Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 157, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 3, 1963 Page: 5 of 32
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A recorda:hronicle EDITORIAL FEATURE IN WORDS AND PICTURES PAGE
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1963
HE CUT HIS TEETH ON MUSKRAT FOOT
ared In Unusual Surroundings On Reservado}
Indian Chief, Now Living in Denton, Was Re
as soon as I set foot on the the U. S., British, and
ig
can take over," states the Sene- been seething under a Ci
lieve that the youngest son of
all the surplus food was kept.
velope contained $5.
' mother.
ondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Tus-
And work Whitcop did. He took
such jobs as a waiter, bellhop
the language
carried a sack tied around his
leg containing human teeth, a much of his childhood
generations and was built by his facturing Co. on the Expressway
"Being the chief’s son I had
more remarkable men than any
waist and beaten after his fath-
each to "avoid the white man’s
pass the test, he and the other
AUSTIN
I
REPORT
V
Five Ideas
■
•2
gether a loan regulation bill which 1
6
F8 72458
— Denton Record-Chronicle
Popular Minister, Family To Go South
elor of theology degree from
He Likes His Work
And Uses Own Money To Buy Shrubs
April the couple and 4-year-old
Rica, for a year’s study of the ful as this church family has
These firms
Coffman has
on-
sion Board of the Southern Bap- ly two weeks, because their books
aica RA..NiiAn nnAnAN +hA f ald in 1. ___ fA. .___.. an « A a.__. A..
the Dominican Republic, they collect such loans on the average.
worked, she would reply: "My borrowers.
es.
Brother Bill’s first pastorate
attended Howard Payne College. ahead of him and his wife lies to the common laborer who runs
added
G
the chief should inherit all and
that the youngest rules best.
and his 9 year-old twin
were kidnapped by the
what is today New York state.
Besides speaking perfect Eng-
lish, Whitcop can speak 17 In-
dian languages, including those
of the other nations in the Iro-
quis Confederacy — Mohawk, On-
highly developed. Edmund Wil-
son, author of "Apologies to the
at that time the Senecas made
up about one • half of the Iro-
quoise population and that they oc-
Rev. Bill Coffman and his Wife, of 122 today. A total of 350 mem-
Ann. will tour Oklahoma and Tex- bers is on the church rolls, of
sionary work in the Dominican
Republic as the third and fourth
missionaries to be sent there by
the Southern Baptist Convention.
The eldest member of the tribe
was in charge of exchanging sur-
he still has marks on his back
to prove his misadventure.
Whitcop recalls that antil re-
cently, the pagans on h s reser-
vation were still sacrifi ing hu-
when he was 12.
Now 43, the Indian chief recalls
carora.
"It is tribal law to learn all
the Indian languages,” he explains
"Sorrow never enters judg-
ment,” says Whitcop. "We
look at death as a happy
occasion and celebrate it as
such." He explained that In-
dians believe that a dead per-
son’s spirit becomes a part
of the Great Spirit.
burned his eyelshes and hair for
these "kicks.”
games in his four years in Val-
ley View — an excellent record
for any booster.
Mrs. Coffman has taught in the
elementary school and has sub-
stituted this winter. Active in all
church work, she served as coun-
One part of the test consist-
ed of putting a sparkling-red
coal under the arm pit and
running for at least 50 yards
before dropping it.
Mee
0 w.
Inspired by a Southern Bap-
tist missionary who came to
the reservation 23 yean ago.
Whitcop became a Christian
and is now aa evangelist. He
has been guest preacher in
Fort Worth, Dallas. Elkhart,
Ind., Lansing, Mich., and St.
Louis, Mo.
At Grace Temple Baptist Church
in Denton, he is counselor for the
Royal Ambassadors, leader of the
intermediate training union and a
substitute Sunday school teacher.
He and his wife Betty have just
recently celebrated their fourth
wedding anniversary.
The Whitcops have a daughter.
Dark as Dawn (light of life in
Indian language) who is 2 years
old.
When the dark-eyed blonde was
born, she had gyaline membrane
disease which almost cost her life.
