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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
Name: Owens, Alford 
Date:  April 29, 1937
Interview # 1298
Address: Sulphur, OK
Born: July 28, 1863
Place of Birth: Georgia 
Father: William Owens, born in Georgia, Farmer & Saloon Keeper
Mother: Mary Owens, born in Georgia
Field Worker:  John F. Daugherty 

My father was William Owens.  He was born in Georgia in September, 1827. My mother was Mary McLeard  Owens.  She was also born in Georgia.  My father farmed some and ran a saloon.  There were three boys and one girl.

I was born July 28, 1863, in Georgia.  I thought this was a better country than Georgia so I moved to Sulphur in July 1889.  I came with an uncle and a cousin in a covered wagon from Texas.  It took four days to make the trip.  We came by Durant, crossing Red River at the mouth of Island Bayou.  We forded the river at this place.  After passing Durant, we came to Caddo. We crossed Blue River at Nail Crossing.  We went through Twelve Mile Prairie and crossed the Washita River at Fort Washita. We then went to Mannsville, to Durwood, Provine and thence to Ardmore.

Ardmore had only one store at this time, run by Zuckerman.  I well remember my first night at Ardmore.  They were having a celebration in honor of the Santa Fe Railroad, which had not been built so long before this.  We decided we liked this location.  My uncle was looking for grass for his cattle and this seemed to be the right spot, so we settled near here.  I lived here for ten years.

I began teaching a subscription school here.  Each child paid 31/2 cents per day to attend.  We ran out of water and had to dismiss at the end of three months.   T he building was a log house about twenty feet long by sixteen feet wide.  It had a board floor, and benches made of boards.  We had a stove and used wood for fuel.  We had a blackboard which I made out of one by twelve boards painted black.   I made my own paint out of linseed oil and lamp black.

I had some full blood Indian children in my school, among them were the  D. D. Cotton children and Charley Brown's children.

My first wife was a full blood Chickasaw.  Her name was Margaret Albertson.   She is buried at Old Kuch, southeast of Berwyn on the Washita River.

I built a good frame house on a quitclaim near Ardmore.  It had a basement and was weather boarded and ceiled.  It had a stone chimney.  I had good farming tools and always made good crops in those days.

After I had been here a few years a friend from Georgia came to see me.  He wanted to see the country so we got on some ponies and rode around.  We got to Lige Albertson's house and heard of an Indian Pashofa Dance which was to be held that night.   My friend was very eager to see that, so we made our way to the camp where it was to be.  These dances were held when a member of the tribe was very ill.  This time the man who was sick was Thompson Pickins.  When we got there, the Indians had a spot of ground all cleaned off with a striped pole at each end.  We started to ride across it and an Indian told us to stay off that plot of ground, if we didn't want to be shot.

At last the dance started.  They used drums for their music and sang weird songs.   They kept a pot of medicinal tea brewing on a fire around which they danced.   The sick man was in a little log hut and they gave him this tea to drink.   This produced a sweat which was supposed to cure him.  My friend thought it quite a jubilee over a sick man.  They danced until midnight, when they began serving the Pashofa, which had been cooking in a pot for hours.  This was corn cooked with fresh pork, and was a great dish among the Indians.  They dance and ate Pashofa the rest of the night.  The women wore terrapin shells with pebbles in them, buckled around their ankles, and these rattled as they danced.  We left about daylight, and my friend decided that was one dance which he would never forget.

I was married the second time in Carter County to Bendy Lewis, a Chickasaw full blood woman, granddaughter of Ex-Governor Harris.  We have lived in Murray County in Sulphur, for the past ten years.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate  September 2003