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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: May 13, 1937
Name: Wister Anderson
Post Office: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 1321 N. W. 16th
Date of Birth: February 11, 1882
Place of Birth: Johnsville, Oklahoma (Town moved one mile south and is now Byars)
Father: Henry Anderson
Place of Birth: Mississippi
Information on father: died in 1932
Mother: Tauntubia
Place of birth:
Information on mother: Mother born some where on Big Blue River
Field Worker: Jimmie Birdwell
Interview: #4048
 
Wister Anderson was born at Johnsville, Okla., a town that was later renamed Byars and moved one mile south.

His father had about 200 head of horses and raised, traded, and sold saddle stock, teams or just a bunch of horses. Anderson did not farm anything but corn. And this would be in small fields of about ten acres in the bend of some Creek where the land was rich and he only raised enough for feed and to make corn meal. It was 18 miles to a grist mill and the family would take a good solid tree trunk about four feet high and hollow out the center and then make a small wooden mall. They would put the corn in the hollow of the block of wood, then beat it into meal with the mall.

Wister Anderson, the son had a sister living three mile south-west of Bearden, Okla., and he would very often ride the hundred miles across the country to the sister's home.

There was a man by the name of McFarland who had a ranch on Deep Fork river near Bearden. He did not own the land but leased grass land from people living around there. Anderson says that in the fall of the year along about October his father would take a wagon and they would gather up bones of cattle that had died during the winter. For a wagon load of these bones he got $10.00.

There was lots of wild game around close to the home. The son said that when he was a small boy he could stand in the yard and shoot prairie chicken, and wild turkey were so thick that from the house you could hear them flying up in the trees to roost. The elder Anderson clothed his family, bought their shoes and other clothing by selling bones and hunting and trapping. The woods were full of opossum, skunk, mink and a few beaver. Henry Anderson used to pilot travelers across the South Canadian river north of Byars.

He always watched the ford and knew where the deep holes were and where the shallow water was. By keeping a close watch and testing the ford every few days, he was able to take anyone across the river safely.

He also kept a team handy to pull out anybody that got stuck. This ford was known as the Tom Alexander crossing but was nicknamed "Tom Ex. Crossing".

 

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Lynda B. Canezaro <LBCane@aol.com> 06-2000.