[Granville-Hough] 31 Jul 2009 - Alfalfa Bill Murray

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:34:02 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Friday Report for 6/27/2008 - 31 July 2009


It was a nice day (27 June 2008), and I had a nice talk with Dorothy 
Neville. She reminded me
of the story of her youth when Oklahoma Governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray
declared war on Texas and sent the Oklahoma militia to the Red River to
protect or reclaim Oklahoma Territory.  Oklahoma and Texas had agreed
that the main stream of the Red River would be their mutual boundary.
There had been some heavy rains and the overflow had created a new
channel north of the old one which automatically gave Texas some more
land, at Oklahoma's expense, of course.  When the Texas counties
involved moved to establish jurisdiction, "Alfalfa Bill" reacted in
customary fashion and sent armed militia to hold the land.  They set up
tents and settled in, but cooler heads soon resolved the problem and no
shots were fired, at least not intentionally.
    Dorothy also recalled that "Alfalfa Bill" had great respect for her
grandfather John Henry Lincoln, declaring publicly that "J. H." Lincoln
was the greatest lawyer Oklahoma ever had.  For Susannah and Kendrick's
benefit, Judge "J. H." Lincoln was a member of the first state
legislature, and as a scholarly lawyer, helped write the Oklahoma State
Constitution.  He was their great, great, grandfather.