Vanished Silver City Burial site of Montford Johnson

SILVER CITY - Silver City is a ghost town.

But the Oklahoma wind still blows across the open spaces at Silver City just as it did more than 100 years ago when Montford Johnson grazed his herds of cattle and horses there.

The village of Silver City was established in 1878, but all the remains is the cemetery. It is on the south side of the South Canadian River just north of present day Tuttle.

By 1889 the village boasted a blacksmith shop, a store, a hotel, a school and several nearby ranches. The Chisholm Trail, on which thousands of cattle were driven from Texas north to the Kansas railheads, cut through the middle of the community between the blacksmith shop and the store.

There are at least two theories on how the community got it's name.

The first is proffered by former Oklahoma City Mayor George Shirk in his book, "Oklahoma Place Names." He said Silver City was so named because of nearby Silver Creek. It had a post office from May 29, 1883, to June 17, 1890. By the time Shirk's book was published in 1965 Silver City had "entirely disappeared."

However, the book, "The Chickasaw Rancher," which details the life of Montford Johnson, notes the name was drawn out of a hat.

The book was written by Neil Johnson, the oldest son of Montfort's oldest son, Edward B. Johnson. It is based on the written "Memories of Montford T. Johnson" as well as family stories and materials provided by E.B. Johnson.

The book noted that Montford Johnson obtained the property, which became Silver City, from Caddo Bill Williams in the summer of 1878. He said Williams had built a story and a half house with glass windows and a porch along one side. He also built a small store which was located near the Chisholm Trail. The buildings were two miles east of Breaver Crook on the south side of the South Canadian River.

When the property was surveyed Williams discovered an "OOPS!"

He found he had built on Chickasaw land and not Caddo.

Montford Johnson, who was a Chickasaw, traded Williams "eight head of unbroken geldings and his old black stallion, Ben," for the property, Neil Johnson wrote.

At this time Montford Johnson was ranching north of the river in the Council Grove area.

Thelma "Chincie" Ross, a relative of Montford's on his maternal grandmother Wolf's side, said that Council Grove was around NW 10 in Oklahoma City.

The store needed a name so three names were put into a hat. Silver City was the first drawn.

"The name was suggested because most of the money received from the passing cow outfits was silver dollars," Neil Johnson wrote.

Some of the land Montford Johnson ranched is now part of the Braum's Dairy operation, Ross said. Most of the land immediately surrounding the cemetery is owned by Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas.

Many of the family names in the Silver City Cemetery are familiar.

Several members of the Tuttle family are buried there. The old Tuttle home place was on the next knoll over to the southeast of the cemetery.

One member of the Schrock family is buried there. Ross said that Schrock is the man who ran the ferry at the Silver City crossing of the South Canadian River.

Montford Johnson's sister married into the Bond family and their ranch was nearby and many of the Bonds rest at the Silver City Cemetery.

Montford Johnson, himself, who was born in 1843, and died on Feb. 17, 1896, is buried at Silver City.

His first wife, Mary, rests near him, beneath their shared tall white marble marker, reportedly imported from Italy.

Mary died three weeks short of her 34th birthday when Ben, the youngest of their seven children, was only five months old. The cause of death, as noted by Dr. Hodges, who was fetched on horseback from across the flooded South Canadian River from Fort Reno 25 miles away, was erysipelas.

The illness started as a burning pimple on her lip. The infection spread through her body. The doctor could not save her and she died a few days later on Aug. 27, 1880.

Had she lived today and been taken ill, she most surely would have survived. She had a streptococcus infection, which is treatable with antibiotics and penicillin.

Two of Mary and Montford Johnson's children, Fannie and Stella, are buried near their parents. Both had married but died young. Johnson's second wife, Addie Campbell, also is buried there.

Another of the memory ghosts that inhabits the old cemetery - and perhaps the saddest - is that of a child, an orphan named Alexander "Muggs" McLish.

Muggs lived with the Johnsons while his brother, Henry, lived several miles away with Montford Johnson's sister, Adelaide Bond.

One day Henry came to visit Muggs and the two were playing bank robber.

Henry was the marshal.

He carried an old carbine.

Muggs was the robber.

He was running away.

Henry ordered Muggs to stop.

Muggs didn't.

Neil Johnson wrote, "Henry raised his rifle to his shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. The old gun fired and Muggs fell dead, his head completely blown away by the flat-nosed bullet."

Neil Johnson continued with the story, saying that Mary Johnson carried the boy's body to the house.

"A wooden coffin was built and lined with black cloth. Muggs was placed in it and carried to the sandy hill west of the house, where he was buried on this high knoll overlooking the river."

Muggs' grave marker notes he was 10 years and 5 months old when he died.

Montford Johnson later designated this as the cemetery.

The Silver City Cemetery is now encircled by a wire fence, but is sited today exactly as Neil Johnson described it in "The Chickasaw Rancher."

The cemetery sits in the middle of privately-owned land two miles north of Tuttle. The cemetery itself now belongs to the city.

"Chincie" Ross, 84, is the keeper of the key to the cemetery gate and she knows a lot about the history of Silver City. She too is Chickasaw. She said "Chincie" is a Chickasaw word.

"Papa said it is a beautiful flower," she said.

The village of Silver City may be gone but the cemetery is still in use.

"There is a space for one more person here," she said, but added that it is not her.

"Chincie" Ross said she will be buried in the Tuttle Cemetery.

Archive ID: 869735