Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 30, 1937
Name: Montie S. Davis Page
Post Office: Poteau, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: July 22, 1869
Place of Birth: Lamar County, Alabama
Husband: Robert Payne Page
Father: William M. "Buck" Davis
Place of Birth: Alabama
Mother: Hester Jane Noe
Place of Birth: Alabama
Field Worker: Marvin G. Rowley
My name is
Montie Page and my maiden name was Montie Davis. I was born in
Lamar County, Alabama, July 22, 1869. My father was Buck Davis
and my mother was Hester Jane NOE, both born in Alabama.
My father and
family moved from Alabama to Old Hartford in 1873; I was about
four years old at this time. We lived at what was then known as
the old Dorsey farm, located about one mile west of Old
Hartford. We lived about one year there. In 1874, we moved one
mile west of the Indian Territory line or about three miles west
of Old Hartford, on Sugar Loaf Creek, one mile east of the
Monroe Griffy place. I went to school when we lived there. We
lived in the Indian Territory but I walked two miles east into
Arkansas, just across the line. I went about one month. My
teacher was named Bill Harrel. This was a subscription school
and it cost one dollar per month per student.
We next moved to
the Monroe Griffy place. I went to school about one mile west
of there. This was in the Indian Territory. This was also a
subscription school, one dollar a head. I went there about a
month and my teacher's name was J. Hobbs.
In 1881 we left
this place and moved up on the hill west of Tarby Lake, now
called Poteau City Lake. We lived also close to what is known
at this time as Town Creek, near the south end of the lake. I
went to school in an old house that had the floor taken up. We
sat on the sills for seats. Jim Evans was the teacher. It cost
us one dollar a month to go there. I went about one month.
When times got
better every one went in together and built a church in the
center of the Poteau Graveyard, the graveyard now used south of
town. This church was built of big planks. There was no
denomination, just everyone of any faith attended. School was
held here, also. I went one day. It cost one dollar a month.
The teacher was Captain Charley Scott.
When we moved
from Sugar Loaf Creek to Tarby Lake, we moved with horses and
wagons. When we got to Poteau River, it would be up sometimes,
so my father just dumped the stuff on the bank until the water
went down. When the water went down we forded it and came on to
what is now known as the Slough. We crossed this at the present
crossing where the City Dumping Ground is now. The name of the
crossing on the river was then called Anderson Ford.
We lived at Tarby
Lake in a one-room peeled log house. Had a log smoke house out
back. In the house we had three beds and a fireplace.
After a short
while after moving to Tarby Lake, my father, Buck Davis, would
take a skiff-boat across the river, at the present site of the
wagon bridge, just below where the Slough runs into the river.
He would take this boat and carry people across and swim their
horses to the side of it. Later, he decided to make a ferry
boat to use. He cut pine logs and hewed his gunwales, then he
went to Pace's Saw Mill, located above the McKenna Fruit Farm on
Cavanal Mountain, to get his lumber for the floors of his ferry
boat.
The last load of
flooring was being brought by my brother, Garret Wilson Davis,
when about half way down the mountain the wagon turned over and
killed him. He was nineteen years old. He was killed in 1884,
and is buried in the Lewis Graveyard. This is east of the
Dorsey place where we lived before. We took him across the
river in the skiff-boat and there was a wagon and team of horses
waiting on the other side to take him on to the cemetery.
After my father
got the ferry boat made, he took it to the river. On this boat
the banisters were about as high as a man's waist, it had an
apron at each end. When a team and wagon were on it there was
room to walk around it all the way around, easily. When he
started to taking people and wagons across, he charged fifty
cents and more if the river was up. Later he cut the price
because there were many more ways to cross the river.
When the Frisco
Railroad started to build the bridge across the Poteau River,
they got the stone for the masonry at a quarry on what is now
called Town Creek. They hauled it down to the ferry and father
took all of it they used for the east side, across.
The railroad camp
was down below our house close to Town Creek. After the
railroad was in and the camp was leaving, I missed my wash
kettle, from where I used to wash down on the lake. About
thirty years later, the pump station that furnished water for
the city and the railroad, pumped the lake dry. I went down to
look for my kettle in the lake bed. I saw the rim of it
sticking out of the mud, so I went down and pulled it out. It
had a piece about eight inches wide broken out of the side, it
even had some of the old soot on it yet. I took it up home and
had it quite a while until some of the kids broke it into
several small pieces.
After the
railroad was in, my father built a two-story frame house, about
one and one-half blocks west of the present Frisco and Kansas
City Southern Railroad crossing, north of Poteau. He used a
small house for the kitchen, building on to this with the rest
of the house. This small house that he used for the kitchen was
used by the railroad camp to live in until they left.
We lived in this
two-story house about six or seven years before my mother died.
She is buried in the Lewis Graveyard. My father then sold out
to Will Page, a fullblood Choctaw. I do not remember just what
he got for his property.
My father, Buck
Davis, married Mollie James. He married her about three months
after my mother died and we did not like it either. Mollie James
had the maiden name of Mollie McKenna. She married Davis James,
a Choctaw Indian. Davis James shot and killed John Griffy, son
of Monroe Griffy. This happened in Will Welch's store, located
where the southeast corner of the County Court House lawn is
now. Davis James left and it is thought by some that he is
buried over at Red Oak, Oklahoma. Davis James had by Mollie
McKenna the following children: Ethel, Walter, Davis, Jr., and
Dennis.
