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Rev. J.W. Towry
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| Towry, Rev. J.W.
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: July 17, 1937 Life of a Pioneer Preacher
Mother and Father moved to Arkansas, but I came to the Indian Territory instead of stopping in Arkansas with them, in 1891. I had an uncle living near Sallisaw, Sequoyah District, in the Cherokee Nation, and I came to stay with him for a while. I taught a school near Sallisaw for three months during the summer of 1891. This was a subscription school, each pupil paying $1.00 per month. We had a frame building with benches made of lumber. There were no desks. Each pupil held his books on his lap. The school was not graded and the pupils used any kind of a book they had, consisting mostly of Harvey's Grammar, McGuffey's Reader, Ray's Arithmetic and the Blue Back Speller. I stayed here about a year and went back to Cumberland, Tennessee, and attended an institute for Ministers. After I completed my course, I came back to Muldrow, about eighteen miles southeast of Sallisaw and began my career as a Minister. I worked on a farm south of Muldrow, for a Cherokee legislator by the name of Calvin Fargo, through the week. On Saturday afternoon I got my pony out of the pasture, put his saddle on him, threw the saddle riders with my Bible and songs books in them across the saddle, hopped onto the saddle and away I went to my appointment. I had four appointments, one for each Sunday, with a different place. I went Saturday and stayed until Monday morning. I preached Saturday night, Sunday and Sunday night. There was always a place for me to stay. People were very hospitable in those days. They would quarrel about who was to take care of the Parson. That's what I was called by everybody. If my clothes needed to be laundered, some good parish ones would do that for me. It was no trouble to get pay for my services in those days. I held camp meetings through the summer and received forty or fifty dollars for a meeting lasting about a week or ten days. The parson was the most highly respected person in the community. He was looked upon with reverence because he was a servant of God. Each Sunday night after services one could hear six shooters popping in all directions, but those were good boys. They meant no harm. They liked to hear the sound of those guns and see the fire which flashed as the powder exploded. This helped to light the dark road as they rode along. While I was living here I remember an interesting incident. There was a man living just a mile east of Mr. Fargo who enjoyed a good joke. He made a wooden man and dressed him in a suit of clothes and a hat. Now he was ready to play a good joke on someone and one night the opportunity came. A young doctor moved into Cottonwood, an inland town near Muldrow. (no longer in existence). He was from the east and this man knew that he could have some fun out of his prank with this young doctor. One night the doctor passed by the home of this man in a two wheeled cart, driving a pony, on his way to see a patient. The man says to his wife, "Tonight is the time to have our fun". So with her assistance, they hung the wooden man to a limb of a large red oak tree in front of their home. The wooden man hung above the middle of the road and when the doctor returned after midnight, he and the pony were greatly frightened and horrified. The pony turned the cart over and it was the greatest of effort to get him to go by. The next morning before day broke, the man and his wife took the wooden man down and laid him out on some boards in their front room. They covered him with a sheet and waited for this doctor to appear. Shortly after sun up he came, bringing twenty five men with him, to find out who had been hung. They asked the man if he knew anything about the man who was hung in front of his house and he replied that he knew nothing except that he was hanging there when he got up and he and his wife had cut the rope which hung him and carried him in and laid him out to be identified. They were permitted to see him one at a time to identify him, leaving the doctor till the last. When he saw the wooden man, he laughed heartily at the joke and sent a man in his two wheeled cart to Ft. Smith for two gallons of whiskey. They had an eggnog party and all had a good time at the doctor's expense. I was married in Kansas in 1904 to Ethel Barber. We had no children. I have been in Sulphur for about twenty years. I have now retired from the ministry although I still preach each Sunday at Roff, near Ada. Transcribed by Brenda Choate & Dennis Muncrief, March, 2001
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