^ 7 0 IB****, BEN, I* 3 * 7

Transcription

1 ^ 7 0 IB****, BEN, I* 3 * 7

2 Form,A-(S-149) - BIOGRAPHY FORM WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma Field Worker's name" This report made on (date). 7 J 1, Name 2. Post Office Address 3. Residence address (or location) 4. DATE OF BIRTH: Month ear 5, Place of birth QotJUn «-.*4 «*»» 6. Name of Father Place of bifbh Other information about father 7. Namefof Mother Place of birth ^ Other information about mother Notes or complete narrativo by the field worker dealing with the flife and story of the person interviewed,. Refer to'manual for'suggested subjects and questions. Continue on blank'sheets if necessary and attach'firmly to this form. Number of- sheets attached. > i

3 272 i, B I was /born in the Chootaw Nation, two miles west of Gobdland* My father freighted his supplies from Parity Texas* > a f ei There were «few white men there, but mostly Indians, who had been moved there from Mississippi* There was s Method!at Church there and Mr, Stark was the preacher* ' - x When X was five or six years old, ay father sold out and moved to Boggy Depot, which is in the western part of the Choctew Nation* I attended ay first school therej/ it was a /subscription sohool* The building was made of logs* core red with slab boards* Our desks * I I ' I were hoxne~xne,de fend the -seats were wide enough for four or five children. The teacher was an old maid but I don*t renembezj her name* Church was held every Sunday in the school house and Alien Wright was the preacher* He was a Presbyterian, and he preached in both English and Chootati} as there were always s great many Choc taw* attended who didn't understand Snglieh* In the. sumaers sig csnp aestings would be hel< in the open, and nearly everyone in the surrounding COUB %rf would attend* The meetings would -ssjae^lioes last ovex a week, wil was carried to Boggy Depot on the stags,

4 r 7BBBHY, BBN. from points in Kansas end Texas* Jttlius felson* a Choctaw Iridien, ownea a toll bridge across Boggy Creek, near Boggy Depot* X nave seen aa many as fifty wagons* lssded witu applec, from Missouri, and Arkansas, cross the toll bridge in one day* Most of these wagons yere bound for Texan* In Texas the apples and moat / of the time the wagon,/and teama, were sold. "\ b The charge for crossing the toll bridge was twenty-fire eenta per wegon* X here seen thousands of Texas longhorns trail through Boggy Dep,ot, The most of th/em were driven to ' Joplin, Kitsourl, where they were loaded and shipped to m«rket. One herd of 17,000 head wek dxlten through* X averaged seeing one herd, being driven through a week* There wasn't -very much fanning done around Boggy Depot f but some cotton and corn was raised* Moat of' the fel: farising was done with work ateers* The cotton wade about i bale to the acre, and ginned at Boggy Depot with a horse*power gin* The cot ten waa earried in basket, and dumped in the gin* Her it was pressed and ' ' baled with what was called a screw press* A team was / hitched to the preat, and was driven in a circle* This caused the preae to screw down tighter* The cotton sold for about four cents a pound*

5 BRf«IlftlRVItf. 274 The corn made about forty or fifty bushels to the i., tore, and nearly ill that was sold was, sold to Isnlgrante for two dollars and fifty cents per bushel*'. In thoss days. If a parson was caught steeling ha vaa laahad ttorosp tha back ulth a place of raw-bi.de. If ha mis. cengbt the aaoond tlmt, «Mch asually ha wasn't,, * - *.,, ha was tlad to a traa and shot fall of hplas. U6m\ of tha Indians had spinning u&aals and looms. In staking whatsras ^than oontnonly known as jasns cloth, thay fi'i»t spua the warp on.their spinning wheel* This warp «was than put In tha loom, the thread* running perpendicularly. This warp was made of cotton, wool was spun on the spinning wheel and tied at tha bottom of tha loom,, and/waa woted baok and forth, horizontally. Thla wool itrlag was oallad the filler, AS the cloth waa. woven, thare was a roller on the bottom of the loom that the cloth was wound on to. Panto and shirts made of thla jeans, cloth, aid would wear from two to four years* usually thay ware' dyed with dye made from, oak bark or blaftk walaat hulls. ; Both nada a brown dye* but tha black \ \ > ; < r walaaut hulls made the datkeat dye. Oak bark and black * V. -*> 1 v ' " - walnut hulls were both boiled In water to make the dye.

6 p, 5 There were a few Cherokee Indians at Boggy/Depot They were a bttter ahot? with a bow. and arrow then the Chootaws. They could ahoot a^squirral out of a tree,* standing fifty yards away* * There were lota of deer, wild turkey, prairie ohickena, quail and lots of rroile-footed wild hogs. The hogs 11 Ted on aoorna and peoana, and made rery good meat. Dr. Sunn and Dr. Lindaey war* our doc tore at Boggy Depot, and G» B. Heater and Joe Phillipi each ran'a general ue roan tile store. About 1888,1 morad near Caddo., Wilson Jonea^a fullblood cfioetaw Indian^waa one of the biggeat cow-men in the country* His brand waa W. J*, and ha ran about sight thou8end~s9a4 of cattle* Ba alao owned a store aerenteen milaa act of Caddo. In the auibwra naarly ereryone would gat together and catch fish, and hare big fish frya. There «ere plenty of fish in all of the streams. When the Choctawa were allotted I took xay place,. four ailes aouthaaat of Alex, and X an ^etill living on it.