Notice of Copyright. Citing Resources from the Western History Collections

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1 Notice of Copyright Published and unpublished materials may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Any copies of published and unpublished materials provided by the Western History Collections are for research, scholarship, and study purposes only. Use of certain published materials and manuscripts is restricted by law, by reason of their origin, or by donor agreement. For the protection of its holdings, the Western History Collections also reserves the right to restrict the use of unprocessed materials, or books and documents of exceptional value and fragility. Use of any material is subject to the approval of the Curator. Citing Resources from the Western History Collections For citations in published or unpublished papers, this repository should be listed as the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. An example of a proper citation: Oklahoma Federation of Labor Collection, M452, Box 5, Folder 2. Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

2 AMI, JAJU8 immnx* looo 357

3 Form A-(S-149) ' ' BIOGRAPHY FORM. 358 v WORKS FxiOGRESS ADMINISTRATION Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma AKER, JAMIfiS. INTERVIEW Field Worker 1 a name Ethel Mae Yatea. This report made on (date) February 24, Name James Aker 2. Post Office Address _Tk CA tv 3«Residence address (or location) 918 Are...B. 4. DATE OF BIRTH: Month February 15. Day Year 5. Place of birth Virginia 6. Name of Father J. B. Aker Place of birth Virgintm Other information abo\it father ffas a Civil War 3«idler and plonea: 7. Name of Mother Martha Place of birth North Carolina Other information about mother Notes or completes narrative by the field worker dealing with the life and story of the ;^er_on interviewed, Rofer to Manual for suggested subjects and questions. Continue on blank sheets if necessary and attach firmly t t"his form* Number of sheets attached

4 , J/1HS. INTERVIEW Inttstfetor, Interview with Ethel Ma* Yates, February 84, Jamas Ak»r, Elk City. I came with ay parents to the Indian Territory In I was than four years old. There war* thirtytwo eorered wagon* that ease In our party. The nan had haard about the Santa Fa Railroad that waa going to be put through tha Territory and they oa»«thinking that th«y would gat work. They brought oattle, hogs, chiokani and what household goods thay had, and thara ware two yoke of oxen In the bunch. My father stopped In the Chlokasaw Ration near Stringtown and worked at a sawmill that had been put In near the M.K.& T. Railroad that had oone through and we atayed there until Spring, wnltlng for tha grass to oow so that he oould grate the a took through aa father didn't hare oney to buy feed. On the first day of April there were six families of us and eleten wagons. Tather had one ox tea«and aeren hogs and a bunch of oat tie. le started down through the woods, having to

5 AHR, JAMIS. XRTEHttSf ake part of the road «s we went. We children hed to walk and drire the cows. Right after we started there was the deepest mow I nearly ever aaw, so we stretched oar tents and canped until it faired up and cooked on a eaapflre out in front of the tents. Die sen would take ti*» about witting up and harding the oat tie and nearly every oow had a ball on bar. 7a oaaa by Fort Arbuekla and aaw lota of Indiana. The hogs got ao used to oeaping that wa could turn than looee and they would etay around the eaoy. Wa aettlad at a place neer where Deri a i s now and it took us aeren weeks to aave the trip. Ve stopped at a place one and a half ailaa north of where Daiis is* Father was a blackaaith by trade and put in a shop where Deris is now aad did the blaekaaitti work for the mm. who worked on the Santa Fe Btilroad awjd the other sen worked oa the grade. This waa still in the Chickaeaw Katios. Father took a laeae froa a white an of the naae of Mack iolf who had married a Ohickaavm Indian waaen.

6 A23JJ, JAMBS. BTCERVH* Mack Wolf had run a bank at Davis for yssrs and years. Mr. iolf told ay father th*>t hs could here all that ha could make for twenty-fire years and told Father to build a three-room house end eleer the land. Father built the house of logs and as there was a sawmill near by, Father got luafcer and boxed the house on the outside nnd built a fi replace in one room. Ie had a oorr store but Mother baked most all of oar bread on the fireplace in an old Dutoh oven. We cleared out the land and cut and burned acme of the finest walnut and peoan trees that I ever saw. SOBS of the paean trees were three and four feet through. ie broke most of our land with our oxen; I hare plowed with an ox teem many a long day. We planted our crop the.first year by hand and made a fine crop, but the wild turkeya were so thiok that they almost destroyed our eon. Father went out with his gun and killed seventyfire turkeys and Just left tlmm lying am the ground- Thar* were/lots of deer and we never wanted for venison; It was Just one mile from our claim to the iaahlta River amd * we tented flan we would go and oetoh them.

