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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: October 13, 1937
Name: Bunk Moncrief
Post Office: Chickasha, Oklahoma
Residence Address: Route #1
Date of Birth: January 13, 1879
Place of Birth: Chickasaw-Choctaw Nation
Father: William Moncrief
Place of Birth: Skullyville, Indian Territory
Information on father:
Mother: Pauline Lina Maupin
Place of birth: Kentucky
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Thad Smith, Jr.
Interview # 8832
 
An Interview with Bunk Moncrief
Chickasha, Oklahoma

I was born in the Chickasaw Nation, on Roaring Creek, in 1879.

My father was a farmer and trader. He raised corn to feed his cows, horses, hogs and chickens. He bought his supplies at Pauls Valley.

In 1886, when I was seven years old, I went to stay with my Grandmother Moncrief, who lived on the Little Washita River, about three miles south of where the Fred post office was. My grandmother had one of the first herds of Durham cattle that there was in the country and her brand was M+. The country was all open, but her cattle never strayed far.

My grandmother was a widow, and the cowboys were kind enough to keep a watch over her cattle, even though they never worked for her. If they would find one of her cows several miles from home, they would bring or send it back. That is one outstanding thing about the frontier men; they would all help, and respect women.

Dave and Scott COOK had the post office at Fred, and they ran a general merchandise store. Mail was delivered at Fred about once a week, being carried in a stage coach or hack. From Fred the stage coach went to Anadarko, and then back on its way to Pauls Valley and Caddo.

I went to school in a little one-room cottonwood box house in Fred. The benches we sat on and the tables we used for desks were made of cottonwood; the lumber used to build our school house and desks came from Bitter Creek, where there was a sawmill.

There were about twenty five school children going to school at Fred and most all of them rode to school horseback. Our teacher’s name was Bud GIBBS. Our school books were made by McGuffey and we used a slate instead of pencil and paper.

All of the children brought their lunches, which consisted mostly of biscuits and meat.

After going to school at Fred several terms I was sent to Sacred Heart, a Catholic Missionary School in the Pottawatomie County. I was treated very nice there, and they fed us good. After going to school there one term, I quit school.

In 1895, when I was sixteen years old, I saddled my horse and made a trip to Texas by myself, hunting work. The people along the way whom I stayed overnight with treated me nice, fed me and my horse and never charged me anything.

I got a job in Texas working on a big cattle ranch, and stayed there one year then returned to my parent’s home on the north side of the Washita River just north of Chickasha.

I was allotted five miles northwest of Chickasha. I am one-eighth Chickasaw.

[Submitter's Comment: Jeff Moncrief, oldest son of William and Pauline Lina Maupin Moncrief]

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Submitted by Sandi Carter, First cousin twice removed <SandKatC@aol.com> 02-2000.