Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History
Project for Oklahoma
Date: March 9, 1937
Name: Mrs. Margaret Hall Crawford
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1855
Place of Birth: Mississippi
Father:
Mother:
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Interview #1085
Story told by Mrs. Margaret Hall Crawford,
born 1855 in Mississippi.
My father died when I was very small, left
my mother with six children. When my oldest brother was 12, we left
Mississippi and went to Texas. That was in 1864. We went through in a wagon
working two oxen. We stayed in Texas three years.
My mother died in Texas. My oldest
brother, Buck Hall, then about 15 years old, loaded up our wagon and we went
back to Mississippi. He took over our family and made a living for us. He
farmed there two years, then he wanted to come back to Texas. Some of our
relatives did not want him to start out with us kids, as he was only about 17
then, but he loaded up and we went back to Texas. He lived to be about 70
years old.
I grew up in Texas and was married to J.
T. Crawford. My husband was a young preacher then. We moved to Wynnewood,
Indian Territory in 1892. We came from Texas in a wagon working four horses
and farmed at Wynnewood one year. Then we moved to the Choctaw Nation near
Boggy Depot. My husband preached to the Indians. He was a Missionary Preacher.
The Indians were good to us. My husband would be gone sometimes two weeks at a
time, holding meetings, and the Indian women would bring us things to eat.
While my husband was gone one time, we got
behind in our crops and a bunch of Indian men and women came to our place and
worked all day. I told them we did not have any money to pay them with. They
laughed at me and said, "We are doing this for our White Brother",
but they said it in Choctaw.
We lived there five years and then moved
to Pauls Valley. We farmed around Pauls Valley until our children were all
married.
My husband died in 1929. I have made my
home with my daughter Mrs. Wade of Pauls Valley.
Two of my sons are Baptist preachers. I am
the mother of ten children, grandmother of 106 children, great grandmother of
66 children and great great grandmother of 5 children.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate.