Ela Teecha and Smith Paul, my great great grandparents
John Paul Jones was only the first in a long line of our family's outstanding members, and my mother began early to teach me about them. After John Paul Jones there was Smith Paul, who ran away from his home in Newbern, NC, at the age of eleven, and was adopted by the Chickasaw Indians. He was Jim's great grandfather. When the Chickasaws were forced to leave their homelands in Mississippi in 1837, Smith came with them to the present state of Oklahoma, on what the Indians called their "Trail of Tears". There he married a full blood Indian woman named Ela Teecha. They raised a family together and Smith became a wealthy farmer. When the railroad was built in 1887, Smith Paul gave up part of his corn field for a town site, and the town was named Pauls Valley in his honor.
As Smith Paul became older, his son Samuel, Jim's grandfather, took over the farm, and became a prominent politician in the government of the sovereign Chickasaw Nation. Sam Paul was assassinated for his political beliefs in 1891, making orphans of his sons, Buck and Jim's father Bill. After statehood Bill became a wealthy real estate broker and Jim's family were prosperous. When I was a child there was a large building in downtown Pauls Valley with Jim's father's name, "W H Paul," engraved into the cornice.
John Paul Jones was only the first in a long line of our family's outstanding members, and my mother began early to teach me about them. After John Paul Jones there was Smith Paul, who ran away from his home in Newbern, NC, at the age of eleven, and was adopted by the Chickasaw Indians. He was Jim's great grandfather. When the Chickasaws were forced to leave their homelands in Mississippi in 1837, Smith came with them to the present state of Oklahoma, on what the Indians called their "Trail of Tears". There he married a full blood Indian woman named Ela Teecha. They raised a family together and Smith became a wealthy farmer. When the railroad was built in 1887, Smith Paul gave up part of his corn field for a town site, and the town was named Pauls Valley in his honor.
As Smith Paul became older, his son Samuel, Jim's grandfather, took over the farm, and became a prominent politician in the government of the sovereign Chickasaw Nation. Sam Paul was assassinated for his political beliefs in 1891, making orphans of his sons, Buck and Jim's father Bill. After statehood Bill became a wealthy real estate broker and Jim's family were prosperous. When I was a child there was a large building in downtown Pauls Valley with Jim's father's name, "W H Paul," engraved into the cornice.
I also learned that Jim's older brother, Homer, had been the youngest man ever to be elected to the Oklahoma state legislature, and that her brother Haskell was a prominent attorney in Pauls Valley.
And that was just the Paul side of the family. Jim's mother was a Rosser, and her 'people' had been wealthy plantation owners from Georgia. 'Grandpa' Rosser had fought for the South during the Civil War, and when the fighting was over he took his young bride and joined the stream of emigrants heading west. Despite the hardships, Grandpa, or "Captain Rosser," as he was known, together with his wife Emily, managed to provide Jim's mother, named Victoria after the English queen, and her four sisters with an education in literature, art, music, and etiquette. The girls were not raised to work but were expected to marry well and become mistresses of an estate. They learned to garden, and to arrange flowers, to crochette and to knit, and to make beautiful dresses and artistic table decorations.
When Victoria fell in love with a handsome Chickasaw Indian, her family was horrified, but they consoled themselves with the knowledge that he was rich. I have a letter to 'Mamma' from her grandmother in Georgia in July of 1898. Grandma Lumpkin - she had married a Lumpkin after Grandpa's father died - commented that 'Pappa' seemed "a fine substantial looking fellow, and strong," admonishing Mamma to "be a very good wife - amiable and sweet tempered, as you will have everything that you desire without having to work and make it."
Jim had been taught that her people were special. Gentility and culture had been bred into them from the Rosser side of the family, and a native toughness and adaptability from the Pauls. I grew up thinking that being a Paul or a Rosser was kind of like being a Kennedy or a Rockefeller. We were all capable of greatness, and if we failed, it was because something had gone terribly wrong.
Well, something went terribly wrong pretty often in our family. Maybe that's why Jim clung so hard to her belief in our nobility.
I eventually questioned Jim's attempt to instill this family pride in me, and I came to view it with a kind of embarrassment. I remember asking her fifteen or twenty years ago why she spent so much time on her scrapbooks. She replied that she was saving things for me, and maybe some day I'd appreciate them.
I don't want to imply that my mother went around with her nose on the top of her head. Jim was very personable, and gregarious. She took an interest in everyone she met, and everyone liked her, but Jim was complicated. She liked or disliked people on different levels. There were people of quality, and people with good qualities, but most important was family. "Blood is thicker than water" was what she used to say.
And that was just the Paul side of the family. Jim's mother was a Rosser, and her 'people' had been wealthy plantation owners from Georgia. 'Grandpa' Rosser had fought for the South during the Civil War, and when the fighting was over he took his young bride and joined the stream of emigrants heading west. Despite the hardships, Grandpa, or "Captain Rosser," as he was known, together with his wife Emily, managed to provide Jim's mother, named Victoria after the English queen, and her four sisters with an education in literature, art, music, and etiquette. The girls were not raised to work but were expected to marry well and become mistresses of an estate. They learned to garden, and to arrange flowers, to crochette and to knit, and to make beautiful dresses and artistic table decorations.
When Victoria fell in love with a handsome Chickasaw Indian, her family was horrified, but they consoled themselves with the knowledge that he was rich. I have a letter to 'Mamma' from her grandmother in Georgia in July of 1898. Grandma Lumpkin - she had married a Lumpkin after Grandpa's father died - commented that 'Pappa' seemed "a fine substantial looking fellow, and strong," admonishing Mamma to "be a very good wife - amiable and sweet tempered, as you will have everything that you desire without having to work and make it."
Jim had been taught that her people were special. Gentility and culture had been bred into them from the Rosser side of the family, and a native toughness and adaptability from the Pauls. I grew up thinking that being a Paul or a Rosser was kind of like being a Kennedy or a Rockefeller. We were all capable of greatness, and if we failed, it was because something had gone terribly wrong.
Well, something went terribly wrong pretty often in our family. Maybe that's why Jim clung so hard to her belief in our nobility.
I eventually questioned Jim's attempt to instill this family pride in me, and I came to view it with a kind of embarrassment. I remember asking her fifteen or twenty years ago why she spent so much time on her scrapbooks. She replied that she was saving things for me, and maybe some day I'd appreciate them.
I don't want to imply that my mother went around with her nose on the top of her head. Jim was very personable, and gregarious. She took an interest in everyone she met, and everyone liked her, but Jim was complicated. She liked or disliked people on different levels. There were people of quality, and people with good qualities, but most important was family. "Blood is thicker than water" was what she used to say.
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