Pauls Valley Chickasaw Nation Indian Territory Sept.11th 1879
Mr. Dudley Paul,
Dear Nephew After my respects -Please receive my thanks for your kind favor of Sept. lst which was received by due course of me. Also copy of Newbernian alluded to by you -and also a letter from my only surviving brother S (page torn) (Stephen?) Paul.
I am puzzled already, as to your locality. I know nothing of Grantsboro nor Pamlico County. Which direction are you and how far from Beards Creek. The place where I was raised in Craven. I want to know what became of Jesse Paul's children (a large family) & Uncle Peter Banks & children & Uncle Jasper Hardison's family & what year my father died & of what diseases, & how many children father had by his last wife, & when she died if deceased, & where & when did Samuel my brother die & also my other sister Lettica & whether she married & if so to whom, & was sister Julia who lives with brother Stephen ever married, & if so to whom.
How far is Grantsboro from a railroad & what road is it, & how far is it from Newbern.
And now as probably I have asked you questions enough for a start I will close for the present. Please answer shortly & believe me
Yours truly
Smith Paul
The above letter was written by a man who had been away from his home at Baird's (Beard's) Creek for many years. He obviously had deep ties with his kin. Smith Paul lived a life that creates legends and legend abound! It has been said that he left North Carolina when he was eleven or twelve years old after his mother, Tamsy Whealton Paul died and his father, Rhesa Paul, married Betsey Daw.
The year of his departure, however, continues to be a mystery. Smith was born in 1809. His father's second marriage took place in 1827, when Smith was eighteen years old.
One of his descendants noted that Smith ran away from home and was adopted by the Chickasaw Indians in the State of Mississippi, with whom he lived until the year 1835 or 1836; at that time the government moved the Chickasaws from Mississippi to Oklahoma.
When she was 83, his grandaughter, Tamsie, wrote that Smith worked in Mississippi for a white man named Rev. McClure who was a missionary to the Indians. When McClure went to Indian Territory Smith Paul went with him and continued working for him a total of ten years.
Mr. McClure's wife was Ela Teecha, (also called Alletechia and Ellen) a Chickasaw and they had two children, Tecumseh and Katherine. After Rev. McClure died from rabies, Smith Paul married McClure's widow and moved to Fort Arbuckle (now in Oklahoma) where his daughter, Mississippi (called Sippia) was born in 1843. Based upon available information he must have been over eighteen years of age when he left North Carolina. As he had signed some deeds in 1838 after his father's death he may have returned to North Carolina for a short time.
Some reports indicate that Smith Paul built his double-log constructed cabin in a beautiful valley located between Rush Creek and the Washita River in 1847 or 1848. At this time his son Sam was eleven months old and Smith cared for his two stepchildren and a negro slave couple as well. It was thought that he brought some Indian families with him as well because he later did large-scale farming.
True to his North Carolina roots, Smith Paul was a religious man. His grand-daughter, Tamsie wrote that Smith Paul had church services at his home before he was able to build the first church in the valley. He also hired a preacher and school teacher. Education was important to him. His son Sam was sent to a military school for education and his daughter Sippia went to the Fort Sill Indian Boarding School. Smith Paul and ElaTeecha Brown McClure Paul had these children, Mississippi (Sippia) Paul; Samuel Paul and Jesse Paul. After ElaTeecha died in 1871 Smith married Sarah Ann Lilley in 1875 and had Stephen, Tamsie, Willie S.,and David Paul.
There are many stories about Smith Paul. Certainly his life was one about which movies are made. Did he really have a grandfather who had-been a revolutionary soldier, one of Marion's men? Did he leave home as a child or was he in his late teens? Was it a "mean" stepmother that drove him away? Did he go to Florida at one time? Or was he on treks to California before the thousands of people stampeded there in the 1850's.
In 1875 Smith Paul and his second wife moved to California with their four children. Unfortunately the marriage did not last. Eventually Smith Paul , now an old man, was brought back to Oklahoma. Smith Paul's fertile valley evolved into an important crossroads for travelers and settlers. Smith Paul is buried in the Old Cemetery in Pauls Valley and his epitaph reads, "He was the first to make this valley yield of it's wealth."
