Show THE OGDEN STANDARD EXAMINER m SUNDAY MORNING JUNE 21 1031 IF ill if tr i From a Two --Room Shack on Barren Oklahoma A cres Exie Fife Emerged Immensely Rich Only to Become Involved in Divorce Alienation and Damage Suits v : ? v x 'I 1 4 n'ju Scene in the Oil Fields of Oklahoma It Was Through Shack Striking Oil Near the Indian Girl’s Two-Roov Riches Got Her That She m News and gossip travel as fast in Oklahoma as they do anyThe Indian girl where else with oil and money to bum became a figure to be pointed out on the street Her various sixes and styles of motorcars were as familiar as the police wagon Shopkeepers invited her trade Jewelers always had gaudy baubles to attract her She was cutting a swath— just as she had set of the give it the State name in Oklahoma an Indian girl of the tribe of the ancient Creeks ha3 been cutting a (romantic swath and while making history of a kind has been keeping the courts and the lawyers ind the authorities1 which concern themselves with the Five Civilized Tribes busy trying to straighten out the tangles of her love the country INCimarron or to III III HI 111 111 HI ill- -- out to do And another alienation suit was on the list Mrs Leona Richardson had beShe come suspicious of her husband made such investigations as seemed necessary to establish a case and then instituted proceedings against the Indian girl placing her damages at the sizable sum of $200000 for she felt her lose to be very great Because Exie Fife is a Creek Indian and with respect to her lands and oil is protected by Congressional act it of expected that the Superintendent the Five Civilized Tribes AiM Laud-ma- n will have a say as to just how judgments against her shall be paid To be changed literally overnight from a ragged Indian maid struggling on a few poor acres to a person of riches which may ultimately increase to make her worth millions brought from Exie Fife this philosophical remark: “Before I got rich nobody ever came to see me nobody stopped to speak to For all the me nobody wrote to me rest of the world it was as if I wasn’t here at all Now so many people come to see me so many people write to me so many people stop to speak to me that I seem like ' the most important funny” person on earth It is all very Many other people who i have had dealings in connection with the old Osage and Creek Indian country could affairs - i ill f The girl bears the name of Exie Fife Five years or so ago she lived in a shack in the back country of Eufaula town in McIntosh County Okla content to scratch a living from a garden patch Then in onq spectacular moment hep long barren acres yielded oil and riches such as her mind had never been able to picture became her portion With each sinking of a welkthe outflow of oil insreased and at two-roo- f m -- r Y I(1I An Artist’s Conception of the Merry Chase of Indignant Wives Children and Lawyers Drawn Around a Photograph of Exie Fife Creek Indian Girl Who Grew Immensely Rich Overnight in Oil and Later Became Involved in Several Divorce and Alienation Suits 8 1 HI y jr a ninujf i Hattie Adair With Her ChilThis Woman Was Awarded $20000 Damages Against Exie Fife for Alienation of Her Husband's Affections Mrs dren the age of nineteen this dazed daughter of a reservation tribesman was receiving in her mean shack the daily record of an income averaging $1250 One thousand two hundred and fifty - i dollars a day to spend Such riches! What could she do with it all? The woman in her answered She would emerge as does the butterfly from its chrysalis and take wing As long as she could remember her life No one ever had been utterly drab Even the see her to came gaunt sons of the tribe passed her with barely a nod of recognition Now that she had wealth she would show them For a time she attended Bacar College but the rule3 would not permit her to do the things which pleased her and she left Then she abandoned the She old shack and moved into town milbought herself bright gowns gayestaband sought to linery and jewelry lish herself in such society as a new-matown in the Canadian River she met a white country offered Here one Berlin Jack-so- n own of her age youth who like herself had come from the farm He was poor She had money to bum Romance at last The Indian maiden became Jackson’s She financed their honeymoon wife with a lavish hand for spending money which took her fancy The everything and her young honeymoon ending she the big town husband set out for with where its fast- Muskogee meaning 1 long-legg- ed de j l I Hht V had agreed to a divorce in return for tite payment of $150 and a ticket to California Then Jackson got in touch with some lawyers who advised him not to be foolish but to make a real price dent in his wife’s bankroll asa the contract of her freedom As a result calling for the payment of $30000 which sum was later increased to $50000 was presented to the wife for her signature Blindly she In the trial it it signed was brought out that the lawyers got $35000 and Jackson only $15000 8( high-pow- er : a quiet domesticated man until he fell under the wiles of the Indian woman One witness followed another on the stand in this case with testimony about lively parties in the bungalow and elsewhere of long trips in touring '“cars including one to Mexico and of worth more than his gifts to Adair as a policeman The acyearly salary cused woman gave her side of the story She admitted the friendship for Adair but explained that “Jess slipped away from his wife and begged me at-to take him in I never encouraged his tentions” Yes she gave him a fine automobile but that wasn’t