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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 14, 1938
Name:  Esther V. Reeves
Post Office: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Residence Address:  
Date of Birth: September 20, 1861
Place of Birth:  North Carolina
Father:   E. F. Jordan
Place of Birth:  North Carolina
Information on father:
Mother:  E. C. Harkey
Place of birth:   North Carolina
Information on mother:
Field Worker:  Maurice R. Anderson
Interview #: 10447

I was born in 1861 in North Carolina but my father and mother moved to Texas when I was very small and settled on a farm. Father raised cattle there and I can remember when I was very small, he would help drive cattle to Kansas and would be gone sometimes from two to three months at a time and Mother would have to take care of the place while he was away.

In later years my father owned the Jordan Ranch. I grew up in Texas and was Married to J.B. Reeves who was a Missionary Baptist preacher, and in 1900, he was called to Pauls Valley to take over the Baptist Church here.

Not knowing what kind of schools they had at Pauls Valley, he came on and I stayed on the little farm near Waco, Texas, where the children could go to school. The public school was established at Pauls Valley in 1898, but it was in 1899 that they had the first term of free school. 

My husband after coming to Pauls Valley and taking over the church, was elected one of the city's first aldermen, and I moved to Pauls Valley in 1901. 

My husband continued in church work until he died a few years back.

In 1902, Pauls Valley was flooded. The Washita River got out of its banks and people had to travel around in boats, and the next overflow was in 1908, but that time though it was nothing like 1902.

I have lived in Pauls Valley since 1901 and was engaged in church work along with my husband until his death.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Brenda Choate.