rivate room below. The entire structure contains twenty-four rooms, counting basement and cellar. Quite a good-sized structure for those early days.
The church house has long since disappeared. A part of it was sold, taken three miles east of the old site and converted into a farmhouse. The other part was moved four chains north where it was used as a church for a time, but was wrecked so much in moving that it became unsafe. Six years ago it was torn down and such material as was good was used in the construction of the new edifice that graces Hillside Mission. Only the dormitory of the Mission remains intact. It was sold by the trustees in Philadelphia to Mr. Simon M. Abbott, who resides here.
The deed to the four acres that comprise the site of the Mission was executed in Philadelphia. Mr. S. M. Abbott paid $300.00 for the four acres and the pile of buildings. The deed was signed by Walter Smedley, Charles J. Rhoads, Jonathan M. Steele, Alfred J. Scattergood and Thomas Smedley as trustees of the Associated Executive Committee of the Friends
Society of Indian Affairs, Philadelphia. This land was never allotted, but was transferred direct by the government to the Friends Society at Philadelphia.
Hillside Mission became such a prominent school center because it was the only school in this region. But when the allotment of Indian lands took place the Mission began to lose its position. School sites were purchased in the surrounding villages and in the country, and school houses were erected. Free public schools had come and the Mission, with nearly all patronage gone, dwindled along for a time and then finally died out entirely. But during its time the Mission teachers trained many of the most prominent men of this section of the state. The school was attended by Cherokees, Shawnees and Osages, and many white children also attended here. Board and lodging were $8.00 per month.
In 1885, Hillside cemetery was founded. In this year, a seventeen-year old boy by the name of Jesse Robenett died. Murdock called a meeting of the members to decide on a location for a cemetery. The present site of the cemetery was selected then Jesse R.obenett was the first of twelve hundred who have been buried there.
Among the noted Indians who have been buried at Hillside Mission are Chief W. C. Rogers and Chief George Tiner. Both of these men were powers in their day. Many of their relatives live in and near Skiatook.
Up to the time of the establishing of Hillside Cemetery, there were no cemeteries in the country. The Indians had their own burial places close to their houses. On the Tom White farm one-half mile north of Skiatook, there is a private cemetery with a dozen graves plowed over each season and no one is the wiser. There are lone graves all over Tulsa County in which sleep men who have been killed in fights or brawls.
In those early days, it took religious zeal to generate the desire to establish schools in this wilderness. But an instance of such enthusiasm for an institution of this kind was manifested by the Friends Society of Philadelphia that resulted in the founding of Hillside Mission. This old landmark is a testimonial to the religious zeal and educational ideas of the successors of William Penn who got on with the Indians. This good fellowship of colonial days was reproduced in the early days at Hillside Mission.