Aree, Ira or E Britten
Written by great great niece Kathy, likely as told by her father
Written May 5 1989

(Peggy, site administrator, will put the part of the story on the Old West in italics. -- Peggy --) (Peggy believes that the story is told by Kathy's father in his way of referring to various people, and written down by Kathy. For instance, Kathy's and Peggy's father, as well as his siblings always referred to their father as “Daddy”.)

Aree E Britten, son of Riley Britton and Julia Strong, was born Dec 22, 1853 at Stone Co. Missouri. (Peggy, site administrator, adds that we are unsure if Aree's first name is Aree, Ira or Arce. He apparently changed the spelling of his last name to Britten like his brother Perry seemed to have. Peggy says suggests this spelling change, which will be mentioned in Peggy's story on Ira. -- Peggy --)

It is not known who, if, or to whom, he was married, or where and when he died, as he was “lost” in the Cherokee Run” day at which time, depending on which “run” he went on, he would have been either 36, 38 or 40 years old. Nobody seems to know anything else about him, except that 50 years later, someone (wish I knew which ancestor), I remember hearing when I was a little girl, dscovered that some Britton kin had been living only a few miles from the homestead he had won and was living on, and didn't even know it! Judging by his age when the “strip” was declared fair game, he may have been married and had a family for all we know! (Peggy, site administrator, adds that we actually do know that Aree did have family. This will be shown in a story from information given to Peggy years ago, in a story called Aree E Britten by Peggy. -- Peggy --)

At this point, I will briefly pick up the fascinating history of the Old West, from just after Aree's mother's family were removed to Oklahoma, until Cherokee Run days, at which time I will zero in on that. (Peggy, site administrator and Kathy's sister, adds that Aree's mother's family are the Strong family. -- Peggy --)

The old story of White greed, dishonesty and outright cruelty east of the Mississippi River was soon to begin all over again. But, as I said before, white attempt at further removal was not as easy as it was before, because now they were up against a heavy concentration of Indians of all kinds, many of whom had become fierce and disciplined warriors, and all of whom weren't prepared to do it all over again without a struggle. This struggle, with much blood shed on both sides, was to last some 30 years, beginning at the time of the Sand-Creek Massacre on the Cheyennes, on through buffalo-battles and other land disputes, and ending on Sept 3 1886, when famous Geronimo, a great Apache Chief, surrendered and peace for all at last, reigned over the desert (although as my dad has said, on into the first few years of the 1900's, a scanty few various Indians behaved as though in their minds, the old wars were still on).

So now, all the Indians were tamed and under control, but the Wild West was full of bad white men who needed a few lessons, too. From both eras came famous wars, famous Indians, and then famous Whites – such as Jessee james and Wild Bill Hickok (who was married to Calamity Jane). The Civil War happened in the 1860's over whether or whether not to have slaves. First there were Texas Rangers, who were not the only officers, however, and they reigned in various forms from the early 1800's until 1935, when they gave way to the motorized “Highway Patrol” (they were mounted gun-men who fist patrolled the the Texas-Mexico border to prevent raids from Mexicans who still wanted to fight after the Texas Revolutions, then went to fight in the Civil War, and then returned as a patrol, ready to continue patrolling the border, fight bad Indians, to fight white outlaws and just generally be in the right place at the right time.) Then their were the Vigilantes who crudely took the law into their own hands. They were groups of ordinary citizens who met secretly and decided how to deal with those whom they or others considered criminals. They had only one punishment, and that was hanging. They became a feared and dreaded group, because they didn't bother with such things as witnesses or trials, and so obviously this system was abused as it was discovered how easy it was to polish off one's enemy by false accusations.

Vigilantes in Montana used to sneak up to outlaw hideouts during the night and leave their mysterious mark of 3-77-77 on the cabin door, which encouraged the inhabitants to leave by the next day, or the next visit might include a rope. As railroads became more plentiful, as territories became States, as counties and towns were made, each county had it's own legal administrators.

These consisted of Marshals, who swore in deputies when and where they were needed. These men were proven gun-men, whether previosly on the side of right or wrong. Often lawmen went after outlaws they used to raid with.

