Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: October 25-26, 1937
Name: Mrs. Mary Darneal
Post Office: R. R. Box 39, Williams, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: May 29, 1867
Place of Birth: Waldron, Arkansas
Father: Milford Long
Place of Birth: Arkansas
Information on Father: Died at Waldron in 1875
Mother: Louise Long
Place of Birth: Arkansas
Information on Mother: Died at Skullyville in 1901
Field Worker: Gomer Gower
Interview #796

Mary Darneal was born at Waldron, Arkansas, on May 29th, 1867, where her father, Milford Long, died in 1875.

Seven years later, her mother, Louisa Long, moved to the Choctaw Nation and was employed as kitchen overseer at the New Hope Female Seminary near Skullyville, for which service she was paid forty dollars per month, her keep, and board and tuition for her daughter. Dr. Griffith was superintendent at the time she entered upon this service, and Thomas D. Ainsworth was superintendent at the time she severed her connection with that institution.

Soon after the arrival of the family in the Choctaw Nation, Mary Long was united in marriage to Stephen Calvin Darneal, a three-quarter Choctaw Indian, at Green Hill Church, on James Fork Creek, in full accordance with the Choctaw marriage law. This marriage occurred in the fall of 1882.

During the first year after their marriage, the young couple made their home with the father of the groom, James Darneal, who lived near Pocola, a small hamlet between the Poteau River and the Arkansas state line, about twelve miles distant from Fort Smith. They then established a home at a point four miles east of Skullyville, where they resided for seventeen years and then removed to Kinta, in what was then San Bois County in the Choctaw nation.

It was while they resided at Kinta that the death of Green McCurtain occurred and, in accordance with the custom universally followed at that time, as neighbors, the couple were two of those who "sat up" with the corpse on the night before his burial.

During the years of their married life, Mr. and Mrs. Darneal acquired possession of three good farms. The three farms, in widely separated areas, were segregated for one reason and another, with the result that Mr. and Mrs. Darneal were prohibited from filing on any of them, but they did receive something like five hundred dollars for the improvements which they had made. They made an unsuccessful effort to file on one of these farm homes, which had the effect of depriving them of filing on desirable land, as it had already been allotted to other citizens while their claim was pending before the Land Commission. Due to this cause, the allotment of land to the family was, in the main, in small tracts, and these in a widely scattered area, some being in the Chickasaw Nation. They selected as a home site a tract of land in a hilly region about three miles northeast of Panama, where Mrs. Darneal still lives alone, since the death of her husband, Stephen Calvin Darneal.

Mary Long, at the time of her marriage in 1882 to Mr. Darneal, a three-quarter Choctaw Indian, thus became a citizen of the Choctaw nation when she was seventeen years old.

James Darneal, a half-breed Choctaw, father of Mary's husband, was one of the foremost sheriffs and Choctaw Court attaches in that period.

In contradiction to the generally accepted belief that, under Tribal Law, all violators of the law were given their unrestricted freedom on their own honor to appear for trial, and upon conviction to appear for punishment, Mrs. Darneal states that such was not the case, but that the sheriff was held responsible for the custody of all violators of the law, pending final disposition of the complaints lodged against them. As has already been noted, her father-in-law, James Darneal, was the sheriff of Skullyville County at the time of Mary's marriage to his son Stephen, and the young couple made their home at his house for one year after their marriage.

During that year there were from ten to twelve prisoners incarcerated in a prison made of logs located near the dwelling of the sheriff. Mary Darneal often assisted in preparing meals for the prisoners.

She remembers the circumstances connected with the murder of Isaac Folsom by Levi James, both of whom were Choctaws, and members of prominent families in the vicinity, and the imprisonment of James immediately after the murder, July 4, 1882, until May of the following year--1883--when he was executed by decree of the Choctaw Court at the old Council House, some four miles west of what is now Panama. This legal execution, by decree of the Skullyville County, or perhaps it would be more proper to say, the Mushulatubbe District Court, is notable in that it was the last legal execution fixed by the Tribal Court within the confines of Skullyville County.

Mary Darneal related that, on one occasion, the sheriff had gone away from home for the day and had placed the prisoners in the charge of her husband with instructions to have them work in the field under his guard.

