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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: January 13, 1938
Name: George Samuel Shook
Post Office: Hominy, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: June 12, 1886
Place of Birth: Adrian, Missouri
Father: Joseph Jackson Shook
Place of Birth: Appanoose County, Iowa
Information on father: born March 24, 1861
Mother: Louise Adeline Eyman
Place of birth: Hancock County, Illinois
Information on mother: born March 4, 1863
Field Worker: Charles H. Holt
Interview #12714

G. S. Shook was born In Missouri in 1886, and in 1894, when he was eight years old, the parents moved to the Territory, buying a raw quarter section of land eight and a half miles north east of Pawnee. 

The trip from Missouri was made by covered wagon and they brought with then only household goods and a saddle horse. The trip was very exciting to young Shook as he got to ride the saddle horse a great part of the trip, but he would get tired and would tie the horse to the back of the wagon while he slept or rested from his riding. Some times he would walk for a mile or two for a change. 

The first days travel after entering the Territory in the northern part of Osage County he had gotten tired of riding and was walking and had gotten quite a distance behind the wagon and met an Osage. Mr. Shook had never seen an Indian, and had wondered just what they looked like so before he knew the Indian was coming, the Indian had passed the wagon and was meeting young Shook, but when the boy saw the Indian he left the road running, making a circle out in the prairie, getting to the wagon as soon as possible but his fears of the Indians soon faded. 

However, in camp that night the boy's excitement was great. He had never heard coyotes howl, but seemingly they had camped where all of the coyotes in the Territory were located as they howled all night and young Shook asked his parents what else they would find besides Indians and coyotes in the new country. 

There was no house on the place the Shook's bought, but soon a dug out was constructed, which the family lived in for two years and then a frame house was built. A well was dug on arrival and the land breaking was begun, using a small sod plow drawn by two horses. The first year only kaffir corn was raised as the sod was so tough and solid. Young Shook and his sister were put to planting the kaffir corn, using an axe to chop a place In the sod to get enough loose dirt to cover the seed, but the land was more easily cultivated after the first year, and other crops were raised and the Shook's thrived In their undertakings.

There was no school the first year nearer than Pawnee, but the second year a small school was built on the corner of the Shook farm.

There was not much thievery, except the Indians would steal things from the fields and gardens, such as pumpkins, watermelons, etc.

Some of the neighbors were the "Went" ATKINSON and John BELL families.

The Shook family after living on the place near Pawnee for a number of years sold out and moved to the Osage country where they now reside near Hominy.

[Submitter's Comments: The original home place is located near the school building mentioned above which is just down the hill, north of the Bell Cemetery which is about 7 miles South of Ralston, OK.]

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Mark Shook <shookms@worldnet.att.net> November 2000.