OKGenWeb   Oklahoma Genealogy

OKGenWeb Indian Pioneer Papers    About  Copies  Copyright  Index  Search  Submit  Transcribers

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: May 21, 1937 
Name: Lorena Simerson (nee Kelley)
Post Office: Big Cabin, Oklahoma 
Residence Address: 
Date of Birth: Nov. 1868 (per 1900 census)
Place of Birth: Indian Territory
Father: John Kelley
Place of Birth: Indiana
Information on father: 
Mother: Elizabeth Ward
Place of birth: Indian Territory
Information on mother: 
Married 2nd Tilman (Bud) Queen
Siblings of Lorena Kelley: Annie & Willie
Field Worker: James R. Carselowey

Indian Pioneer Papers - Vol. #83 - Fiche No. 691 - Western History Collections

Interview with Lorena Simerson, Big Cabin, Oklahoma #5888 page 157-161

My name is Lorena (Kelley) Simerson. I now live at Big Cabin, Oklahoma. My father's name was John Kelley. My mother's name was Elizabeth (Ward) Kelley; and they were married near the old Baptist Mission in Going Snake district, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. To this union three children were born as follows: Annie, Willie and Lorena.

My father died in Going Snake District, and my mother married Tilman (Bud) Queen. As long as we lived in Going Snake District all three of us children attended school at the old Baptist Mission, one of the first schools to be established in the Cherokee Nation after the Cherokees arrived here from Georgia.

Many of our leading Cherokee citizens first settled in Going Snake and Flint Districts, and later moved further west and north. Some of the old time families whom I remember as having left Going Snake District and moving to Delaware and Cooweescoowee Districts were, the Mayes, Bells, Buffingtons, Woodalls, Carseloweys and others. My step-father made several trips to Delaware with people who were moving there and he liked the country so well that he bought a place eight miles south of Vinita on Cabin Creek, known as the "Sulphur Springs Place". He particularly liked the location because that part of the country had free range, and the range was extra good. It was located on Cabin Creek, between the hill and creek, and had plenty of mast for hogs, and the Cherokee law was such that a citizen could hold a quarter of a mile each way from his premises, or field fence in either direction, and you could fence as much land as you were able to fence. All of the fields were fenced with rails, and the fencing was made hog tight. Instead of fencing a pasture for the hogs, as we do now, we fenced the cultivated or field land away from the hogs and cattle.

Texas Cattle Arrive.
We were getting along fine with our rail fences until the Texas cattle began to arrive in the country; then we had to make the fences higher and much stronger to keep them out of our corn fields. An average rail fence was seven rails high, staked and double ridered, with rails eight feet long. The average price for making rails those days was $1.00 per hundred, and a good rail splitter could easily make $2.00 per day.

Old Time Rail-Mauling.
It took a lot of rails to fence much of a corn field, and the average farmer did not have time to make his rails and do much else, so they started the "Old Time Rail Maulings." Prizes were offered for the two men who split the most rails in a day. The prize was usually a large cake which was cut and eaten the night of the rail-mauling, when an old time country dance would accompany the day's work. A big free dinner was given the rail-splitters, with a dance and free midnight supper at night.

Forest Fires in Rail Fences.
About once each year, when the forest fires began to burn through the timber, the early day settler was encountered with the task of keeping the fire out of his rail fence. Sometimes it would be into a string of fence before he discovered it, and it was then the whole family turned out and began to tear down the rails and try to save as many as they could. Panel after panel would be torn down to the ground and thrown into the open, where the fire had already burned, and afterwards would be put back into the fence.

My parents left Going Snake and came to Delaware District in 1870, and settled on the Sulphur Springs place, so called because of the fine large sulphur springs that boiled forth out of the ground, and which I believe is as fine medicinal water as any in the state of Oklahoma.

The Osage and Delaware Indians had already discovered the Sulphur Spring when we moved there. They would come every summer in great crowds and camp there for weeks at the time. They drank and bathed in the water, and said it would heal any kind of an old sore, or skin disease.

They also made use of the Sassafras roots. After they would leave I would go to the camping ground and find great heaps of Sassafras roots, which they had used in making tea. The Indians always had money and we sold them lots of eggs, butter, milk and garden produce.

A local doctor by the name of Dr. Morrison, who practiced in the neighborhood, at one time started to build a health resort at Sulphur Spring and went so far as to build several buildings, but the plan fell through, and I never did learn the reason.

Early Day Schools.
Schools were very few and far between when we came here in 1870. Miss Sue Woodall was teaching a subscription school about a mile south of us, and my mother sent all three of us children to her. She was the daughter of Isaac M. and Mary Woodall, who moved here the same year we did, from Going Snake District, and during the school term she married Thomas M. Buffington, who later became Chief of the Cherokees. He came to the school house one evening after her after they were married and the children saw him kiss her, and they thought that was something awful for the teacher to do.

--------------------------------------------------------
Additional Notes by transcriber: 
Dawes Final Roll
NamLast -NamFirst- NaMiddle-Type*-Age-Sex-Percent Indian Blood-Card # - Roll # - 
PO or Residence
Simerson, Marion E BB 43 M IW 3706 24164 
Simerson, Lorena BB 31 F 1/16 3706 9001
Simerson, Lana P F 3706 
Simerson, Morgan P M 3706 
---------
Cherokees by Blood - p. 385
Lorena Simerson Roll No. 9001
---------
1900 Census - T. 24 N.R. D.O.E. - Cherokee Co., Indian Territory - June 30, 
1900
Simerson, Marion aged 42-b.May 1858- married 12 yrs-b. Ohio
  -father b. N.J. - mother b. N.J.
Lorena wife aged 31 - born Nov 1868 - married 12 yrs. - b. Ind. Ter. 
  - father b. Indiana - mother b. Ind. Ter. no children born to this individual 
  --- she is listed as Cherokee through her mother

(next door is found living alone Chas. Buffington aged 38 - b. Ind. Ter.)
---------
1910 Census - Township 8 - Craig Co., OK - April 26, 1910
Simerson, Marion E. head aged 53(43) white born Ohio father born NY mother born NY
Lorena E. wife aged 42 Indian born OK father born Indiana mother born OK
---------
1920 Census - Township 8 - Craig Co., OK - Jan. 10, 1920
Simerson, Marion E. head aged 53 white born Ohio father born NY mother born NY
Lorena wife aged 52 Indian born OK father born ? mother born ?
---------
1930 Census - Township 8 - Big Cabin Town, Craig Co., OK - April, 1930
Simerson, Lorena listed alone aged 62 widowed born OK father born GA 
mother born OK
----------------------------------------------------------
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Martha Barnes crb17@swbell.net April 2004.