Marshals often had to witness, arrest, judge, and prosecute all rolled into one. Not only did they have to beware of evil both within and without the system, but they also had to fight others such as the vigilantes and ordinary men good with a gun, so as to protect himself (“Code of the West”) who still preferred to “shoot first and ask questions later.” Then came the so-called range wars in which cattle rustling and brand-altering became rampant. Unbranded cattle were considered public property.

Also, a hired hand could start up his own herd by altering the brands on his boss's cattle. Or, unbranded calves would be stolen and branded, the mother, who wore a brand, was either sot or lamed, so she couldn't follow her calf. Forced take-over of whole ranches ensued. Armed men were sometimes hired for protection.

In those days, open range was everybody's method, and cattle were trailed over great distancesto board trains. Longhorns were the only breed that could survive this.

Then the coming of barbed wire in 1873 at first caused more problems. Cattlem didn't want their free range fenced out of their use, and they didn't want their cattle and horses injured on the spikes.

Rangemen often cut the wire, and so farmers shot their cattle. Finally, everybody fenced. And since that blocked some ranchers' access to creeks, and since they might get low or dry up, and since wells were hard to dig, or water too far down, widespread use of windmills became the order of the day. That way, catle didn't walk off all their weight trying to find water.

All this ended the old need for trail drives. Ranchers could concentrate on breeding better cattle because they didn't need to be satisfied with longhorns anymore, so shorthorns and herefords were imported form England. (Peggy adds some websites on these breeds of cattle. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0845021.html talks of where shorthorns originated. Here is another website about the shorthorn original breed. http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/bi/mammal/SHORTHORN%20CATTLE.cfm Picture of the Shorthorn of today http://www.cattle-today.com/Shorthorn.htm Herefords http://cattle-today.com/Hereford.htm Note that in modern times, Peggy and her father raised both of these breeds of cattle. So history lives on. -- Peggy --)

Then came the hmesteaders. The land and unconstant climate was a deterent, and so were the cattlement who tried to force them out. Some gave up and went back to the East. But the rest met the challenge with courage and defiance. They learned to farm on a larger scale, set aside some land for hay, planted wheat, because profits from it could be saved for a dry year, and experimented with irrigation and dry land farming. Agricultural machines were just coming into existence. This was the beginning of the plains into the vast wheat lands they are today.

By the end of the 1800's the frontier was no more. There were settlers all over the west and the Indians who were now on reservations weren't causing anymore trouble. But there was stil one big piece of land in what is known as Oklahoma, which was then part of Indian Territory, which was very rich land, sparsely populated with Indians, which whites just had to have, especially owing to the fact that settlers could no longer find any free land. So these settlers began to make their frustrations known. This piece of land, known as the Cherokee Strip, for who knows what reason because it was now legally owned by the Creeks and the Seminoles, was eventually purchaed by the U.S. Governent. And this is where “Uncle Aree” comes in...

Since there were far more homesteaders than therw was land, they were directed to literally race for the land. Once they staked their claims, they could purchase them very cheaply.

The first part of the strip was declared open at noon on April 22, 1889. Another was opened in 1891 and one in 1892, and the last, and by far the biggeston Sept 16, 1893 during which 100,000 settlers participated. The last one started at 11:40 a.m. On that day.

Racers lined up on all sides of the rectangle waiting for the starting gun. Most were horseback, but in some cases, whole families went in wagons and buckboards and even on foot. Previously, the army had ridden all over te rea to check for “sooners” (those who had sneaked over and driven stakes before the appointed time). Presumably, everybody was fine, but there were always a few willy claim-jumpers who managed to sneak over the border during the night, strike their claim, and then return and pretend to take part in the race. Anyway, army soldiers still patrolled the borders at the start of the race to try and prevent this from happening. This particular parcel was 168 miles long by 58 miles wide, and had been marked and divided into sections and quarter sections by surveyors several years earler. Of course, most of the racers were disappointed because they couldn't get there fast enough, or because they lost their claim because of legal disputes. But many put up tents that night on their new holdings, and a few years later, in 1907, “Indian Territory” became unmistakably know as Oklahoma.

