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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:
Name: Sampson Scott
Post Office: Farris, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1877
Place of Birth: near Boswell, Indian Territory
Father: Abner Scott
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Celey Scott
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker:
 
I was born near what is known as Boswell, back in the Territory days when it was in Jackson County (it is now Choctaw County) in the year 1877. I don't know what month it was nor the day, but it was in that year.

Father's name was Abner Scott, and my mother's name was Celey Scott; they lived near Boswell. My grandfather came from Mississippi, and located at this place, where they lived until their death, my father and mother lived there until their death. There was neither railroad nor town there where we lived and we used to go to Texas for our groceries. Most of the Indians went to Bonham, Texas to do their trading, and I think my father went there to do his trading.

My grandfather told my father that they had a hard time getting into this new country; they had a man with them who was sent by the Government to pilot the move here; he was a hard man and had no mercy on any of them and they had but very little to eat, very little clothes on their backs, and it was cold. They were driven like they were a bunch of cattle and many Indians died on this Trail of Tears. A good many of them froze to death.

There were several children who froze to death and they had to go without anything to eat for several days. If the men had anything they would give to the women and children and do without themselves; they had but very little clothes to put on their backs, so when they pitched camp they would have to build up a big camp fire and sit up. They would let the children and women have what bedclothes they had and would sit up and build a fire to keep from freezing to death.

It took them a long while to get over here from the old country but they finally got here. After they got here they had a hard time getting themselves located and after they got located, they had to build a house. Some had axes, while some of them did not have an ax with them, so they had to borrow from the neighbors. They would give one another help to build houses out of logs, they would give a "working" or a "house raising" where they would all get together and build the houses. They had no floors because they had no lumber to floor the houses so they would not floor them, but after the dirt got hard it was just like a floor anyway. After I was grown we had that kind of flooring in our house, it was a dirt floor.

After they located the Government helped them some with a few garden seeds and corn. They fenced a small patch for their corn and garden and after the first year they got along pretty well. It was not like the old country, for this country was a new country to them and it took them a long time to get used to living here. They had lots of wild game such as deer, turkeys, squirrels and plenty of fish in the creeks, but they had no food stuff such as flour, meal and other things that they had to have, and they raised some corn. They then made a meal by beating it in a mortar and they lived very well then for they could make different kinds of food out of corn. This mortar was made out of a block of wood about three feet high and square at both ends. They would start a hole with an ax, then they would put coals of fire in it and they would keep this up for a week or two before the hole would get deep enough to clean out. It would be about six or seven inches deep, it was a round bowl when it was finished, then they would put the corn in the bowl and beat it until it was made into meal. Sometimes they would soak the corn in a kettle or a tub of some kind and let it soak for a day or two, then they would grit it and make corn bread that way. I used to see Mother go out into the woods and dig up some roots, that she made bread out of. I don't know just what kind of roots she got, but after she would beat them into a fine meal it was just as good as flour bread. We did not have but very little flour bread to eat, for we could not get it and we lived principally on corn for we raised very little for bread.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by <CindyYoung@aol.com> 12-1999.