Louis Crutchfield

Thanks to Greg Moore for sending in this item from Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory, by H. F. O'Briene (1891).

Louis Crutchfield- Cherokee

The subject of this sketch was born in Vinita in 1847, his father being white and his mother a Cherokee. When quite a child he moved with his parents close to Dallas, Texas, from thence to Collin county, and on the death of his parents to Decatur in 1866. Soon afterward he went to Eureka, Kansas,w here he remained three years, coming to Denison, Texas, in 1874, which town was then in its infancy. Soon after this he began trading in sheep between Corpus Christi and New York. On one occasion with twelve hundred head, he walked from Corpus Christi to Denison, a distance of over six hundred miles, a trip which occupied him four weeks. After this Mr. Crutchfield devoted his attention for a while to the purchase and shipment of horses from Austin, Texas to Kansas on which he made a profit of eight dollars per head on picked stock. After this he shipped cattle from Caddo, I.T. to Kansas, where he purchased a large flock (eleven thousand head) of sheep and drove them to Paul's Valley, many of which he traded for horses. Mr. Crutchfield is located on Wilson Jones' place near Caddo, where he holds a herd of sheep and raises corn, millet, and other crops.