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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.