D. C. BETTS

In Memory of a Departed Brother 
April 25, 1879—February 3, 1919

On February 3rd, the death angel visited the Ward Chapel Community and Claimed for its victim one of the highest esteemed citizens of Atoka County, a man who was esteemed by all who knew him.

The subject of this sketch was our beloved Brother D. C. Betts, who was born April 25, 1870, being reared by Christian parents. He heeded their admonition 17 years ago. He join the Missionary Baptist church and for the last fourteen years has been an ordained deacon in that good body and well does this author of the sketch remember the first time he ever met this worker, seventeen years ago, at a little mission Sunday school at Hickory Hill, when he proved himself a true soldier of Christ, and it has been my privilege to be closely associated with Brother Betts these past seventeen years, and have always found him a true man in financial way and also in a fraternal way, and above all true to his God.

Several years ago he became a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows of Atoka Lodge No. 395, and lived so true to his obligation that his life though he is dead still speaks the emblems of the beloved order, Friendship, Love and Trust. And it was his request that his lodge bury him. So on Tuesday, February 4, a number of the brothers gathered at the home of the deceased, where Brother Renfore preached a beautiful funeral sermon to his loved ones, a host of friends and acquaintances. Then a band of Odd Fellows took charge of the corpse and conveyed it to the family cemetery, being followed by a large procession, there they laid him to rest in accordance with their order. And we want to say to the bereaved ones of this departed Brother, not to weep for Brother Betts—he is not dead, but has gone to love with God.

Though his voice is silenced here, his pure sweet life still speaks, and God will continue to talk to all of us who know him through the life of this noble brother, and use him as a beckoning hand to lead many souls to Christ and there is no one realizes your sorrows more forcibly than Atoka Lodge No. 395, and we commend you to Brother D. C. Betts’ Christ.

Submitted by Carl Phillips, great nephew of D. C. Betts, April 9, 2000  Carl@jps.net

THE BETTS BOYS

My gg-grandfather was David C. BETTS, a white man from NY who had come down into Blue County IT and married a Choctaw woman named Nancy. They had a son named Ramsey Douglas BETTS, my g-grandfather.

I don't know what happened to Nancy but David married twice more. The third wife was a white woman named Mary Ann SEAGO. They had two sons, John and Tom. David and Mary divorced and Mary married three more times. Two of the subsequent husbands were Choctaws and Mary was granted Choctaw membership by virtue of intermarriage.

There was one big advantage to being a member of the Choctaw Nation. You could receive a land allotment. In 1903, John and Tom who were then living in Antioch, Garvin County, applied for Tribal membership, stating that their brother Ramsey was a Choctaw and their mother was a Choctaw so they should be also. Well the Commission didn't buy it and their claims were denied. John and Tom later moved to Texas where they lived out their lives.

Submitted by Carl Phillips, great nephew of D. C. Betts, Carl@jps.net