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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: January 11, 1938
Name: P. M. Fink
Post Office: Miami, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 32 G. NW
Date of Birth: January 3, 1848
Place of Birth: Piqua, Ohio
Father:
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother:
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Nannie Lee Burns

Move to Oklahoma.
In May, 1900, I leased nine acres at the present site of Ottawa which is five miles east and one mile south of Miami. Here I built a frame store building 24 x 50 feet and just west of the store building a story and a half residence and here from the summer of 1900 until 1922, I operated a general store including, groceries, dry goods and patent medicines.

They used to say that I would sell them anything, or if I didn't have it, I could order it. I even ordered the iron fence for the cemetery there. In the twenty odd years that I kept store there I only had one Indian who failed to pay me. I had a clerk who kept the books and a statement was sent one month to those who had accounts with me. A white settler came in and said that I had him charged too much and that I had him charged with a spool of wire that he had not purchased so I marked off the wire and he paid me but always remained mad at me, saying I had overcharged him.

A few days later an Indian came in with his bill to pay it and said that it was wrong and when I asked him what the trouble was, he said that I had not charged him enough that he had purchased a spool of wire that was not on the bill.

At this time, Wat Jennison was the postmaster; he had small store in one room of his residence; Madison Cole, later of Miami, had a store there and Dan Holt had a drug store and Dr. Holmes had his office in this store.

There was always one blacksmith shop there and sometimes two shops. When the rural route was established out of Miami the post office was discontinued and Jennison moved his residence a half a mile north of Ottawa.

Transcribed and contributed by Lola Crane <coolbreze@cybertrails.com> September 2003.