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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: October 11, 1937
Name: Richard Young Audd
Post Office: Muskogee, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 1201 Baltimore, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: June 6, 1854
Place of Birth: Shelby County, KY
Father: John Thomas Aud
Place of Birth: Nelson County, KY
Information on Father:
Mother: Eleanor Ann Young
Place of Birth:
Information on Mother:
Field Worker: Jas. S. Buchanan

"Richard Y. Audd was born in Kentucky, June 6, 1854, the son of John T. and Ellen Young Audd.

I was seven years of age when the Civil War began in which father served in the Federal service in the capacity of Captain. My mother, a sister and a brother and I remained at home until the close of the war when father returned home.

I was reared and educated at my old Kentucky home and after finishing public I attended the University of Kentucky at Lexington. In 1852 I left Kentucky and went to western Texas where I started a sheep ranch on the North Concho River and after collecting a herd of about 800 sheep I saw entire herd, as well as all other belongings, swept away by a disastrous flood of the Concho River. This happened about one year after I established the ranch. All I had left after was the clothing I was wearing. I then left Texas and returned to Kentucky.

In 1884 I came to the Indian Territory, stopping at the little town of Eufaula, at that time consisting of a few frame buildings including four frame stores which were know as Perryman's, Grayson's, Stidmam's and C.H. Foley's.

When I first came to Eufaula I secured employment at the Asbury Mission near Eufaula through a Methodist missionary by the name of Spence who was in charge of the Creek mission at that time. The mission had a farm of about two hundred acres of land, the products of which were used for the mission. This was cultivated by the students of the mission after school hours each day and my duties were the direction of the farm work of the students and the chasing and catching of runaway Indian boys and returning them to the mission. That mission was a problem as the greater number of the students were from an environment of semi-slavery and the first duty was to teach them the rudiments of civilization. Others of the students were from the Creek homes of culture and Christian training. My duties kept me busily occupied.

Leaving the Asbury Mission, I accepted a position ass a clerk in the general mercantile store of C.E. Foley, which position I held for about one year during which time I was married to Flora Coody, the daughter of Joseph Coody, Cherokee, and Mary Hardage Coodey, Creek, of Eufaula. Eight children were born to us, seven sons and one daughter. At that time there were no buildings between Eufaula and Muskogee, except the section houses on the M.K.&T. Railroad and in that year I built the first house at what was then Bond Switch, the name of which was later changed to Onapa. I lived there about two years and engaged in farming. In 1889 a friend by the name of Burton, who ran a store at the South Canadian, told me if I would move to Checotah Switch with him he would put up a store there. I told him I would move there with him and Burton put up the store at Checotah and I moved there a short time thereafter. The Lafayette brothers had a store at Checotah at that time.

Soon after Burton built his store, I build a two-story frame building at Checotah, which was the first two-story building constructed in that place and incidentally it was in the hall, on the second floor of this building that the Dawes Commission held its first meeting with the Creeks, presided over by Tams Bixby as head of the commission.

My wife being a citizen of the Creek Nation, she and the children took their allotments of land near Checotah when the Creek allotments were made. Their allotments comprised more than 1200 acres, south and east of Checotah, adjoining the city limits and it was on this land that we lived and engaged in farming and stock raising until our children were all educated and out in the world for themselves. My wife and I, at home alone, then moved to Muskogee.

During the years I was engaged in farming at Checotah I planted the first large fruit orchard in this part of the country. When the trees were at the height of their yield I have shipped as high as eight cars of peaches a year.

Of those of the old citizens of the Creek Nation whom I knew, I recall one of its greatest characters, Judge Chowie Colbert, Judge of the Tuskegee Creek Court. I believe he was one of the finest men I ever knew and it was universally conceded that he was one of the most considerate and broadminded judges of the Creek Nation. A son of Judge Colbert, Thompson Colbert, attended Asbury Mission during my connection with that institution.

Dick Berryhill was another notable character, a fullblood Creek. He was a Captain of the Lighthorse in Tuskegee district under Judge Chowie Colbert. He was a man of wonderful character and I enjoyed the great privilege of numbering him among my closest and dearest friends. I first became acquainted with Mr. Berryhill when he lived at old Fishertown about three miles from my place at Bonds Switch.

I recall the first time I saw Belle Starr. I walked into the Ingram Hotel at Eufaula and I saw a woman sitting at the piano, playing. My attention was attracted by her general appearance. She wore two large pistols in a belt buckled around her waist and her wearing apparel was not of the delicate feminine type generally worn by her sex though everything appeared to fit her type of character and was worn with perfect comfort and composure. On my way to my room I asked Mr. Ingram who she was and he told me it was Belle Starr.

When I first came to the Indian Territory this was a country of opportunities. It was no problem for a man to provide a living for a family. There was wild game in abundance, such as deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken, etc. When I first settled at Bonds Switch there was a wild turkey roost near my place and the noise of their gobbling at daylight would wake us up every morning. Therefore, we never needed an alarm clock to get up at dawn."

[Comments by submitter: Richard Young Audd was apparently the first one to add the second "d" to his last name (in other words, the spelling on the last name of his father "Aud" is correct. Richard Young Audd is my Great great grandfather.]

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: October 11, 1937
Name: Flora Rucker Audd
Post Office:
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: Feb 4, 1869
Place of Birth: Near Eufaula, I.T.
Father: Joseph McDonald Coody
Plate of Birth:
Information on Father:
Mother: Mary Hardage
Place of Birth:
Information on Mother:
Field Worker: Jas. S. Buchanana

STATEMENT OF MRS. FLORA COODEY AUDD:

"I was born near the town of Eufaula, February 4, 1869. My father was Joseph McDonald Coodey, Cherokee, and my mother was Mary Hardage, Creek.

I was reared at Eufaula and educated in the Creek public schools and Harrell Institute at Muskogee. Reverend T. F. Brewer and Mary Severs, daughters of Captain Severs, were classmates of mine while attending Harrell Institute.

My father's first wife was a woman by the name of Thornsberry and they were married before the Civil War and father was operating a general store located at the old Creek agency at Fern Mountain, northwest of where Muskogee was later built. The place was then known as "Agency". When the Civil War began father closed out his store there and took his family to Texas, then joined the Confederate Army in which cause he served throughout the war, during which time his wife died in Texas. Later he came back to the Indian Territory and married my mother at Old Town in 1867. Old Town was a little place situated on the Canadian River three miles east of the present site of Eufaula. Shortly after my father's marriage to my mother he engaged in the general mercantile business at Old Town and continued in that business until after the M.K.&T. Railroad was built and the town of Eufaula was started. He then moved to Eufaula in 1873 where he continued in business until his death in 1882. He was a member of the first Masonic Lodge in the Indian Territory and a member of the Methodist Church. My mother died in 1895. She was also a member of the Methodist Church."

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Dorothea Tufte <d_tufte@yahoo.com>, September 2001.