SAM PAUL
SON OF SMITH PAUL
WILLIAM PAUL
SON OF SAM PAUL
GRANDSON OF SMITH PAUL
Smith Paul's Tombstone in "The Old Cemetery" in Pauls Valley
Ellen (Ela Teecha) Paul's tombstone in "The Old Cemetery" in Pauls Valley
A Famous Valley
Reprinted from Twin Territories Magazine, by W.J.S., Vol. 1, No. 7, 1899
Of all the valleys in the Indian Territory, none is so famous or well known as Paul's Valley, Chickasaw Nation. Far and near, all over the West it is noted for the wonderful productiveness of its soil producing a bale of cotton per acre, and often as many as seventy-five bushels of corn upon the same amount of land.
Nearly fifty years ago Smith Paul came to this country from Mississippi with his Chickasaw wife and opened a small farm near where the town of Paul's Valley now stands. Contrary to an idea entertained by most people, Smith Paul was a white man, but his first wife being a Chickasaw, Paul boasted a right, as a Chickasaw, though not a drop of Indian blood flowed in his veins.
Here he lived for many years, and finally the valley became known as "Smith Paul's Valley," and remained so until a few years since, when the first part of the name was dropped, and the valley was then known simply as Paul's Valley. Gradually his small farm grew to immense proportions and in a few years he had more broad acres of rich land enclosed than my ten men in the Territory. Not only was he rich in landed interests, but his stock were numbered by the thousands.
Several children were born to the white man and his Indian wife. One son was Sam Paul. Sam grew to manhood a wild, harurn-scarum sort of fellow, but with plenty of energy and brains.
About twenty-five years ago Smith Paul's wife died, and in a short time he married a white woman, who bore him two or three children. Realizing that he was comparatively a rich man, and that his white children needed an education and the advantages of civilization, he removed his family to California, where he purchased land near Santa Barbara. That was eighteen years ago, but in an elegant home near Santa Barbara the children of the Indian recluse Smith Paul, still live. The old man died something like eight years ago.
Sam Paul, the half-breed son of Smith, after attaining man's estate, became more reckless than ever. He was rarely ever out of some sort of trouble. Of worldly goods he had plenty, but this did not satisfy him - he craved excitement. For several years he held a position as United States deputy marshal, and while acting as such he killed several men. One of these he shot while the man was (as Sam said) trying to escape. This murder, which occurred near Mill Creek, sent Sam Paul to the pen at Detroit, where he remained for two years. At the expiration of this time he was pardoned and returned to Paul's Valley.
Sam is credited with having married four or five times. His last wife is now living at Paul's Valley, as also are two of his sons, whom are quiet, respectable men. There is an old saying that "chickens come home to roost," and the truth of this is strikingly illustrated in the case of Sam Paul, who had in his youth caused his father such deep and permanent grief. Besides the two sons named Billy and Buck -Sam had another, Joe, who was in every particular a "chip" off the old block." His father had trouble with him almost from time the time he left the cradle, and at last, when Joe was just merging into manhood, Sam quit trying to do anything with him and open hostility began between father and son, horrible as it may seem. Finally Joe, to keep his scalp on his head, paid his grandfather, Smith Paul, in California, a visit, where he remained for many months. When he had stayed with the old gentleman until the acquaintance became tiresome to both, Joe came back to the Territory. He and his father didn't meet for several days after the Prodigal's return, but when they did there was "war," but it was all on one side. Sam was "fixed" for Joe, but Joe was not in like condition, and, as the meeting occurred in a country lane, there was plenty of brush handy, and the son took advantage of the fact and escaped amid a fusillade of six-shooter balls.
The next meeting occurred in the streets of Paul's Valley, and Joe had "an even break" with the old man. Both men were wounded - Sam receiving a bullet through the groin and his son got a ball in the shoulder. This ended the war for awhile, but not for long. In the meantime Joe had married a white girl, and was making his home at the Valley, where his wife and child still live. As soon as the belligerents were able to get out of bed, the friends of each began to stir up the old animosity between the two men, which only needed a little fanning to cause the flame to burst fourth again. One day, about seven years ago, Sam Paul, with his wife came to town. Joe was on a 'whizz,' and when he found that his father was in town, began brooding over his wrongs, fancied and otherwise. At last his resentment got the better of his judgment, and arming himself with a Winchester he went to the restaurant where he father and stepmother were taking dinner. Walking in, he placed the muzzle of the gun to his father's head and blew out his brains. For this murder he was carried to Paris, Texas, and placed in jail, where he remained for several months. At last he was released, on the strength of evidence adduced at the examining trial, showing a certain amount of justice for the killing.
After his release Joe returned to Pauls Valley, where for three years he led a reckless life, engaging in all manner of dissipation. But the end came, and three years after killing his father, Joe Paul met his death in the same restaurant, and in exactly the same manner in which his father died, being killed by a cousin, Jennisen McClure, who had long entertained a grudge against Joe. A strange line of fatalities seemed to hang to this family. McClure lived only about two years after killing Joe. At the time of his death he was living on a farm a short distance from the Valley. One morning he was found dead upon the railroad track a short distance east of town. He had been in town the night before gambling, and left the gambling room about 2 o'clock in a intoxicated condition, and it is supposed sat down on the track and fell asleep. A north-bound train came thundering along pretty soon afterward, and Jennison McClure joined the man he had murdered two years before. At the time of his death there were strong suspicions that he was murdered and his body placed on the track to be run down by the first passing train, but there were never sufficient developments to prove the correctness of such suspicions.
Such is the brief history of the family for whom Pauls Valley was named - one of the richest agricultural spots on the globe today. The town of Pauls Valley is now a live, hustling little city of 1500 population, where, over forty years ago, old Smith Paul settled with his Indian wife, built the first crude house, and caused that now famous section to "blossom like a rose."
The Paul Shooting
From reports in the daily press and private advices from the scene we gleam the following particulars of the affray between Sam Paul and his son Joe, at Pauls Valley on Tuesday of this week. The shooting grew out of an old feud over family matters. The parties met on the streets about 6:15 p.m. when Sam opened fire on his son, firing in all six shots, two of which took effect in the breast of stomach. Joe did not return the fire until the second shot. His shot struck his father in the groin inflicting a painful, but not a dangerous wound. Joe's injuries are serious but the doctor's at last accounts thought that he would pull through. Sam was arrested on Thursday by the U.S. authorities, his having taken citizenship rendering him amenable to U.S. law. At last account he was being guarded by Marshal Heck Thomas, his wound keeping him confined in bed. He will probably be tried at Ardmore.
Purcell Register, Dec 13, 1890, Page 4
One Account
Smith Paul was born in New Bern, North Carolina, located on the North Carolina Coast in May of 1809. He was of pure Scottish descent, like lots of people in North Carolina. He, along with his brothers and sisters, was left half orphans when their mother passed away and his father was remarried. His mother's maiden name was Wheelton. In about a year, probably not more than two, his father died.
This left a stepmother with several children, including Smith Paul and his brother Jesse. Different relatives picked up different ones of the Paul children, but Smith Paul -an orphan boy 12 years of age and disappointed -just ran away, or so it is believed. He said that he was going to the live with the Indians. Back in colonial days, and especial'y in that area and that period of time, there were a lot of kids that would do that.
It is believed that he headed west on a historic trail known as "The Pigeon Trail," it's name derived from the thousands of wild pigeons which settled in that area. This trail was made by the Indians who traveled pretty much to and from the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Coast.
At any rate, some Indians picked up Smith Paul on the road and took him to their vjllage which was located in Northern Mississippi. They took him to the home of a white trader named McClure who was married to an Indian woman and just turned him over to live with them. He grew up from the time he was 12 years of age until he was a grown man living with the Chickasaw Indians in Northern Mississippi.
McClure made two early day trips, extremely early, prior to the time of the discovery of gold in California and asked young Smith Paul to go with him on these trips from Mississippi to California, to help load and unload.
In January of 1837, the federal government made a treaty with the Chickasaws and the Choctaws in which the Chickasaws agreed to come to this part of Oklahoma.
Everything between Arkansas, Texas, the South Canadian River, and the south bank of the Red River had been ceded to the Choctaw Indians, so the federal government had to get permission from the Choctaws to allow the Chickasaws to move into this area.
Now at this time, this country was the hunting grounds of the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, who brought depredations of all kinds on the civilized Indians and anyone else who came into their territory.
Because of that, the Choctaws required the Chickasaws to settle in the western portion because they were afraid of these murderous, troublesome, and uncivilized Comanches and Kiowas.
