Sarah Francis (Howard) WINTERS
Information furnished by
Amy Southall
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1937 WPA Pioneer History
Interview
My name
is Amy Southall, and my great-great-grandmother was
Sarah Francis (Howard) Winters who says in her 1937 WPA
Pioneer history interview that she was born 14 Nov 1861
in Montgomery County , MO to Cornelius Clark & Mary
(Greenwell) Howard. She married John William Winters 16
Nov 1877, but we aren�t for sure where, whether it was
in or near Pauls Valley or Wynnewood, near where their
first 5 of 13 children were born in the Chickasaw
Nation, IT, before moving to Southwest Oklahoma and
homesteading in Warren, or whether they were married in
Ft. Gibson, IT, or even Ft. Smith, AR, where martial law
was enforced.
Sarah
came with her family to the Indian Territory in about
1875, whereas John had come in about 1872. He drove
freight wagons, transporting goods to and from the IT.
Within
the first 4 pages of the 6-page interview, Sarah
mentions Smith Paul and Joe Paul, as well as the death
of Smith�s son Sam, whom she says she knew very well, by
son Joe (no detail); of Jinks Maxfield on whose land her
father farmed, as well as Harriet Hester from whom they
later rented land, stating that Harriet�s husband, Joe,
was killed by a US Deputy Marshal supposedly in a
whiskey raid.
On page
3, she begins mention of the principal crops, cotton and
corn, and that most of the corn was sold to Fort Sill as
well as some garden vegetables they raised. They took
the corn to the watermill on Rock Creek for grounding.
They took their cotton to the water-powered cotton gin,
which apparently was also in or near Rock Creek.
On page
3, she mentions Jim Gardner�s pasture fence being the
first barbed wire fence she had ever seen.
Her
husband, John William Winters, who is of Irish and
Cherokee heritage but was orphaned and raised as White
in or near Ft. Smith, apparently lived at the mill in
Cherokee Town at least in 1874�1876 per Ft. Smith court
dockets regarding a misunderstanding in the sale of a
pony by John Winters, originally purchased from John
Paul (the case was dismissed).
I first
came across Cherokee Town by way of the dockets through
another Winters researcher. I wish I could find court
record of Sarah & John�s marriage but don�t know where
to look or even if there would be a surviving record.
Maybe
this can help in the whole historic picture of the
area. I would like to find other hard information,
i.e., land records, etc., on my Winters family.
Thanks,
Amy
Southall
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