Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: December 15, 1937
Name: Joe Southern
Post Office: Atoka, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: September 4, 1873
Place of Birth: near Shelbyville, Shelby County, Texas
Father: D. W. Southern
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother: Tennessee Southern
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Investigator: Joe Southern
 
Biography of Joe Southern
Atoka, Oklahoma

I was born September 4, 1873, near Shelbyville, Shelby County, Texas. My parents were D. W. Southern and Tennessee Southern. I was the oldest of ten children in my father's family. Mother and two girls died while we lived in Texas. [1]

In 1886 [2] Father sold his holdings in Texas and moved to the Indian Territory in two covered wagons, one drawn by an ox team, the other by a horse team. On February 25, 1886 [3], we landed at Warren's farm and ranch seven miles southwest of Ardmore. There Father was taken sick during a snow storm. From this man Warren we rented a small log house and lived there until Father recovered in April, when we loaded our wagons and started out for the Cherokee Nation. The road we traveled led us through the following towns, Ardmore, Tishomingo, Ravis, Nails Crossing on Blue River, Cross Roads near Blue, north to Birds Mill, Old Stonewall, located on South Boggs River in what is now Pontotoc County, then northeast to Muddy Boggy near the double log cabins where we camped for three days. While there my brother, Rammie, and myself killed three deer and seven wild turkeys, using a cap and ball rifle and shot gun. We salted, dried and smoked the meat for future use.

Then we traveled northeast to North McAlister. We did some trading with J. J. MCALISTER, who owned a mercantile business there at that time. From there we traveled north on the old Texas and Kansas wagon trail, camping on Coal Creek, east of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad near a lake of water. We spent two days there fishing and caught plenty of fish for our use. From there we went north to the South Canadian River, crossing it east of the railroad on a ferryboat. From there we reached Eufaula and turned northeast to the crossing on the North Canadian River, located some west of Briartown, a small inland town that was used as a stage stop or station.

Sometime in the past while going into camp there for the night there was an incident happened that I will never forget. This North Canadian Crossing was very dangerous on account of quicksand. On the west side of the crossing was a smooth slick rock bottom; in the center of the stream the swift current was and a deep hole just below so that if your teams feet would happen to wash from under them, the swift current would wash team and wagon into this deep hole of water and all would be drowned.

In crossing we put our heavy team of horses across first without the wagon. Then we tied a heavy rope and chain to the end of the tongue of the wagon the ox team was attached to and pulled it across first with the family in it. Then we unhooked our ox team and placed them at the water's edge on the opposite side and rode the horse team back across the stream and attached rope and chain and horse team to the other wagon and pulled it across safely with ox team on dry footing. About the time this was accomplished and we were preparing to camp for the night on top of a high bank, a man with a wife and baby drove up to the crossing on the west side of the stream with a wagon and small team of ponies. He hesitated and hollowed across to us and asked if we thought he could cross all right. I went back to the water edge and told him that if his horses were not freshly shod he could not make it as the water was too swift for his ponies to stay on their feet when they got to the slick rock in the center of the stream. The river had about a two foot rise. I went back on top of the river bank where father and the rest of the family were preparing camp and got our largest horse, which had just been shod at Eufaula, unhooked a single tree and rode back up stream and discovered better footing for the horses where the water was not so swift. I hooked the single tree in end of tongue of wagon and proceeded up and across stream with myself riding horse. My horse crossed and hit solid footing but his team was in the center on the slick bottom and their feet were swept from under them and this man got excited and jumped out of wagon on the upper side. In doing so he got his lines wrapped around his feet and legs and he washed partly under the team. I looked back and saw what a condition they were in. They would have drowned but my horse was able to pull them so I urged him on and soon pulled them in the clear on the opposite side of the stream. My father and others who were in camp at that time looked and saw what trouble we were in and ran to our rescue. As Father was a medical doctor, he took charge and began to give orders what to do, as the man and team were almost drowned. In a short time they were all recovered. This man's name was George SCOTT and he camped with us that night. I have never seen him since.

We broke camp next morning and traveled north and west back to the railroad, traveling parallel with it to Muskogee; then northeast to the ferry on the Arkansas River, which landed us just below where the Grand River emptied into same on the east side. From there we went on to Fort Gibson; then north and west back to the railroad, traveling parallel with it to Pryor. From Pryor we went east to near the Grand River near the salt works, landing there May 10, 1886. [4]

We camped there for about twenty days. We located a log house just south of where the wagon road entered the Grand River bottom and rented this log house and moved in. While there father visited Tahlequah several times for the purpose of proving his Cherokee right in the Cherokee Nation but was turned down by the Dawes commission.

Then in September 1886, [5] we loaded up and started south with his youngest brother, Richard Southern, and wife who had joined us during this stay on Grand River. As Father was a doctor he was trying to find a good location for his practice. We went to Brush Hill and located. This was on the North Canadian River up from Eufaula in the Creek Nation. There he leased and improved forty acres of land from and Indian named George GRAYSON. We lived there and he practiced medicine for three years.

During the time we were there he married Nancy MIDDLETON. [6] My sister, Arminta Southern, married John MIDDLETON, Nancy's brother. Father became dissatisfied, sold out and moved to near Province, a small town east of Ardmore and was in the drug business there until 1895. [7]

When Dr. Frank BATES, now living in Coalgate, came to Oklahoma Father joined him in both practice and business. Father sold his business in 1900 and moved to Mannsville and established a general mercantile business where he lived until his death, in 1907. Father and his wife Nancy had two boys and one girl all of whom are living in Oklahoma at the present writing. Father's practice was mostly among the Indians and negroes as they were more in population than the whites during his life among them.

