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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:  March 10,1938
Name:  David Henry Cochran
Post Office:  Waurika, Oklahoma
Residence:  407 West E. Avenue
Date of Birth:  April 15, 1862
Place of Birth:  Canton, Cherokee County, Georgia
Name of father:  Henry Cochran
Place of birth:  Cherokee County Georgia
Name of mother:  Sarah Durham
Place of birth:  Dawson County, Georgia
Field workers name:  Ethel V. Elder

My father was named Henry Cochran. He was born in 1844 in Cherokee County, Georgia. My mother's name was Sarah Durham. She was born in Dawson County, Georgia, died in 1871 and is buried also in the state of Georgia.

My father married when he was very young. The first time he married a girl from Ireland but she did not live very long and after she died my father came to Montague county, Texas, where he met another girl and they were married and went back to Georgia after a time. There five of us children were born. I was the second oldest boy and there were three girls. I was eight years old when my mother died.

I married and lived on a farm about fifteen miles from my father's home for two years when we went to Montague County, Texas, and lived on a farm there for about fourteen years and then went over close to Nocona, Texas, and lived on a farm there for eight years and then I decided to come over to the Indian Territory in 1896. We crossed Red River close to Nocona at the Seay Crossing; we forded the river as it was very shallow at that time. I was driving horses to my wagon and had a few head of cows.

We first located on Mud Creek about ten miles east of what we called Big Valley, on a farm and lived there about six years; then came to the place where Waurika is now, living here for about three years when we went to Agawam, where we lived six years and I worked for the Rock
Island Railroad as Section Foreman.

Leaving Agawam I came back to Waurika and worked for the railroad for two years, then my health began to fail so I had to get out of the heavy work and I started running a peanut and pop corn stand and ran that for about fifteen years, as long as I was able to work. 

We have had eight children born to us, one of whom is dead. The others now have families of their own. 

When time came to register for the drawing of land. I went to Fort sill and registered but was unlucky as I did not draw a lucky number.

The Oscar toll bridge down near Alexander on the Red River is the only one that I had any experience with.

When they had a camp meeting they would build an arbor and people would come for miles and miles around, some driving horses, some mules and some would drive their ox teams. They would put up little shacks like for those who camped to sleep in, in case of rain, and they cooked out
in the open on the fire. several hundred people would come, not all, however camping all the time, for these meetings would last for two and three weeks at a time. The preachers who held the meetings were named Thad PICKETT and Henry INGHRAM, both very fine preachers.

Suggs Brothers, Bryant and Barefoot were the largest cattle ranchers whom I knew in Oklahoma and the Territory. Most of the cattle were driven to Kansas City to be marketed; some of the larger cattleman would come through the country and buy up a large herd of cattle and then market them in Texas or Kansas City.

Some of the old timers whom I remember were Neily SPRING, Hardy POOL, Keith BAREN and Jim GARDNER. There was a large number of buffalo hides, cow hides and wolf hides and many other things for which there was a sale.

I was present at the Comanche and Kiowa opening; they surveyed the land off in quarter sections and there was one drawing each day and sometimes it would take four and five days or even a week to complete the drawing as just so many lucky numbers would be drawn each day.

I used to work ox teams to the plows and then we would work them to the wagons and after the Civil War that was the way we went to church, riding in wagons and driving oxen. When I lived here in the Indian Territory I lived in a tent for a long time and that was when every man you met had a gun in his belt and one tied to his saddle. I have always tried to be a law-abiding citizen and am not bragging but I never have been arrested, never paid a fine and never was in court in my life and have never been sued. I joined the Baptist church when I was sixteen years old and have tried to live the right life.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Carol Bishop, great granddaughter of David Henry Cochran   <caroljo@cableone.net> August 2000. [email updated Jun 2002]