William Allen GannAge: 77 years1860–1937
- Name
- William Allen Gann
- Given names
- William Allen
- Surname
- Gann
![]() | April 9, 1860 19 23 |
![]() | William Henry Boaz Gann — Martha Myers — View this family August 5, 1860 (Age 3 months) |
![]() | Sarah Caroline Gann August 6, 1862 (Age 2 years) |
![]() | Amanda Gann February 22, 1864 (Age 3 years) |
![]() | Martha Gann October 11, 1866 (Age 6 years) |
![]() | Sarah Lucinda Gann April 13, 1868 (Age 8 years) |
![]() | Nancy I. Gann June 10, 1870 (Age 10 years) |
![]() | Tennessee (Juda) Gann February 10, 1873 (Age 12 years) |
![]() | Elizabeth Susan Gann December 21, 1874 (Age 14 years) |
![]() | Margaret Gann December 4, 1876 (Age 16 years) |
![]() | Nancy I. Gann July 10, 1877 (Age 17 years) |
![]() | Silas Leonard (Len) Gann January 30, 1879 (Age 18 years) |
![]() #1 | Ollie Addison Gann June 22, 1882 (Age 22 years) |
![]() | Eliza Jane Friend — View this family January 28, 1885 (Age 24 years) |
![]() | Silas Boaz Gann December 27, 1891 (Age 31 years) |
![]() | Ollie Addison Gann — Patsy Ann Patty — View this family May 1, 1904 (Age 44 years) |
![]() | Catherine Harris May 2, 1906 (Age 46 years) |
![]() | Eliza Jane Friend November 29, 1917 (Age 57 years) |
![]() | William Henry Boaz Gann February 16, 1925 (Age 64 years) |
![]() | Silas Leonard (Len) Gann May 14, 1925 (Age 65 years) |
![]() | Sarah Caroline Gann March 26, 1927 (Age 66 years) |
![]() | Sarah Caroline Gann March 27, 1927 (Age 66 years) |
![]() | Sarah Lucinda Gann May 9, 1934 (Age 74 years) |
![]() | Sarah Lucinda Gann May 10, 1934 (Age 74 years) |
![]() | Amanda Gann 1936 (Age 75 years) |
![]() | December 21, 1937 (Age 77 years) |
Family with parents |
father |
William Henry Boaz Gann Birth: December 28, 1840 19 20 — Hamilton Co, TN Death: February 16, 1925 — Dallas Co, MO |
mother |
Martha Myers Birth: 1837 — Hamilton Co, TN Death: Dallas Co, MO |
Marriage: August 5, 1860 — Webster Co., MO |
|
14 years younger sister |
Elizabeth Susan Gann Birth: December 21, 1874 33 37 — Dallas Co, MO Death: May 29, 1954 |
-15 years himself |
William Allen Gann Birth: April 9, 1860 19 23 — Webster Co, MO Death: December 21, 1937 — Wagoner Co, OK |
2 years younger sister |
Sarah Caroline Gann Birth: August 6, 1862 21 25 — Dallas Co, MO Death: March 26, 1927 — Webster Co, MO |
19 months younger sister |
Amanda Gann Birth: February 22, 1864 23 27 — Conway, Dallas Co, MO Death: 1936 — Elkland, Webster Co, MO |
4 years younger sister |
Sarah Lucinda Gann Birth: April 13, 1868 27 31 — Conway, Dallas Co, MO Death: May 9, 1934 — Charity, Dallas Co, MO |
2 years younger sister |
Nancy I. Gann Birth: June 10, 1870 29 33 Death: July 10, 1877 — Webster Co, MO |
3 years younger sister |
Tennessee (Juda) Gann Birth: February 10, 1873 32 36 — Conway, Dallas Co, MO Death: December 28, 1943 — Conway, Dallas Co, MO |
4 years younger sister |
Margaret Gann Birth: December 4, 1876 35 39 — Conway, Dallas Co, MO Death: March 6, 1966 — Elkland, Webster Co, MO |
2 years younger brother |
Silas Leonard (Len) Gann Birth: January 30, 1879 38 42 — Dallas Co, MO Death: May 14, 1925 — Dallas Co, MO |
-12 years younger sister |
Martha Gann Birth: October 11, 1866 25 29 — Dallas Co., MO Death: Conway, Laclede Col, MO |
Family with Eliza Jane Friend |
himself |
William Allen Gann Birth: April 9, 1860 19 23 — Webster Co, MO Death: December 21, 1937 — Wagoner Co, OK |
wife |
Eliza Jane Friend Birth: November 17, 1855 — Dallas Co, MO Death: November 29, 1917 — Muskogee, Muskogee Co, OK |
Marriage: January 28, 1885 — Dallas Co, MO |
|
-3 years son |
Ollie Addison Gann Birth: June 22, 1882 22 26 — Dallas Co, MO Death: April 13, 1960 — Wagner Co, OK |
