Hello Dawn, Thanks for responding to my email to the list.  Your tips made for some productive pickings. I wasn't able to research Oklahoma for the dates I needed because it wasn't yet a state.  However, I did go to the Arkansas Families site and did find H. T.  Gillespie in the article about the early settlers. (See excerpt below.)  I also hit paydirt in the deeds index for both the Allisons and the Gillespies. (Also below.) Finding a document to back up the Dickens' article concerning the murder of James Gillespie will be the icing on the cake.  Perhaps that is yet to come from a court record, history book, or a newspaper article.   Thanks again, Nancy in MO http://www.arkansasfamilies.net/afambentonearlyset.htm In 1851 G. W. Mitchell, from Tennessee, settled on the site of the present village of Bloomfield, and H. T. Gillespie, from North Carolina, settled where he now lives on the Line Road, two miles south of Cherokee City. GRANTOR INDEX TO DEEDS 1833 - 1875 A-C GRANTOR                    GRANTEE                         FILLING DATE       BK & PG ALLISON & GILLASPIE  OLIVER ALFERD & CO.  JUN 15, 1842 A 245 1 ALLISON & GILLASPIE  CAMPBELL & OTHERS  JUL 2, 1842 A 346 1 ALLISON, B F BATES, A J  JUL 10, 1872 I 515 3 ALLISON, B F  PACE, C S APR 23, 1873 J 95 3 ALLISON, JAMES & w POWELL, JAMES L NOV 18, 1867 F 559 2 ALLISON, THOS G & GILLASPIE, SAM A  APR 23, 1842 A 237 GRANTOR INDEX TO DEEDS 1833 - 1875 D-G GILLASPIE, H T  CHANDLER, DAVID AUG 28, 1858 D 444 GILLESPIE, H T & w CONNER, SIMPSON NOV 14, 1867 F 551