Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:
January 13,
1937
Name: Mr. Burell
Nash
Post Office:
Residence Address: Roff,
Oklahoma
Date of Birth: December 24, 1839
Place of Birth:
Louisana
Father: James Nash
Information on Father: born in Georgia
Mother:
Mary
Perkins
Information on Mother: born in Georgia
Field Worker:
John F.
Daughtery
Interview #9669
My parents were James NASH and Mary PERKINS Nash, both
born in Georgia. There were seven children. Father was a farmer
and mechanic. I was born in Louisiana December 24, 1839.
When I was twenty-one the Civil War began. I
enlisted in the Confederate Army and continued to serve until the end of
1865. My company was stationed on the west side of the Mississippi River
from New Orleans to the Arkansas line. It was very swampy and
many died with malaria fever and smallpox. Our meals consisted of corn
meal mush, hard tack bread, made of corn meal and water, and 'blue'
beef. the cattle were very poor. They were driven to our camps
from Texas and used as we needed them. The beef was so poor that it
stuck like glue to anything it touched. This was put in kettles and
boiled and issued to us in small amounts. there was only one helping of
feed at each meal. We had no plates except what we made of pieces of
tin, picked up as we traveled about. Most of us held our food in our
hands.
One morning a beef was shot and two standing near were
so poor that they fell also. They killed them and skinned all
three. Our coffee was made of wheat bran which was burned then put into
water and boiled. Our meals were very irregular and we became very
hungry and weak from one meal to the next. The coffee was served in tin
cups without cream or sugar.
At last in 1865 the War came to an end and we were free
to go to our homes. I walked as did the others. It took me three
days to reach my home in Louisiana. I had no food except corn bread
which had been issued to us as we were discharged. This gave out and the
last twenty-four hours of my journey I had nothing to eat. That was a
grand reunion with the folks who had remained at home.
I married Susanna HESTER in 1867 and we moved to Texas,
living there for about five years. We moved to the Indian Territory
about 1873 or 1874. We located at Tahlequah in the Cherokee Nation after
traveling for many days driving two yoke of oxen to a tar pole wagon.
The axles of this wagon were of wood and it was greased with pine
tar.
Our mail came to Tahlequah from Fort Gibson. It
came to Fort Gibson from Fort Smith on the stage. Then to Tahlequah in a
horse cart every other day.
While we were here an epidemic of smallpox occurred
which killed many of the Indians. I had gone through the War without
taking smallpox but I got it this time. Doctors were few and hard to get
so I moved to a tent and remained there until I was well. The fresh air
did more toward curing me than anything else we did.
The wild pigeons were numerous at this time. I
have seen them light on limbs of large trees and break them with their weight,
there was so many of them.
We cooked on the fireplace with a skillet and lid.
Our fires were made with spunk and flint rock. I used my old army musket
for killing the wild game which furnished our meat the entire year. I
made my own bullets. I had a bullet mould which made bullets about the
size of a marble. I bought bars of lead about three or four inches in
length, one inch in width and half inch thick. I melted this in an iron
vessel over a very hot fire, poured the melted lead into these moulds and
turned it around until the lead formed round balls. Then I turned it out
on a piece of tin until it cooled and it was ready to put into the old
musket.
My wife made lye soap which was an all purpose soap and
she washed with a battling board. It was my task to pound the dirt from
the wet cloths with this board. I made our shoes. The leather was
tanned with oak bark. The bark was put into boiling water and boiled
until it made a thick ooze. This was poured over the hide causing the
hair to slip. Then the hair was carefully scraped off and the hide was
pulled back and forth across a wooden pole until it was dry. Then it was
ready to be cut into shoes. I had a last which I made of a piece of
wood. If I wanted shoes black I dyed the leather with copperas and
sweet milk. The uppers were sewed by hand with a large needle and strips
of buckskin. Holes were punched with an awl to put the needle
through. Eyelets were made with an awl and the shoes were laced with
buckskin. The soles were tacked on with wooden pegs which were also
homemade.
My horse collars were made of corn shucks plaited
together and covered with rawhide. I also used wooden collars.
These were cut in two sections and rounded to fit the neck of the horse.
They were laced together at the top and bottom with rawhide strings.
When the horse was not wearing the collar the strings had to be buried in the
ground to keep them soft and pliable otherwise they became so stiff they could
not be used. When shuck collars were used I had wooden harness and
rawhide tugs but when the wooden collars were used I did not need
harness. The tugs were of rawhide, also, for the wooden
collars.
There was no such a thing as a barber shop. My
wife trimmed my hair when it was cut. I usually wore it long, almost to
my shoulders.
I moved to Garvin County thirty
years ago and have lived
here continually since that time.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by
Brenda Choate <bcchoate@yahoo.com> November 2000.