I Will Always Remember Keokuk

In the year 1894 Keokuk was a center for the Kickapoo Strip Land Run. Keokuk was a small frontier town named after Indian Chief Keokuk. It was located in Potowatamie County, Oklahoma. This little town was about five miles south of where I was born in Lincoln County.

My grandparents lived a short distance from Keokuk along the North Canadian River. The road to my grandparents home passed through this quaint town. One day when I was about six years old, my father invited me to accompany him to my grandparents home. I was delighted to have some time alone with my father.

Our trip was made in a springboard wagon drawn by a team of horses. We arrived in Keokuk town about ten o'clock in the morning. The horses were tied to a street hitching post while Dad went to the little store across the street to buy a nickel worth of cheddar cheese and a box of soda crackers for our lunch. This was a treat I always enjoyed when I went with Dad on a trip. I waited in the wagon. Suddenly I heard women screaming and swearing.

The shrill angry sounds came from a pool hall next to the grocery store! I had never heard such foul language or shrieking voices. The end of the turmoil came as suddenly as the start of the battle between two women. The front door off the pool hall opened. Two women exited. I gazed in puzzlement and wondered at the sight before me. The two women of apparent disrepute walked to the dingy hotel just in front of my waiting site in the wagon.

The site I viewed was frightening. The meager clothes of these fighting women were torn. The wind tossed their shredded garments, strings of their uncombed hair streaked across their bleeding finger scratched faces. They were chatting to each other and giggling. The battle was over. I heard on uncouth woman invite the other to her room saying, "Honey, come in for a hot toddy of whiskey and lemon."

In Keokuk I had my first experience that a rough and ready life existed in an early frontier town, soon to meet its demise as an empty ghost town. It was close in distance, but far away in lifestyle from my peaceful birthplace. It is still an unerasable portrait of my mind.

This page is maintained by Dr. Wood's son, Harold W. Wood, Jr., of Visalia, California.
My E-mail address is: harold@planetaryexploration.net

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