Soon after the noon hour, two of the prisoners made a dash from the field in the direction of the house, where they hastily caught two of the horses which had been left in the lot, and without taking time to open the lot gate, urged the horses against the rail fence with which the lot was enclosed, broke it down, and fled at full speed for parts unknown. Her husband, the guard, was helpless. If he left the remaining eight or ten prisoners while he engaged in capturing the two who were getting away, the larger group of prisoners would be left unguarded. There was nothing left for him to do but to choose the lesser of two evils, and stay to guard the larger group, which he did. Upon the return of the sheriff, James Darneal, late in the evening, and being told of the escape of two of his prisoners, he set out, caught the two prisoners, brought them back, and, as a punishment for attempting to escape, withheld from them the privileges enjoyed by the other prisoners.

It was the custom of the sheriff to permit the prisoners who were married and had families to spend a night at their own homes once every two weeks. On these occasions, a guard would accompany the prisoners. It was the guard's duty to see that the visitors to their homes returned to the prison at the appointed time.

The building which served as a jail at the home of the sheriff was a log structure ceiled on the inside with heavy ceiling. The one door was made of oak lumber, two inches thick, hung upon massive hinges. A heavy chain was used as a part of the lock. A hole was bored through the end of one of the logs abutting the door frame and another at the same height near the opening side of the door. Two discarded horseshoes were nailed, one on the door, the other on the log, and both on the outside of the building, and the closed end of the horseshoes, encircling the side of the holes next the point of opening, prevented anyone from cutting out the holes with a knife and thus freeing the occupants of the jail. This crude device was augmented by the use of a good padlock to lock one end of the chain to the other.

On one occasion, several prisoners made a temporary escape by means of prying up the hearth stone of the fireplace, which served as the means of heating the jail in cold weather, and crawling out under the jail. In this one-room jail, from eight to twelve prisoners were kept. Here they ate their meals, slept, and wore away the weary hours awaiting the date of their trials or the hour of execution.

The whipping of an Indian woman at the whipping post was an extremely rare occurrence.

The Sheriff was reputed to be an excellent marksman, a fact which caused him much annoyance and the destruction of his peace of mind in his later years. By tradition, rather than by the Tribal Law, a Choctaw Indian who had forfeited his right to live by the violation of Tribal law was sentenced to be shot, which was the manner of execution among the Choctaws. The condemned men were privileged to select the person whom he desired to fire the fatal shot. A convicted person always sought the most expert marksman so that his death would be swift and sure. During his long career as a sheriff, in which he many times had displayed his unerring aim, James Darneal had been selected as executioner by many unfortunate men, and in not a single instance did he fail to hit the vital spot at the first crack of his gun. This was a very unpleasant duty, and Mr. Darneal quite frequently made efforts to have the condemned men select someone else as executioner, but on account of the well-known and unerring aim of the Sheriff, he would be forced to perform this duty.

In his later years, the faces and forms of the many men whom he had sped on their way into eternity, even though it was in the performance of his sworn duty, haunted him. He could not sleep unless all the windows and doors were closed and the window blinds lowered. In his troubled dreams, he would see the unfortunate men who had selected him as their executioner.

At his death, he was buried in the New Hope Academy Cemetery, near the scene of his life-long activities. Mrs. Mary Darneal, widow of Stephen Calvin Darneal, lives three miles northeast of Panama, not far from the home to which she went with her young husband fifty-five years ago.

Submitters Notes:  Mary died October 23, 1960 in Di Giorgio Camp, Kern County, California and is buried in Arvin District Cemetery, Kern County, California.

Her husband, Stephen Collin Darneal was born March 15, 1854 and died July 20, 1921, Panama, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. He is buried in New Hope Cemetery, Spiro, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Stephen is the son of James (Jim) and Caroline Darneal.

Stephens and Mary's children were Elias P Darnel, William Andrew Darneal; Henry C. Darneal; Fred Darneal; Bennie Alfred Darneal; Ruth Darneal; Earline Darneal.   Source: Choctaw Enrollment Card.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Sue Hearon, November 2002.