Note | From William Charles Gann, Tulsa, OK. Sometime during 1904, William Allen made a trip from his home in Dallas County, Mo., to the small settlement, Claremore, Indian Territory. Claremore was located on the San Francisco and St. Louis Railroad which ran from St. Louis, Missouri southwesterly to northeastern Oklahoma, through the Cherokee Nation and on to San Francisco. A post office had been established there on June 25, 1874. This settlement would later become the county seat of Rogers County when Oklahoma became a state in 1907. William Allen was the first to arrive in 1904. He was back and forth several times before the family finally came to stay. Oral family history records that sometime after 1904, William Allen became obsessed with the notion that he would not allow Eliza Jane, his wife, to become a registered Cherokee. He threatened to take them all back to Missouri before he would allow it. No one one in the family has been able to explain why William Allen felt as he did. It may have been because he had not been successful in obtaining Indian lands simply by walking in, without proof, and declaring himself to be married to a half-blood Cherokee. The proving process included such things as affidavits, sworn statements, witnesses, etc., something a simple farmer might have seen as "too much trouble." A man's "word" in the old West was a strong element in any "deal" and all this "proving-up" process was an indicator that his word was not good enough. The sixteenth bloods and lower would in most cases get no land at all. A forty-acre allotment of thin, rocky soil might have been too small for all the trouble. In the reasoning of William Allen, he simply denied the Cherokee Nation one of its own by not allowing Eliza Jane, his wife, to become registered. There may have been other reasons. Arrogance, meanness, and confidence have never been recessive traits in the Gann men. Whatever the circumstances, William Allen was described by all who knew him as a man of quick and violent temper. His memory was long when perceived injustices were thrust upon him by others. He was creative in his methods of "getting even." By 1908/09 William Allen and Eliza Jane would settle with their eight children one and one-half miles west of Coweta, Oklahoma. A farmer and obviously a man interested in land, he never acquired a square inch of Oklahoma soil. He became a "tenant farmer." There were two ways an individual could rent land for farming. One way was to give over one-third of the corn crop and one-fourth of the cotton at the end of the season. Another was to "cash rent." Both methods carried risk. Those who gave over crops at harvest time were the less fortunate and therefore had less status when farms became available for rent. The farmer who paid in crop yield at the end of the harvest was a "sharecropper." The protocol was to never refer to a "cash renter" as a "sharecropper" but as a tenant farmer. This pattern of farming was very prevalent in Oklahoma from 1910 up to the middle 1950's. William Allen would "cash rent" a farm and with the help of his sons, who were unmarried, make a living for his family. William Allen would "rent" a farm and his two youngest sons, George Washington and Louis, would plant and harvest the crops. The story is related of how William Allen treated his two youngest boys. When the crops were ready to harvest he would go to town early and wait for the boys to bring the corn to mill or the cotton to gin. He would collect the money for the crops and tell the boys to "get on back home and hire yourselves out to other farmers and earn your winter money." William Allen lived the balance of his life as a widower in the home of his youngest son, George Washington Gann. He died near the small Oklahoma town of Porter, located in southwestern Wagoner County. He is buried in the Shahan Cemetery just west of Coweta. His grave is unmarked and the cemetery records showing his burial place have been lost. The sandstone that marked his burial place has long since disappeared. On his death certificate his father is shown as Henry Gann, which must be William Henry. |
Note | From Dorretta Moore Marriage date in LDS Records, Dallas Co., MO -- Marriages |