| Jasper N. Redwine | ||
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Redwine, Jasper N. Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: January 6, 1938 My father was James Redwine, born in 1833 in Arkansas. He was a farmer and served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Mother was Eddie Almond Redwine, born in Indiana in 1839. There were thirteen children in our family. I was born May 1, 1871 in Williamson County, Texas. I came to the Indian Territory in 1892 and located near Wanette in Pottawatomie County. We came in covered wagons and were on the road about six days. I homesteaded on a place between Eason and Wanette. I broke the ground with a grub plow pulled by six oxen. There were no crop failures. Land was very fertile and productive. We lived in a dugout and drank spring water. I filed on my land at Oklahoma City and received my deed at the time I filed. Tecumseh was headquarters for the Government surveyors during the opening of the Pottawatomie Country. There was nothing there but tents. After the town of Tecumseh was opened these people moved and turned over the property to those who staked claims there and Tecumseh became the county seat of Pottawatomie County. When the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (now the Rock Island) was built across the Territory about 1891 or 1892, the workmen were hindered at several places. When they got to McAlester, J.J. McAlester wanted them to come through McAlester, and they wanted to go south of McAlester and build a new townsite. They were about three years deciding about this. Finally the line was built south of town and South McAlester came into existence. When they got to the Katy's right-of-way at McAlester the Katy refused to let them cross their road. It was another year before this was settled. When they got to Shawnee a discussion arose as to whether the railroad should go through Shawnee which was a very small town consisting of one small store, a butcher shop and a few shacks, or through Tecumseh, the county seat. Again the workmen were detained. At last they decided on Shawnee for their location and they built the railroad on to Oklahoma City and thence to El Reno. Then they were stopped at El Reno until they could get a charter from the government to go across the Kiowa and Comanche Reservations. At last they succeeded and after several years the road was built across the Territory and on to Amarillo, Texas, finally stopping at Tucumcari, New Mexico. I married Sarah Kerr, a Choctaw woman, at Eason in 1892 and lived in the Pottawatomie Country until 1936 when I moved to Sulphur. Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, February, 2001.
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