Interview #9060
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: October 27, 1937
Name: Dr. J.A. Young
Residence: Maysville, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: January 28, 1863
Place of Birth: Arkansas
Father: A.A. Young, born in Arkansas
Mother: Sarah Ann Abee, born in North Carolina
I was born in 1863 in Arkansas. I came to the Indian Territory in
1898. Before coming to the Territory, I had been corresponding with Dr.
Calloway, who lived at Elmore, and he wanted me to come to Elmore and form a
partnership with him.
When I left Arkansas, I had that in mind but after reaching Pauls Valley I
met a young doctor named Berry. I formed a partnership with Dr. Berry.
At that time Congress had passed a bill permitting any town or city in the
Indian Territory to incorporate and Pauls Valley was the first town in the Chickasaw
Nation to incorporate. That was in 1898.
After the town was incorporated the Board of Education was appointed.
The Board of Education, with Honorable J.B. Thompson, went to the
bank and borrowed enough money to run the school the first year. This was the first
public school in the Chickasaw Nation. The school was held in the old subscription
school house, located where the Stufflebean Funeral Home is now.
I was elected the second mayor of Pauls Valley, in 1899, and was
re-elected as mayor of Pauls Valley. At that time the mayor was only elected one
year at a time.
In 1899, along about the middle of the summer, and epidemic of small pox
broke out at Pauls Valley. My first case was a man named Mr. Bishop,
who ran the hotel across from the depot, now known as the Rice Hotel. I did not want
to quarantine the hotel so his wife said to find a place to take him and she would pay all
costs. Dr. Berry and I found an old two-room house that no one was
living in. We looked up the owner and rented the house but before we moved our
patient into this house I was met by a group of Pauls Valley citizens and was told if I
moved that case of smallpox into that house the house would be burned and that I would be
taken care of. This committee told me I could either quarantine the hotel or move
the patient out to the edge of town. I finally located a man who owned three tents.
I bought these tents and had them put up behind the cemetery across Rush Creeek, at
the south side of Pauls Valley. One tent was used for a cook-house. I put cots in
the other two and hired a negro to do the cooking. This was Pauls Valley's first
hospital. Dr. Berry and I took care of about fifteen cases at our
tent hospital. This epidemic lasted until October of 1899.
J.T. Jones was the first mayor of Pauls Valley.
I was on the Board of Education for six years and Miss Jean
Tippitt was the first pupil to graduate from the public school at Pauls Valley.
She also was the first to graduate in the Chickasaw Nation.
I helped organize the Garvin County Medical Association in 1906.
At this time I met a Doctor Patterson from Maysville, and
in giving the place and date of our birth I found that Dr. Patterson was
born in the same town and state and the same day, month, and year as I was. We both
had graduated from the same medical school, but had never met until that day in 1906.
Later, Dr. Patterson was killed at Maysville and I took his place
as doctor of Maysville, Oklahoma.
