I will make this a short story, but it is long. Actually two stories. I found the turkey photo in a Field & Stream hardback book on turkey hunting. I was sitting in the barber shop. I was shocked!!! There was my photo of my GG Grandpa. I borrowed the book, got the book number and ordered it on Amazon and had my own copy of the book in 3 days. I tracked down the person who had the photo credit and found him on-line. He took a negative of the photo he found in the Arkansas Game Library. He was an editor of the magazine. He did not have any info on it but that. He said it had since been donated to the Arkansas Historical Society.

Second story I was watching an episode of Modern Marvels on the History channel named "The Turkey". Half way through bam!!! there it was again on TV.

Here is a link to the episode. The photo is at 26.24 into the video. It is short but there he is my GG Grandpa on TV! LoL!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXEwzHoKGJg

That is kool WF..........

If those guns could talk!

I know you already know this but dude those are priceless pics. They are a true testament about living off the land.

I am in the middle of a book "Empire of the Summer Moon" about the Comanche life during that time and earlier - all through Texas and Oklahoma - anyone who enjoys this stuff should get and read this book - great pictures thanks

I have read a lot on Quanah Parker and also Geronimo. I also enjoy reading about this period. Two I recommend are "Tour of the Prairie" by Washington Irving. His personal accounts of an expedition into the Oklahoma Prairie. On a more national scale, The Lewis and Clark Journals in Lewis's own script. I found myself absorbed in the book and felt like I was there with them.

Another great internet site for reading this type of more local historical first person accounts is the Indian-Pioneer Papers Collection in the University of Oklahoma Library. There is some really great reading in there. Here is the link.

http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/pioneer/

More family information on this subject. We still hunt and fish this area today. My father bought 110 acres just west of Big Cedar in 1963. It was the original site Orville lived on when he moved to I.T. The old cabin is gone, but the rock fireplace is laying in the woods. My parents are gone now, but my siblings and I have held on to the place. It has a small old cabin on it with the Kiamichi River cutting through the south side of the property. I have Orville's photos in it too. I was born and raise in Fort Worth, but Oklahoma has always been my second home. We go there often. Since spring turkey season re-opend in 1975 we have held a spring turkey camp to hunt Eastern turkeys. As of this year we have never missed a turkey camp in 38 years. All my relatives in this area are gone now, but my family roots will always pull me there.


GG Grandfather Orville Cornelius Keith's Home Place fallen chimeny 11-02-2010 by wfhunter, on Flickr

big cedar house fall 2003 by wfhunter, on Flickr

Swimming hole near reef on Kiamichi River our place 11-02-2010 by wfhunter, on Flickr

John Geary Kiamichi River our place 11-02-2010 by wfhunter, on Flickr

Great pics of Old Line Walker hounds. Hounds were so intregal to the rural way of life back then.

Pure awesomeness!! Blow them up and frame them.

Great pics!

Cool!

Great pics !!! He sure like his hounds it looked like got some in most of the pics very cool

They were. They used every means they had to put meat on the table for their families. After his wife died Orville left to come to I.T. He had two young daughters he brought with him. He had 9 total children. One took sick and died at 16 and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Big Cedar Cemetery. The other lived out her life in this area and died in 1985. She was only a few years older than my Grandpa, but she was my GG Aunt. She told me a lot of stories of when they came from Georgia in a covered wagon. She was abt 10 years old. She said game was everywhere at first, very plentiful. There were bears everywhere. They live off of bear meat. Wolves were also very prevalent. As the game became increasing less plentiful from all of the sustenance hunting the wolves got much less scared of the humans and would come right up to the house trying to get food, many times in the broad daylight. Mostly at night, they would be right outside. The hounds would scare off the wolves and keep them at bay from the house. It was not much longer after the game was thinned out that the wolves were all killed out.

One story she always told was of a neighbor man how was out on foot and a pack of wolves started trailing him. He finally backed up to a tree as the wolves where very aggressive and started circling him. He shot seven of them before the remaining left. I do not know if this story has any truth in it at all. Now as a grown man I pretty much have all doubt, but as kids our eyes where as big as silver dollars when she would tell us this story.