Nevertheless, Smith Paul, by virtue of having made these two trips to California with McClure, knew this country. So when the treaty was made, and the Chickasaws were having to move, Smith Paul went back to North Carolina to visit his relatives whom he hadn't seen since he ran away. He told them the government was moving the Chickasaws west of the Mississippi, into what is now Oklahoma, and that they would probably never see him again. Before he left his relatives, he told them about the land where the Chickasaws were going to move. He said, "I've traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and where I'm going is the best land between the two oceans that I've seen." He described it further by saying that it was valley land, about 25-30 miles long and 6-7 miles wide. It lay between two streams, and that is almost a perfect description of the Washita Valley that lies between the Washita River and Rush Creek.
He came out and of course they had trouble, like everyone who sought to travel at this time on the road: sickness and various other problems occurred.
Temporarily, he settled north of Durant on a river called Blue River .He had married, and his son Sam was born over on Blue River. Smith Paul's arrival at Pauls Valley is calculated this way, Sam Paul, was a baby 11 months of age. Sam Paul was born in 1845 or 1846, so this fixed the time of Smith Paul's arrival and settlement at Pauls Valley in either 1847 or 1848. Fort Arbuckle was settled or established by the government in the year 1851.
Dr. E.E. Dale, who was the head of the history department at the University of Oklahoma, said that Pauls Valley was the most unique town in western history. He said, "Nearly every place or town became established after a fort was built or after there was soldier protection. The remarkable thing about Pauls Valley was that Smith Paul went there at least three years before there was a fort or protection."
There are legends or stories in the Paul family about how he was able to get along with the Indians who caused so much trouble. Smith Paul's wife, who was a Chickasaw Indian, told Smith that if he wanted to keep the peace, to act as if he were not afraid. She said if you act like you fear them by locking the doors and windows and running from them, they would probably harm you or kill you. But if you go out in plain sight where they can see you and be friendly toward them by feeding them, they will leave you alone. The "horse riding" Indians were always hungry, so if you fed them 'til they were full, they would never hurt you.
As far as is known, that is the very beginning of Pauls Valley and it's undoubtedly one of the oldest historical places in Oklahoma. Travelers going through would always need feed for their teams and oxen and food for themselves. This place became known as Smith Paul's Valley and it was always known that you could get supplies or something to eat at Smith Paul's Valley, so it became a place name. It was not an incorporated town or anything, it was just known to travelers as Smith Paul's Valley and then, of course, when a place got that kind of reputation, settlers wanted to come and settle. They were made welcome, and it just grew.
ELA TEECHA BROWN MCCLURE PAUL
SIPPIA HULL INTERVIEW
I was born February 1, 1843, about four or five miles from Fort Arbuckle. I was named for the Chickasaw Chief Juzan's wife. My family lived there until the Civil War broke out. My mother was born in Mississippi; her name was Ela-Teecha Brown; her father was Ah-la-tack Brown (house of Mo-suck-cha); she was a full blood Chickasaw. She was among one of the first groups to come out here with the Chickasaws between 1834 and 1836. My father was born in (1809 in Cravens County,) North Carolina; his name was Smith Paul and he was a white man.
My mother was a widow (of Rev. McClure) with three (two?) children in Mississippi when my father married her. As a great many others did, they settled near Boggy Depot. Then they moved from Boggy Depot to Fort Arbuckle. Our family consisted of my two brothers, Sam and Jessie Paul, one half-sister, Kathrine (Catherine) McClure who married Tom Waite and raised a large family, and one half-brother, Tecumseh McClure.
My father was interested in farming; it was always his desire to go into the farming business on a large scale. Just before the war (Civil War) broke out he had made a trip to this locality and realized that it was a wonderful place for farming. Very soon he had a home built for us; it was of hewed logs. The house was built of single rooms but close together, and then some cabins in the back for the slaves. These houses while they were crude were comfortable. This first home built in Pauls Valley was built near to the Elm trees, now standing at the residence of Roy Burks, a great-grandson of Smith Paul's first wife, widow McClure, a Chickasaw Woman. When the home was completed, he came back to old Fort Arbuckle and brought his family up.