ELANGUAGES
Ein the NEWS
# By Charles F. Berliti
end Robert Strumpen-Darrie
Seneca Nation of the Iroquois
tribe, and when be was a baby,
he did cut his tooth on the foot
er for the young Indian. Although
from big cities — Dallas and Fort
Worth. Two come from small
towns — Mart and Stamford. One
is from a middle - big - city,
Corpus Christi.
edbyhistmilyhttafanaiyle.ir | Whitcop vividly recalls the time
By JOSIE CANTU
Record-Chronicle Special Writer
How would you like to cut your
baby teeth on the back foot of
reasonaale Interest Rates which
is backing a tight regulatory bill
by Sen. Kennard and Sen. Frank-
lin Spears of San Antonio. They
want to allow interest charges of
more than 10 per cent only on
loans up to $800, holding all larg-
er loans to 10 per cent a year.
2. The large - loan point of
“I got permission from the schools
to trim their lawns around hedges and
walks so I could get the grass set-
tings,’’ Smith remembers..
Smith started doing yard work in
1900, and he speaks about his job
with the exuberance of an expert who
is satisfied with his field.
“I enjoy myself so much doing yard
work,” he said, “that I haven’t been
sick enough to lay off from work in
the last four or five years.”
“I have 10 children living, 23 grand-
children and one great-grandchild.
WINTER IS AN OFF season for
Smith, but he works on an hourly
served as pastor of the Valley
View Baptist Church for four
years, the longest pastorate in
30 years. Baptists and non-Bap-
tiats alike say his going will leave
a large "hole” in the community:
"There is not a stranger in
Valley View to Brother Bill,” an
old resident sadly reflected. "But
he’ll make a good missionary.”
LAST SUNDAY when he preach-
ed his last sermon here the Bap-
VALLEY VIEW (Special) —’still owed. The building not only
Valley View s "Brother Bill” has serves the youth of the church.
A LETTER FROM A READER
Why not some Hema in your
column about the Polish languagel
- A Proud Polish American, Cleve
land.
Polish is an important European
language, belonging to the
Slavic group and having about
35,000,000 speakers. Here are
some examples of useful phrases
in Polish which we suggest that our
SI M45Z3,
A MAN WHO LIKES HIS WORK
The Bush Is One Of Several Smith Has Donated To Hospital
the sack to keep the "evil spirits”
away.
Turkey, now legally named Bob
Whitcop, lives at 1222 W. Oak,
and moved to Denton six months
ago. A husky 6-footer, he weighs
an even 220 pounds and looks
very much an Indian.
Born on the Cattaragrus Res-
ervation, 28 miles southwest of
— Denton Record-Chronicle
DAUGHTER KAY POINTS TO DESTINATION OF COFFMAN FAMILY
And Mischievously Said: “My Daddy Doesn’t Work — He Preaches”
Brother Bill I eaves
whe\ he
The Seneca Nation, of which he broth
Klu Khu:
What they have in common is
that they are all state senators,
all members-of the Senate Bank-
ing Committee and all on a sub-
committee which has been given "2
until Valentine’s Day to put to-
is chief. is considered the most
dead person’s bones, a piece of reservation. Instead of playing
fur and frog skin with bells above baseball, tag, hide - and • seek
a new loan bill.
THE CONFLICTING views are,
in general, these:
I The reformer view made up
of the Committee to Prevent Un-
/chiefs
y elect-
ivances
His father, the Rev. C. J. Coff-
man, is pastor of the Parkview
of a muskrat prepared by his Whitcop learned
Indian chief father and he also;
After 13 days in the hospital, five
of which were spent in the incu-
bator, Dark as Dawn was ver-
mitted to go home.
Whitcop plans to teach Dark
as Dawn four Indian dialects,
the Indian legends and all the
Indian fables as soon as she
is old enough to understand.
I The Whitcops also plan to adopt
four Mexican girls, ages 8, 10,
12. and 14. from the Mexican Bap-
tist Children’s Home in San An-
i tonio as soon as an adopting ser-
vice is instituted in the home.
work, and he and his family munity youth as well.
have left this town they’ve called Also, in his four years as pas-
home for four years. tor, he has built Sunday school
During February and March the attendance from 97 to an average
mates by the colonies in the mid-
17th Century seem to show that
<
i
i
ne
young warriors would be con-
sidered outcasts and made mere
aries to the Dominican Republic ulated under a law different from
are the Rev. and Mrs. Howard the lenders of more than $100.
