Life History

Notes

• The 1880 census of Hedrick's family reports his name as Frederick on the Ancestry.com transcription.  But the original entry seems to be Headrick.  One genealogist made a comment on the census correcting the transcription.
  
  1880 Federal Census, Tarrant County, Texas, 15 June, Fort Worth, District 90, page 48, Hse #418, Fam #431
  Gay, Ivanhoe  W M 28 Head Laborer MN OH OH [b abt 1852]
  Gay, Catherine W F 28 Wife Keeping House KY VA KY [abt 1852]
  Gay, Hedrick [sic  W M 6 Son Works on Farm MN MN KY [b abt 1874]
  Gay, Oscar B  W F 2 Son Works on Farm TX MN KY [abt 1878]
  
  "Correction due to an error in transcription.  The 'H' kinda looks like an 'F'.. but this is the family of Ivanoe n Catherine Gay.. sons Headrick Walter and Vernon Oscar Gay."
  --  Rhonda Smith, Comment on an Ancestry census record, 4 June 2007
  
  1900 Federal Census, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, 29 June, Township 4, District 134, Page 17B, House #295, Family #303
  Gay, Headreak Head W M May 1873  27 Married 3 yrs MN MO IL Farmer Rents Farm
  Gay, Caroline Dau Ind F June 1879 20 Married 3 yrs 2 children/2 living Ind Terr Ind Terr Ind Terr
  Gay, Arley B Dau Ind F July 1898  1 Single Ind Terr Ind Minn Terr
  Gay, Sylvia Katy Dau Ind F Single Mar 1900  3mos Ind Terr Minn Ind Terr
  
  1910 Federal Census, Garvin County, Oklahoma, 21 May, Stratford, District 82, Page 17B, Hse/Fam #231
  Gay, Headrick Head M W 33 Widowed Married 10 years MN IL KY Retired Farmer Owns [b abt 1877]
  Gay, Katy S Dau F W 9 yrs 7 children/7 living OK MN OK [b abt 1901]
  Gay, Presley Son M W 6 Single OK MN OK [b abt 1903]
  Gay, Bertha L Dau F W 2 Single OK MN OK [b abt 1908]
  Brown, Susan S Mother-in-law F W 69 Single KY VA IL [b abt 1841]
  
  Susan Brown is Headrick's mother-in-law, the mother of Caroline (Kelly) Palmer.  After the death of Kelly's father, Susan married again.  Brown is her second married name.  In the 1900 census, Susan is  a widow living next door to Headrick and Caroline.
  
  1920 Federal Census, Garvin County, Oklahoma, -- February, Whitebead, District 33, page 2B, 111 S Pearl St, Hse #37, Fam #39
  Gay, Headrick Head Owns M W 42 Married MN MN MN Garage Mechanic [b abt 1877]
  Gay, Lucy Wife F Ind 26 Married OK TN TN [b abt 1893]
  Gay, Press Son M Ind 17 Single OK MN OK [b abt 1902, but see 1902 census card, age 1]
  Gay, Bertha Dau F Ind 12 Single OK MN OK [b abt 1907]
  Gay, Clara Dau F Ind 7 Single OK MN OK [b abt 1912]
  
  The memorial for Headrick on Find a Grave includes a wonderful personal report by Headrick, recorded by a RootsWeb field worker, Maurice R Anderson, on 18 March 1937.
  
  -----------------
  Headrick Walter Gay
  Birth Jun. 14, 1875 Dassel, Meeker County, Minnesota
  Death Apr. 15, 1950 Garvin County, Oklahoma
  
  Interview #1115
  Field Worker Maurice R. Anderson
  March 18, 1937
  Name Mr. H.W. Gay
  Residence Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
  Birth 1877 Minnesota
  Father Iveno [Ivanhoe] Gay
  Mother Kate [Catherine] Watson
  
  I was four years old when my father and mother left Minnesota. We passed through the Indian Territory. There were three wagons, two other families were with us. I was small but I can remember some things that happened. I remember we stopped in Muskogee, Indian Territory for three days. There was a big celebration going on there at the time. The Indians, I guess, were putting this on. Everywhere I looked there would be Indians, all dressed up with beads and paint on their faces. There were lots of cowboys in roping and riding contests. I don't know what trail we took from there.
  
  My father was driving the head wagon. My father was working two horses and I think that was what the other two wagons were working. I know we stopped and stayed two days at Cherokee Town, Indian Territory. Of course, I did not know that it was Cherokee Town at that time. After leaving Cherokee Town, my father took his wagon train on into Texas, near Austin. And in 1886 we moved from Austin, Texas, to Cherokee Town, Indian Territory.
  
  My father owned at that time, four horses and ten milk cows. We lived on milk, butter and cornbread. Of course, we had plenty of squirrel, turkey, rabbit, quail and fish. After settling near Cherokee Town on the Washita River, we lived in a tent.
  
