I agree that $400 is just a little pricey and thank you for sharing this. Wow, a Rebecca COURTNEY. I wonder how she ties in with my COURTNEYs in the Fort Arbuckle area. I think I remember seeing a Dawes package with her name in it. We pried up one stone and found two more. -------Original Message------- From: OKMURRAY-L@rootsweb.com Date: Saturday, September 07, 2002 04:06:17 PM To: OKMURRAY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [OKMURRAY] Montford Johnson Hello All; This is a little long but for those interested, it will help you somewhat. For those of you who are interested in Montford Johnson the famous "Chickasaw Rancher", here is what I could find today at the library in Ardmore. They have three books in the library and 1 is in the reference section and the other two are in the archive section. I checked on Amazon.com and the original book lists for over $400 which is quite a bit for a book published in 1961. Here goes: Charles N. Johnson was born in England and immigrated to America when he was 19 years old. He then emigrated to Indian Territory and the Chickasaw Nation. He married a Chickasaw woman named Rebecca Courtney and became a citizen by marriage. Montford Johnson was born in 1843 in the Arbuckle Mountain area. Shortly after Montford was born Rebecca died. Charles went back East and left Montford and his older sister Adelaide with Chickasaw relatives at Ft. Arbuckle. There was no mention of the time span between the death of his wife and the trip back east. It could have been months or even many years. Stationed at Ft. Arbuckle was a Sgt. James Campbell. Campbell's son Michael married Adelaide and Montford married Michael's sister Mary Elizabeth Campbell in 1861. When Ft. Arbuckle was abandoned by Federal troops in 1861 it was generally believed that all Federal dependents went with the troops to Ft. Leavenworth, KS. This was not the case as Mary, Michael and Sgt. Campbell's wife, who was a slave owner, stayed behind. Michael later was named major in the Chickasaw Battalion during the Civil War. Montford went into the cattle business in 1861 at Ft. Arbuckle on a small scale. In 1865, Montford and Jesse Chisholm were buffalo hunting on the Canadian near Chisholm's Trading Post. Montford remarked to Jesse that this would be prime ranch land if it weren't for the wild Indians and the buffalo. Jesse said that he would talk to the chiefs of the wild tribes about permitting him to ranch there without interference. The wild Indian chiefs agreed to allow Montford to ranch there if he only had Indian, Negro or Mexican cowboys. They would not allow white cowboys and by no means would they allow a Texan to work there. The Comanche and Kiowa hated the Texans. Montford moved his operation to Old Ft. Arbuckle near present day Byars in the late 1860's and the rest is history. If you want to know more just shell out the $400 and send it to Amazon.com. Dennis ==== OKMURRAY Mailing List ==== Visit OKbits http://www.rootsweb.com/~okbits ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 .