Interview # 10447
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: April 14, 1938
Name: Mrs. Esther V. Reeves
Residence: Pauls Valley, OK
Date of Birth: September 20, 1861
Place of Birth: North Carolina
Father: E.F. Jordan, born in North Carolina
Mother: E.C. Harkey, born in North Carolina
I was born in 1861 in North Carolina but my father and mother moved to
Texas when I was very small and settled on a farm. Father raised cattle there and I
can remember when I was very small, he would help drive cattle to Kansas and would be gone
sometimes from two to three months at a time and Mother would have to take care of the
place while he was away.
In later years my father owned the Jordan Ranch. I grew up in Texas
and was Married to J.B. Reeves who was a Missionary Baptist preacher, and in 1900, he was
called to Pauls Valley to take over the Baptist Church here.
Not knowing what kind of schools they had at Pauls Valley, he came on and
I stayed on the little farm near Waco, Texas, where the children could go to school.
The public school was established at Pauls Valley in 1898, but it was in 1899 that
they had the first term of free school.
My husband after coming to Pauls Valley and Taking over the church, was
elected one of the city's first aldermen, and I moved to Pauls Valley in 1901.
My husband continued in church work until he died a few years back.
In 1902, Pauls Valley was flooded. The Washita River got out of its
banks and people had to travel around in boats, and the next overflow was in 1908, but
that time though it was nothing like 1902.
I have lived in Pauls Valley since 1901 and was engaged in church work
along with my husband until his death.
