Old Purdy Cemetery
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Photographed & canvassed by Tom & Betty Barnett

The Old Purdy cemetery is south out of Lindsay, go through Erin Springs,
past the Purdy Cemetery (on the west) I think over a bridge and then
another bridge that is on a curve; getting off the highway, turn to the
east. Follow the winding road; at the dead end is the home of my Aunt
Mazie Whitt; the cemetery is back to the west, north side of road; one must
walk in. There was a sign, but believe it has been destroyed.  Mary Gonshor

The Old Purdy Gate                                                                        The Old Purdy Store

Old Purdy Plat Map
Photo & Canvass by Tom & Betty Barnett

#9273 - Location of Old Purdy Cemetery
Plat map is from Bureau of Indian Affairs, Muskogee, OK

Rest on, rest on in peaceful
Eternal sleep that God has given
But, citizen, mark well the sacred place
Where these hardy pioneers now rest forever

Click on an underlined name below to see a picture of the headstone

Garvin County , Oklahoma

Old Purdy Cemetery

Photos by Tom & Betty Barnett

Old Purdy Cemetery
Camp No. 9, Purdy, Oklahoma
Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory

Southwest of Purdy, Oklahoma on a farm owned by Mrs. Mattie Whitt * (Name was Mazie Whit. Her husband was Lee Whit & son Jim Whit)is an old neglected and almost forgotten cemetery which is the final resting place of some of the first settlers in that part of Oklahoma, Indian Territory.  Old Purdy Cemetery is now lost in weeds and memory.  Few if any of the old timers who came to those parts are left to tell the story of those hardy pioneers who lived and died in Purdy Camp No. 9, Purdy, Indian Territory in the Chickasaw Nation.

When the old cemetery first came into use is not known exactly, though it was already there before the town of Purdy and may even date back to 1870 or earlier.  It was definitely in use in the 1880's.   The area around what was later to become Purdy, Oklahoma was patented to the Chickasaw tribe on March 23, 1842 and Purdy Camp No. 9, Indian Territory was probably established shortly after that.  The land tract for the town site of Purdy, Indian Territory was not granted until after 1900.  A town site commission was appointed by the U.S. Department of the Interior to appraise the lots for the town of Purdy, Oklahoma and the sum of sixty dollars, the full amount of the purchase price, was deposited with the U.S. Indian Agent a Muskogee, Oklahoma.  The patent entitled the town of Purdy and its heirs and assigns, forever, all right, title, and interest to lots 3, 4, and 5 in block 36 in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.  The plat for this town site was approved by the Secretary of the Interior on the 5th day of November 1901.  This agreement was witnessed and signed by Green McCurtain, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, on the 9th day of July 1908 and by Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation on July 24, 1908.  The deed was duly recorded and filed on the 28th day of January 1908 at 11 o'clock a.m..  Thus was born the town of Purdy, Oklahoma, formerly Purdy Camp No. 9, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory.

The earliest official record of the establishment of a cemetery in Purdy, Indian Territory is a U.S. Department of the Interior document No. 34 setting aside five (5) acres, more or less, situated in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory for cemetery purposes.  In consideration for this tract of land, the town of Purdy paid fifty dollars, the full amount of the purchase price, into the treasury of the United States, with the Indian agent at Muskogee, Oklahoma.  This contract was signed and sealed by Green McCurtain, Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, on August 9thm 1906.  The contract was filed for the record on the 9th day of January 1907 at 3 o'clock p.m..  Old Purdy Cemetery was officially established.

That same year on December 5, 1907, Ethel M. Vawter, Choctaw by blood, Roll No. 9723, was granted an allotment of some fifteen (15) acres, more or less, in the Chickasaw Nation.  The original plat description for this land was as follows:  The North Half of the North East Quarter of the South East Quarter, less five (5) acres reserved for cemetery, of Section Twenty-two (22), Township Three (3) North and Range Four (4) West, Chickasaw Nation.

This allotment was witnessed and signed by Green McCurtain, Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation on November 10, 1908 and then by Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation on November 3, 1909.   It was officially approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior on February 6, 1909 and filed on the 13th day of February 1909 at 11 o'clock a.m..  How long Ethel M. Vawter retained her allotted land is not known but the acreage on which the cemetery was located passed into the hands of a Frederick H. Carr, Choctaw and was eventually purchased by Mr. Lee Whitt on January 19th, 1932.  The town site of Purdy had washed away some years before leaving the old cemetery in the middle of a cow pasture.  Mr. Whitt put up a fence to keep his cows out.  some years later Mr. Lee Cameron who had relatives buried in the old cemetery put up a new fence with iron posts and an iron entrance gate.  That fence is still standing today.

Old Purdy Cemetery was surveyed from 1975 to 1977 by the Elliott Lee Chapter of the DAR and names and dates of all legible grave markers catalogued by Mrs. J.H. Ferguson, Mrs. Sara Thomason, and Mrs. Mattie Whitt, owner of the farm on which it was located.  A copy of this catalogue was filed at the Nora Sparks Warren Memorial Library in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.  The oldest legible marker was that of Daniel Harrison, Born May 21, 1837 and died August 12, 1888.  The most recent burial at the time of the survey was U.E. Estes born March 22, 1847 and died December 15, 1942.  One descendant of the original settlers and pioneers of Purdy Camp No. 9, Indian Territory remained in an old folks home in Maysville, Oklahoma.   Then in May of 1991 Oteka Crawford-Campbell, daughter of J. H. Crawford and Laura Belle Crawford, was cremated and her ashes buried next to her mother's grave in Old Purdy Cemetery.  The ceremony was simple with only a few family members present but now, at last, the last pioneer of the Chickasaw Nation was finally at rest.

A faded inscription found on one of the gravestones in the old cemetery seems somehow fitting for all those who are buried there.  It reads:

Rest on, rest on in peaceful
Eternal sleep that God has given
But, citizen, mark well the sacred place
Where these hardy pioneers now rest forever

*Information added by LaVern Russell on 13 Sep 2012

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