Dayna and I have been with the Advocate for 39 years. I was visiting with Eric Pierce recently about how quickly the time has passed. Eric bought the Allen Food Center just a few months prior to our purchasing of the newspaper. In fact, he took over ownership on Christmas Day 1981.

I still miss the other downtown businesses such as Leon and Lillian Kidwell, Charles and Betty Speir, Charles Vandeveer with the furniture store and several others.

I especially miss Wayne Bullard’s drug store. It was a great place to see everybody.

Last week we shared some highlights from Hope Patterson McInroy’s book, “Beginning at Cold Springs” and today I want to continue…..

Beginning at Cold Springs

We cannot ignore an Historical Marker on Highway One North in Hughes county, toward Holdenville. The Marker reads: “Shawnee Town on the road to California, Shawnee Indians lived in this area in 1830 – 1857. They lived in log cabin homes on good farms, providing travelers on this road with grain, peaches and melons. Captain Marcy’s train of gold seekers came by here in 1849. Whipple Railway survey party was here in 1853. Old Fort Holmes and the Edwards Store were 5 miles northwest on Little River.”

Another Historical Marker proclaiming the settlement of Osage town has been destroyed by vandalism but was southwest on Highway One. The town was located, in part on the present Busby Ranch. Following is the inscription on the $350 marker:

OSAGE VILLAGE

Site in this vicinity

Occupied 1834 by Chief Black Dog’s Osage Band on Buffalo hunt. Gen. Henry Leavenworth and

First Dragoons, including offi cers Henry Dodge, S.W. Kearney, R.B. Mason, Jefferson Davis, Nathan Boone, and noted artist George Catlin, camped here, June 26, 1834, on expedition west to secure peace with Plains tribes.

It is interesting to note that from 100 million buffalo in 1880, to breed would have become extinct, but for the intervention of the U.S. Government. Today in Pontotoc County and others, it is a common sight to see buffalo and cattle grazing together, due to a crossbreeding program in some State areas.

For a short time, there were two post offices established in this area—Leader and Bourland. Both were later closed when the Allen Post Office began to function in 1892.

Edward Leader traded with half-civilized Indians, from the confines of a crude log and mud hut, southwest of Allen, some say in the 1870’s and that he later moved his store to what became Leader Post Office. The Bourland Postmaster was Daugherty D. Mullins.

Doctor John Trigg Gilmore was 52 years old, when he made the momentous decision to cast his future, and that of his family, with the wild and untried Indian territory. He deemed it wise to make the first journey without his wife Elizabeth and their infant twins, Lonnie and Connie. The rest of the family accompanied him, along with their cousins, the McCall brothers, George and William Wallace (Bill, who were men, ages 24 and 22 respectively.) The Gilmore sons were Edwin T., 20, and William L., 9, and a daughter, Nannie, 18.

In the year 1882, the small group left Gainesville, Texas and a considerable number of anxious kinsfolk behind. Driving a small herd of cattle, horses and oxen, and with wagons loaded down with everything from chickens, and household goods to plow tools and seed for spring planting, they sallied forth. They were vigorous men of great courage, pioneers of the first order, just as those who preceded them, and those who followed, had to be.

There are those who dare to seek new horizons, regardless of obvious hazards. This saga attempts, in its own humble way, to tell the story of such people and of the wild and beautiful land they settled.

Dr. John Trigg Gilmore was born in Dansville, Virginia, July 4, 1830. He was the son of an Irish immigrant, who with his three brothers came to America when she was a very young nation. When John was a young man, he and his family moved to Mississippi. He had one brother, a tinsmith who was called William, a sister Sally-a teacher-and another sister, a teacher whose name we do not know.

It was in Mississippi he met and married a young lady whose name was Moore. Both she and their baby died at childbirth. John’s father died there also. After losing his young wife and baby, and his father, Dr. Johnas he had become-left his home in Mississippi and settled in Gainesville Texas. Although his mother

Although his mother visited him twice in Texas, she remained in Mississippi and she and her daughters and son, as far as we know, died there.

Dr. John settled down to the practice of medicine, and he pastored a Church of Christ in Gainesville. It was there he met the Sebastian Olivo family and fell in love with their daughter Elizabeth. After a short courtship, they were married. The two children born before the Civil War to John and Elizabeth are unknown to us. The six born later were: (1) Edwin T. (2) Nannie A. (3) Robert G. (died an infant) (4) William L. and twins (5) Lonnie L and (6) Consuella Belle. The family genealogy is elsewhere in the book.

The McCall brothers were born in Gainesville to Benjamin and Angeline, daughter of Sebastian and Clorinda Olivo. Benjamin died in 1866, and Angeline died November 23, 1882. The family genealogy is elsewhere in the book.