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Samuel A. Dodson |
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| Dodson, Samuel A.
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: May 3, 1937 My parents were Riley Dodson and Catherine Allan Dodson. They were both born in Kentucky. Father was a farmer. There were thirteen children, seven boys and six girls. I was born September 30, 1863, in Kentucky. We moved to Texas when I was small. I was married to Stella Fletcher in 1887 and we have five children. I was a farmer and because we had to haul wood so far in Texas, I decided to move to the Indian Territory where wood was plentiful, so we loaded a covered wagon and came. It took us one and a half days to make the trip. We settled at McMillan near Ardmore. We forded Red River at Delaware Bend. Our first house was a log house with dirt floors. It had no windows and the door was made of rough plank. It was covered with clapboard. My plow tools consisted of a double shovel, Georgia stock and a turning plow. I raised cotton and corn. We never had a crop failure. The land was so fertile that it would produce almost anything. We bought very little from the store but when we did buy, we bought from McMillan and Enville. We raised hogs and cattle for our meat and had corn ground into meal for bread. There were not many deer nor wild turkeys when we came here as this country was rather thickly settled as far as Red River. We didn't have much furniture and what we had was home made. Our beds were made of lumber. We got four cedar posts and nailed, with bois d'arc pins, two-by-fours to these posts. Then we bored holes in the two-by-fours and laced them with small ropes or rawhides. This made our slats. Our table was also home made and we had no chairs but used blocks of wood, nail kegs or boxes instead. We cooked on a fireplace with a Dutch oven and skillet and lid. Our knives, forks and spoons were made of tin. If we got sick we had to doctor ourselves. There were very few doctors and what few were here had to go from place to place on horses. The roads were so rough that that was about the only way they could travel and they were so slow that if one were very ill, he or she would probably be dead before the doctor could arrive. We had no way of communication except by going on horses or by walking. We had circuit-rider preachers. They came to our settlement about once a month and in the summer we always had a camp meeting. We got our mail at Lebanon. We had no mail delivery. We had to go for it ourselves. We drank water out of a spring and used muzzle loading shot guns. Ardmore was a very small village. We hauled our cotton there as it was the nearest place where there was a gin. There was only one store at Ardmore at that time. It was run by Zuckaman. I moved to Pottawatomie County about 1900. We moved to Sulphur in 1927. I didn't know many full blood Indians. Among the few I knew were Thompson and Hunter Pickens. I also knew Heck Thomas, United States Marshal. Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, August 2001. |