Kenton Harper, Correspondence from the Chickasaw Nation 

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Jun 13, 2014 - Jun 14, 2014

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• Lot Description
  6 items. 1852-1853.
  
  The six items in this lot represent affairs in the (future) Chickasaw nation during Harper's time as agent. Written at a time when the Chickasaws were struggling peacefully for their independence and facing occasional raids from tribes, particularly the Comanche, the letters reveal the rough-hewn nature of the settlements and the Chickasaw's continuing efforts to adjust to their western home.
  
  *Lemuel Gooding ALS to Kenton Harper, 3p., Fort Washita, Chickasaw Nation, May 30, 1852: writing to Harper who had just returned to Washington, D.C. I believe everything is going on in peace and harmony with the Natives, and the prospects now before the people is very flattering for a fruitful season, which may God grant for there is now a great scarcity of corn, but I trust no suffering as we have all endeavored to keep supplies of Flour & Bacon &c. it has been quite healthy in the District [Chickasaw District of the Choctaw nation], and but few deaths...The Light Horsemen are very vigilant and are spilling some whiskey. Mr George James is appointed Captain of the Horsemen, and a Chickasaw by the name of Wm Parker has lately been appointed, and sworn into office. I think with the zeal that they have commenced with if carried out will do much to put that evil down. Your friends at the Garrison are well, and often enquire for you... Mr Vance has gone out on a trip to the Prairies with Major Humphries on a trading expedition. I wish them success...
  
  *First sheet (4p.) of letter, no signature, Fort Washita, June 26, 1852: We regret to learn from [Mr. Dyer] that it is still uncertain whether you will return to the Chickasaw Agency. As far as I can judge the Chickasaws are desirous that you should return. They have confidence in your efforts in their behalf, and begin to see that self-interest is not the governing motive with you and wish to know when you will return. The merchants certainly are anxious for your return. They felt that their rights are protected in your care, and as a matter of course are particularly pleased, with your views as to the place & manner of paying the funds which are the principal support of their business... The agency premises look as natural as ever except being a little more gloomy. The walk from the dwelling to the office is overgrown with groves, and the door of the later being constantly closed gives it rather a forbidding appearance. The garden has been neglected somewhat, but furnishes us nevertheless with an abundance of vegetables. The fruit is totally destroyed by frost.... Much more on the agency, merchants, comings and goings, and the letter ends: The Comanches threaten to put our Government to some trouble. They have stolen a great many mules and it is thought not unlikely they will make an attack on one of the posts on the Brazos....
  
  *AJ Smith to Harper, Chickasaw Agency, Dec. 8, 1852: Smith writes that he has received the package containing the treaty from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs I will commence paying the annuity on the third Monday in this month at the agency as I have no doubt but that it is the proper place as there were no disturbances or broils. I will have a great trouble with the whiskey smugglers I apprehend, for in spite of vigilance it will find its way in some shape or other & I begin to suspect that the sarsparilla manufacturers and other quacks are making very spirited demonstrations in the way of nostrums & king alcohol missed as I have been told that a good dose of Sands sarsparilla will intoxicate an Indian – of course the quacks dont mean any harm, but I think it will be well enough to inform them that the sarsparilla will keep in the climate without quite so much spirits...
  
  *A large printed form Abstract of disbursements filled in by Harper for annuities paid to the Chickasaw nation for their national debt, March 1852.
  
  The collection also includes two small documents: one transmitting accounts from Fort Washita to Harper in Washington, the other with a clipped set of signatures (apparently copies, not the actual signatures themselves) from a treaty signed by Edmund Pickens (signed with a mark), B. S. Love, and Sampson Folsom, Commissioners for the Chickasaws.
  
  Kenton Harper was the sort of remarkable man that the 19th century produced in seeming abundance. Born the son of newspaperman in Chambersburg, PA, in 1801, Harper was working as a printer in town when he made the decision to purchase his own newspaper in Staunton, VA, and to relocate there in 1823. By any reckoning, it was a good career move. An ambitious young man, he parlayed his success in publishing into social power, winning election to the state legislature and as mayor of Staunton, and reaping the rewards with patronage appointments from friends in the capitol. He fulfilled his military duty as well, first in the Mexican American War and then in the Confederacy Army, rather than Union, during the Civil War. Having carried a Major Generals' commission in the pre-war militia, Harper was appointed Brigadier General in the Virginia Provisional Army and was given command of the 5th Virginia Infantry, with the rank of Colonel in the Confederate States Army, which became one of the stalwart regiments in the famed Stonewall Brigade. Kenton barely outlived the war. A book entitled Kenton Harper of Virginia: Editor, Citizen, Soldier, by Thomas Tabb Jeffries, III, (Augusta Co. Historical Society) was just published in 2013 and provides an invaluable look at Harper's numerous accomplishments as a political leader, editor, soldier, and Indian agent.  
  
  Smart, ambitious, and well conscious of his political connections, Harper was also a conscientious man when it came to fulfilling his patronage roles, and in that regard, one appointment stands out above the others. In 1851-1852, Harper played a brief, but fascinating part in the development of the Chickasaw Nation, accepting an appointment as agent to the tribe. One of the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast, the Chickasaws were a vibrant tribe occupying lands centered on current-day northern Mississippi, but with the expansion of white settlers in the first decades of the 19th century, they were subject to a brutal ethnic cleansing sparked by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Following the Choctaw (1831), Seminoles (1832), and Creeks (1834), the Chickasaws were forced to relocate westward in 1837, following the Trail of Tears. 
  
  Unlike the other civilized tribes, the Chickasaw received some financial compensation for the lands they were forced to surrender east of the Mississippi, and at the Treaty of Doaksville in 1837, they agreed to lease the western portion of the Choctaw land in Oklahoma and settle there. Placed administratively under the Choctaw for purposes of the US government and granted representation on the Choctaw Council, the Chickasaws soon felt the need to regain their cultural independence and political sovereignty. Their leadership began developing their own constitution at a council held at Boiling Springs in 1846, expanding the document in 1846 and amending it further in 1849 and 1851, all while engaged in a complex bit of diplomacy with federal authorities and Choctaw alike to secure their independence. The new Chickasaw nation formally ratified their new constitution in August 1856. 
  
  Lots 535-540 relate to the legacy of Kenton Harper and the negotiations that led to the formation of the modern Chickasaw nation. 

  Condition

  Good condition throughout.
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