7 AHF, JAMES. IMTEHfTW Th«wood* were fall of wild pluas and bleokberrlee and etrawberries. In the Fall of the first jeer tha settlers built a log school houas on the oormr of dtar laasa and nened It Wolf School. Th«sohool atlll goes by the name of Wolf. There was an old plone*r preacher, Brotteer Hisheap Deris. Ha lired at GelneaYi lie, Tsxfta. He waa aartnty ytart old and ha would OOOM over to our Church on horaabaok onoa a month and praeoh for tha paopla. He usually hed to laara hose on Wednesday to gat to Wolf Church and preaeh on Sunday, for pay he got only the ohiokens, egfs and butter that the people could glre him. The eeeoad year that we were here, Dither Invented a planter out of a barrel and fixed it ao that we could hitch one hcrae to it and we plowed the land in ridges ao the ends of the barrel oould lie on the ridges. The middle of fee barrel hering holes in it would let the seed fall into the furrow. While here fee Indiana would oeae to Father and want nisi to shoe tieir horses, and would trade all kinds of

8 AKER, J'MIS. INTERVIEW 1004«-5- trinkata for this work, We lired hire until the Opening i» 1889 when Father made the Run end got * cleim iz milea north of Lexington In MoClain County. Beceuae there waa t aawmill near by Father got lumber and built «house before he came after ua. Thia house was built out of the native lumber which we all know was the old cottonwood. Father than cnme to more UB to our ntnr home and made the trip in one dey, riding the horse that he had made the Run on* * rounded up our stock and loaded what household gooda we tie.d into our wagons and started to our hone and it took ua two lonr teya to wake the trip. Our trading po«t waa Lexingtoo,»ve were closer to Purcell, but we hed to cross the Oanadim RiTer to reach Purcell ind to such of the time the Canadian Rirotwas a'o treacherous that it was dangerous to oroaa i t. Ri<rht after the Opening thuy built a school house Shiioh there near us and cellsd it the/3 ohool. Father quit the shop business and turnsd his whole tiae to farsdlf but x wbtn ««had lired there just three yeera Father's health gar* way so we sold out and aored to Noiwen and lired there one year. Then we mottd fro» ttiere to the Chickaaaw

9 AICEB, iwm. iwmcrm. -6- Nation, whore Sulphur is no*. #hen we first went there we could not dip water out of those sulphur springs but would have to go down below the springs to get, water. This was in 1B03 and Father regained his health but we hadn't been there long until Mother died. Doctor Hougo was our pioneer doctor.and practiced in our family for any many years. I was just about grown when Sulphur Springs was started and I helped build aeny of the first buildings \ that went up there, i married while there and ay wife's father was the first sheriff to ssrre in Murray County. \ \ He was Mr. Maxwell. One night he was oelled to the country to get some men rod he and his deputy started out In a buggy. It was dark and raining so they did not go ftr until they got stuck. Mr. Maxwell got out to prise the buggy out of the mud and when he got the wheels lo»t*?nd lifted it Up, Ms deputy drote off And left hi*. I don't know how far the deputy went before fie stopped end I can't think of this deputy's new*, but he lost all of his family bat oa«boy in that Derdy flood. I think that it was hit

10 ACER, J1MBS. IHTBR7I1W wife end two children whose bodies were found. Tn«Indian* were terrible to cone to town end get drunk and Mr. Harwell would get them oat of town the best way he could and would try to keep from putting thesi in Jail. It didn't make any difference ho* wmnj prisoners Mr. Maxwell had,he elwaya 3ew thet erery one of then got a good Sunday dinner. Mr. Maxwell died suddenly with a heart attack while in office. Ihen hie son, Jack Jfexwell, was put in as sheriff and finiaed serrlnghis father's term. It wes said that Jeck Maxwell was th«youngest»tt who erer held office in Marrey County. f«stayed In sad around Sulphur until 1914, then ease «p here a round Elk City. My f t her died three years a o at the age of ninety and the house that Father built In 1386 down user Deris is still standing. Mother who went through all of the hardships of pioneering did not live to enjoy the new state she had helped to make. She is buried at Sulphur.