The Indianapolis journal., 1903-11-01
THE LAST FUR TRADER.



Kansas City Star.
More than thirty-fve years Joseph Sand
heimer has been an exporter OF furs and
deerskins at Muskogee and the old Creek
agency. Thirty-five years ago a home any
where west of Missouri and Arkansas and
east Of the Rocky mountains was practi-
cally in the wilderness. When Mr.. Sand
heimer came from St. Louis to Indian Ter
ritory he rode in a stage from RoIla, Mo-,
by way of Fort Smith, Ark, to Fort Glib
son and thence to the Creek agency. He en-
gagged in the fur business and dealt with
traders and trappers who came from as far
southwest Fort Sill, 225 miles and 100
miles from the northwest Northward
his territory extended to Kansas; eastward
to Fayetteville, Ark, and southwark to
Texas. The Katy" reached Vinita in 1871
and was built to Denison in 1872.
The fur trade exists how only In remem-
brance." said Mr.. Sandheimer. I'm the old
days bought in abundance the peIts of
bear, deer, badger, beaver, wildcat otter,
pan1hers wolves. coon. foxes. civit and opos-
sums strange as IL may seem there were
never many mink here. They have in
creased rapidly in the last few years. mi
grating from Missouri and Arkansas In
1Iz L bought LOO mink pelts, as against
sVO In 1898. They not so good in size
and color as the northern mink skins.
bought quantities or buffalo robes from the
Osages, Shawnees and Sac and Fox Indians.
paying from 50 to 50 each for the Usage
robe, which was hard and not so well
tanned as the Shawnee and Sac and Fox
robes, for which L paid from s. to $40 each
II mas oeen twenty years since l bought
punaIo robe and now / do not know OF
one In the whole country
fHteen years ago seldom heard Of a
red fox in Indian Territory; now they are
falrly numerous. In one season l shipped
1,2UO pounds Of deer hide to Germany and
In single year 1 bought 10000 hides. /
received from 70 to 80 cents pound. Its
use IN Germany, then as now, was mostly
Tor gloves for the army. Last year l sue
ceeoed IN buying only 90 deer hides. got
Tour small bear skins last season from the
hiamltla mountains in the Choctaw nation,
Where there are still few bear, panthers,
beaver and otter. The trappers in the old
days We're mostly white men. A favorite
route Tor beaver trapping was to float down
the Arkansas river from Colorado and Kan
sas. knew one man who took 100 pelts on
saos single trip A trapper made from $50 to
WV IN season. The trappers stopped to
traffic with me where the Katy" bridge
now spans the Arkansas.
Il was one of the heaviest dealers in
pecans In the West. Pecans were hauled
distance OF 125 miles to my warehouse
coming mostly from the Creek, Seminole
and Chickasaw nation. The pecan does not
grow In abundance in the Choctaw and
Cherokee nation. The pickers got from $50
TO $50 a load in cash, which was a fortune
for some OF the backwoodsmen. About
twenty years ago l bought 3S5,00 pounds of
pecans In one season. Timber cutters and
farmers have cleared the bottom land till
the pecan groves have been greatly de-
pleted. The live trees were far more valu-
able than the land on which they grew. In
1901, one tree at Calvin produced twelve
bushels, which sold at $40 bushel total
or $Zo.0. From seed, tree will begin pro-
ducinS In seven years. and an average tree
Will yield from one-half to three bushels.
"A popularity of the pecan tree Is that it
grows good crop only once in three or five
years. Two good crops came In succession
in 1901 and 1902. however, and the pecan
market was overstocked. This year the
crop will be large"
Mr.. Sandheimer sighed as he said: while
have prospered reasonably, yet feel that
l have wasted my life in coming early
and staying SO long in this country. L have
missed the pleasures and comforts to be
found further east, and now that l am old
/ realize it more keenly than ever. Year
after year we have waited patiently for
the gates of Indian Territory to be unlocked
and the tribal walls to be broken down for
the entrance of a better civilization, only
TO be disappointed and then buoyed up by
a new hope which faded away like its pre-
decessor L sympathize with the full-blood
Indian in the change now taking place.
He was good man In the old days, honest
and law-abiding. Hard times are in store
for him. While experimenting the COM
mercial interests of the Overland Transit
Company. which maintained constant
procession of six trains for distance of
200 miles, hauling freight between Pryor
creek and Texas in the early 70s, rode on
horseback all over Indian Territory. My
old white horse was known far and wide
and / was welcomed to the rude hospitality
of the FULL blood wherever / found him. L
carried no weapon of any kind and was
never moleSted."
Mr.. Sandheimer is the last of the old fur
traders in Indian Territory.