Shoemake. Her parents are Mr. The larger lenders say that a
and Mrs. W. J. Moore of 1124 single law is all that’s needed-
N. Locust in Denton. that they will make those little
A joke the Valley View friends loans at a loss, and in effect sub-
of Brother Bill like to tell ori- sidize the poorest element in the
ginated when Kay was learning population out of the interest and
to talk. Asked where her father charges they collect from large
Another test was the so-call-
traps and snares.” If they didn’t
Sens. Bruce Reagan of Corpus
Christi and Don Kennard of Fort
Worth, both authors of loan bills,
and Sens. Murray Watson of Mart
and David Ratliff of Stamford. |
They were assigned by Sen. I
Ralph Hall of Rockwall to take;
three competing bills and three
hours of conflicting testimony,
and come back in two weeks with
Whitcop. "Indian laws are much
stricter and punishment is much
more severe.
I "When I was a young boy, the
white man’s court found an 18-
rated the top booster of the high tist Convention opened the field in show it costs $3.10 to process and
school Eagles. As an avid sports — - .....
fan he has missed but five
After three years as a mathe- ord, and it more than qualified on the American continent. ' laws apply only to the white."
matics major, he quit college, me.” He was in the Army for In March, 1959, in Oshweken, says Whitcop.
i went into the Army, and then seven years. I Ontario, Iroquois warriors tried
bought land 36 miles from the I The new chief ruled over his to reverse history and overthrow
reservation. people for one year. Dissatisfied, the white man’s law. Life Ma-
When his family perished in a he left. gazine says, “They proclaimed
car accident, the Indian council! "I appointed a six-man council their reservation an independent
called the Indian chiefs son home to carry out the Indian law, but | nation and dispatched wires to
KEEP UP WITH
YOUR FRIENDS
Friends visiting? Have a
new grandchild? Death in the
family? Going on a trip?
That event may not sound
important to anyone else but
your friends are interested in
what you do. And your friends
read the Record - Chronicle.
Why not call the Record-
Chronicle at 382-2551 and ask
for Town Topics. There’s nev-
er a charge.
Southwestern Baptist Theological
answered a call for missionary but is a meeting place for com- Seminary in Fort Worth last year.
as to speak on mission work. In which 215 are resident members.
"I have never worked with any
inburg and those of Rep. .Jack
THE COFFMANS said they felt Woods of Waco and Menton Mur-
By BOB HILL
Record-Chronicle Staff Writer
AT 34, RUFUS SMITH of 824 Wil-
son is still a man who likes to see
things grow.
He likes his work so much that he
has taken part of his salary as yard-
man at Denton’s Flow Memorial Hos-
pital and has used it to buy shrubbery
for the hospital’s lawn.
“When I came to work here in
September 1953, I told my boss that
I thought this was one of the prettiest
hospital sites in North Texas,” Smith
said the other day as he worked dirt
a muskrat Sound infectious? It
is. In fact, when Chief Wesley
Turkey was examined by a doc-
tor, he was told that it was a
wonder that he was still alive.
But Turkey is an Indian, the
last blood - Indian chief of the
The fact made it all the hard plus goods for other supplies, such jobs as a waiter, bellhop
Besides the community house and janitor in a plastic company,1
all the Indian boys usually went which also served as the council where he was promoted to press
on trial at the age of 16 to be- house, most of the houses were operator; He has been in the
come full-fledged warriors, Whit- frame except for his log-cabin plastic business ever since. He
cop had to pass the test at a home. This cabin goes back three now works at the Electric Manu
at the much earlier age. (
for their food while keeping out i
ix Klan, stripped to the of sight. They had only two tries
L— umttrct Valley View friends know that clare that they will be out of
Pleasant Grove Baptist when Brother Bill preaches he is business and there will be no
were ready to apply. , The small . small lenders feel
The first and second mission- that their business should be reg-
"Being the chief’s son I had great grandfather. who passed it in Denton.
to be over the rest,” he explains, on to his son, who in turn gave When Whitcop was in college, --------
it to Whitcop’s father. he couldn’t speak a word of Eng- ed revenge test.
