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Connell, Charles T.

[Illustrated trade card of T. Connell, Indian trader and cattle supplies dealer, etc.] T. Connell, Till Lincoln, Manager. Postoffice address, Darlington, Indian Territory.

Darlington, Indian Territory, [ca. 1884]. Trade card, 2.75” x 4.5”. CONDITION: Very good.

A rare illustrated trade card for Indian trader Charles T. Connell, who also dealt in cattle supplies, camp supplies, and a range of other goods.

The card features illustrations of livestock, both bovine and equine, each animal bearing a distinct brand. One Mr. Till Lincoln is identified as the manager of Connell’s operation, which sold cattle supplies, among other goods. Various ads placed by Connell in the Cheyenne Transporter during the 1880s feature dozens of similar illustrations representing the livestock of a range of identified owners from both Indian Territory and Kansas. Two of the brands pictured on this card can be identified from those ads: Dean Bros. of Arkansas City, Kansas (“D D”), who were “breeders of thorough-bred and graded short-horn cattle,” and A. J. Fitzpatrick of Darlington, Indian Territory (“A E”). 

Born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, “Captain” Charles T. Connell (1859–1934) studied at Mount Pleasant Military Academy in New York. In 1879, he immigrated to Arizona where he worked with John P. Clum, an Indian agent for the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The following year, Connell oversaw Arizona’s inaugural Indian census. By the 1880s, he was working as a government scout and Indian trader, the latter his occupation from about 1881 to 1886 at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency at Darlington, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). A successor to George E. Reynolds & Co., Connell is known to have sold Apache curiosities, dry goods and clothing, camp supplies, groceries, as well as cattle supplies (“of all kinds, and Cattle Men will find it to their interest to give us their trade”) (Cheyenne Transporter). One 1883 ad states: “We always have on hand a supply of Indian Trinkets, which it will be well for those seeking Indian mementoes to examine” (Cheyenne Transporter). Connell traveled widely to sell his goods—to Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, and Washington State. In 1883, the Arizona Silver Belt reported on allegations that Connell had misappropriated government property and also that he employed the clerk, John B. Burgess, “who was driven from the reservation for selling fire-arms to Indians.” Connell sold his store in 1886.

In 1884 he began serving as a deputy U.S. Marshall for Arizona Territory’s southern district. Connell also worked as a superintendent for a mining operation outside of Tucson, and in 1896 he was elected Tucson recorder, a position he held until 1903. In this year he was employed as a federal immigration inspector in Arizona, serving until 1910, when he was reassigned to Los Angeles. Connell penned a string of articles for the Tucson Citizen, titled “The Apache, Past and Present” in 1921, and also published articles on Arizona history. He retired from government service in 1931, the year he traveled with former President Calvin Coolidge to the dedication of Coolidge Dam near Gila, Arizona. He died in Los Angeles in 1934.

No examples recorded in OCLC, nor do Google searches yield any.

REFERENCES: “Connell, Charles T. 1859 - 1934 Papers, 1905-1934” at Arizona Historical Society online; Arizona Silver Belt, Sept. 9, 1882, p. 3; Cheyenne Transporter (Darlington, Oklahoma), Apr. 25, 1881, p. 5, Nov. 25, 1882, p. 7, Apr. 26, 1883, p. 10, and Mar. 4, 1886, p. 5; Arizona Silver Belt, Mar. 24, 1883, p. 2.

Item #8876

Price: $650.00

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