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A B C D E F G H I J K L M Mc N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: November 29 1937
Name: Husbands, Mrs. Daisy
Residence: Sulphur, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: December 6, 1877
Place of Birth: Decatur, Texas
Father: Riley Clement, born in Mississippi
Mother: Sarah Burnett, born in Mississippi
Field Worker: John F.  Daugherty
Interview #9347

My parents were Riley Clement and Sarah Burnett Clement, both born in Mississippi.  Father was a farmer and stockman.  There were seven children in our family.

I was born in Decatur, Texas, December 6, 1877.  My parents died when I was very young and in 1893 I came to the Territory to live with a sister who lived at Overbrook, near Ardmore.  We traded at Marietta and Ardmore.

The streets of Marietta used to be so muddy that it took four horses to pull and empty wagon through them.  Hogs and cows ran in the Ardmore streets until the streets were nothing but mud holes in rainy weather.

My sister lived in an old log house with a dirt and stick chimney.  I slept in a room where the cracks between the logs were wide enough for a cat to crawl through.  I was always afraid some 'varmint' would crawl in and sleep in there, too.   I had a string on the door for a latch and the door opened to the outside of the building.

We used grease lamps part of the time and used a small kerosene lamp when we had the kerosene.  We did not have much money in those days and we couldn't always afford kerosene.

The young people had some good times when they got together for parties.   We used to have candy breakings.  We made taffy candy out of sorghum molasses and a boy and girl would pull the taffy until it was ready to eat.  Then we ate until we  could eat no more.  I usually rode on a horse behind a boy to these parties.  The neighborhood dances were square dances and we always had a good time at these dances.

We had preaching once a month, by a circuit rider preacher.

I married in 1894 at Overbrook to Mr. Husbands.  We got our license at Ardmore and went to live on a farm on Bayou west of Ardmore.  It took a good team to tear up the turf, and usually it was left to decay for a year before the farmer planted it.

Between the first and the fifteenth day of April each year the ranches had a general roundup.  They took everything, and each man came and got his own cattle.   I have seen fifteen thousand head of cattle in a general roundup near our home.   The cattle stayed on the creeks and rivers all winter.

When anybody wanted beef they went out and killed what they wanted and nobody said a word about it.  That was the custom in those days and it was not considered stealing.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate,  September 2003.