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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: November 10, 1937
Name: Seth Abraham Caress
Post Office: Woodward, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: November 15, 1865
Place of Birth: Bedford, Indiana
Father:
Information on Father:
Mother:
Information on Mother:
Field Worker: Alson J. Chase

Seth Abraham Caress, born in Bedford, Indiana, in 1865, later moved to Kansas, and when the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement in 1893 he decided to make the Race and obtain a home. He made the Race on horseback and staked a claim south of Anthony, Kansas, in Grant County. However, he did not file but went back to Kansas and worked on a ranch for two years. He then came back to Oklahoma near Manchester, in Grant County and bought a relinquishment which a little later he traded for six lots in Pond Creek and went into the livery barn business.

In 1901 he went to Harper County and filed on a farm and farmed it for two years. He sold this farm and went to Englewood, Kansas, and went into the business of buying broom corn.

In 1911 and 1912 he bought broom corn at Shattuck, Oklahoma, paying from $150 to $175 per ton. When he sold it he received only from $50.00 to $75.00. Had 84 loads and lost $84,000.00.

In 1913 he went to Forgan, Oklahoma, where he bought broom corn and where he remained for the next 15 years. In 1913 and 1914 he bought lots of good broom corn for $20.00 per ton, but in 1916 at Elk City he bought a car load, paying $500.00 per ton for it.

For the last nine years he has lived at Woodward, doing different things, running a fruit stand part of the time. He is now living in Woodward and getting an old age pension.

Transcribed and submitted by Rebecca Clark Grothe < llgro@juno.com > January, 2001.