Montford T. Johnson (November 1843 – February 17, 1896) (Chickasaw) was born and raised in Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). Johnson is known for becoming a successful entrepreneur after the Civil War. He developed a large ranching operation that spanned a large area of central Indian Territory along the Chisholm Trail, including parts of what would eventually develop as Oklahoma City.
Family background Montford Johnson's father, Charles "Boggy" Johnson, was an English Shakespearean actor. Charles Johnson came to the United States with his brother when he was 19 years old and toured in the South with a theater production.
Charles Johnson married Chickasaw citizen Rebekah Courtney. Courtney was half Chickasaw (her mother's line) and half Scottish. Because the Chickasaw had a matrilineal kinship system, the mother's line determined her children's social status. After marriage, Rebekah was still considered Chickasaw. She and Charles migrated from the Southeast with most of the Chickasaw to Indian Territory during the early 19th century period of Indian Removal.
Charles received his nickname, "Boggy," while on the Removal trail. After crossing the Mississippi River, the Chickasaw became mired in the marshes and swamps of Arkansas. Charles, using a technique learned while growing up in England, organized men into groups to cut down saplings and lay them along the route, thereby allowing the livestock and wagons to pass through the quagmires. By assisting them with getting through this boggy country, the Chickasaw gave Charles Johnson the name "Boggy".
Once in Indian Territory, the Chickasaw created new villages. Boggy and Rebekah built their home north of Tishomingo. Present-day Connerville, Oklahoma was later developed near there.
Early life Montford was born in November 1843, about two years after his older sister, Adelaide. A few months after he was born, his mother became ill with pneumonia and died. Boggy, distraught by his wife's passing, decided to take the children and return east. The Chickasaw had matrilineal traditions and were also used to taking in motherless children and raise them as their own. Boggy's Chickasaw in-laws insisted on raising the Johnson children. Boggy left Adelaide and Montford, leaving them in the care of their grandmother, Sallie Tarntubby.
Montford grew up with his grandmother's family, learning Chickasaw traditions and how to care for livestock. Montford and Adelaide both attended school, Adelaide at Bloomfield Academy and Montford at Chickasaw Manual Labor Academy. There, Montford learned farming techniques intended to produce successful crops.
Montford and Adelaide lived under their grandmother Sallie's care until her death in 1858. At the end of that school year, they moved to the home of their next nearest relative, Sallie's half-brother, U.S. Army Captain Townsend Hothliche. He was stationed at Fort Arbuckle (near present-day Davis, Oklahoma), and had a house nearby on the South Bank of the Washita River.
On a trip to Fort Arbuckle, Adelaide befriended the Campbell family, who were living at the fort. The Campbells had moved there when the father, a U.S. Army Sergeant, was transferred to Fort Arbuckle. Adelaide fell in love with and married Micheal Campbell, one of Sergeant Campbell's sons.
Civil War years The outbreak of the Civil War forced major changes in Indian Territory and affected Montford and his family. Despite being forced out of the Southeast by whites encroaching on their lands, the Chickasaw and some of the other nations in Indian Territory allied with the Confederates.
The Union Army evacuated Indian Territory to Kansas, allowing Confederate troops from Texas to occupy many of the federal forts in Indian Territory.The Chickasaw nation sided with the Confederates, who had promised an Indian state if they won the war. The Chickasaw raised their own troops to maintain order and defense in the Territory.
Michael Campbell joined the Confederate cause and Chickasaw battalion as a Major; he was away from home during much of the war, although sometimes garrisoned at Fort Arbuckle.
Montford oversaw the duties of the homestead and worked as a partner with Michael. During this time period, Montford met and fell in love with Mary Campbell, Adelaide's sister-in-law. In the fall of 1862, they were married. A year later, their first child Edward Bryant Johnson (E.B.) was born.
In 1864, Michael Campbell was stationed at Fort Arbuckle and regularly made the trip home in the evening to spend the night. The trip required several crossings of the Washita River, which was a dangerous endeavor. One evening, on the way home, Michael was swept away in the current and drowned, leaving Adelaide as a young widow. She was pregnant with their second child and they already had a small son.
At 22 years old, Montford became the head of the homestead, including his sister's young family. In July 1865, the Chickasaw were officially the last Confederate tribe to surrender, marking the end of the United States' war. The Chickasaw Nation was devastated physically and financially. Schools had been converted to barracks or hospitals and would not be returned to teaching until the 1870s. Confederate debts incurred by ranchers and merchants during the war were worthless, leaving the Chickasaw largely impoverished.
Ranching Montford set to work to get the young ranch business in order. First, he purchased branding rights from his relatives. Second, he made an agreement with the men of neighboring farms to round up maverick cattle that had been set loose in the mountains during the war to escape the armies. Both armies were living off the land and taking livestock and produce from locals to feed their soldiers.
Wanting to build his herd, Montford offered to pay other farmers for each of the branded cattle he captured in the mountains. He would take as his own any unbranded cattle he collected.
