Elves T. Haddock. Because he leased a part of his land to a white man, Tommy Hijo, a Chickasaw Indian, was killed by a band of his own blood and his body thrown beside a trail and covered with his saddle blankets, where it was found several days later. Hijo paid the penalty of the unwritten law that prevailed among many full blood Indians a quarter of a century ago when ambitious young white men were being attracted to the Indian Territory. Hijo’s lease was made to Elves T. Haddock, now a prominent real estate and loan man of Madill, who at the age of sixteen conceived the idea of leasing lands from the Redmen along Red River and having them cleared and put in cultivation. Following the execution of the lease, Hijo was returning from a trip to Denison, Texas, and had just entered the river bottom on the Indian Territory side when he was killed.

The murder presumably was committed by a party of full bloods who, a few days later, with the firing of their Winchesters and much shouting, swept down upon the little house that was being occupied by Mr. Haddock, an older brother and their mother, who were armed only with a shotgun. Mr. Haddock, gun in hand, ran upstairs and took his position at a window where he might get a good bead on the Redskins if it became necessary to fight them. His brother met them at the door. Their bravado disappeared when they entered the yard and the elder Haddock met them with a bold front. He saw that they were disconcerted, and the fact fully established his own composure. “I’ll give you just ten minutes to get away from here,” said Haddock. The Indians conferred a moment and the spokesman then asked : “Where is the road. We have lost it.” Haddock pointed toward Burney Crossing on the Washita, which was near the home of Governor Burney of the Chickasaw Nation. The Indians rode away in silence.

While the Indians made strong and ofttimes violent objection to the leasing of their lands to white men whose object was the development of the agricultural resources of the country, they exhibited little concern over the presence of horse thieves, and these became so numerous that it was necessary that law-abiding citizens join hands with the United States officials in ridding the territory of this element of citizenship. Among the leaders of one of the bands of thieves was Curtis McElwreath, a hotel proprietor at the little Town of Cumberland, where Mr. Haddock was later engaged in business. McElwreath was a man of good repute in the community and was not generally suspected of being in collusion with the band until Deputy United States Marshal Davis of Colbert made a trip into Texas to recover some stolen horses. There he was given a description of McElwreath and of two other men, McCandless and Criss. Two of them were arrested peaceably, but an officer found it necessary to shoot Criss’ arm off before he took him in custody. The three men served terms of five years each in prison, the trial establishing the fact that for ten years McElwreath had been a leader of the band. The arrest and conviction of these three resulted in the ultimate breaking up of the band, which was the last of its kind to operate in that part of the country under such minute organization and with such success as it experienced for years.

Elves Haddock was born in Independence County, Arkansas, in 1877, and is a son of Jordan and Margaret V. (Harris) Haddock. Jordan Haddock was a native Virginian, a veteran of the Confederate army and a cotton ginner by trade. He died when the subject was but a few years old, so that the boy early found it necessary to shift for himself. He was thirteen years old when he went to Celeste, Texas, and there he lived until 1892, when he moved to the Indian Territory and began making ten-year leases on Indian lands. Much of this land he put under cultivation, hiring white men to get it in shape for cropping, and laying the foundation for its purchase at a later date. Much of it he did purchase a few years later, and in still later years he disposed of it and engaged in the mercantile business at Cumberland. In 1904 he moved to Madill and since 1906 has been here engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business, as the junior member of the firm of Haddock & Lewis.

Mr. Haddock was married at Finchtown, Indian Territory, in 1897, to Miss Rosa Carter, who died two years later. He was again married in 1902, at Cumberland, to Miss Fannie Webb. They have three children: Lawrence, E. T., Jr., and Edward Lindsay.

Mr. Haddock, it should be said, has one brother and four sisters. W. J. Haddock, the brother, is engaged in farming at Madill. Mrs. H. P. Turnstall is the wife of a farmer at Abilene, Texas. Mrs. J. P. Dorr is the wife of a physician in Dota, Arkansas. Mrs. C. L. Moore married a merchant and farmer at Charlotte, Arkansas, and Mrs. J. M. Hurley is the wife of a farmer at Charlotte.

Mr. Haddock is a member of the Methodist Episcopal , Church South, and has been a steward in the Madill church since he came here. He is a member of the Odd Fellows and the Maccabees, and of the Madill Commercial Club, a wide awake and progressive organization, as well as of the Madill Civic League and the Good Roads Club. He is one of the town’s most active, substantial and progressive business men and owns probably the handsomest home in Marshall County.