The Land Tells A Story

When it comes to local history of the early years of Bigheart, OK. I'm one to jump on it and see what surfaces. Anyone that owns property in Barnsdall in the present has a historical record of the land they own. better known as an "Abstract of Tile", it tells the story of your property from the beginning when it belonged to the United States government as a recorded entity.

The story of one of my properties is as such. Owned by the United States government, it named the Cherokee Nation as Grantee of the land which now includes Osage County in Oklahoma. President Martin VanBuren, Grantor of the land conveyed over 14 million acres of land to the Cherokee Nation on December 31st, 1838.

July 19th, 1866, Article 16 of a Treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation permitted the United States to settle friendly Indians on any part of the Cherokee country west of 96 degrees. With this article , the Great and Little tribes of the Osage Indians  were settled on the Osage Indian Reservation which is now Osage County. Under Statute,  on March 25th, 1873, the Secretary of the Treasury transferred the proceeds of sale from the Osage lands in Kansas, the sum of $1,650,600 or as what be necessary to pay for the lands purchased from the Cherokees by the Osages at .70 cents an acre.

June 14th, 1883,Principle Chief of the Cherokee nation, Dennis W. Bushyhead, Grantor to the United States in trust for the Osage Indians, Grantee; under the consideration of $1,099,137.41, conveyed all land purchased from the Cherokee Nation to the Osage Nation.


July 30th, 1879, the Supreme Court ordered the Osage and Kansas Indian reservations hereby be attached to Pawnee County, Oklahoma Territory, for judicial purposes. Act of Congress May 2, 1890 provides for the organization of the Territory of Oklahoma.

(NOTE) January 1905, H.H. Brenner, a banker , real estate owner and a partaker in the oil and gas business from Pawhuska, Oklahoma  Territory, travels to Washington D.C. and negotiates for two months with Congress for the setting aside of town sites in the Osage reservation. As a result of his efforts, in March 1905, 640 acres were set aside for the town site of Pawhuska, 160 acres for Bigheart, and similar amounts set aside for Hominy, Fairfax and Foraker.

H. H. Brenner

March 3, 1905. The Osage Town Site Bill was passed.  it provided for the creation of an Osage Town Site Commission to oversee the creation and of surveying the town sites into lots, blocks, streets and alleys. The lots would then be sold to the highest bidder at public auction. January 1906, the surveying for the town site of Bigheart was finished and in May 1906 lots were being sold at public auction.

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• May 1906, Frank Yingling Jr.was the highest bidder at the public auction for lots 5 and 6 in block 54 at Bigheart. (NOTE: Frank Yingling Jr. resided in Pawnee Oklahoma Territory, where he owned many properties. He amassed much of it through public auctions such as the one in Bigheart in 1906). 
• September 1911, Frank Yingling Jr. grants a lease for oil production to the Red Eagle Oil & Gas Co. of Bigheart, OK. to last 3 years or as long as oil or gas is produced on the site, for the royalty of one eighth part of all oil produced on site and receive $100 per year for the gas produced from each well on lots 5 and 6 of block 54. One rig is erected and a well is drilled to a depth of 1747 ft. Well does not produce enough oil to pay for the operations.   

  

  
  

• May 1912. Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company contract R.L. Looker to deepen well on block 54 within 60 days. If oil is produced within this time the Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company will compensate R.L. Looker with one half of all oil or gas production in addition to paying $20.00 a day for each day of drilling.
• January 1913. R.L. Looker files a release of contract with the Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company.
• July 1913. Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company transfers all undivided one half interest of lease on block 54 to Sue Mellott, Dr. Benjamin Skinner, R.W. Burr, J.R. Pearson, A.W. Hurley, Louisa F. Gibson, D.J. Dunham, William Clem, Sallie Hooper, A.L. Sugg, H.H. Brenner and C.F. Lake.
• February 1914. Sue Mellott, Dr. Benjamin Skinner, R.W. Burr, J.R. Pearson, A.W. Hurley, Louisa F. Gibson, D.J. Dunham, William Clem, Sallie Hooper, A.L. Sugg, H.H. Brenner and C.F. Lake obtain George B. Mellott as Trustee for block 54 and all property on site.
• April 1914. The Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company pays out $5850  worth of capital stock to Trustee George B. Mellott, for the undivided one half interest in the lease on block 54 owned by Sue Mellott, Dr. Benjamin Skinner, R.W. Burr, J.R. Pearson, A.W. Hurley, Louisa F. Gibson, D.J. Dunham, William Clem, Sallie Hooper, A.L. Sugg, H.H. Brenner and C.F. Lake.
• July 1914. Jarecki Manufacturing Company sues Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company for non payment of material in the amount of $2628.78 in a contact made between the two companies in February 1914. Allegations also prove the Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company is indebted to others for $8000.

  

  Original city plat from 1906. All marked properties owned by Red Eagle Oil and Gas Company  in 1914 are marked.

• August 1914.  Rufus W. Burr is appointed receiver by the court to take charge of all Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company property and to sell all property to pay off all debt by the company.
• September 1914 to July 1915. All property owned by the Red Eagle Oil & Gas Company was sold  by the receiver, Rufus W. Burr. All lease grants  for lot 5 block 54 are canceled and real property reverts back to land owner Frank Yingling Jr.
• November 1918. Frank Yingling Jr sells lot 5 block 54 property to G.S. & E.E. Waltman for the sum of $135.
• November 1918. G.S. Waltman sells property to Thomas R. & Maggie Smith for the sum of $90.
• January 1919. Thomas R. Smith sells property to Ida Bennett for $90.
• November 1920. Ida Bennett sells property to W.C. & Dellar Smith for $150.
• August 1921. W.C. Smith sells property to Charles & Mayme Smith for $500.
• March 1923. Charles Smith sells property to Ida Bennett for $400.
• April 1939. A Resale Deed is issued by Livingstone Hall, County Treasurer for Osage County. It is accepted by Mart T. Bowhan, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners in Osage County for the non payment of taxes on property.
• January 1940. Notice of sale of county held property was printed in the Barnsdall Times newspaper. J. M. Baxter and K.Y. Cole placed bids on lot 5 block 54 property. K.Y. Cole was the highest bidder at $55.
• February 1940. The Board of County Commissioners in Osage County grant deed to property to K.Y. & Evelyn Cole for $55.
• May 1945. K.Y. Cole mortgages property for $518.04 on a promissory note to Leo C. Diehl.
• September 1945. Leo C. Diehl releases mortgage on lot 5 block 54 property to K.Y. Cole.
• April 1946. K.Y. Cole files Quit Claim Deed to Alonzo Cole.
• August 1953. Alonzo Cole files Quit Claim Deed to K.Y Cole.
• July 1956. K.Y. Cole files Quit Claim Deed to Jona Cole.
• October 1959. Jona Cole files Quit Claim Deed to Dollie Lucille Osterloh.
• August 1963. Dollie Lucille Osterloh files Quit Claim Deed to Garland D. & Opal Rhodes.
• December 1979. Garland C. Rhodes sells property to Birch lake Jiffy Mart, Inc. (NOTE): A car wash is built on the east end of  lot 5 while a home is situated on the west end of  lot 5 spitting lot 5 block 54 in half).
• April 1982. Birch lake Jiffy Mart, Inc. sells both sections of lot 5 block 54 to Dennis & Sharon Stephens for $10,800.
• February 1986. Dennis Stephens sells the east section of lot 5 block 54 to Steve Berg for $70,000. Dennis Stephens retains the west section of lot 5 block 54.
• March 1989. Dennis Stephens sells west section of lot 5 block 54 to Jerry & Linda Patrick for $8,800.