This page reprints:
portions of letters from "Cherokee Cavaliers" concerning the 
William G. Polson family, or more specifically his son, William Davis (W.D.) Polson.

Note! This page is part of a much larger family history.

Cherokee Cavaliers is a book containing a collection of approximately 200 letters written between the Ridge - Watie - Boudinot family. These three families were well known in the Cherokee Nation. Stand Watie was the only Indian general in the Civil War, fought for the Confederacy, led a group of Indian soldiers and was the last to surrender. Exerpts from "Cherokee Cavaliers" and other publications are incorporated in this page under the Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.

The 200 letters presented in the book along with some 2,000 more were discovered in three large trunks in the summer of 1919 by Edward Everett Dale in a farm house near the former home of Stand Watie in northeastern Oklahoma. Mr. Dale teamed with Gaston Litton to sequence, annotate and connect the story presented in Cherokee Cavaliers. The Work Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding for typing, arranging the letters and preparing them for editing. Frank Phillips Collection of Southwestern History at the University of Oklahoma now houses the complete collection of letters.

Edward Everett Dale, finder of the letters, was a member of the Department of History in the University of Oklahoma from 1914 until 1952 and the first director of the Frank Phillips Collection.

On a recent visit (mid July 2003) to the Western History Collection in Norman which houses these letters, I was able to identify five letters written by W.D. Polson in this collection. Especially interesting, were many references to the mill at Honey Creek operated by W.D. Polson for Stand Watie. The mill is frequently referred to in the letters and tax documents as Polsons Mill or Polson's Mill. I made copies of the actual documents (via microfilm) and of the transcriptions made by the WPA. I will be posting those documents here in the future.

For those interested in the letters in general, portions of several can be seen in the Chronicles of Oklahoma:

Some Letters of General Stand Watie. Volume 1, No.1. January 1921.

Additional Letters of General Stand Watie. Volume 1, No. 2. October, 1921.

The significance of these letters is indicated by their presence in the first two issues ever printed of the Chronicles of Oklahoma, the premier journal of Oklahoma history. They provide an excellent glimpse into the life and times of the people.

W.D. Polson to Sarah Watie

10 April 1863
pg. 121-122
Written near Camp Scullyville in extreme northeast portion of 
Choctaw Nation near Fort Smith.

The Col. has just arrived in cam(p) looking quite well. I am Sorry indeed to hear (of) poor little Meska's death. I can truly sympathize with you in this deep affliction. My youngest child died on the 18th of February. She took cold traveling from Fayetteville to Fort Smith and when I got to Fort Smith She had just died. O My feelings were indiscribable. I never can become reconciled to it and poor Flora She has not yet got over Henry's death & thought little Kates death would kill (her). Well undoubtedly it all for the best if we could look at it the right way and (no) doubt they are far better off than those they left behind to grieve for them yet kno(wing) all this if I could bring my child back I would. Flora and Susan got over from Fayetteville and are living about three miles below Dardenelle. Susan is living with one of the Woodwards Sisters and Flora boards about half a mile from her they had an awful time amongst the Federals they would take the bread out of the childrens hands and them (cryi)ing for it. The Pins have killed a great many good men. Some of them have been Served the same way. (I) think we will make a forward movemont soon. (The) Pin families I understand have all moved back to the nation. Hinman Hoyt is dead and aunt Carrol has Elizabeth's child. Old Juda McGhee is dead. I told Judge Wheeler he could have that Carriage you got from Boudinot for what you gave for it and he took it though he did not pay the money for it but I Suppose he will soon. I thought as you did not get the Carriage when you most needed it you would not likely want it and another thing I did (not) know at what moment the enemy might come into Fort Smith and then it would be (lo)st. Wilson Wood's Wife is at Colemnas near Fort Smith. She has a fine Son. Sela can tell (you) all the camp news. My love to all the children.

Truly Your Friend
W.D. Polson

W.D. (William Davis) Polson was a staff surgeon for Stand Watie's regiment
Sarah C. Watie is Stand Watie's wife
Col. refers to Colonel Stand Watie
Meska (Cumiskey) is Stand Watie's third son
Flora is Flora Chamberlin Ridge, William Davis Polson's wife and a descendant of Stand Watie's father's brother.
Kate was William Davis Polson and Flora's daughter who died 18 Feb. 1863, Henry was apparently her brother.
Susan is Flora's sister, J.W. (Josiah Woodward) Washbourne's wife.
Pins were members of a Cherokee society believing in the old ways, also called called Kee-too-wah

"Heritage of the Hills" Delaware Co., OK history published 1979 
pages 353-356 tells the history of Juda McGhee (referenced
in above letter). Abstract is below.

Ambrose McGhee was an Irishman who came with the Indians over the Trail of Tears to Delaware Co., OK in 1839. He became acquainted with Juda Cochran or Chu-tak, a fullblood Cherokee on the trip and were married shortly after arriving in Delaware County. Ambrose with his two brothers, Pleas and Lark, laid out Southwest City, MO, which is on the state line, and began trading and doing business. Two years later after establishing themselves at Southwest City, he left his brothers and settled two miles west on Honey Creek. Here he had his headquarters and began trading himself. He traded merchandise to the Indians from such items as buffalo robes, and would leave here with seven to ten wagons, drawn by mules or oxen. He would travel slowly through the Cherokee and Osage country and this trip would end at Baxter Springs, Dodge City, or maybe Kansas City where he would ship or sell his furs. McGhee Street in Kansas City is named for him and he was known there as an Indian trader. Again, he would travel through the Delaware and Shawnee country circling farther south. It took at least sixty days to make one of these trips.

