Field Worker:  John F. Daugherty 

Date:  July 31, 1937
Interview # 8138
Address: Davis, OK
Born: 
Place of Birth: 
Father: 
Mother: A

Mazeppa T. Turner

I don't remember the name of my husband's father and mother, nor where they came from to the Territory.  He was here when my parents came here from Texas in 1889. We rented a farm from him near the present site of Dougherty, then known as Strawberry Flat, because there were so many wild strawberries there.

Mazeppa T. Turner's first wife died, and I married him August 12, 1890.  We lived on Honey Creek in the Arbuckle Mountains in the Chickasaw Nation.  Our home was a little log hut nestled among the hills.

One day Mazeppa was sitting in front of his little hut, when he decided to go for a walk, up the creek.  He was a devout student of nature, and he loved to wander through these beautiful hills.  As he walked along, he suddenly beheld a beautiful water-fall.  He gazed in admiration at this spot of beauty and hurried to tell me of his newly found spot of beauty.  He told others and led them there to see.  This became known as Turner Falls and bears his name at the present time.

Honey Creek, on which these falls are located, was so called because some men from Texas found a large colony of bees in the rocks above the falls.  They blasted these rocks and secured about eight barrels of honey.

Mr. Turner was born May 8, 1840, in Greenville County, Virginia.  He moved to the Choctaw Nation near Stringtown in 1870 and in 1878 moved to the Chickasaw Nation on Honey Creek.  He owned about 700 acres of good land and paid the yearly permit for twenty-five renters.  He owned many hogs and cattle.

He was the first and second representative from Murray County to the State Legislature in 1901 and 1909, during the governorship of Governor Haskell.

He is buried at Dougherty, Oklahoma.

Transcribed by Brenda Choate & Dennis Muncrief, March, 2001

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