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Mary Thornton |
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| Thornton, Mary
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: June 28, 1937 My father was Frank Austin, born in Texas. He was a farmer. Mother was Evelina Roseborough, born eighteen miles east of Nail's Crossing on Blue Creek, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. There were ten children in our family. I was born at Tatums, Indian Territory, west of Davis, in 1880 and have lived there and at Davis all my life. At Tatums we lived in a half dugout, with a dirt floor, and a cat chimney. We drank water from a spring. Our living came easy in those days. Crops were good and there was plenty of game. I have seen deer in herds like cattle. Father farmed with oxen and an double shovel and Georgia stock. He liked to hunt and always had several dogs. He fed those dogs more than we ate. White men came many times and took him and his dogs on hunting trips for two weeks at a time. He used a Winchester which he carried in a holster on his saddle. Our beds were made of poles fastened to the corner of the house and covered with hay beds and with feather beds on top. We used benches and blocks for chairs and a box for a table. Our washtubs were made of a barrel sawed half in two and we used a battling stick to wash with. We ate cornbread most of the time and did not have biscuits except on very special occasions. We cooked with a skillet and lid on the fireplace, and drank out of tin cans. We went to church in a log church, which was built by Methodists and Baptists. They had services on alternating Sundays but we went every Sunday. I was a Baptist, but I always attended the Methodist services too. We bought our groceries at Ardmore and our mail came from Davis three times a week in a hack. I made my dresses by hand, without a pattern. We always bought cotton material and made it into clothes. I was married at Tatums in 1895 and moved to Davis where I have resided since. Father is buried in Davis. Mother is buried in Tulsa. Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, July 2001
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