Interview #4705
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: June 28, 1937
Name: Mr. W.R. Campbell
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: 1852
Place of Birth: Alabama
Father: George Campbell, born in Alabama
Mother: Sarah Basson, born in Alabama
I was born 1852 in Alabama.
I brought my family to the Indian Territory in 1895. I left Arkansas
with my wife and twelve children. I had four wagons working two head of mules to
each wagon. We were on the road sixteen days.
I first located at Beef Creek, in the Chickasaw Nation
(it is now called Maysville). I leased a farm and started farming. I had been
farming in Arkansas but only farmed a small place. When I got out here and saw that
men with only small families were farming from sixty to a hundred acres, I knew I could
operate a large farm. The first year I sold over three thousand bushels of oats.
I hauled them to Wayne, a small town on the Santa Fe Railroad, south of Purcell.
I got fourteen cents a bushel for corn. I hauled my corn to Pauls Valley.
Corn was piled up like cord wood in great long piles at Pauls Valley.
There was open range around here at that time. People let their hogs
and cattle run out, only the farms were fenced.
There was a school near Beef Creek. It was a
subscription school.. I had to pay one dollar a month four each child I sent.
I had leased a large farm and in trying to make a living I couldn't sent all my
children to school like I should have so the small ones went and my larger boys helped me
with the farming.
I took the contract forma the Government to carry the mail from Pauls
Valley to Old Center and back and from Pauls Valley to Erin Springs.
My oldest boy carried the mail to Erin Springs and I carried it
from Pauls Valley to Old Center. We used one horse carts and would have to make one
trip a day. I owned several horses and mules. I would switch them around and
not work the same one each time. My other children took care of the farm work.
In this way we made a good living.
I also dealt in cattle. I borrowed thirteen hundred dollars at the
bank from Mr. Garvin. At that time it was easy to borrow money if
you were using it to buy cattle. In that time people tried to help each other.
There were lots of wild fruits, berries, plums and grapes. we never
canned any then like we did in later years. My wife would make lots of jelly out of
the plums.
I now live at the southside of Pauls Valley.