While rounding up cattle, Montford noticed the wild cattle were attracted to salt. Using salt licks, he devised pen-traps that allowed cattle to enter but did not allow them to escape. This greatly increased the number of cattle Montford was able to corral with relatively little effort.
Around this time, Montford hosted his friend Jesse Chisholm on a buffalo hunt on the western range of Chickasaw territory, south of present-day Norman, Oklahoma. At that time, the area was largely undeveloped, and Montford thought it would be perfect to range cattle there. Jesse Chisholm suggested that Montford negotiate agreements with the tribes indigenous to the area. With Chisholm's help, Montford was able to make a deal with the tribes; they allowed him to use the land as long as he did not hire white men as ranch hands.
Montford began his first ranch in the spring of 1868, taking a team of men to [Walnut Creek], the same location of the buffalo hunt. Montford placed ranch hand Jack Brown in charge of the Walnut Creek Ranch. As payment for his services, Brown was to receive every fourth calf born on the ranch, making him possibly the first sharecropper of Oklahoma.
By fall 1869, Montford moved his family to a new homestead at the site of Camp Arbuckle. Montford began farming a 50-acre plot in 1870. He used the practice of burning fields to rid the land of old growth, as well as to prevent diseases and ticks. Montford used the burn technique his entire life.
Establishing additional ranches Around 1870, cattlemen from Texas stopped using the Shawnee Trail and began driving their herds to Kansas on the Western Shawnee Trail, which would become known as the Chisholm Trail.
In 1870, Montford's sister, the widowed Adelaide, married her second husband, Jim Bond, a trader and stockman. Montford settled his business with her (which was started while he oversaw her homestead during the war), giving her 15 cows and calves and several steers, worth approximately $1,100 at that time.
Montford was pressed by distant relative Chub Moore to take in several orphans. He agreed, taking in seven children, two of whom were almost adults. To lessen the burden of adopting so many children, Adelaide agreed to take two of them, and Granny Vicey Harmon (a family friend and Chickasaw) agreed to take three of the children. Montford and Mary took in the last two and Chub Moore.
Granny Vicey Harmon had lived with her Cherokee husband, Sampson Harmon, about 10 miles west of the Camp Arbuckle ranch until his death. After that she asked Montford to assist her in taking over Jesse Chisholm's trade post at Council Grove (in present-day Oklahoma City). Montford declined to help her with the trading post, but eventually convinced her to take charge of a new ranch at Council Grove, making her and her family the first permanent residents of the Oklahoma City metro area. In the spring of 1874, Charley Campbell, a brother of Adelaide's late husband, became a partner of Montford. He took over running the Walnut Creek Ranch.
Boggy Johnson returns In the summer of 1877, Montford received a letter from his estranged father, Boggy Johnson. They arranged to meet at a hotel in Denison, Texas. The men spent two days catching up and telling their respective stories. Montford found it odd that Boggy had not been able to contact them up to that point. The visit did offer an important opportunity for Montford. There were a number of Native Americans captured in the Red River War that had been taken from Fort Sill to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. The conditions of the 300-year-old fort were poor. Boggy claimed to have many friends in Washington D.C., and Montford thought a trip to St. Augustine might prompt Boggy to ask those friends to help improve conditions for the prisoners. Boggy contacted Montford the following summer, and they planned to meet in Jacksonville, Florida. Montford was accompanied by Charley Campbell and his son, E.B. They rode to Atoka, Oklahoma, and boarded the train. For E.B., it was his first train ride, and he was anxious on the first leg of the journey, convinced that they would crash. When they arrived in Jacksonville, E.B. met his grandfather for the first time. The following morning, they went by boat to St. Augustine and to the fort. There, they found the condition of the Native Americans to be poor. Montford received permission from Capt. Pratt to host a barbecue for the prisoners, and sent E.B. to find a cow for the feast. After finding a cow, E.B. had a butcher prepare and bring the beef to the fort. The prisoners were especially grateful to E.B. for bringing the beef. There was nothing more Montford could do in Florida, but after the trip, Boggy went back to Washington D.C. to work with his contacts.
Ranching continues Montford returned to his ranches and his son, E.B., returned to school in Tishomingo. Montford's Camp Arbuckle homestead was in the vicinity of the growing town of Johnsonville, and Montford became uncomfortable with the more crowded conditions of the area (all lands in Chickasaw territory were held in common, so there were no defined properties). In 1878, Montford worked out a trade with his friend, Caddo Bill Williams, exchanging eight geldings and an old stallion for Williams' ranch east of Snake Creek, near Old Silver City (just north of present-day Tuttle, Oklahoma). After Montford moved his family to Silver City in the fall of 1878, Adelaide and her husband, Jim Bond, moved nearby. They built their own home a couple miles west of the Chisholm Trail on the southern bank of the South Canadian River. Their homestead location was a suitable place for crossing the river, and cattle drivers often stopped at their home for the night.