SCRAPER, WILLIAM INTERVIEW #6612
Gus Hummingbird, Interviewer
July 9, 1937 Interview with William Scraper
William (Buster)
Scraper, a fullblood Cherokee, was born at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, March
18, 1880 He was the son of Jesse Leaf and Louisa Scraper.
William's real
name is Leaf, but his grandfather, Arch Scraper, took the boy when small and
reared him. When he grew old enough to go to school, he was enrolled as William
Scraper.
Louisa married
three tines. William has five half-brothers, namely: Charley Sanders, Hugh,
Monroe, Henry and Redcloud Wolfe.
EARLY
LIFE
Most of Buster's
early life was spent on a farm operated by his grandfather on what is now known
as Scraper Hollow about three miles south of the present village of Christie,
Oklahoma.
The scraper farm
consisted of about forty acres, a large farm for that time. The principal crops
were corn, oats, beans and other small grains. The Scrapers were considered
wealthy people, so Buster had plenty of time to receive an education.
Arch Scraper
also owned plenty of stock. He was an old Civil war veteran, having served in
both armies, the North and the South.
EDUCATION
At the age of
seven, Buster enrolled at Whitmire School which was located about three miles
southeast of what is now Christie, Oklahoma. He had to walk about three miles
to get to the small log hut used for a school house. There were about twenty Cherokee children attended this
school. Among the old-timers that
attended this school was Steve Bailey, George Bailey, Josie Wofford, Getty
Whitmire, John Watt and Jonas.
Among the
teachers of this school was Mary Whitmire, the wife of Eli Whitmire and Ella
Clyne who later married Frank Howard.
SCRAPER, WILLIAM. INTERVIEW #6611
Field Worker: Gus Hummingbird,
July 10, 1937 Interview with William scraper.
"Arch
Scraper" as he was called was not his name. According to the records kept by Buster Scraper, Arch Scraper's
real name was Scraper Sixkiller. That
was his name before he left North Carolina.
He came to the Indian Territory when he was seventeen years old and
settled in the hollow that now bears his name, "Scraper Hollow.”
He and his
widowed mother lived in the same place for many years. Arch scraper was born in 1819. He was forty years old when the Civil War
began. He at first enlisted in the
southern army. He served in that army
for over a year. He then quit the South
and joined the North.
He was appointed
a captain in a company of Home Guards in the Cherokee Nation. His discharge shows that at one time he had
under his command one thousand men. His
discharge shows that he was in the Battle of Bentonville, Arkansas. According to his old records, that the
family have, he was a close friend of Smith Christie who was also a captain in
the army of the North. The expenditure
record books of Smith Christie are now kept as record books in the Antioch
Baptist Church.
Scraper was a
leader among his people. He was sent to
Washington several times as a delegate for the Cherokee people. On one of these missions he had his picture
taken with Abraham Lincoln, and this picture is now kept by Mrs. Josie
Hendricks at Christie, Oklahoma.
Scraper married
in Washington, D. C. some time after the war to a woman by the name of
Elizabeth Bell, a white woman. He
brought his wife to the Cherokee Nation and they lived at his old home
place. Mrs. Scraper died in the
Cherokee Nation and was buried in the Scraper family cemetery, where Arch
Scraper himself is also buried.
CUSTOMS
The customs of
the Cherokee people have changed a lot since those times. In those days everybody was honest. The people loaned anything they had to their
neighbors without charge. Money was
easily borrowed at that time. Everybody
had a little money to loan. There was
not much to buy with money. Arch scraper
always loaned money to his neighbors without any security. The people did not know what a note was
then. A man's word was his bond; If his
word was no good he was not either.
It did not take
long to find out what a man was. If he
beat a debt, everybody knew it just in a little while. He has seen people in those days sell the
last cow they had to meet an obligation.
Although they were not forced to do so, they did that to keep their
credit good.
They took care
of one another in case of sickness.
They obligated themselves to do so.
There were several societies among them that forced them to do so.
In case of the
death of the head of the family, they took care of the widow and the children
until they were able to support themselves.
Almost every community had some kind of an organization to take care of
the needy. That was one reason the
early Cherokees hated a thief. People
did not have to steal. You could get
help from any one in the community if you helped yourself.
POLITICS
When Buster
Scraper grew old enough to know, there were already two major parties among the
Cherokees - the Downing and the National.
He remembers in the first election he voted. A person could vote at the age of eighteen. He first voted in the election of 1898.
The most
interesting race that election was for the office of clerk of the
District. Bill Wright was the National
candidate and Simon Walkingstick - the Downing, Wright was elected. The same election, one of the Mayes was
elected Chief. He was a Downing
candidate. In this election during the
campaign was the first time William ever became acquainted with W. W. Hastings
who later became a leader among his people.
Hastings later was elected to several offices in the Cherokee Nation.
The voting
precinct was the old Goingsnake Court House which was then located on
Peacheater Branch about three miles west of the present town of Westville. In this election you had to call the
person's name that you wished to vote for.
If you promised a man that you would support him there was no way to get
around it, you had to do it, because there was always someone watching how you
voted.
ALLOTMENT
The Cherokees in
the community in which he lived were not in favor of the allotment laws, so in
the election, preceding the year the allotment law was passed, he supported
Rabbit Bunch for Principal Chief because this candidate was not in favor of the
land being allotted in severalty.
Many interesting
speeches were made in the Nation preceding the election before the Allotment
was voted on. Among the orators of that
time was Wolfe Coon. William heard many
speeches made by this man. He was
interested in his speeches, and the things that Coon said, would come to pass,
just as he said. Rabbit Bunch was
another smart Cherokee of that time.