That's great

And now, when some see a hound on their place they want to shoot it......sad.

Thank you for the Photos. Along;
with all the follow-up, replies.

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks for the link. I have a page on Find A Grave under JK Geary. On this page are all the memorials I manage for family members current and from my genealogy work. In the link you posted I have Keith family in three cemeteries. Ruby Myrtle Keith I referenced above is in the Big Cedar Cemetery. I have a few in the Muse Cemetery, but most are in the Whitesboro Cemetery. GG Grandpa Orville Cornelius Keith in the hunting photos is buried back in Georgia. He left Oklahoma in the early 1920s and returned home where the rest of his children stayed and lived. It took me a while to find him but I finally did. He died in 1927. He is buried in Conyers, Georgia.

Just a little more fun history about O.C Keith. I have traced our Keith line back ten generations to the first Keith to come from Scotland in the 1700s. One of my Grandfathers was a Colonel in the revolutionary war. His name was Cornelius Keith. Orville Cornelius in the photos was named after him. Orville had a bunch of siblings. He was to young to fight in the Civil War but two of his older brothers did. They served for the 11th Georgia Infantry. One died of wounds in the 2nd battle of Manassas/Bull Run. I have found his grave. The other lived through the war and was in Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Antehiem, He was a 2nd Lt. at wars end. He was in the Appomattox area when Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S Grant. He was with Longstreet's Command. He returned to Georgia and lived out the rest of his life.

Think I will just about wrap this post up with a video I made of my Keith Family. Since I made this I have lost three more. Aunt and Uncle Herman and Charlotte Keith and Uncle Dale Keith. This was old 8mm film which has been transferred to VHS, then to DVD, then to Digital. I took bits and clips and made this video. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2GhYKvXN2A

I forgot, I am the little blond headed boy with the cowboy hat on and sucking my thumb. LoL!

Very cool pictures. Those turkeys look like monsters.

Thanks, those are great!

[/quote]They were. They used every means they had to put meat on the table for their families. After his wife died Orville left to come to I.T. He had two young daughters he brought with him. He had 9 total children. One took sick and died at 16 and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Big Cedar Cemetery. The other lived out her life in this area and died in 1985. She was only a few years older than my Grandpa, but she was my GG Aunt. She told me a lot of stories of when they came from Georgia in a covered wagon. She was abt 10 years old. She said game was everywhere at first, very plentiful. There were bears everywhere. They live off of bear meat. Wolves were also very prevalent. As the game became increasing less plentiful from all of the sustenance hunting the wolves got much less scared of the humans and would come right up to the house trying to get food, many times in the broad daylight. Mostly at night, they would be right outside. The hounds would scare off the wolves and keep them at bay from the house. It was not much longer after the game was thinned out that the wolves were all killed out.

One story she always told was of a neighbor man how was out on foot and a pack of wolves started trailing him. He finally backed up to a tree as the wolves where very aggressive and started circling him. He shot seven of them before the remaining left. I do not know if this story has any truth in it at all. Now as a grown man I pretty much have all doubt, but as kids our eyes where as big as silver dollars when she would tell us this story.
[/quote]



An update to my story:

Working on my Ancestry tree, I have been in contact with another distant relative in Georgia that is a descendant of Orville Cornelius Keith. Orville was his GG Grandpa too. He had this photo that one of his nephews had of which had written on the back Grandpa Keith. He shared with me his photo and I shared my photos with him. This is him with his two youngest daughters. It appears to be just before moving to Indian Territory. The girl on the right is Minnie who told me the stories of coming to I.T. in the wagon eating bears, and the wolf story. The girl on the left in Ruby. The girl listed above in red print that died young. This is the only know photo of her.

Another treasure!



Orville Cornelius Keith possibly Daughters Ruby Myrtle and Minnie by wfhunter, on Flickr