Cotten, Josephine 

Field Worker, John F. Daugherty 

December 2, 1937

Father: Ely Young, born in Texas
Mother: Ellen Park, born in Texas

My father was Ely Young, born in Texas when Texas was under 
Mexican rule. Father was a farmer. Mother was Ellen Park 
Young, born in Harris County, Texas. There were five children
in our family. I was born December 17, 1863 in Texas.

I was married to Henry Cotten in 1879 and we moved to the 
Indian Territory in 1884. We came in a covered wagon, 
crossing Red River at Colbert's Ferry. We stopped at the 
home of Aleck Cravat, a full blood, on Big Blue River east
of Tishomingo. There were no bridges and we had to wait
several times for creeks to run down so we could ford them.

Soon after locating on Cravat's place my husband stepped out
in the field near our log hut and killed a wild turkey. I 
dressed and cooked it. Mrs. Cravat was gone and I gave Mr.
Cravat part of the turkey. He had been eating very little 
because he couldn't cook. He was very grateful for the
turkey.

Grandmother Harris, a full blood Chickasaw, was another neighbor
there. Her son and nephew stole her cattle and drove them to 
Denison a few at a time. They sold them and got on a big drunk.
She found out what they were doing and sold all of her cattle
and horses to the Government for $40,000.00 in gold. She buried
this for safe keeping and died not long afterwards. So far as I
know that money has never been found although many have searched
for it.

After two years we moved to the Byars Ranch near the present site 
of Byars in the Chickasaw Nation. We crossed the stream on log
rafts which were made of logs laid side by side and pinned together
with a hewed log. Holes were bored in the logs and through the 
hewed log wooden pins were put to hold the poles together. A long
pole was used to guide the raft from one side of the creek to the
other side.

My husband helped to build the first pole bridge across Little River,
south of Tecumseh. The river got high and stayed up for so long that
people were camped on both sides waiting to cross. They decided to
build a pole bridge and let the campers move on to their destinations.
They dug holes and put logs or poles across the river for piers. Poles
were laid across from bank to bank and another set of poles laid across
these for the floor. The wagons went bump, bump as they crossed these
poles, but the bridge was safe until the piers rotted from under them.

Shortly after we moved to the Byars Ranch our horses decided they wanted
to go back to Tishomingo. A freighter found them and returned them to
the ranch. My husband built rail fences, corrals and log houses for
the ranch. All of the ranch houses were logs.

There were no shipping points near here at that time. Mr. Byars sold his
cattle to cowmen who were trailing a bunch through the Territory to Kansas.

There were no churches and very few schools except the Government schools for the Indians.

I cooked on the fireplace and sewed by hand.

Mr. Byars was a fine man. He was especially considerate toward poor people.
One fall his father-in-law, who was well-to-do, came to him to buy corn but
Mr. Byars didn't want to sell it to him. The father-in-law remarked that he
had the money to pay for it. Mr. Byars replied, "If you have the money to
pay for it, you can buy your corn at Denison or Kansas City. These poor 
people near here, who have no money to pay for corn, will get this for
their bread this winter."

One day my husband noticed two men rounding up Mr. Byars horses. He said,
"Somebody is driving your horses up." Byars replied, "Don't ever go our
there when you see anything like that." My husband watched the men get 
off their horses, put their saddles on two of the best horses that Mr.
Byars had. They left theirs and rode away. Mr. Byars later told Henry that
those were the James Boys and that they often came by to get rested horses.
They always brought them back and took their own after several days of rest.
They always rode the best of horses.

One day a cowboy came to borrow meal from the Byars ranch. The ranch from 
which he had come was thirty-five miles away.

My husband's father, J.F. Cotten, helped to drive the Seminoles and Creeks
out of Georgia and Florida to the Indian Territory. He rode a horse. Many
of the Indians walked. Some had ponies which the old and the children took
turns riding. The Seminoles and Creeks were driven like cattle. Their
journey was a slow and tiresome one, taking many months. Many of them died
enroute.