This valley was smooth, just a little bit rolling, with grass and thousands of acres without a weed on it. One had only to plow the soil and plant corn. They had such wonderful seasons at that time; the corn just left alone would grow to maturity and yield from thirty to forty bushels to the acres, untouched by any cultivation. Before the war my father had about 100 acres in cultivation and he sold corn to the United States Government at Fort Arbuckle and Fort Cobb.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the friendly Plains Indians came around the locality where my father had his farm. They were the Comanche, Caddo, Apache, Cheyenne, Osage and I think some Delaware. One mixed band located at Cherokee Town, another on my father's farm, a band of Osage across the river and a band of Caddo Indians under old Lady White Bead, five miles up the river. And the Government realized that they must do something with and for those Indians, so they appointed my father as an agent to issue them rations. This was one reason that my father did not have to go to war.
During the time that my father was agent over the friendly Plains Indians, there were wild Indians from Texas and what is now Western Oklahoma, that came into this section of the country killing and robbing people. We were always afraid they were coming to molest us, but they never did. However, they did come near enough at one time to scalp one of the Courtney boys, whose father had a farm on "Courtney Flat." There were times when we would hear they were coming and would hide out in the corn fields and in the woods during the day and night. Although I was just a child, I remember among the officers of Fort Arbuckle was Captain Custer, who was killed in what is called the "Custer Massacre," on Little Big Horn River in Montana. When the war broke out the Government removed the troops from Fort Arbuckle, taking away the protection for the Indians, so the Chickasaws were compelled through force of circumstances to enlist with the Confederates. I remember well when the buffalo roamed this country. The friendly Indians always kept us in buffalo meat. The deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken and quail were in great abundance. There was never any need for us to be without fresh meat.
At one time there was a band of Cheyenne attempting a raid on Pauls Valley in November 1871. Custer's troops drove them farther west and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Cheyenne at the Washita, above Chickasha, Indian Territory, killing Black Kettle, their chiefand compelling them to return to their reservations. My brothers, Jessie and Sam Paul, enlisted with Custer's troops to aid them in moving the Indians back (to reservations). A great many of the friendly Indians were with them (troops ?) also. When they returned to Pauls Valley, they celebrated with a scalp dance which continued uninterrupted for three weeks. The news of the scalp dance reached Red River and hundreds of residents of Texas along the river came to witness the celebration. I remember so well seeing the wife of one of the friendly Indian Chiefs wearing Black Kettle's coat home, and I also saw the scalps they brought home.
After the war was over, they (Indians?) got friendly and brought the prisoners in. Part were civilized and others were still on the war path. They had to fight to keep them (Indians?) from the white people. Those (whites?) they could capture were held for ransom, if they were not killed. For quite a while after the war we were the only settlers in this section of the country. My father hired us a private teacher. It was not easy to get teachers to come and live on this frontier, so our education was quite limited. At the early age of 16 (ca1859) I was married to Jim Arnold, a Texan, and one little girl was born to us, named Tamsie. After five years (ca1864) I was left a widow.
Knowing they had a school for Indians at Fort Sill, I decided to go up there to school. I boarded with a Mexican woman who had been ransomed and married and raised a family. She was ransomed by a soldier by the name of Chandler who afterward married her. I took my little girl along with me and Mrs. Chandler took care of her while I attended school. While I was there I met William Hull, an Englishman, who was employed by the Government to work under the Indian Agent Tatum. After he met me he decided to come down and live near my father. He was a professional blacksmith, This was on the main traveled road of the freighters to Fort Sill and Fort Cobb. He accumulated quite a fortune at that business. Then we were married.
The school I attended in Fort Sill was under the supervision of the Quakers. Of course, I attended their church; it all seemed very strange to me, for when they went in the church they usually sang a song first, then they sat and waited for the spirit to move them. Sometimes someone would pray or talk and then again there were times when no one would either talk or pray; they would sit quietly for a while and then leave.
While my father was not such a religious man he realized that we must have the uplifting influence of hearing the gospel preached. So he hired, by the year, a preacher by the name of E. Couch from Texas to preach to us regularly every Sunday; he made his home with us. By that time there were more people living in this part of the country , but miles and miles apart, but they would come to this service and my father and mother always arranged to have a splendid meal for the entire congregation, as that was one of the pleasant occasions that we looked forward to. Then later my father built a frame church himself, having the lumber freighted from Atoka. We had many other ministers of other denominations, but I do not remember their names now. It was not a matter of choice to him as to the denomination. J. M. Hamill, Superintendent of Colbert School and pastor at Fort Arbuckle. also preached to us.
