Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 29, 1938
Name: Elleby Weaver
Post Office: Heavener, Oklahoma
Residence Address: Heavener, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: August 7, 1857
Place of Birth: Camden, North Carolina
Father: George Weaver
Place of Birth: Georgia
Information on father: English
Mother: Sue Weaver
Place of birth: Tennessee
Information on mother: Irish
Field Worker: Kenneth C. Black
Interview: 13760
Interview With Elleby Weaver,
Heavener,
Oklahoma.
I was born August 7, 1857, near
Camden, North Carolina.
In 1885 I married Miss Sisie
McCannington at Gainesville, Texas. I was working on the Santa
Fe Railroad. We completed work there and we moved on to
Tuskahoma to work for the Frisco Railroad. They were just laying
the track
through Tusksahoma, the capital of the Choctaw Nation. A school
and a court house were built. The school still stands.
In 1888 we made another
move to Mansfield; Arkansas: where my oldest son was born. From
there we went west to Oklahoma traveling in wagons and
oxen. We settled in a community known as Prissill, Wayne
being the nearest trading post.
In 1889 we came to Heavener still
traveling by wagons, with a team of oxen. There were many
adventures traveling this way. Camping out at night on the
prairie: listening to the coyotes, wolves, and panthers. Deer
were very plentiful and by hunting we kept a good supply of
meat, our meals being cooked over a fire in open. The wife and
children slept in the wagon, while I took my blanket and rolled
up Indian fashion to lie by the fire which we kept going to keep
wild animals away from our camp. On our travels ,we came upon
many Indian villages, but they were all peaceable.
We arrived at Heavener and
settled in what is now the western, part of the town.
There were very few houses here then. Most of the population
came here after the 'Kansas City, Southern Railroad came through
Heavener. We
stayed in Heavener until 1924 when my wife died. I still make my
home here..
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