1 An authority on Indians says lish, so the other Indians at the
Spanish language. been," the Rev. Mr. Coffman
Then, in the spring of 1964, the said.
Coffmans will plunge into mis- But his interest has overflowed
“ in all directions from his church
and its family. The community
and its welfare have been the
Coffman’s interests.
BROTHER BILL has long been
The Rev. Mr.
salary for three or four hours a day,
depending on the amount of yard’
work and cleaning to be done.
In the spring and summer, however,
there is plenty of work to keep a
much younger man busy.
How can an 84-year-old man handle
it?
Perhaps a person’s age isn’t as im-
portant as how much he likes his
work.
Smith said his doctor checked him
recently and told him. “If nothing
ScHottS happens, I dont see why vvu
shouldn’t make 100.”
around the trunk of a bush he bought
and set out beside the hospital en- -
trance.
And, he added, “I want it to be the
prettiest.”
THE HOSPITAL was only about
three years old when Smith be-
came yard man there, and parts of
the large hill (the second highest point
, in Denton) on which the hospital sits
was bare.
Smith helped to solve that problem
bv collecting grass runners and roots
—from friends, former employers afief
public schools.
at least three of them can agree J
on.
Sen. George Parkhouse of Dal- j
las, a crusty legislative veteran, 4
is chairman. His colleagues are
a missionary field leadership call ray of Harlingen.
about three years ago, and he feel that they must have a mini-
is interested in evangelistic mum charge of at least $4, even
preaching. When the Foreign Mis- if the loan is for only $20 for
Record-Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — For the next 10
days, five Texans of varying back-
grounds will be trying to recon-
cile interests so varying that
they may never meet.
An advertising man, a radio
station owner, an attorney, a gas
operator and an administrator
make up the group. Two come
from a blow on the head from a hold any type of office, my father would pay for my tui-, get him installed. In the Indian reservation, I’m the chief and heads of state demanding a |
baseball, the Indians took it for or his reservation Whitcop say s tion and books. When 1 boarded world, there is no law without a any time I deem it necessary. I conference. The Indiana had
cupied the whole western half of granted that Whitcop would be I .120,0010, the train, he handed me an en- chief,
the chief at the death of his fath- Proudy* *e ““ absolutely no velope. When the train had gone At that time. Whitcop went can chief. He has no desire to law which had deposed the
er. And if he had been the one that was in want; there was approximately 140 miles, l op- through several tests before he go back. and set up a democratical}
youngest son of the chief, he never any welfare.” He attributes ened the envelope and found a was accepted as the new chief. "I've become a white man in ed council. A series of grje
would still be proclaimed the this to the Indian system of the note that said that if I wanted One was the sorrow test which my thinking,” he says. “When had brought on the upri ing.
next chief, since the Indians be- use of a community house where and education, to work and get required that he was never to I was younger, I would think
it,” says the Indian. The en- shed tears for his father and like an Indian. Now I've accept-
j mother. ed white man’s ways.
"Christianity has changed
my life more than all the ed-
ucation. My greatest change
has been from paganism to
Christianity. I say first that
I'm a Christian, then an In-
dian, then the ruler of my
people.
"It's like two different worlds—, ,, , .
a red man’s world and a white year-old Indian maiden innocent
"A man was assigned to me man’s world. White men live and pfumurderinga guilty man Endran
that the Senecas have produced University interpreted for him. and told me what test would conform to society; Indians ed her to her house with a wooden
mue cmnuui ______ mn an But this wasn’t a major prob- come up next. I danced for 36 don't.” wall 18 inches from the house,
of the other Indian nation. Ely lem to the young Indian. His big- hours without rest, water or food. In his book. Edmund Wilson completely surrounding it. She
S. Parker, an Indian associate of-gest problem was his name — Then I was tied and placed in says that the Iroquois still think was ordered not to speak a word
Another part included surviving the “League of the Iroquois,” who Turkey. He says so many people confinement where the Indians of themselves as a sovereign peo- for the rest of her life Food and
for 10 days with no help from acted as military secretary for made fun of it that he finally came to the window and cast in- pie at peace with the United medical care were brought in
anyone else. For two days the Grant, made the draft of the adopted the name of the owner suits They were free to .degrade States. but that they still dream -our laws have to do with life
youths were placed in the coun- surrender terms at Appomattox of a furniture company in New me in any way,” Whitcop recalls, of a time when the whites might and death except for the laws
cil house, each warrior by him- and was afterward appointed by York who was a friend of his "Besides this,” he added, “they be defeated, with the Indians governing the highway that goes
self. On the third day, they were Grant as Commissioner of Indian father. took the merits of my war rec- emerging as the dominant people through the reservation. These
turned loose and made to hunt Affairs. Parker was a close rela-1 Ana- -e — — - -h- —> — - t----*»— ----ue i nn the A merinon enntinent I ■ - ... ....
