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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:  October 4, 1937
Name:  John H. Hubble, C. E. Foley and Lizzie Gibson
Post Office: Eufaula, Oklahoma  
Residence Address:   
Field Worker: Margaret McGuire
Interview #7767

Interview with John H. Hubble, C.E. Foley and Lizzie Gibson, Eufaula, Oklahoma

OLD NORTH FORK TOWN

Old North Fork Town is one and one half miles east of Eufaula on the old Kansas and Texas Trail. There are sixteen acres of land there near the forks of the North and South Canadian Rivers and this tract is owned by George Barnett, Creek Indian. There is not anything left in the way of buildings to show that anyone ever lived there but there are two dug wells that were used when this was a community.

These wells are walled up with rock and have been covered over with rock. The water is good and they are still used by the people who live on the land. There are two small rent houses on this land and there is an old log house not far away. It is said this log house was used during the Civil War for a hospital.

The old Kansas and Texas Trail still shows. It ran across Rocky Ford, about one mile east of Old North Fork Town, turned to the left at this place and ran through town and across the South Canadian River.

There is a colored burial ground there called the Nero Cemetery. William Nero was one of the merchants at Old Town. His store stood near the Cemetery and he and his wife are buried there. Judge Stidham also owned a store there. He first had a store west of Muskogee, near an Indian settlement; then moved to Old Town.

Old Town was burned down during the war by General John Garrett of the Southern army and was never rebuilt.

Some years later the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad was built through where Eufaula is now and they built up this place instead of rebuilding Old North Fork Town.

The land where old [town] was is planted in pecan trees and cotton. Across the road from this place, north, is an old soldiers' burial ground. The graves have been torn down and plowed over so there is nothing but a bare field and no graves can be found. There were people buried in this burial ground at Old Town as far back as 1815, mostly negroes. There is one white man buried there. Some people were traveling on the Kansas and Texas Trail and the father died on the road and was buried. Years later a man came back to Eufaula, giving no name, but saying his father had died and was buried there, and he was back from Missouri looking after the grave. This man who was buried in 1815 was named Aaron Chapman. The man who came back, came in 1885.

Then we had no sheriff. Grant Johnson, U. S. Deputy Marshal, was the only law officer we had then. W. L. Odam was first sheriff of McIntosh County. John McCune was second sheriff and remained in office about twelve years.

SUBMITTER'S COMMENTS: The above transcription is a re-typed, facsimile version of an Indian-Pioneer History interview of John Hubble, C.E. Foley, and Lizzie Gibson. All punctuation, spelling, page format, and type style are a faithful attempt at being accurate reproductions of the pages from the microfilm copy of the Works Progress Administration's Indian Pioneer History, at Volume 30, pages 39-41. An interview of Lizzie Gibson, individually, is recorded at Interview 6981, Vol. 84, pages 138-141. Submitted by Greg James, May 3, 2002.]

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Greg James, May 2002.