Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer
History Project for Oklahoma
Date: November 18, 1937
Name:
George C. Neeley
Post Office: Cordell,
Oklahoma
Residence address: 416
S. Market St.
Date of Birth: November
18, 1894
Place of Birth: Wise
County, Texas
Father: Jesse Neeley
Place of Birth: Tennessee
Information on father:
Farmer
Mother: Mandy Johnson
Place of birth: Tennessee
Information on mother:
Housewife
Field Worker: Ida B.
Leakford
Interview #9250
pg 212-214
I was born in Wise County
Texas November 18, 1894. When I was about three or four years old I moved
with my Mother and Dad to the Chickasaw Nation. From the Chicka-saw Nation
we came to Washita County Oklahoma in 1893. We came in three covered wagons
and located two miles west of the present town of Cordell. When we came
here, this country was made up of sage grass, wolves and Indians; there
were no houses and hardly anyone was living here.
The provisions we got
were freighted from El Reno and Weatherford. These supplies were food,
farming tools, fuel, and clothes. Sometimes we would pick up bones and
sell them to buy some of our things with, such as food and clothes. When
we would run short of fuel we would burn corn and cow chips.
We gritted our own cornmeal
out of keffir corn and made corn for our breads. We had our own hogs and
chickens, so we had our meat & eggs. We also ate cottage cheese &
butter.
We dug a well on our place
and the water was so “ ??ppy” [unreadable] that we could not drink it so
we hauled our water from the creek and boiled it.
We lived in a dugout and
there were ten in the family to live in it.
We raised mostly feed?
[food] and corn, and very little cotton. Corn brought 18 cents a bushel,
cotton, 4 cents a pound and keffir corn from 10 to 12 cents a bushel. We
farmed with horses and sod rock plows and the first years we were here
we farmed 40 acres of land and then each year we gradually spread out.
We farmed the land where Cordell is now for three years. The land belonged
to Andrew JOHNSON on the south, J. C. HERREL on the north and “Plan?” BOYD
on the west; Mr. Boyd’s home was where the widow of Pastor B. W. BAKES
now lives.
We made great friends
with the Indian’s. I have gone to several of the Indian war dances and
festivals. These were held at the Washita River and at Seger? Colony which
is now called Colony. The Indians would sit in a ring and smoke the Peace
Pipe and have their pow-pow dances.
One pair of shoes would
last us a year and we would only buy our shoes in the winter time.
My mother would make all
of our clothes; they were made of jeans cloth and old cotton sacks. The
girls dresses were made of Calico and cotton materials. The boys would
only get one suit a year. Our shirts were made straight, also the pants,
and they buttoned onto the shirts.
Our schools were held
in sod houses and in dugouts; we had to sit on benches and we didn’t have
certain places to sit and had no desks to write.
Our churches were
in the same dugout as our schools were and we walked three miles to school
and church and sometimes a group of people would go in wagons twenty to
thirty miles to church? and singing.
**NOTE this ?[
] means I couldn’t read what was on the film***
Some of George’s siblings
that have been found
1. Nathaniel Neeley –
8/21/1871 Van Buren, Crawford Co. AR
2. Nellie Neeley – 3/1879
– Motley TX
3. Henry Neeley – 7/1881
– Motley TX
4. Edward C. Neeley –
10/1883 – Motley TX
5. George Neeley – 2/1886
–Wise County TX
6. Loucrettia Neeley
--10/1888 – Motley TX
7. William Neeley – 12/1889
– TX
8. Rosie Neeley -
7/1898 – Dill City, Washita County OK
9. Dewey Neeley – ca
1899 Dill City, Washita County OK
10. Mary Della
Neeley – 1/24/1899 Washita County OK
Note; Alice Neeley married
Edward Charles Neeley her cousin so George is her cousin & brother-in-law.
Her sister Rachel Neeley married, Nathaniel Neeley their cousins
which make them all double cousins. Their father William Wallace Neeley
is Jesse Neeley’s brother, father of George C. Neeley.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Pauline Phelps, May
1999.