Interview #
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date:
Name: Mr. H.C. Laird
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1860
Place of Birth: Illinois
Father: M.J. Laird, born in Illinois
Mother: Elizabeth A. Yearian, born in Illinois
I was born in Illinois in 1860. My father, M.J. Laird,
was born in Illinois, as was my mother, who was Elizabeth A. Yearian.
I first came to the Indian Territory in 1886. I located at
Skullyville in the Choctaw Nation. I came to the Territory for my health.
Around Skullyville at that time it was very wild.
There was lots of wild game and plenty of fish. I did quite a lot of
hunting and fishing but I couldn't seem to make any improvement in my health. At
that time I had the tuberculosis and as I was a phusician, I knew then I had to find some
other climate, so I left the Indian Territory and went to Wyoming.
In Wyoming I met lots of Indians, but they were not like the Choctaw
Indians I met while on my short stay in the Choctaw Nation.
The climate in Wyoming surely was a help to me and after a short time I
was on the road to better health. I stayed in Wyoming and Arizona for several years,
then I returned to the Indian Territory and settled at old McGee, in the
Chickasaw Nation.
A Mr. Harris operated a hotel there, so I opened my
office in his hotel. In those days when I was called out in the country I had to go
horse back, as there were no roads to speak of, just cow trails and a few winding roads
around through the country.
I have waited on the Indians around McGee. The full
blood Choctaws and Chickasaws both. The full bloods were a very queer king of
people. In most cases when some one of their family took sick they would bring him
or her to see me, instead of sending for me and they would come into Mr. Harris'
hotel, the whole family and sometimes some of their friends along with them. If it
happened to be muddy weather they wouldn't even clean their shoes off and they would all
try to talk at the same time. After making a examination of the sick one, I usually
found nothing much the matter with him, but they would pay whatever I charges. I
found the full bloods to be very honest. If they said they would pay me at a certain
time, they were always right there with the money.
Since statehood I have made my home at Pauls Valley,
Oklahoma.
