George W. Pullen


 

Pullin, George W. 

Field Worker:  John F. Daugherty 

Date:  July 22, 1937
Interview # 4929
Address: Davis, OK
Born: February 20, 1862
Place of Birth: Tennessee 
Father: Jesse Pullen, born in Tennessee, Farmer
Mother: Mary Atwell, born in Alabama


My father was Jesse Pullen, born in Tennessee, December 25, 1818.  Mother was Mary Atwell Pullen, born February 15, 1824, in Alabama.  Father was a farmer.  I was the only child in our family, although Father and his first wife had ten children.  I was born in Tennessee, February 20, 1862.

I came to the Indian Territory October 5, 1893, from Tennessee.  I settled near Davis and have lived here continuously since.  We moved into a log house with a puncheon floor and covered with clap boards.  We didn't have any windows and the chimney was a stick and dirt chimney (cat chimney).

The first automobile I ever saw was in 1893.  I had gone to Wynnewood after some freight, and Montgomery Ward had an advertising train there.   They had unloaded this 'horseless carriage', and it was the center of attraction.  It was built something like a buggy, with large wheels and two seats.  It didn't have a top and the gears were on the side to the right of the driver.  The steering wheel was on the right and the driver sat high above it.  It seemed to rest in his lap.  There were no doors.  The sides were all open and there was no windshield.  It could attain a speed of about ten miles an hour.  To us that was swift.  We couldn't believe that anything could travel so rapidly.

There were no fences here at that time and only two small farms between Davis and Sulphur.

I was elected a member of the Fifth Legislature from Murray County during the time Bob Williams was governor.

I have farmed since coming to the Territory. 

I was married to Amanda Ellen Kelley, October 5, 1885, in Tennessee.  We have six children.  One of our boys, Jesse, is Assistant Attorney General under Mac Q. Williamson.


Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, August 2001.

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