I just have just a few pieces of information
about how Mamma’s[i] family came from Arkansas to Indian Territory.
When the Rossers started west from Georgia after
the Civil War, they had intended to join Grandpa’s brother Ed in Texas, but
circumstances changed. Their oldest daughter Cora married a man in Marvell,
Arkansas, near Palmer Station, where they were living, and Grandpa was elected
magistrate, so they stayed for a while, 7 years, but something else happened
that caused them to change their plans.
Mamma’s mother, Emily Bass Rosser, was expecting
a large inheritance from her father in Alabama, but when word of Emily’s
father’s death finally came, the inheritance turned out to be only a few gold
coins, the equivalent of about $50, so they realized they were on their own.
I have no proof of it, and no one is left for me
to ask, but I think Grandpa might have been influenced by my mother’s other
grandfather, Sam Paul, a Chickasaw Indian. Sam Paul, was a “Progressive” among
the Chickasaws, favoring the influx of white settlers, and according to some
notes made by my uncle Haskell, he made trips to Arkansas and also to Texas to
invite settlers to come to Indian Territory. Of course this scared the be-Jesus
out of the more traditional full-bloods, or “Pull Backs.” They were used to
living in a communal style, sharing land and other resources among themselves,
and just wanted to be left alone.
Sam Paul, probably influenced more by his more
ambitious father, Smith Paul, a Scotsman, thought the Indians could make money
by renting their land to settlers, and could also benefit from the businesses
and “civilization” the white men brought. He was also a politician, popular
among the intermarried white citizens, and leader of the Chickasaw
“Progressive” party.
Anyway, I wonder if Grandpa Rosser was persuaded
to come to Indian Territory by one of Sam Paul’s talks. If the farm land in the
Washita River valley was as good as Sam Paul claimed, maybe Grandpa could to
provide for his four remaining daughters until they were married and
independent. Ada, their youngest was only 9 (est.) Mamma was 11.
Mamma told about coming to Indian Territory with
her family in an interview in 1937: [ii]
I came to the Indian Territory with my father and mother. We were moving from Mississippi to the Indian Territory in wagons, working horses and oxen in 1889. I was eleven years old. I remember people telling my father that he would have to be on the lookout for horse thieves. We had some trouble while crossing Arkansas, but after we crossed into the Indian Territory we never were bothered by anyone. My father would buy feed from the Indians and they were the most accommodating people I ever met. We came through Muskogee but there wasn't much of a town there then. At that time there were but few roads and at times it looked as if it would be impossible to go any farther. After several months of traveling over rough country we located at Pauls Valley. My Father traded the ox team, a tent and a few horses to Mr John Burks for a lease that had a two room log house on it. This lease had never been worked but there was a plowed furrow around it. My father and brother began putting this prairie land in cultivation. There was open range at that time, and you could have all the hogs and cattle you wanted to own, but you had to have your brand and mark on them.
There was an Indian law at that time between the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians that if anyone's cattle grazed over on the other's territory the person owning the cattle would be tried by the Indian laws and given the death sentence. They would carry out this sentence too but when anyone was given the death penalty for some crime under the Indian law he would be given an honor parole for a certain time in order to visit his family and straighten up his affairs. Then on the day set for him to die, this person would be at the place set and right on time.
It cost five dollars a year permit for a family to live in the Indian Territory and two dollars and fifty cents for a single man. There would be collectors come around and collect this fee and if the collectors did not turn in all that he had collected then he would be tried under the Indian law and given so many lashes across the back. They had a whipping post at the place where the court was held.
The Choctaws held court at Eagle Town and the Chickasaws held court at Tishomingo.
I have heard my husband say he went to school at Cherokee town[iii] and at that time there was a church there. It was called a community church. My husband was Bill Paul, Sr., a grandson of Smith Paul, the man for whom Pauls Valley was named.
Amos Waite built the first schoolhouse in Pauls Valley and it was a subscription school.[iv] A Mr Mackey taught this school. My father lived southwest of Pauls Valley about six miles, and my sister and I had to come to Pauls Valley to school. There were several children who lived in this community who had to come to Pauls Valley to school, so my father and several other men bought a frame building at Pauls Valley and moved it to this community. They made a school building out of it and this school was called Red Branch school. Today it is called Klondike.
[i]
I’ll refer to my ancestors the way my mother did, since she’s my main source of
information.
[ii] Indian Pioneer papers: Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma. 9/14/37. Mrs Victoria Paul, Pauls Valley Okla, Date of birth 1878. Mississippi, Father JT Rosser, born in Va, Mother Emily Bass, born in Alabama, Interview 8492 by Maurice R Anderson. OKGenWeb @ rootsweb.com
[iii]
It’s interesting how Cherokee Town got its name. After Texas won its
independence from Mexico, they attackedand destroyed a large settlement of
Cherokees. Sam Houston, incidentally, who had been adopted by the Cherokees,
tried unsuccessfully to intervene. The Cherokee families, driven from their
homes, made the long journey to join their kin in the northern part of Indian
Territory. On their way, they camped for a while just north of the future site
of Pauls Valley. Later a small town sprung up there and it was called Cherokee
Town, in their honor.
[iv] The Waites are our cousins and a quite remarkable family. My mother’s
paternal g-grandmother, Ela-teecha, a full blood Chickasaw Indian, was born
back in the Chickasaw homeland, near what is now Tupelo, Mississippi. Her first
husband was a Scottish missionary, Jason McClure, with whom she had two
children, Tecumseh and Catherine. McClure died in Indian Territory after the
trail of tears, and Ela-teecha remarried, the second time to my mother’s
g-grandfather, Smith Paul. Anyway, Tecumseh was quite prominent, serving for a
time as Chickasaw Governor. Unlike his half brother Sam Paul, he was in the
Pull Back political party and opposed white settlement. He also favored setting
aside tribal land as a wildlife preserve. Catherine, Ela-teecha’s other child
by McClure, married a white man, Tom Waite, who like many others, had come to
Indian Territory seeking land. They had eight children together, two boys and
six girls, and all were college educated. I think that is remarkable, not just
that they were able to do it, but that they valued education that much. Tom
Waite died in 1874 and Catherine actually moved to Ohio so that her daughters
would have access to an education. Amos, as noted above, started the first
school in Pauls Valley, and his brother Fred was Speaker of the Chickasaw House
of Representatives, and Attorney General for the tribe.
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