About this time my husband had lumber freighted from Atoka to build us a home. By this time my father had accumulated sufficient wealth to build him a huge log house a story and a half high, which was about three-quarters of a mile from the present town of Pauls Valley. It was there he had a large fruit orchard set out. When the fruit began to bear he gave away to everyone that wanted it and some came and hauled it off by the wagon loads. It was at this home that my mother died in 1872. In about five years my father married a young woman by the name of Sara Ann Lily; her family lived in this locality. Then he built the rock house which was about a quarter of a mile from the log house. My father died in 1893, at White Bead, and left a widow and two children by the names of Steve and Tamsie.
During the Civil War (1861-1865) we had to spin and weave all of our cloth to make our clothes and knit our hose. I was anxious to do what everyone else did and they let me, although I was only about nine years old (1852?), I wove enough cloth to make me a dress; even though it looked rather knotty, they made me a dress out of it. The cotton from which we spun the thread had to be picked from the seeds with our fingers; we usually did this work at night. The pecans grew in this locality in great abundance as they do today, and we ate nuts and picked the cotton off the seeds and my mother would tell us Indian legends. We learned by putting the cotton down by the fire and getting it warm it was much easier to get the seeds out. It was during those early days that a man came through the country with what he called a miniature gin, similar to a clothes ringer (used with wash tubs) of today, and this helped us to get the seeds out faster. Of course, people came in to see how it worked and everyone wanted to try and turn the handle and my brother, boy-like, turned it and broke the handle off. My mother used to make straw hats for the boys out of wheat straw and in the winter they would catch coons and she would make them caps out of the skins. My father would make us shoes out of cowhide. He could do a little of everything, but this was only in war times. How I disliked them, and how glad I was when we could buy shoes ready-made.
When it was hog-killing time the men dug a large pit and they brought up right near the pit dead wood for a fire, and rocks. Then they would fill this pit nearly full of water and then roll the rocks that had been heated by this fire into the water, making it hot enough to scald the hogs and usually they were able to take care of about fifteen at a time; all of the neighbors would come to help. They would have great fun with each other in the work and broiling the melts (spleens) to eat. We made sausage but we had no sausage mills in those days; we used mortars and beat it with a pestle.
When they first began raising wheat in Pauls Valley, after they had the wheat shocked they would first cut off the heads (of wheat), get it in a low pile and drive the oxen around and around on it, then it was taken up and fanned (chaffed; threshed). The husks were removed (in this way) and then the wheat was sacked up. The nearest mill to ground the wheat and the corn was in what is now Franks, Oklahoma. It was there that Gov. Cyrus Harris built the first mill after the war. It was built on Mill Creek. It took them days and days to go and come.
And one of the things I remember which made such an impression on my mind was the dreadful epidemic of smallpox. There were two kinds, the black smallpox, which was usually fatal, and the red smallpox, which was the milder form. My brother Sam was on a scouting expedition among the wild tribes and took the smallpox. My father heard of his being sick, and when he located him he was almost dead, but he nursed him until he got well and (then) brought him home. That was the way the smallpox was brought to our family, and we all had it. But we knew how to doctor ourselves and all of the family lived. The Plains Indians had caught it by this time, too, and died in great numbers. Sometimes an entire family died, because there was not one left to wait on the other. They did not understand how to take care of themselves and would go out and take cold. They were buried up and down the river and where the town of Pauls Valley now stands.
In the year of 1874 my husband (William Hull) and I moved to the Washita River near White Bead Hill, now called Whitebead, where we erected a very commodious and comfortable home. He put in a farm of several hundred acres. It was at this home that my husband died. We had six children born to us, four girls and two boys, William Hull, deceased; La Vina Hull Merchant; Jessie Hull; Melva Hull; Lucia Hull, deceased; Flora Hull McSweeney; Jessie Hull Brim (listed twice?--also, which is name of second boy?). A few years before my husband's death I went to California with a son for his health, but he soon passed away and I returned to Oklahoma. I had learned to like California and did not feel satisfied in my oId home without my husband, and I returned to California with one of my daughters. I have made my home there ever since, and I am quite content there as all of my children have come there to live with the exception of one. I cannot say I love California better than my own state and country, but I like the milder climate better, and I know that it is best for my health. I will always love to come back as long as I can and visit my relatives and old friends.
Reference: Indian Pioneer Papers, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK.