  My job was to look after the cows in the day time. Grass was waist high and I would graze them near the Washita River where they could get plenty of water and so I could fish. I made me a hook out of a piece of stiff wire, crooked it and filed a barb on it. I would turn over a log and get me some worms. There were lots of fish in the Washita River. In the evening I would take the cows home, or to our tent, which was a good home in those days because there weren't very many houses. As I said, in bringing the cows home in the evening, I have brought home 8 to 10 pounds of fish that I had caught during the day.
  
  I have caught lots of o'possum and skunks, (there wasn't any mink or muskrat then), lots of beaver, but I never did catch any. I would skin the o'possums and skunks I caught and take green sticks and bend them and tie the two ends together and stretch my furs on these sticks. I sold my furs to a man that had a store at Cherokee Town. I think his name was John Walner.
  
  At Cherokee Town there were two stores and a log house made into a hotel. I remember they had a sign hanging out on the porch which said "Hotel". I was never inside of this place. There was a stage barn and two or three houses. I have been at the store lots of times and have seen men come and stop at Cherokee Town. Some of them would be riding fine horses and some would be riding poor looking horses. I remember one time a man rode up on a big fine horse. He wore a high top hat, and two big pistols on each side of his saddle horn.
  
  This man didn't stay very long. He talked to this man who ran the store awhile, then this man that wore the high top hat got on his horse and rode off. The man that ran the store told some of the men standing around then that this man with the high hat was a great gambler. He talked as if he had known him for a long time. I said he wore two guns - that wasn't what attracted my attention for nearly all the men wore guns in that time. That high top hat was what I was looking at. It was the first time I ever saw anybody wear that kind of a hat.
  
  My father sold milk and butter to this hotel and store at Cherokee Town and when there was a bull calf born, my father would fatten it up and he usually got from twenty to twenty-five dollars for it.
  
  I always carried my father's pistol with me when I was herding the milk cows, on account of so many wolves. But I was never bothered by them, but I have shot many a rattlesnake's head off. There was lots of timber in this country then. My father did some farm work after we settled at Cherokee Town. He raised lots of corn for feeding purposes and for bread.
  
  In 1888, I believe it was, Cherokee Town was moved to where Wynnewood is now. The Santa Fe Railroad was put through there in 1887 and it missed Cherokee Town, so that was why they moved and settled where the railroad was. Of course, they didn't move all of Cherokee Town right then. I think someone at Pauls Valley bought one of the buildings and moved it to Pauls Valley.
  
  We left there in 1889 and moved to the Choctaw Nation in the east part of the Indian Territory near Coalgate, Indian Territory. My father sold some of his milk cows before we left. We farmed near Coalgate [This is in the western part of Choctaw Nation, near the border with Chickasaw Nation], raised some cotton and lots of corn.
  
  I was married to Miss Kelly Palmer, a half Choctaw Indian. She didn't know much about her father, as he died when she was very small. Her mother now lives in the east part of Garvin County. In those days when a white man married an Indian woman, he was called squaw man and sometimes called galvanized citizen. I lived around Coalgate until after statehood. I now live in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
  
  Spouses:
  Caroline Palmer Gay (1879 - 1908)
  Lucy Richardson Gay (1893 - 1925)
  
  Children:
  Sylvia Katy Gay Richardson (1900 - 1960)
  Bertha Lee Gay Garland (1907 - 1980)
  
  Burial Mount Olivet Cemetery, Pauls Valley, Garvin County, Oklahoma
  
  Created by ivygeni Jun 28, 2012
  --  Find A Grave Memorial #92708077, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=92708077
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  Note that in this auto-biography, Headrick refers to his wife as Kelly Palmer.  She is referred to in records, including her grave, as Caroline Palmer.  It is not clear if Kelly was another name (Kelly Caroline, or Caroline Kelly) or a nickname.
  
  He also refers to Kelly as a half Choctaw.  However, when their 1-year-old son was registered as a Choctaw citizen in 1901, he was reported as 1/32 blood Choctaw,  This means his mother was only 1/16 Choctaw, unless there is some error in the family or tribal records.
  
  "Coalgate was founded in 1889 as a coal mining camp named Liddle in the Pushmataha District of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. It was named for William "Bill" Liddle, a superintendent for the Atoka Coal and Mining Company, who had arrived in the fall of 1888 to locate a site for a new coal mine."
  --  "Coalgate, Oklahoma," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalgate,_Oklahoma

Sources

• 1. Find a Grave Memorial Registry
• 2. 1880 Federal Census, Tarrant County, Texas
  • 15 June, Fort Worth, District 90, page 48, Hse #418, Fam #431
• 3. 1900 Federal Census, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory
  • 29 June, Township 4, District 134, Page 17B, House #295, Family #303
• 4. 1910 Federal Census, Garvin County, Oklahoma
  • 21 May, Stratford, District 82, Page 17B, Hse/Fam #231
• 5. 1920 Federal Census, Garvin County, Oklahoma
  • -- February, Whitebead, District 33, page 2B, 111 S Pearl St, Hse #37, Fam #39
• 6. U.S., Native American Enrollment Cards for the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914
  • 25 Sep 1902, Choctaw By Blood