much The judgment in this case was for $20000 Litigation in Oklahoma under certain conditions comes high—but the wells on the rugged acres were still pouring forth their riches in oil and Exie Fife saw no reason to worry But another proceeding charging alienation was under way Back' in the a Mrs early home town of Eufaula two and Ollie Carr had been putting two together with respect to her hus- in-vlt- ed band’s absences from home and had the befinally convinced herself that was his of irregularities ginning with “that Indian woman’s apco-incid- pearance” This case did not get into open court There was a conference between interested parties representatives ofinthe cash was made No and a settlement formal announcement was made of the amount which was paid but the figure of $7500 was mentioned mi Newly Rich Because of Oil Holdings This Indian Couldn’t Decide Which of Two Expensive Radio Sets to Buy So He Took Them Both i Becoming Suddenly Rich Through Oil One Indian in the Oklahoma Fielda Bought No Fewer Than Thirteen 'Automobiles Paying $2800 Cash for the Cheapest of the Fleet What a Market for High Priced Cars! Newspaper Feature Service 1931 K T aeon as Z9 s ! Connivance even unethical practice having been shown the several were fined in various sums lawyers from $100 to $4000 But though it had cost the Indian wife a small fortune she was free and opened being free she was happy She set the her house for festivities which town talking choosing her guests from She various groups of the citizenry one in newly whizzed around town failpurchased car after another For occaone on traffic see a to signal ing sion she was held up by Jess Adair one of the handsome policemen of the city He merely reprimanded her She in turn to show her appreciation him to call The outcome of this was a suit brought by Mrs Adair to recover damages from Mrs Jackson for the alienation of the affections of her husband described at the trial as Policeman Jess Adair Who Became Involved Willi the Wealthy Indian Girl ' Xy5- Typical Indian and Ills Sipipw of the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma Many Poor Men of This Tribe Have Become Oil Millionaires Within a Few Years and Most of Them Are Good Spenders Another Oil Indian Spent $2000 for a Grandfather’s Clock to Add to the Decorations of Ills Tepee mounting population there may be found in its theatres picture houses and cafes a touch of the metropolitan A showy bungalow in the best residential part of the city wasf purchased The young couple motored to the new home in a car the first of a fleet which she was to acquire Copper skinned though she was the neighbors In a way she became received her popular She was invited to evening Members of the entertainments women’s club sat with her on the front porch and they chatted about home decorations and other womanly matters Wealth having removed the barriers she decided to “play her hand” more strongly She wanted to cut a splash It wasn’t long before she and her young husband found themselves discontented with each other The counto the life which try boy wasn’t gaited his wealthy wife insisted was the only thing which would satisfy her Within three years they had come to the end A divorce suit folof their romance lowed the charge being that the young husband had never provided for his wife There were complications According to the wife’s story Jackson - philosophize too To others have happened things which were “funny” Perhaps the majority of the tru stories which come out of the oil country concern sums of money large and small — life savings — which have been sunk in worthless patched of ground by old and young bringing only tragedy in their wake The vision of the quick enrichment of others always draws toe unwary into a web from which they extricate themselves only with difficulty salesmen without prinlike vultures and prowlciple hovering like about hyena scavengers whering ever there is newly found wealth soon get in their licks Ten years ago an old couple from Lowell Mass with a bank account of four thousand dollars sold the furnishings of the home which they had occupied for a lifetime and entrained for She was Muskogee He was sixty-fiv- e two years younger With care they could have lived out their natural lives without worry or privation But he had always been a breadwinner and he could not stand idleness The textile mills on the Merrimac River had always afforded him employment — but chances of work had thinned out Idleness irked him The move to ' Oklahoma was prompted by a letter from a young nephew who had gone there three years previously Around his home town he had been regarded as a talkative No one had ever predicted a good future for him — that is no one but his old uncle The latter had often talked with the lad and saw whatever good there was in him The nephew had made good in the old Indian Territory He had a home a car And what was more he had advanced to his elderly kinspeople the fare to the land of promise A letterhead revealed that the son was president of a syndicate for the sale of oil lands It revealed too that a dollar quickly invested might easily bring a million The old couDie decided that in so far as they were concerned there would be no delay They telegraphed ahead their savings The reader may guess the rest The promising young nephew was trailed-ftwo years before he was caught for that and dozens of other embezzlements and the old people died within a few weeks their purses empty tieir stomachs nearly so and their faith in human nature broken Glib-tongu- ed j good-for-nothi- ng V to or |