On September 6, 1887 [8], I, Joe Southern, left the home near Brush Hill in search of work in order to earn some money for myself. I walked toward Eufaula, crossing the North Canadian River at what was known as the McIntosh Crossing where I stopped and stayed all night with Solomon KILMER and family. His family consisted of wife and seven children, three girls and four boys. At this time I became acquainted with Minnie Kilmer, one of these girls, who some years later became my wife. We have three children, two boys and one girl, two of whom are living at the present time in Los Angeles, California.

The next day I walked to Eufaula and boarded the train there with $7.50 in my possession after buying my railroad ticket to Atoka. In Atoka I made several inquiries among the citizens concerning work. I was about to give up hopes of getting employment when I walked into a store owned and operated by Mr. Leon HARKINS and wife, who were three-fourths Choctaw Indians. I bought some canned goods for lunch and opened them on the counter in the rear of the store. While I was eating Mr. and Mrs. Harkins came back and entered into a conversation with me, asking me several questions as to who I was, where I lived, and where I was going. I told them my name and where I lived and that I was in search of employment. They held a consultation and when I finished my meal and went to the front to pay them for it they told me they wanted to hire me.

So we entered into an agreement as to what I was to get per month providing my work suited them and I went to work for them. At the time they had an old man named John GLOVER working for them. He and I got the winter wood for the house and store; we also went to the range and killed about fifty head of hogs for meat for the home and store. Mr. Harkins had plenty of livestock running on the range.

On November 18, 1887 [9], he and his wife and I loaded two wagons with camping and hunting outfit and started on a hunting trip with a hunting party consisting of ten people, namely: Mr. and Mrs. HARKINS, Jim DOWNING, Sam SMISER, and myself from Atoka, two brothers by the name of HONEYKEY from Sedalia, Missouri, two men from St. Louis. These last four were all railroad men. There came also in the party one man from New York City named Bill NOBLE, a book salesman.

We camped just above the mouth of Clear Creek where it empties into Jackfork River, in what is now Pushmataha County. Mrs. Harkins and I did the cooking for the camp. On Thanksgiving Day we cooked a nice dinner and decorated the camp. We had a picture made of all of us seated at the table and all the game hanging at one end of the table. The camp, wagons, teams, table and game were included in the picture. Hardy MARTIN, who is now in the hardware business at Idabel, has one of these pictures hanging in his store.

There were nine deer, twenty-seven wild turkeys, fifty ducks, one bobcat, sixty squirrels, seventy-five quail, and three gray fox killed while on this trip which lasted twenty-three days. I was with the Harkins family on many more such trips and we were always the nearest of friends.

In the spring of 1888 [10], I quit work for Mr. Harkins and went to Wise County, Texas, to assist my uncle Murff SOUTHERN to move to the R. N. CRAFTON Ranch, located on Pryor Creek, half way between Pryor Creek and Adair. I lived there with my uncle until 1890 [11] when I went back to Mr. Kilmer's place on the North Canadian River near Eufaula and there claimed and married Minnie Kilmer on August 28, 1890. [12] We lived there until the following year. In September, 1891 [13] we moved back to Atoka - my wife and Mr. Kilmer, my father-in-law, and his family, and we have resided here ever since. I have been working with, for and among the Indians for fifty years. I assisted in surveying this southern part of Oklahoma and have been employed as teamster and guide. I was employed also to help place the last shipment of Choctaw Indians from Mississippi on their allotments. From 1908 to 1917 I worked as contractor in the Indian Department, doing such work as improving Indian allotments; building houses on Indian homesteads in this district, consisting of Atoka, Coal, and Pontotoc Counties.


[Notations on Joe's Biography: Submitter's Notes]
*1: While we suspect that Joe is correct in that his mother Tennessee Southern died in Texas, there is also the possibility that she died in Indian Territory. We have a photo of Tennessee and David with the photographer P.F. STANDIFORD and his locations on it of; Wagoner, Eufaula, Tahlequah, and Vinita, Indian Territory on the board. It is always possible that they visited Indian Territory before she died too. This will be an unanswered question until we find evidence of her gravesite. {We know suspect that this is not his mother,Tennessee, in the photo but his sister Arminta. Probably taken when David went to Tahlequah to apply for the rolls.}

*6: David, Nancy, Araminta and John, all got their marriage licenses the same day and place; August 14, 1894 in Checotah, Indian Territory. David was 39 yrs.

*2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12, &13,: The date in this are in question. First he says 1886 they left Texas. The youngest son, Tison T. Southern was born in Aug. 1886 in Texas, and Tennessee is supposed to have died during childbirth in 1888. On *8, When he left home to go out on his own according to his date he would have been 14 years old. *13, His marriage date is 1895 not 1890.

More of these Papers are available on the following:

VOLUME 110 LDS MICROFICHE #6016975 10 FICHE
UNDER NAME OF: UNDER TITLE OF:
SOUTHERN, JOE Oil in Atoka County
Murrow Diary
Ghost Towns in Atoka County
Mounds and Mound Builders
Indian Police Officers
Biography of Self
Mounds
County Fairs
First High School of Atoka
Settlements of Choctaws and
Chickasaws
Land Marks

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Heather Cameron <h25noremac@aol.com> 02-2000.