Mrs. W. M. Goodall

Field Worker, John F. Daugherty, 

 January 19, 1938
Father Ed Evans, born in Tennessee
Mother Elizabeth Quillen, born in Tennessee

My parents were Ed Evans and Mary Elizabeth Quillen Evans, both
born in Tennessee, dates unknown. Father was a farmer. There were
four children in our family. I was born in Tennessee August 27, 1858,
and married William Goodall in 1874.

My husband and I moved to Texas and in 1880 we came to the Indian
Territory in a covered wagon, settling on Caddo Creek near Ardmore
in the Chickasaw. My husband enjoyed hunting and that is why we came
here. For the first two years he hunted and sold hides for our living.
He would haul about four hundred hides each time he went to market at
Gainesville, Texas. He would usually be gone for three or four days.
These trips were made each fall and spring and the supplies for six 
months were purchased at those times.

There were very few houses and those that we saw belonged to Indians.
They settled along streams so that they could have access to water. 
I was so afraid of the Indians, although they seemed harmless. They
wanted to be friendly, but we didn't understand them. They often came
to our house and stood around looking at us and jabbering to each other.
If we tried to talk to them they only grunted or said nothing. Every time
we went near them they walked around us looking us over from head to 
foot. They were a very law-abiding people, and though they were near
Texas and could easily obtain whiskey, there was very little brought
to their capital at Tishomingo during the time their legislature was 
in session. As a people, however, they did not receive religious 
training as readily as other tribes, preferring to continue their
superstitious practices and retain their witch doctors and pashofa dances
for many years after the white man came to their territory.

There were but few hunters among the Chickasaws and Choctaws, although the
Choctaws had the finest hunting ground to be found. But they forbade
white men who were non-residents to hunt within their domain, and
when one encroached upon their premises, they were liable to have their
hunting equipment seized. The way most of the hunters avoided this law
was to make the acquaintance of some influential Choctaw and have him
furnish a guide on the hunting expedition. There was a law that no game
should be killed for the markets, nor for shipment from the Choctaw Nation
and only such amount as required for personal use, was to be killed. This
law was not effective altogether, for many hunted fur-bearing animals and 
sold the hides without the Choctaws being aware of their actions.

During our first five years here we were constantly on the move, going where
hunting seemed best. However, we didn't hunt in the Choctaw Nation. Our
wagon was our . What we couldn't put inside we hung on the outside.
Sometimes we stopped long enough to build a log cabin. We drank creek
water and cooked with the skillet and lid. We moved to Hickory in the
Chickasaw Nation, now in Murray County, in 1900 and have lived here since.

I am the mother of eight children.

Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, September, 2000.