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Show Indian Fighter Dies at Tulsa; His Age, 105 TULSA, OKLA. -During his life, j six wars were fought. He knew personally per-sonally such historical characters as General Custer, Geronimo, the In- j dian Apache chief, and Jesse James, thfl outlaw. He recently died here at the age of 105. William Franklin Knight, who observed ob-served his 105th birthday last February Feb-ruary 17, was born on a steamboat at Louisiana, Mo. He went to Texas Tex-as in 1866 as an advance guard for stage coaches. Later he rode for the Wells-Fargo express from St. Louis west. He was wounded four times by bullets and once when Comanche Indians pierced his neck with arrows. ar-rows. In September, 1870, after the Comanches had burned telegraph wires between two cities, Knight rode from Fort Worth to El Paso, carrying government messages. He used 33 horses on the trip and slept only two hours during the five days it took. In the early seventies, when buffalo buf-falo roamed the southwest plains country, Knight shipped as many as 10 000 buffalo hides at one time to eastern markets. Knight moved to Tulsa in 1918 and was employed by a local transfer company. He worked until he was 99 years of age before retiring. He kept house for himself until forced to enter a convalescent home because be-cause of infirmities. No immediate relatives have been located. |
