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Lillie Loyd |
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| Loyd, Lillie
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: August 26, 1937 Life of a Pioneer Woman My parents were W.A. Walker, born in 1833 in Missouri and Katherine B. Ruth Walker, born in Texas. I was born in Texas, September 20, 1871. I moved with my parents to the Territory in 1886 and we settled in Sorghum Flat in the Chickasaw Nation, south of Davis. I had two brothers teaching National Schools for the Indians. One on Pennington Creek and the other at Lebanon. I visited Lebanon and Mr. Bird Lowrance met me there. He insisted on having me come to his ranch and teach. This I decided to do. I taught in a log hut at the head of the large springs on his place. My term began in February and lasted four months. This was a subscription school, each pupil paying a dollar a month to attend. We had a sort of school board consisting of one man who was my treasurer. Each patron signed a contract to pay a dollar a month for each child he had in attendance. This dollar was paid each month to the treasurer and his in turn paid me. I had thirty pupils and so I received thirty dollars a month for my services. I taught the ABC's to my beginners and they learned to write on a slate from a copy which I made for them. I taught the older pupils out of any book which they brought from . The schools were not graded and the teachers not highly educated. In those days one had a good education if he could read, write and figure. When my pupils became unruly I used a dunce cap for punishment and if that was not severe enough, I used a hickory switch which I kept standing in the corner at the front of the room. The boys and girls were not allowed to sit near each other during school hours nor play together on the play ground. The boys sat on one side of the room; the girls on the other. At recess the boys had their playground and the girls had theirs. Children were taught to be very polite and respectful toward grownups. Each morning as they entered the door they said, "Good Morning". Each evening as they passed out of the door they said, "Good Evening", and they passed quietly away from the school ground. There was no whooping nor yelling until they were away from school. Our school was opened each morning by the reading of a chapter from the Bible and a prayer. Often Mr. Lowrance came and opened the session for me and closed in the evening with prayer. His was a gathering place for ministers and he often brought a preacher to school to talk to the children. I used a bell as a signal for the pupils to stand or to sit. They were very obedient and I seldom had to punish them. One day we had quite a bit of excitement when a huge snake crawled across the ground and up into the corner of the room. I screamed and ran for Mr. Lowrance but the snake disappeared when he arrived. While I was teaching my first term I met and married J. G. Loyd, who was employed by Mr. Lowrance on his ranch. We were married May 10, 1889. His father, Abner Loyd, freighted supplies for the commissary for the Santa Fe Railroad crew in 1885. It was on one of these trips that Mr. Abner Loyd was killed. A train of wagons went to Denison and his wagon was the first to be loaded. He started back ahead of the others. They asked him not to but he was anxious to get , so he left them. He camped at Tishomingo. He went to the store to get a few supplies for his supper. There was an Indian there buying a supply of groceries. His bill came to about eight dollars and the Indian had no money to pay for it. So the merchant told him he could get his groceries when he brought the money. Mr. Loyd gave the merchant a ten dollar bill and received his change. He went back to his camp, cooked and ate his supper and sat down against his wagon wheel to smoke. This Indian approached from behind the wagon and stabbed him in the back. He never knew what happened. This Indian robbed my husband's father, returned to the store, paid for his groceries and left. The next day about three o'clock the other freighters in passing noticed Mr. Loyd's team and stopped to see about him. They found him dead by the wagon, sitting where he had been when the Indian killed him. The Indian's name was Greenmove. He was later arrested by Heck Thomas, taken to Fort Smith and tried. They found him guilty and he was hung. In 1873, my husband drove two thousand four hundred head of cattle from San Antonio, Texas, through the Territory over the Chisholm Trail to Ellsworth, Kansas. They grazed them through and it took about four months to make the trip. One night while they were crossing the Territory the Comanche Indians stole all of their horses but one Indian pony. They had thirty-two horses with them. There were eight men and each one had four mounts. They had to go thirty-five miles to a horse ranch the next day and get thirty-one horses before they could continue their trip. We have three children and have lived in Murray County since 1889. Transcribed by Brenda Choate & Dennis Muncrief, February, 2001 |