Joe T. Roff

My father was Charles L. Roff, born near Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1817. My mother was Elizabeth Crawford Roff, born in Ohio. There were six children in our family. Father was a stockman and merchant. I was born in Missouri, April 13, 1848. I came to the Indian Territory in 1868 and settled in the Chickasaw Nation near Red River not far this side of Gainesville.

In 1871 I married Anne Wells who was part Choctaw Indian. We didn't have a license. We were married by a preacher from Gainesville, and he recorded our marriage with the conference. There was no place in the Indian Territory to buy a marriage license at this time.

There were no mail routes through the Territory se we went to Gainesville for our mail. In 1883 I put in a ranch at the present site of Roff. There was nothing here when I came. I built a log house at the ranch and hauled lumber from Gainesville to build a store. I ran this store for several years, freighting my goods from Gainesville until the Santa Fe was built in 1886. After that I freighted from Dougherty. 

The Chickasaws had a trespass law which provided that anyone wishing to fence or improve land must stay one quarter of a mile from his neighbor's improvements. This was the law during the very beginning of ranch and farm improvements.

There was nothing on this prairie when I put in my ranch. The old Military road ran one mile north on a ridge from Stonewall to Fort Sill. We got our mail from Mill Creek until 1890 when I had a post office put in my store. Then the mail came every other day from Davis in a hack. This was a Star line, and the mail carrier hauled express and passengers along with the mail. 

There was not a cow on this prairie when I came. There were a few antelope and deer, and a bunch of mustang ponies came out of the timber each night to graze, but when daylight came they disappeared in the woods and could not be seen again until darkness fell the next night. Our nearest neighbor was ten miles away.

A short time after I established my store I sent a man to Gainesville after my freight. He liked his liquor and while in Gainesville got drunk. On the way home when he came to Red River he was so drunk that he couldn't see where to go and the horses got into quicksand. They reared and bucked in their effort to get out of the sand. The wagon upset and much of the freight went floating down the river. The flour was recovered but it was wet and only the flour in the center of each sack could be used. That was the last time that man went for my freight.

Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, September, 2000.

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