The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-03-28
NICHOLS TELLS HIS STORY
Wife and Her Friends Trying to Get
HIM in Trouble.


Charles Nichols, now in the county jail
awaiting transportation to the Cherokee
nation, where he will have his preliminary
hearing on the charge of assaulting one
]. c. Harburt of Hudson, l. T.. with in
tent to kill, has an interesting personal
history. tinged with little Indian ro-
nance
He says he is not guilty Of the charge
against him, but this trouble has been
Matched up by his enemies, who seek TO
ger possession of his child. He went to
the territory ten years ago. when but g
boy. In his youth he met a beautiful
Cherokee sgnaw, and having no other
company. the friendship ripened into
something more. and five years ago he and
the queen of the Cherokee tribe were we'd
ded under the Cherokee laws and by a
stern magistrate of Cherokee court. The
girl was rich in her own right and her
father owned thirty of as fine farms as
ever lay out OF doors. The girl was nat
urauy naughty and overbearing and
young Nichols was wild and somewhat
reckless. A year after the marriage a
little semi-papoose was born. It was said
TO be the prettiest baby in the country
roundabout. but this did not help the dis
position of either of the parents, and one
day Nicho,s picked up the baby and rode
away, deserving his Indian wife. She has
never been able TO see her husband or
little one since. The little boy is now 4
years old and is with Nichols sister at
Garden Plain. smart chap, with a COM
plexion as light or lighter than that of
fz 70 t.1T- 49,
Eagle yesterday that the baby had an in
heritance of $40 in money, which had
come down from Cherokee ancestors, dat
Ing back many years when the tribe
roamed over the hills of Tennessee, and
the interest on the sum by this time, he
said, would amount to quite sum. Be
sides this, the child would come in for its
share of the a,lotments when the terri
tory now owned by the tribe and used in
tribal form for farming purposes should
be allotted by the government. This will
amount to probably 200 acres Of fine land.
so the child has a commercial value,
which Nichols says the mother and her
people are trying to get hold Of in their
ambition to secure possession OF the child.
In their desperation they have Matched up
charges against him, he says, simply for
the purpose Of getting him back into the
territory in order to nab him and the boy.
BY his marriage to the Cherokee woman
Nichols got possession of very fine tract
OF land, which he Will hold under the
right guaranteed by the Cherokee mar
rage contract. He has succeeded in Sc
curing possession Of four farms and has
some of them well stocked but he was
bound to retain control and possession of
his boy. even though he had to neglect
the care of his farms for awhile He
said he was running a joint at Garden
Plain when Sheriff Simmons arrested him,
and he thought the arrest was for violat
ing Kansas liquor law, instead of terri
torial law, and was surprised when he was
confronted with the real charge He says
he will have no trouble in furnishing bond
after the preliminary, as his father is
quite well off and is a resident Of Sedg-
wick county. Nichols will probably be
taken away today.