OHS Library, we have copies of the Melvyn Cornish papers.
So who is Melvyn Cornish, you ask?
Melvyn Cornish was one of the attorneys for the Choctaw Nation during this time period.
I can hardly wait to see what’s there.
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