Original Wheeler Homestead

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Cushing, Payne, Oklahoma, United States
Surnames/tags: Wheeler Homestead

Location

The Wheeler Homestead was located in Cushing, Payne, Oklahoma the northeast quarter of Section 29, Township 17, Range 5 East. The Southeast Corner has originally been staked by Henry David Wheeler but he opted to eventually cancel the homestead application and return to Kansas.

Phillip Wheeler actually died in March of 1892, not in Sept of 91 as his daughter recalled. It was the week they moved onto the homestead that he cut his foot and got blood poisoning from the ax.

Original, higher quality then uploaded copies of her Homestead application can be seen here^[1]: Sarah's Homestead Application

The family had moved to Oklahoma in search of land

ON August 18, 1900 She would certify under final certificate #4247 and applicaiton #8520 that she Sarah E. Millhorn formerly Srah E Wheeler widow of Phillip D Wheeler had made paymetn in full for NE 1/2 of Section 29, in Tonwship No 17 N of Range No 5 East of the Indian Meridian in Oklahoma containing 160 acres.

John A Campbell was called as Witness for Sarah, he was 39 years old and lived in Cushing. He confirmed that she had moved onto the land in march of 1892 and at that time she was a widow by that time. But he had hauled lumber and broke soil before he died. She had remarried to John Millhorn but by this time he had passed away as well.

She had worked 50 or 60 acres of the land for 9 seasons and had build a frame house 14 x 24 feet with a porch, a box stable that was 12x24 feet with crib addition. 2 Wells, an orchard of 200 fruit trees, 50 to 60 acres broke, all under post and wire fence with a value of $1,000.

Francis Bonebrake would also be a witness, and his name can be seen associated in the stories written in the Cushing area about the family and the Lone Oak School. He reconfirmed that she had moved onto the land in March of 1892, he described the land improvements the same with a small value difference and claimed it was worth $800.

Sarah then described her own version in a similar way and that she first occupied it in March of 1892, but had a house build by the fall/

She confirmed that she was a native born american, which rules out an overseas birth, however we have documents signed by Phillip reading first Sep 1 1891, then crossed out to be Oct 1, 1891. In the next page we have a confirmed death date for Phillip reading the 12th day of March 1892. She then confirmed she married John Millhorn on the 3rd of July 1894

On August 18, 1900 an application would be made at the Land office in Guthrie for Section 29, Township 17, Range 5 E to be approved, and it would be approved on the Feb 6, 1901 and patented on April 22nd, 1901.

Young Cushings in Oklahoma Territory

The Original Wheeler Homestead^[2]

Copy of the book in the possession of Kristina Wheeler

Among the homesteaders whose first home was a tent was the family of Phillip Wheeler (1840-1891). It was the morning of the run, the 22nd of September 1891, that Phillip Wheeler left his wife, Sarah and three younger children in a tent at Stillwater while he made the race into the Sac and Fox country, trying for a claim. He was successful in staking a quarter section in the northeast quarter of Section 29, Township 17, Range 5 East. Four miles south of the present City of Cushing. As he was preparing boundary stakes to mark his claim,t he axe slipped, cutting an ugly gash in his foot. Although he was in pain, he completed his task and set out for Stillwater where his family was waiting for his return. The injury to his foot caused blood-poisoning to set in and he became very ill and died within a week after staking his claim. Following his burial, Sarah and her children loaded the tent and their possessions into the wagon and came on to their claim, four miles south of Cushing. Henry, Ella, Dorsey and Mary aided their mother in caring for the three younger children, Etta age 11; Gene, 8 and Bert, age 5, while she went to Guthrie with her neighbor to the west, John Hopkins, to file on her claim. The family lived in the tent throughout the first bitter winter. Although the tent was fairly comfortable with a stove and beds from the wagon, the strong winds often forced each family member to hold down a corner of the tent to keep from blowing away in the strong Oklahoma wind.

A storm cellar was dug by Mrs. Wheeler and her children, practically with their bare hands because they had few tools. Somehow the family survived with the aid of Ella, who was teaching school in Kansas for $30 per month, and Dorsey who had married Jake Deemer and had purchased a claim nearby. With all helping, enough money was secured to buy materials for a shelter for the family. Mrs. Wheeler started building the shack herself, but her neighbors finished it for her. The children were raised under very difficult circumstances. Mary met William S. Millhorn, a brother of their neighbor, Mrs. John Hopkins, and they were married shortly afterward making their home in Cushing for many years.^[3] Mary became a widow in 1928 and lived until 1970.

Many other Cushing families endured similar hardships during the first few winters in this new country. Some families lived in their covered wagons for months, while many lived in dug-outs, half above the ground and half below. Others dug into the sides of hills for protection from the winter winds as did John Hopkins for his family, whose first home here for his wife and daughters was built into the side of a hill west of Mrs. Wheeler’s. They lived in this fashion until Mr. Hopkins, a stone mason by trade, got enough rock together to build a ice stone house for his family, which has been in constant use as a home since that time, and remains very substantial. John Hopkins (1860-1933) and his brother, Tom who came from August, Kansas, built ninety present of the stone business buildings and a number of residence in Cushing. The family of John Hopkins included his wife, Mary, daughters, Mabel, Gertrude, Alta, Ruby, and sons Tom and Dewey, all of whom attended Cushing High School.