My father moved
out on Tarby Prairie after his second marriage; his object in
moving out there was to help his step children get their
allotment of land at that place. He lived on the land where
Milt Jenson now lives.
My father, Buck
Davis, was shot and killed by Dave Mason at Tarby Prairie. He
lived about five or or six hours after the shooting. He is
buried at the Maxey Hill Cemetery about two miles north Poteau.
South of the
present location of the Methodist Church, where the present Ben
Harper residence is now, lived a man by the name of Jep Evans.
This was when I lived on Tarby Lake. We could hear the Prairie
wolves howl, you would think there were a hundred, from the
noise they made. Now, Jep Evans had a lot of pigs and these
wolves would get lots of his pigs sometimes at night. Game was
very plentiful then. We had plenty of deer, turkey, squirrel,
rabbits, and fish. When we first came to this part of the
country, there was not much of the land cleared. I have made
rails for fences, and cleared timber. I, also, have plowed and
planted crops myself.
I, Montie Davis,
married Robert P. Page, November 2, 1893. Robert had married
Salina Willis but she had died. They were both Choctaw
Indians. I am a white woman. Bob was a brother to Will Page.
After our marriage, we moved over on Church Street in Poteau; we
lived there about five years and then moved over at the the foot
of Cavanal Mountain on the old lady Tarby's place.
The family
of Buck Davis and Hester Jane Noe, sons and daughters: (given
verbally):
Mary Ida Davis, born 1867, in Alabama. Lives
at Red Oak, Oklahoma, married Jess Noah.
Lona Della Davis, born 1871, in Alabama.
Married John Clifford Rains, died at Poteau and buried there.
Claybourn Davis, born on Sugar Loaf Creek,
Indian Territory. Lives at Antlers, Oklahoma.
Garret W. Davis, died when 19 years old in
1884. Buried in Lewis Cemetery.
Montie S. Davis, born July 22, 1869. Lives
at Poteau, Oklahoma.
Gracie Davis, born at Poteau, married Isom
Holstead. Lives one mile southwest of Shadypoint, Oklahoma.
Laura Anna Davis, born in the Indian
Territory. Buried in Lewis Graveyard.
Walter Davis, about two years old when he
died.
Rufus Davis, about three years old when he
died.
P. R. Davis, just a baby when he died.
TOM FULLER
Take a part of a tree trunk, hickory or oak, about two
and one-half feet long, Burn a funnel-shaped hole in one end of
the block of wood, about one foot deep. Then get a piece of oak
or hickory sapling, about three or four feet long, cut down to
about the right size in diameter to fit the hand, cut all the
way up, until about a foot from the end, let this act as the
weight of it. Then take a hand full or two of Tom Fuller corn,
and put in the hole in the block of wood that was burned out
before. This Tom Fuller corn was raised especially for using
this way. It had a flatter and more narrow grain than what is
now raised.
Take the
piece of sapling and put the small end in the hole and jab the
corn in the hole, pouring water in once in a while. Do this
until the husk comes off. Then when a sufficient quantity is
pounded, take the pounded corn and put it in what we called a
"fanner and riddle." This is made of hickory bark and is
woven like a basket. It curved on the bottom and sides and is
shaped a little bit like a scoop shovel. It is about two and a
half feet long. This is used to throw the beaten corn up in the
air and let the wind blow out the husks. This leaves a white
substance a little like rice only it is not even grained like
it. The piece of sapling used to beat the corn with is called a
"pestle." Cook with chicken, pork, or beef ribs and it sure is
good.
Montie Page has a
"Choctaw Hymn Book" that belonged to her husband, Bob Page. It
was printed in 1872, by the Presbyterian Committee of
Publication, Richmond. This is printed in the Choctaw Indian
Language. Robert Payne Page was a Thirty-Second Degree Mason.
He received his thirty-second degree in Oklahoma City.
Mrs. Montie Page
has framed his diploma of this degree. It was on farming and
stockraising, die Octobris anno 1906.
Copied from their
family Bible:
the birth and death record of the family of
Robert P. Page and Montie S. Davis:
Clemanthy Page was born on the 22nd day of
August, 1894.
Edward E. Page was born on the 2nd day of
August, 1896.
Robert N. Page was born on the 27th day of
February, 1899.
Robert P. Page was born on the 6th day of
October, 1857.
Montie S. Page was born on the 22nd day of
July, 1869.
Clemanthy, daughter
of Robert and Montie S. Page, departed this life on the 13th day
of August, 1897, aged 2 years, 11 months, and 22 days.
Robert Payne Page, father, departed this life
on the 12th day of July, 1913. Age 56 years, 9 months, 6 days.
NOTES by Submitter (great
granddaughter of WILLIAM M. "Buck" DAVIS):
The maiden name of MOLLIE JAMES was MARY JANE McKINNEY, not
McKENNA.
For additional information, please read Interviews at:
//okgenweb.net/pioneer/ohs/mckinneymaryjane.html
//okgenweb.net/pioneer/ohs/davis-maryjane.htm
Submitted to OKGenWeb by
Peggy Joice Horton March 1999.
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