tive of the Turkey family.
When Whitcop turned 17
and was ready for college,
he gathered his savings of
approximately $30 and bought
his train ticket to the Univer-
sity of Minnesota.
_ . er had purchased several acres
Iroquois, points out that esti-of white man's land. He says
----------- selor for the Girls Auxiliary Mis-
tist Church was filled. Neighbor- sion Study chairman in the Wom-
ing Methodists left their church an‘s Missionary Union and work-
early to hear the Baptist sermon er in the Sunday school depart- wuneu, wuuu .-p,. -,uuuwu.
Looking back on his activities ment and in the Baptist Training Daddy doesn’t work, he preach- The small-small loan men say
in Valley View, the Rev Mr Union. es." —"that's what they say”—and de-
Coffman can count 53 baptisms
in the church Gifts through the Pleasant Grove Baptist when Brotner Bill preacnes ne is business ano were wi ve no
church has increased from $11, Church near Brownwood while he working - and they know that one who will lend' $50 or $25
to thia time the church has attended Howard Payne College, ahead of him and his wife lies to the common laborer who runs
JaUi new 818 SB education I He received his bachelor of arts the greatest chriletig* of short of emm 8 week before pay-
boding, on which only $4,000 is degree there in 1958 and his bach-Jives. day.
or other games learned by most
American children. Whitcop and
I his companions were taught
games of strength and of skill.
For "kicks” they would throw
a match into the Burning Spring,
wet their hair with the water
and run across a /12-foot fire.
More than once this Indian boy
When his brother died at 14 members of the tribe, never to "I'd worked hard and thought to have the Indian ceremonies and
view, as shown in the bill intro-
Baptist Church in Littlefield. Hc,^ bersenansezgan whois,
also has two uncles and . cou- and by Sen. Criss Cle of Hous-
sinw oarepre acher S; . Ran ton, which would take in the same
tist background. Her father is Dr.range, and thus include new "
l ear ioans
Woodrow Fuller, state mission car _ ' „ ... . .
Kay will go to San Jose, Costa group that has been as wonder- secretary for the Baptist General 3 The small - small loan busi-
" — ------------- t "1 • thi chuh Fomil" he Convention of Texas She receiv- ness,W hich deals only in oans
ed her decree from Howard Pavne of 5100 and less, as typified by
Co ie 50 y the bill by Sen. Jim Bantes of Ed
A ., ■
readers, in com they don't havethe
opportunity to go to Poland, try
j out on their Polish-American
friends..
’How do you do?"JaksimaszP
(yak sheoo mahsh)
•Please.' Prosge(PROH-sheeoo)
"Thank you.' Diitkt (djehoon-
kee)
•Ya.’ Tak. (t*hk)
"No." Mie. (n’yeh)
•Hoppy to meet you"(toaman)
Projemne mi pana poznai.
(przhee-yehm-neh meePAH-nah
POHZ-nahtch)
•Hoppy to mat you"(to awom-
on) Profemne mi panie pornaE
(przhee-yehm-neh met PAH-nyeoo
POHZ-nahtch)
"I like the Polish language.* Lubif
polski jgyk (L0O-b‘yehoo POHL
skee yehoo-zeek)
----‘Geedbye"Aesideenie(dh-
veod’JEH-n’yah)
man lives. They were stopped in
1939 by the federal government.
"The only law in the rerva-
tion is the law of the Indianand
of the federal government," sms
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Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 157, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 3, 1963, newspaper, February 3, 1963; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1531896/m1/5/: accessed June 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Denton Public Library.