W. R. Drew


Drew, W.R. 

Residence: Doughtery, OK 

Field Worker, John F. Doughtery 

Date:  December 14, 1937
Interview:  #9418
Address: Doughtery, OK
Born: October 8, 1955
Place of Birth: Missouri
Father: Ben Drew, born in Kentucky, Farmer
Mother: Mahaley Cook Drew, born in Tennessee


My parents were Ben Drew, born in Kentucky, and Mahaley Cook Drew, born in Tennessee. There were five children in our family. Father was a farmer. I was born in Missouri, October 8, 1855.

I was married to Sarah Cody in Texas in 1880 and we moved to the Territory in 1883 in a covered wagon, crossing Red River at Colbert's Ferry.

We settled on a farm belonging to Mazeppa Turner near Doughtery. I raised corn, cotton and some sugar cane from which we made syrup for winter use. We didn't buy much sugar and the sorghum took its place for eating and cooking purposes.

I hauled my cotton to the Nathan Price Gin in Sorghum Flat near Doughtery.  They tolled the cotton for pay for ginning. Mr. Price had a stall in which his toll was put as the cotton was ginned. This was a water mill also, run by an overshot wheel. He ground corn and wheat and ginned cotton.

I often bought a winter's supply of groceries at Gainesville. The ferry across
Red River was pulled on cables. These were tied to the tops of trees on each bank of the river. A rope pulled the ferry and a long pole guided it. Some times the river got so low that we had to drive from the main channel onto the sand-bar, or in shallow water, to the opposite bank. The boat was large enough to put two wagons and teams across.

There was much sickness, especially chills and fever, due to cutting the timber and deadening it. As it soured, it caused people to have malaria. The few doctors in this country were kept busy. They gave quinine and red pepper to break the fever and chills.

Game was plentiful and the streams were abundant with fish. Wild hogs were numerous and when we wanted beef we killed any number that we wanted from the herds of cattle grazing nearby. That was the custom in those days. Usually  neighbors got together, killed the beef and divided it. In this way we often had fresh beef.

I paid a $5.00 permit each year to the Chickasaw Government and a tax of 25 cents per head on my cattle.  We had to go to Mill Creek for our mail about once a month.  I have lived in and near Doughtery since coming to the Territory in 1883.


Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief,  November, 2000.