I don't know where Aree's homestead was or who of the Brittons came to live nearby, but I intend to find out by adding related questions to Tulsa, Oklahoma concerning his parents. By the time Aree won his homestead, his parents were supposedly living in Missouri, but wouldn't it be interesting to know what Julia Strong Britton thought of her son racing for lands so historically associated with her people? Perhaps Aree thought of it, in part, as preserving family history...

While Grandad (Peggy – site administrator – adds that Grandad refers to William Isaac Britton, nephew of Aree Britten) was in Washington, he wrote to Aree at the old address in Missouri and got the letter back marked “Moved, address unknown”. Later, in 1919, Granddad and his family moved to southeastern Colorado, 15 or 16 miles west of Pritchett. For years, when going to Springfield for supplies, they passed about two miles north of Pritchett.

Many years later, after Granddad's death, Uncle Lyman (Peggy adds that Uncle Lyman is brother of William Isaac Britton's son Clarence Custer Britton's wife.) , I think found that this uncle had bought or homesteaded a few miles north of Pritchett, where his descendants still live as far as I know. It appears that Granddad passed within a few miles of his farm many times. Granddad knew a Britton family lived there, but didn't check it out as the spelling was different. However, there have been several spellings of the name in our family history, apparently since some didn't have schooling and assumed whatever spelling someone gave them when they learned to write.

It appears Aree moved there when he sold the homestead acquired in the Cherokee Run and perhaps another business.

When Granddad's family went to Oklahoma where they raised cotton for a year or two, they were near Bristow I think, as I've heard Daddy mention Bristow many times. There were relatives in that part of Oklahoma, but I don't know if they were of the Aree Britton family. (Peggy – site administrator – suspects that at least some of these relatives may well have been Perry Eldridge Britten's family. Perry's and his family moved from Missouri to Oklahoma sometime after 1885.)

In the book “The Cherokee Strip”, which interested me when I read it, was the fact that the name “Eva Britton” was mentioned and briefly elaborated on several times. At some point in time, this also interested my sister Peggy, long before I even knew of the existence of the book, because everytime Eva's name came up, she underlined it and any lines that followed, and she left a slip of paper in the book, with hers and Dad's brief notes as to where to find mention orf her. I had never heard of an Eva Britton until now, but I am almost certain that she in kin. Judging by her age (born in 1891), the fact that her name is spelled “on” as became conventional in later years, and the fact that Aree's brother Perry also may have been on the Run (which would account for our previous confusion as to who it was that was “lost in the run”), there is no record of any “Eva” among his chidren anyway, and we know notheg of Aree's possible descendants, she may very well be Aree's daughter. Also, Uncle Perry lived near Shawnee (since my map may not be entirely accurate, Shawnee may very well have been in the Strip, too-maybe all of Oklahoma was involved), and Dad (Peggy inserts here that Dad refers to Peggy and Kathy's father) thinks Uncle Aree lived in what my map shows as the edge of “No Man's Land,” that puts Eva and her famiy a lot closer to where Aree staked his claim, (but still some 200 miles away.) (Peggy inserts here that she doesn't think that Perry Eldridge Britton was on the Cherokee Run. She has asked his descendants and they don't think so. However, she will ask again. This note may April 2005.) He was from Missouri. I believe he lived up on the Kansas-Oklahoma border and also staked near Enid. Dad thinks he started on the Colorado line, which could also be true if he went on a diagonal and settled near Enid. Yet the 1893 Strip was a rectangle, which would disprove hs theory. ... (Peggy also inserts here that when I looked at this book called “The Cherokee Strip”, I must have been very young. I don't remember the book at all. However, in later years I've tried very hard to find a copy of the book, and come up short! I wonder where the book went to?)

Eva went to the same grade school as Marquis James, the author of the book, at Enid, whichwas called “East Hill School.”

Within ten years, half of the families who staked in the Strip moved away. Like all other frontier settlements, the Cherokee Strip was for transcient people. Aree was on who eventually left, and he is believed to have moved from there to Pritchett, Colorado.

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