The Indian Territory in the Civil War Message Board

Re: COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA

Judge George W. Stidham was born in Alabama, November 17, 1817. His father was Hopaychutke (which means "White Explorer" in the Muscogee or Creek language) who was Scotch-Irish. Judge Stidham's father immigrated to the USA as a young man and settled in Alabama among the Creeks. His adventurous disposition and love of travel is supposed to have suggested his characteristic title.

Judge Stidham lost his father at the age of twelve years. Although the opportunities for education were rather limited at the time and he was not a college graduate, he acquired great knowledge through his own industry and early contact with the world. However, he did not learn to speak English until he was twenty years of age. In 1837, or thereabouts, he emigrated to the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, settling first at Choska, on the Arkansas River. His first office was that of US Indian Agent's interpreter at the Creek Agency. At about this time he married his first wife in 1841. He was next appointed by the Creek Nation as national delegate to Washington, and visited the capital in that capacity no less than fifteen times, from year to year. He served a dual role as the Creek Agency Interpreter. on these trips and he is often listed on Treaties and reports as both the US Interpreter with the US Agent to the Creeks, William Garrett (1853-1861), and as a Representative of the Creek Nation.

It was during Stidham's stay in Washington City in the year 1855 or 1856, that Mr. Stidham met Miss Elizabeth Thornsberry, a Virginia lady of great attraction, and married her, his first wife being some time dead. She was later employed as teacher in the Creek Nation by the Creek Agency.

When the US Agent to the Creeks, William Garrett, along with the other US Agents to the Five Civilized Tribes and their boss, Elias Rector, the US Southern Superintendent in the Arkansas HQ, joined the Confederate States, Judge Stidham served as an interpreter for Garrett and Albert Pike during the negotiations with the Creek Nation. He not only signed the treaty between the CSA as Interpreter, but also as one of the Creek leaders. He ultimately joined the 1st Creek Mounted Rifles (VOL) aka 2nd Regiment Arkansas Creeks ultimately commanded by COL David McIntosh. He served as a Captain. [Note: Elizabeth Stidham did apply for and recieved a Confederate Pension according to the records of the Oklahoma Archives.] During the war Mr. Stidham was a Captain the 1st Creek Mounted Rifles. When provisionally formed, the CSA Agent was placed in command by Pike and was recommended by Pike, but the treaty required a Creek Commander and the area commander also objected so COL David McIntosh was appointed. Garrett's younger brother was also the Captain of Co. H.

At one point during the war, Stidham was elected first chief of the Southern Creeks, but was counted out, and therefore never took his seat. Upon the return of the refugees after the conclusion of the war, he was appointed Chief Justice, and was holding that office when the 1867 constitution was formed, in the year 1867. After the adoption of the 1867 he held the office for several terms of four years, and was Chief Justice at the time of his death, March 1891. He is buried in Eufuala, McIntosh County, Oklahoma.

Mr. Stidham also represented his town, that of Hitchetee, in the House of Warriors for several terms and also served as Town Chief or Town Micco. When elected to this office, the people proposed to raise him to the House of Kings, but he preferred the Lower House and remained there. Some time before the war Mr. Stidham opened a mercantile establishment at the Creek Agency, near Muskogee, but was obliged to join the refugees, and went, with others, to Hopkins County, Texas, where he purchased a section of land, and a tract of 6,000 acres on the spot where Texarkana now stands. These lands were bought for him through the instrumentality of General Albert Pike, but, unfortunately, Mr. Stidham mislaid the deeds of the latter tract, and the official records having been destroyed during the war, he was unable to establish his claim, and lost this valuable piece of property.

At the conclusion of the rebellion the subject of our sketch returned to the Creek Agency, resuming his former clerk, became a partner in the store, purchasing Mr. Stidham's interest three years later. Mr. Stidham then opened out a new business, which he placed in the hands of J. G. Meagher, but finally sold out to Mr. J. Parkinson in 1883 or 1884. The deceased, during those years, took an active interest in agriculture, and may be said to have been the first man who planted wheat in the Creek Nation. Importing a quantity of the seed, he distributed it among the citizens of his neighborhood in the year 1855. He was also the first to grow cotton in the vicinity of Muskogee, and was instrumental in the introduction of the first threshing machine into the nation. In company with C. C. Belcher, John Barnwall, J. McD. Coodey and two others, G. W. Stidham was one of the first chartered members of the first Masonic Lodge in the Creek Nation, and was made Master under the dispensation granted to the first lodge. At the time of his death he was a Royal Arch Mason.

Mr. Stidham, by his first wife, has two living daughters, one of whom is the wife of Captain G. W. Grayson, later Principal Chief of the Creek Nation. By his second wife he had a family of five, George, Mrs. Bailey, Albert, Mrs. Bennett and Theodore. The death of Mr. Stidham, which occurred in March 1891, cast universal gloom over the Creek Nation. No citizen of the country was more highly esteemed; none were more progressive or more useful in preparing the people for the great change that civilization was bringing about. His influence was great, and his example such as will be long remembered by the rising generation. It may be safely said that the name of George Washington Stidham will live in the memory of his people until the last drop of Creek blood is merged and lost in the irrepressible current of Anglo-Saxon blood.

Much of this information was provided by The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men, H. F. & E. S. O'Beirne, C. B. Woodward Co, (St. Louis 1892), The Chronicles of Oklahoma published by the Oklahoma Historical Society (in particular their articles on the Creek Nation during the War Between and Creek Treaties and Government) accessible and searchable via http://digital.library.okstate.edu/search.htm and the specific treaties of the Creeks involving COL Garrett and Judge Stidham 1853 to 1868 found in INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES, Vol. II, Treaties, Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, (Washington : USGPO, 1904) also accessible and searchable via http: //digital.library.okstate.edu/search.htm, A History of the Creeks, Angie Debo; Indian Removal, Grant Foreman; all 3 of Anne Heloise Able's books on Indians as slaveholders and participants in the war. Several Dawes Commission cases, including those of Lizzie garrett contain testimony regarding the same. Several of the WPA Indian Pioneer Studies Interviews, some available online at the Oklahoma Historical Society website, including one of the Lizzie Gibson interviews, reference the time spent in Texas during the war. There are several O.R.'s on point and couple of new documents available through one of the new digitization projects relating to CS govt. documents having to do with the Indian Bureau.

I hope that this helps. Thanks and best. Greg

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COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA
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COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA
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COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA
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COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA
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Re: COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA
Re: COL William Hammond Garrett, CSA