The sheriff returned to his men, called them together, and told them what Starr had said; within five minutes there was not a man other than the sheriff left within rifle distance of Henry Starr. That evening at five, as he had announced, Starr and his men rode quietly, and without being molested, away from the barn and toward the Osage Hills.
That Starr’s wife was the original of a photograph, “The Cherokee Milkmaid,” which was published worldwide several years ago, is the statement of Representative Walter R. Eaton, of Muskogee and Oilton. Eaton was engaged at that time in promoting the town site of Porum, and was going through the country in that vicinity with a photographer getting pictures to advertise that section.
Late one evening Eaton and the photographer drove by the home of Mrs. Starr, Henry’s mother, at a time when a very pretty young woman was milking a cow in the barnyard. The entire scene was one that would make a beautiful picture, and the two men finally persuaded the young woman to pose for several pictures.
“We got one fine picture,” said Eaton, “which we labeled ‘The Cherokee Milkmaid.’ It attracted instant attention because of its artistic merits and was published widely throughout the United States in both newspapers and magazines. It was about a year afterward that this young woman married Henry Starr.” Eaton says the young woman was a school-teacher at the time and was boarding at the Starr home.
Boy Hero Saves Five Lives.
The heroism of Aaron S. Ashbrook, twelve years old, saved the lives of his mother, his grandmother, two sisters, and his uncle, George Ashbrook, when they were trapped in the second story of their burning home in Cynthiana, Ky.
Escape was cut off by means of the stairway, and the little fellow leaped from the second-story window, and, running to a barn, secured a ladder, which he placed to the window, and the inmates of the house escaped without injury, with the exception of Mrs. Mary Gray, the aged mother of Mrs. Ashbrook, who fell from the ladder and was badly injured. The house was totally destroyed.
Town of 4,000; No Post Office.
Although boasting of a population of almost 4,000, and with mail business sufficient, it is said, to justify free delivery, Oilton, Okla., the recent metropolis of the Cushing oil field, has no post office. Residents have chipped in and employed men to sort the mail, while some concerns have employed their own carriers.
Two months ago Oilton was an alfalfa field. To-day it is one of the fastest-growing towns in the country. It is the southern terminus of the recently completed Oil Belt Terminal Railroad.