Inspired Creek

Last week a rich old man died in what the Press called his "palatial home" near Los Angeles. His age was assumed to be 92 years. His importance could be gauged by the fact that before his funeral the Federal Government in Washington dispatched a telegram forbidding burial without its consent.

About the time John Tyler was President of the U. S., the Creeks were looking with awe and reverence on a child that had been born among them near Fort Sill. Like most primitive peoples they regarded half-wits as inspired. Nearly fifty years passed and the inspired child grew to middle age. In Grover Cleveland's time he was making 75-c- a day as a farm hand near Henryetta, Okla., living in a miserable shack, dressing in dirty blankets. The people of Henryetta knew him as Crazy Jack but on the Government's records he was set down as Jackson Barnett.

In Benjamin Harrison's time the Department of Interior began to allot farms to the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. To Jackson Barnett, for his very own, went 160 acres in eastern Oklahoma which he did not bother to go and look at. In 1912 after Crazy Jack had lived peaceably through the administrations of 18 Presidents, something happened to him. A man came, gave him $800, got him to put his thumb print on a paper granting the right to drill for oil on his farm for which he was to receive a royalty of one-eighth of all oil produced. The great Gushing Oil Pool had been discovered adjoining his land.

From that time on Crazy Jack began to visit law courts. He was not worried by litigation. In fact he often fell asleep on the benches in courtrooms. A rival oilman had his first lease cancelled in court and Crazy Jack declared incompetent. A local businessman was appointed his guardian. Soon his farm was producing 12,000 bbl. of oil a day and his income had reached $60,000 a month.

Other oil-rich Indians squandered their money on grand pianos and limousines. But Jackson Barnett continued living on $50 a month. He was on every "sucker list" in the land and untold sharpers tried to victimize him but he understood too little to fall for their blandishments. During the War his guardian invested $1,400,000 of his money in Liberty Bonds. By 1920 he was worth probably $4,000,000. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs let him give $25,000 each to seven local churches. $400,000 for missionary work and $1,000,000 to found an Indian hospital.

Adventure came to him in the person of Anna Laura Lowe, a white widow woman. A court decision described what followed: "Barnett was kidnapped by an adventuress." All through one night they rode in a taxi to Coffeyville, Kans. where they were married. Then they crossed the State line to Missouri and were married again.

In 1923 Jackson Barnett and his wife went to Washington. His wife's lawyer was a smart young Kansan named Harold McGugin. The Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Fall, obligingly agreed to let Jackson Barnett give half a million dollars in Liberty Bonds to the Baptist Home Mission Society and another half million to Mrs. Barnett. Of the latter sum $135,000 was alleged to have gone to Lawyer McGugin.

Afterwards the Barnetts moved to Los Angeles, acquired a fine house, and Crazy Jack kept a stableful of Indian ponies. They lived comfortably on the $2,500 a month alloted him by the Government. Crazy Jack was contented. His chief pleasure was standing on the curb before the house, pretending to be a traffic cop and holding up his hand at automobiles. The only disruption of his last days occurred in March when the Government finally got a court to annul his marriage. That meant little to him, however, for the Lowe woman stayed on as his housekeeper.

Death did not end, however, the story of the richest U. S. Indian. Indian Commissioner John Collier had the burial post-poned because Barnett's ex-wife wanted to bury him in California while some of his Indian relatives wanted him brought back to Oklahoma. Before the funeral Hubert Howard Barnett, 27, claiming to be a nephew, asked to be made administrator of his estate. And Mrs. Lowe said that under California law she would demand a 50% share of the estate.

Already the Government has got back from the Chase National Bank with which it was trusteed, the half million dollars which Jackson Barnett gave the Baptist Home missions. It is suing Washington's Riggs National Bank to recover $200,000 trusteed there for Mrs. Barnett out of the "donation" made to her. It is also suing Lawyer McGugin for the sum he received.

Harold McGugin in the meantime was too smart to remain unknown. In 1926 he was elected to the Kansas Legislature. He promptly proposed a law forbidding Kansans to eat mince pie. It was foolish but it made Kansans see the folly of their law against cigarets. Legislator McGugin made his political name by getting Kansas' anti-cigaret law repealed.

In 1930 he was elected to Congress on an anti-corporation farming platform, is today one of the noisiest Republican hecklers in the House. He shouted loudly over the tax bill and tried to block it by getting a sales tax included. He shouted loudly over Dr. Wirt and the iniquities of the Brain Trust. Last week he got into an argument with Speaker Rainey over a question of procedure and tied up business in the House for an hour and a quarter until he was finally and decisively voted down. Several Democrats saluted him with Indian war-whoops, as a subtle reminder that the judge who voided Barnett's marriage to Anna Laura Lowe remarked in his decision: "The conclusion is inescapable on the evidence that Mrs. Lowe and her Attorney McGugin were working in harmony and complete accord with the Indian agent to gain control of a large portion of the bonds."

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