Colony Pioneer Lost Claim To Sooner Outlaw in 1889

  Colony - Driving an ox team to Oklahoma City and filing on a claim northeast of Norman only to lose it to a notorious outlaw are among the memories of A. T. Graham of Colony.  Graham was born Sept. 25, 1862 near Quincy, Ill.  He came wes as a young man and helped build the grade for the Santa Fe railroad thru the Oklahoma territory before it was opened for settlement.
  The 91-year-old pioneer went to Kansas in 1889 and then made the run, staking a claim on the Little River northeast of Norman.  He gave up the claim to a Sooner, the notorious outlaw Bailey Isabel.
  Graham drove an ox team to Oklahoma City in 1882.  It took two days to make the 18-mile round trip.  Later he moved with his family to Shawnee where he farmed and raised cattle.
  In 1907, the year Oklahoma became a state, Graham moved to the community northeast of Colony.  He bought a farm that year and still owns it.
  Mrs. Graham died in April 1942, and since then he has made his home with his children.  He has two daughters and two sons living.  They are Mrs. Mae Wilson, Siloam Springs, Ark., and Mrs. Jennie Luekenga, Colony; also sons, Arthur of Colony, and Tom of Topeka, Kan. Another son, Frank, was killed in action in World War I.
  The "91 Club" member is a member of the Republican party and a Mason.

From: "Eldon & Connie Graham" <egraham@ccp.com> 
  This is a news article from the Carnegie, Ok newspaper in 1953 about Archibald Theodore Graham, born Sept. 25, 1864. He was the youngest son of William A. and Lucinda (Shuler) Graham and was born near Birmingham, Ill, Schuyler County, Ill. He was my great-grandfather, James S.'s youngest brother.  I don't have his obituary yet but thought this article was an interesting account of this Schuyler County native.