He had another trading station on the south side of Big Timbered Hill in Craig County and this was left in the charge of Aunt Sallie Mitchell and her husband, Don. She was a Cherokee. Here, Ambrose has a crude building and also built pens like a stockade for stock and this also provided a place for his guests to keep their ponies while they were there. Often times in his trading, he would acquire Indian ponies. Sometimes a party would come and stay several days and during this time he would have to feed and entertain them. They were able to get some whiskey which then sold for 20 cents a gallon and this sometimes made them troublesome to entertain. His son, Thomas Jefferson McGhee, would play the violin for them and sometimes he had played most of the night as the guests would always respond to the music and be manageable while he played the violin. Sometimes after the traders were gone, they would try to return and steal the ponies that they had traded, so the ponies had to be watched. Ambrose and Juda settled on what is now known as the Sam Glen place. There where few banks in those days, so the money which Ambrose recieved in his trading business was in gold and this was given to Juda on his return from the trips. She took care of it and buried much of it for safekeeping so they had plenty of money to carry them through the Civil War days. They also helped many of the people around them during those dark days. It has always been thought that much of the money has never been recovered for after the Civil War during her last illness.

Note: Thomas Jefferson (Jeff) McGhee became a Judge and was licensed to 
marry Cheokees in the Delaware District and lived near what is now Dodge Oklahoma.

Within ten years of the letter above Susan Washbourne was to pass away as well
Mrs. Susan Washbourne Obituary: 
Frontier Research Vol.6. No.1. September 1986. Pg. 15.

Washbourne, Mrs. Susan - Age 42, died at residence of sister Mr. Flora C. Polson in Deleware District C.N. on 21st of August 1871; wife of J.W. Washbourne and daughter of John Ridge and Sarah B. Northrop Ridge.
Van Buren Press, Fort Smith Herald, Dardanelle Chronicle, Little Rock Gazette, Springfield MO Leader, please copy. Extracted from The Fort Smith Herald. Tues. Sep.5 1871 p2 col 4.

Elias Cornelius Boudinot to Stand Watie

1 October 1864
pgs. 194-195
Written from Bonham Texas.

a portion of letter is below

Dr. Polson is William Davis Polson, he served as staff surgeon to Stand Watie's regiment and for a time as assistant commissioner to provide substinence for the indigent Cherokees (in the Confederacy).
Cotton Cards are used to prepare cotton for spinning.
Medicines includes quinine used to treat malaria, a major disease among the cherokee refugees.

This instance is also referred to in Last Phases of 
the War, by Ann Maloney of Bartlesville, OK.
Portions of a paragraph from that resource is reproduced below.

"Since the condition of the refugees was deplorable, attempts were made to transport cotton from the Indian Territory to Mexico in order to secure funds to relieve their distress. Stand Watie also sent his adjutant across the Mississippi to purchase medicine and such articles as cotton cards, so that the women in these refugee camps might card, spin, and weave cotton in order to provide clothing for themselves and their children. Great difficulty was experienced in getting supplies across the river, however, owing to the vigilance of the Union gunboats. Even when the supplies were safely across, it was difficult to transport them to the border to the Indian country."

J.W. Washbourne to Stand Watie

27 September 1868
pgs. 267
Written from Millwood, C.N. (Cherokee Nation)

a portion of letter is below

Stand Watie and Elias Boudinot were jointly operating a tobacco factory.
Susan is J.W. (Josiah Woodward) Washbourne's wife and a descendant of Stand Watie's father's brother.
Flora Polson is W.D. Polson's wife. She is a sister-in-law of J.W. Washbourne.

Stand Watie to J.W. Washbourne

3 October 1868
pg. 268
Written from Webber falls

a portion of letter is below

Stand Watie had considerable wealth before the war, now he was poor.
Watie apparently sold an interest in his mill to W.D. Polson. The mill is probably a steam powered sawmill and part of the plantation at Honey Creek in the Illinois District of the Cherokee Nation owned by Stand Watie before the war.

Assault Warrant?

When Aeneas Ridge was 10, he lived with Stand Watie while his mom was in Texas (Letters at Western History Collection at Oklahoma University). There was an assault charge against Aeneas in November 1882. The charge was "Assault with intent to kill". Two men, George Still and Thomas B. Wright, made bail for Aeneas using 150 head of cattle, three mules, one jack, nine horses, and ponies. A second warrant was issued against him on March 8, 1883. A note written on the warrant said "Returned no service" "Defendant dead. Killed by Deputy Marshall near Springfield, MO". There was also an assault warrant against Dr. William Davis Polson in 1882. Aeneas wrote a letter to James M. Bell and was upset that Polson was living on Ridge property and he thought it should be his. Aeneas' second warrant was because he killed two black men in the Indian Nation. His murder was also investigated. Source: The Springfield Weekly Patriot, June 14,1883, and the Springfield Daily Herald, February 6 and 7, 1884

U.S. District Court. Western Division of Arkansas. Fort Smith Division
Defendant Jacket File ID Number 21390
William Polson 
Charge: Assault
Year: 1882
Jacket Number: 156

Return to Polson Family History page

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